Tuesday, January 27, 2009

can I be done posting now?

Too many pics, I realize, but I really tried to only post those that told the most. Geof. and I always talk about the perfect vacation including lots of time riding bikes. Lucky for us, Chris and Taylor had bikes and were more than willing to let us ride them. Here's me in front of BYU Hawaii before we rode off to start a hike. Good thing I wore my brand new white shorts which were muddied up almost instantly on the slimy road. Dang it!
We were able to go to Pearl Harbor one day (the warmest day, I believe...maybe we should of opted for the beach and tried Pearl Harbor on the other days when it was too cool to even go swimming!). We watched a documentary of the attack and then took a ferry to the U.S.S. Arizona monument, one of the ships that was sunk. The ships were docked in shallow waters, however, so the monument was constructed right on top of the Arizona. Kind of weird/creepy..knowing around 1100 men and women were entombed below us.
Our friend Chris is from San Diego and was a surf instructor. A few of Chris's best friends from CA are living in Hawaii as well. They all surf, and were nice enough to take Geof. out. I sat on the beach, read a book, and got a little burnt. From time to time I'd try to pick out which one was Geof. since the waters were crowded. It wasn't hard; he was the only one with a bald head and pasty white skin. love you geof.!

What posers..


Our last few days were too cold for us to even WANT to go to the beach. We headed to Laie falls, a quick bike ride away (to the starting point, at least). The hike was 5 miles in and 5 miles out. There was only one sign at the beginning of the hike, other than that, we weren't too sure of where we were headed. There were pink ribbons tied to the bushes and trees and we continued to follow those even though the trail kept teeing off (not the right word?) in all directions. We didn't bring any food-just a water bottle (typical go and not prepare Geof. and Darla style), and hoped that we weren't hiking deeper and deeper into the mountains without a destination. The pink ribbons DID end up guiding us safely to the falls,(we could really use this story in a talk)which were nothing like the Hawaii waterfall pics I'd seen online.




And the water was icy!! No way were we skinny dipping as planned.





On the bike ride back we spotted these funny signs (not that they were hard to spot) leading up to a home. Someone told us Hawaii came in 51st in education (after Puerto Rico!). It was very apparent reading these signs that education is NOT a priority here. And why would it be? I'd be daydreaming all day too if I lived across the street from the beach. I wish I could remember exactly what those signs read. They scared us enough to get outta there, though.






Lovely tan line, I know. Beautiful, brisk day at the beach. Geof. was snuggling to keep warm.







Notice the protected sea turtles in the back. We took this one for my brother Chris who LOVES Hawaii and talks about those beloved sea turtles all the time. In fact, Chris should of been a vet. He loves animals.








Last day in Hawaii. We planned on finally snorkeling and Chris told us about a private beach. Beautiful trees on our way in.









We didn't snorkel that morning. The waters were too rough for me and of course, we were freezing. Wimps, I know!










My brother Fenton eventually decided he should probably come see us since we'd made quite the effort to come see him! (; He did find us a decent place to snorkel that afternoon. He also brought us to this funny spot where around 200 cats live (that could be an exaggeration..we Ericksons have a tendency to exaggerate). We only saw about 5 in the rocks, but Fenton assured us that there were a ton more.











Whitey Darla and tan little Fenton.












That night we got some tickets to the Polynesian Cultural Center (known as the PCC by the locals). We got in real cheap and it was great! We snuck down to the 2nd row after intermission-good thing, because the show really got good after that. I was loving every minute of the music, drums, dancing..it was great. Thank you again, Pierces!













Some funny stunts. They were rolling around in the fire like it was nothing. I don't get it!














7 comments:

Lisa said...

looks like sooooo much fun! You've officially made me jealous.

Emily said...

No you can-not be done posting yet! Your swim-suits are all real cute, Darla and are you sure Geof's just trying to get warm??! Wish we could have been there, your pictures were almost as good though. Hurray for vacations!

julie said...

i agree, your swimsuits are sooooooooo cute. fenton totally reminds me of bevan in some of those pictures. except the last one, he reminds me of uncle gary. thats a great picture of all of you by the way. :) i'll be planning my trip to hawaii now..... which we'll take in like 50 years.

Selwyn van Rooyen said...

Looks like you guys had a great vacation. Way better than coming out to RIC. Although we do miss you and it would have been great to see you.

Lindsay said...

you're super hot!!!

Angie said...

Blaaaah! You guys are too freakin' cute and I am lovin' your hot bod. Yup I am! Looks like you had fun minus the travel hastle. Happy that you two got to get away. Have a great weekend.

Jessica said...

What an adventure you guys. It looks like all the trouble at the airport was worth the awesome trip. I am extremely jealous.