Hawaii!

Aaaaah, Hawaii. Where to begin? It seems kind of cliche to say I had an awesome trip because, hello! it's Hawaii and if you don't have an awesome time in Hawaii your heart is made of stone. Or you have the swine flu.

Erin and Shawn's wedding was fabulous. And I mean F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S! I can't wait to get the pictures from our wonderful photographer Brooke Fitts of Brookelyn Photography so I can properly blog about it, but for now I'm going to say that the entire experience of their wedding was great: their family & friends, the beautiful Sheraton Keouhou Bay Resort & Spa, the vendors, and even the rain that decided to grace us with an appearance for good luck (thankfully, we had a Plan B which we DID implement)

My adorable husband Eric came with me on this trip because, hello! it's Hawaii and after two days of work on the wedding, I was able to go play with him. Aside from the fact that we had a convertible that he insisted on (I hate convertibles, that's so un-American, isn't it?!) we had a great time AND I didn't get burned. Success! I spend most of my life trying to avoid my Kryptonite: The Sun. (this explains my unyeilding hatred of convertibles)

We rented a 2 bedroom condo right outside of Kailua-Kona run by the hospitable and helpful homeowner Bill Newcomb. If you're looking for a great priced place, I highly recommend checking out his listing at http://www.vrbo.com/33241.

My highlights of our trip (aside from the wedding, of course) was the morning that we spent kayaking and swimming with wild Spinner dolphins. Well, swim after is a more appropriate term. They tolerated us and let us get close to them, but not close enough to touch. They were gorgeous! Probably 50 or so swimming, playing, jumping, and talking all around us. It was so neat to be underwater and hear their conversations. One of them jumped so close to Eric that it landed from its flip a mere 4 feet from him! AWESOME.

We also spent an entire day hiking the Waipi'o Valley. And if you're familiar with this valley prepare to be impressed: we hiked down in AND back up. Yes, all 3/4 of a mile each way. 3/4 of a mile at a 25% + incline, to be exact. My calves are still screaming at me. It's so steep that at certain points I leaned over just a bit more and put my hands on the ground and walked on all fours. It was insane! The only way I made it out was to repeat my mantra of "dry clothes, dry shoes, pizza, beer!" over and over again. We attempted to hike to Hi'ilawe Falls, the 1,400 ft waterfall that dominates the valley, but we lost the trail and after 30 minutes of slogging up the river on moss covered rocks, I called it quits because I like my ankles un-broken thank you very much. A bit dissapointed that we didn't make it to the falls, but we did give it a solid try. The entire valley was spectacular. So was the pizza and beer that we had when we finally crawled out.

All in all, a great trip. I'm so blessed to have a career that I love that allows incredible experiences like this and a partner to share it with!