Hawaii: Part 1

We'll call this, "Our first 24 hours in Hawaii"...yeah, that's right, I took this many photos (well more actually) in the first twenty-four hours!  And 9 hours of that was sleeping, trying to recover from a day's worth of traveling to get to Hawaii.

We spent the first half of our trip on the big island (Hawaii Island) and the second half on Oahu.  The big island was definitely our favorite of the two, and not because that's where we got married.  The big island was more relaxed and easy-going, way less touristy and crowded than Oahu.  It felt more authentic and less commercialized, which we really liked.  After a day of traveling, flying from Cincinnati to LA (with a three hours layover), we arrived in Kailua Kona around 5:30pm (on Friday).  Once we got our rental car and found some food for dinner, we checked into the Kona Reef Resort, got showers, and pretty much crashed.  The Kona Reef Resort is basically a condo unit on the beach in Kailua Kona.  It's not the most luxurious accomodations ever, but it's an affordable place to crash for the night or if your want a reasonably priced, comfortable place for a couple of days that's on the beach and is near town.

After recuperating from our travels, we woke up before the sun!  I think I woke up around 3:30am that day. But in general, while we were in Hawaii we almost always woke up before the sun and went to bed around 9pm...and I think most of the locals do too.  So, after we woke up we lounged around a bit until right before the sun decided to come up, then we went out to the beach to investigate...

You can see part of the Kona Reef on the left.  Most of its beach consisted of lava rock except for a small sandy beach off to the side (right by our room).

Plumeria, which blooms all over Hawaii and comes in a variety of colors...this being one of my favorites.

A little bit of reef I found.  Now, I think right after I took this photo is when I slipped on a rock and fell flat on my butt!  It hurt so bad, but luckily I cradled my camera as I was falling so I only had a bruised butt not a broken camera!

The sun coming up.

Little crabs EVERYWHERE!  But they were skittish and fast, so it was hard to get a good photo of them, unless they were already dead.

A better view of the Kona Reef Resort and the beautiful palm trees that lined the property's beach!

The most eventful part of that morning (besides me falling on my butt) was our very first turtle sighting!  Antoine spotted this guy among the rocks, I think he was feeding on something in the shallow waters because he pretty much stayed in one spot and would pop his head up occasionally!  It was adorable and exciting for us!

These crazy, beautiful trees where everywhere in Hawaii and their bright orange blossoms were huge!

After exploring the beach at Kona Reef and grabbing some breakfast, we checked out and slowly made our way toward the Waipio Valley (on the northern coast of the island).  Our first thing on the list was to pick up our marriage license in Kona (!!).  Once that was done we headed to the Kekaha Kai State Park, which was on the way and I had read some pretty good reviews about it.  It was a very pretty beach and I wish we had had more time there (we were on a time-crunch), BUT...the road to the beach is horrible (and kind of fun, if you have a rental car).  I had read the comments in the reviews mentioning how pitted and bumpy the road was, but boy, oh boy!  

It was an absolutely beautiful day, as it was most of our trip...though we had a little rain here and there.

I loved how the rock had been carved out by the waves over time...it actually extended pretty far out and we could have easily walked out there if we had had our swimsuits on.

The big island has a lot of beaches with lava rock or a mix of lava rock and sand.  I thought this looked really cool, especially against the bright blue water!

My soon-to-be-husband posing all cute and whatnot on the rocks!

Here's the video of us leaving the park, so you can get an idea of what the road was like...

And that's just 15 seconds...it was a long road, very winding and narrow too!

After the Kekaha Kai State Park we headed over to the Waipio Valley, which was hands down the best part of our trip!  Partly because it's where we got married, but also because we absolutely LOVED where we stayed and we loved the valley itself.  It was perfect!  So stay tuned because the next post (or two) will be all about Waipio!

Panoramic Crazy!

While we were in Hawaii I obviously had my DSLR with me most of the time, but sometimes I'd find myself putting it down or even leaving it behind to take some photos with my iphone.  Now, most of the time that was so I could post something immediately to instagram (you can see/follow me here), but I also found myself going a little pano crazy!  I mean, you're in Hawaii surrounded by these spectacular vistas, crashing waves, lava rock, green grass/mountains, palm trees, etc. why wouldn't a person go a little panoramic mad?

The beach at the Kona Reef Resort, where we crashed our first night after flying all day.

Kekaha Kai State Park, near Kailua Kona (Big Island).

View from the Kukuihaele Park, some little park we stopped at while waiting for our tour of the Waipio Valley.

Early morning view from the Waipio Rim B&B (the day of our wedding).

Evening view from the beach of the Laupahoehoe Point County Park (Big Island).

Kolekole Beach Park (Big Island).

View of the Onomea Bay from the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Gardens (Big Island).

We stayed at airbnb places for most of our trip and this Kailua Kona one was by far our favorite (and a total steal for the price).

The Pali Lookout (Oahu).

