HAWAIIN PARADISE

So we went back to Hawaii last month because we're slightly obsessed. We flew out of Seattle because tickets were only 291/person! Amazing! So the drive up there was totally worth it and then we got to play around in Seattle which was way awesome. I love Seattle!At Pike's Place Market

Space Needle

Random Hawaii pic in the Seattle section, but what do you do? We rented kayaks from this Hawaiian guys house and Justin found his long board in the driveway and decided to take it for a couple runs..
Me in a sculpture in the sculpture garden at the space needle.



This grassy knoll was the best place to people watch. Apparently everyone from homeless crazy people to normal people pack on this location when it's warm. We were there on a day that was in the 70's and we were told it was the best day Seattle's seen in 10 months! We're pure luck I tell you what! It was beautiful while we were there.

My beautiful mom. We met them on the big island Hawaii, Kona side. This doesn't even look like Hawaii does it? The big island (not to be mistaken with Oahu which is the MAIN island) is so diverse!
Hiking across a massive caldera that in the 1950's was a massive lake of lava. Pretty intense.
Justin doing his favorite faces for pictures
My studly dad
He found this sharp bamboo and is acting as though he was just impaled by it. Very life-like dad
Justin's awesome tan line the first day in the sun. I was putting sun screen on him and he said "just do my shoulders, I want to get sun". Shoulders I did. This is what he looked like for the rest of the trip :)

The awesome awesome observatory. It's one of the best in the world because the sky is so clear for obvious reasons, and the big island of Hawaii is actually the tallest mountain in the world even though most of it is underwater. The stars were amazing and we saw Saturn and globular clusters and galaxy's 10 million lightyears away through the telescopes. It was amazing!


We sea kayaked out to Captain Cook's Monument and the whole way across the bay a herd of like 15 dolphins swam right beside us!!! It was the coolest thing I've ever seen!
Look at this enormous sea turtle we found!






This was definitely the highlight of the trip and we are doing it again when we go back someday. It's the night Manta Ray dive and is totally amazing. They take you on a 30 min boat ride out on the ocean, then you get there at sunset and there are other boats there and out in the water you see this glowing coming from the sea. Divers have gone down and put spotlights on the bottom of the ocean and the lights attract the plankton which attracts Manta's!!!! They give you wet suits, snorkel gear or dive gear if you dive and waterproof flashlights, you jump into the ocean with all the massive waves and get with a group around a ring they've made with like 4 water noodles, swim together towards the light and all shine your flashlights in the middle of your ring and wait till the 15-20 foot wingspanned Manta's come to eat the plankton. You put your face in the water and there they are! They were amazing and came right up to our faces. It is the most surreal thing I have ever done. If you ever go to Kona you have to do this. And it was only like 70 bucks. Totally worth it~!!!
Our vacation was definitely a blast and we never wanted to come back home. And it was so fun with my parents! They are in their late fifties and so adventurous! It made it that much funner!