Ka'ena Point State Park, ocean side (Oahu).

Ka'ena Point State Park, mountain side (Oahu).

Ho'omaluhia Botanical Garden (Oahu).

Waimanalo Beach Park Lookout (Oahu).

Are you like me, do you love taking panoramic photos with your iphone maybe just a little too much?  Or have you never taken one?  If so, you're missing you and you need to start!   

We Eloped!

Hi, everyone!We are officially back from Hawaii and somewhat settled!  If you're not my facebook friend then you might not know that we secretly eloped while we were in Hawaii, just the two of us!  I say secretly because we only told our parents, siblings, and best friends before-hand so it would be complete surprise to all other family and friends.  Yesterday was our two week anniversary...crazy huh!?

A little info about our elopement.  We got hitched on the big island of Hawaii, overlooking the Waipio Valley.  I originally found it while we were planning, saw pictures of how beautiful it is, read a little about it (and found this tour), and knew we had to go there.  Then I found the Waipio Rim B&B and a light bulb went off in my head.  I asked Antoine, "what if we got married here, overlooking this amazing valley?"  His response was obviously, "yes!"  Now, a little about this incredible B&B (though I'll share more later).  It had/has the best reviews on Trip Advisor and the photos (like those of the valley itself) were unreal.  I contacted the proprietors, Steve and Nancy, via email to see what they thought of two people eloping in the their back/front yard.  They were so sweet and said yes!  Then we tracked down a photographer, Karen Loudon and an officiant, Cheryl...and we were pretty much done.  We wanted to keep things as simple as possible.  I got a dress from Modcloth, did my own hair (which decided not cooperate the day of, but oh well) and makeup, and went barefoot.  Antoine wore a simple button-up he got at Macy's on sale and some khakis.  Easy-peasy!

Here's some of the sneak peek photos we've received from Karen...

I was kind of terrified to get in the swing, but those photos ended up being my favorites.

There's our elopement in a nutshell.  So far, since we've been back, people have been so congratulatory and happy for us.  I've been blown away by everyone's generosity, just like they've been blown away by our ability to keep a secret.  I think eloping was the absolute best way to go for us.  Neither of us likes to be the center of attention and we don't like parties really, so the idea of a normal, traditional wedding kind of made both of us freak out.  Plus, what better way to celebrate your love and relationship than just the two of you, without all the stress and commotion?  I'll probably have another post about our wedding day later, maybe once we get more photos back.  Until then, happy Monday and stay tuned for a huge wave of Hawaii photos.  I took nearly 3,000 photos this time around and spent a good part of my weekend organizing and editing (and barely made a dent...so there's much to come.

The Flying Pig

Almost two weeks ago now was Cincinnati's annual Flying Pig marathon and half marathon.  There's also a bunch of other races associated with the Flying Pig like relays, a 5K, a 10K, and even a 2-mile run called the "Flying Fur" where you can run with your dog and for each participant Iams donates a bag of food to the SPCA.  I've only been to the Flying Pig once before...4 years (!) ago when my brother-in-law ran the full marathon and my sis and our friend, Helene, ran the half.  Well, this year Helene was running the half marathon again so Michelle and I couldn't pass up the chance to go down and root her on!

We got up bright and early before the sun and headed over to Silverton Donuts really quick...you know, to carb-o-load.  For our cheering! Cheering is hard work people!!  Anyway, for our first cheering point we headed down to Newport, right around mile marker one.

Michelle's adorable sign that she made for Helene.

Mmm, Silverton Donuts.  So good!  [We were nice enough to try to finish our donuts before the runners came, so it wouldn't seem like we were torturing them!]

We stood around for a bit taking in the beautiful morning and then we finally spotted Helene!  And she spotted us!

Look at her!  She's running a half marathon ridiculously early in the morning and she looks amazing!  I mean, look at the other people around her, they look like a person should look running a marathon.  Helene, on the other hand, looks like everyday, beautiful Helene.

I'm pretty sure she's a superhero.

Love this building, I just wish it was still the public library.

For our next stop we headed over to DeSales Corner/Walnut Hills...

And there she is again, mile marker 7 and she's still crushing it and looking frickin' amazing!

High-fives!

Unfortunately, due to traffic craziness and Helene running too quickly (darn you, Helene!) we didn't make it downtown in time to see her finish.  Two hours and 30 minutes...GO, HELENE!!  But, I did take some pictures of these really cool art deco-y lights.  So, at least there's that.

I'm so proud of Helene and I admire her determination and hard work so much!  I have some more photos to share from that day.  After the race Michelle and I went to Bellevue, KY and had a lovely brunch. I'll share those photos eventually though at this point I'm not sure when.  This weekend my sister is graduating from Xavier University (!!!!) so the weekend will be full of celebrating and awesome.  And then Antoine and I are heading to Hawaii to celebrate our 6 year anniversary of being together (!!).  So yeah, I'm just a little busy!  But I'll be in touch, I promise!