GALAPAGOS IN OAHU

Although the majority of my friends and family have been to Hawaii before, some of them multiple times, I've never made the trip. For years I've been asked by my best buds Robyn and Stephen "When are you going to go with us?" My response was always "When you get married!" Robyn and Stephen LOVE Hawaii and go as often as they can, and I've always known that someday when they were ready to get married, they'd make it a destination wedding. So, before I get started on the many blog posts it's going to take to cover these past two weeks, I would like to thank Robyn and Stephen for tying the knot and giving me the absolute, best excuse EVER to make the trip to the islands! THANK YOU!!

So, how did it start? Jay and I left Mississippi (yeah!!) Sunday morning, made a quick stop in Dallas (my most favorite airport... or, at least, my most frequented), and arrived in Honolulu in the afternoon (about 12 hours travel time). We arrived during the daylight hours, but I didn't get that first view of the islands because we were in the very last seats on the plane, so no windows anywhere nearby (don't worry, Jay let me have the window seat on all our inter-island flights, so I got many opportunities to enjoy the view and take pictures). We met Robyn, Stephen, his best man Jake and his wife Rose as soon as we arrived at the airport. We were all convening in Oahu (even though the wedding is in Maui) because Stephen had planned some sort of secret surprise, scheduled for Monday morning... We spent the night in Waikiki, just enjoying each others company and catching up. I must say, there is NOTHING better than spending a quiet evening with good friends!! On with the photos... Here we are on our hotel balcony, enjoying a great view of "wiki wiki" beach (as Robyn and Stephen call it):

The next morning, we had an early wake-up call from Stephen. He loaded us into his rented minivan and ferried us to the north shore, still holding out on any hints as to what we were to do that day. We stopped at Leonard's for some famous malasadas on the way out of town:

When we arrived (in Haleiwa), we pulled into a marina where there was a big advertisement for Shark Cage Tours:

What?!?! Knowing a surprise was in store, I'd been having dreams (sometimes nightmares) for weeks... in one Stephen was making me jump out of a giant palm tree into a surging ocean below, in another he made me swim with sharks. Fearing this, I'd emailed him to be sure this wasn't the surprise... no, no, no he told me, no swimming with sharks. He is very sneaky though, because somehow we still ended up swimming with sharks! I was really nervous (and a little scared) from the time we arrived at the marina until we drove out to the tour site about 3 miles off-shore. Then, for some reason, as soon as Jake, Stephen, Robyn, and Jay had climbed into the cage, I felt fine and climbed right in. It was absolutely amazing! There were between 15-20 Galapagos sharks swimming around the cage throughout the 20 or so minutes we were in the water (the tour guides allowed all 6 of us to go in together so we'd have more time, and I think that really contributed to my calmness at being out there - how can you feel scared when you've got 3 big guys around to protect you?) Here are Robyn, Stephen, and Jay on the boat ride out to the tour site:

Here is my first view of a Galapagos shark, from the safety of the boat deck:

Here are a few photos from the cage:

After the tour, we went to a local cafe for a delicious breakfast, then started a driving tour of the northern and eastern sides of Oahu. Here are Jay, me, Robyn, Stephen, Jake, and Rose in front of a beautiful bay on the east side:

Here are Stephen and I also somewhere on the east side. Doesn't he look great?!?!

And finally, a view of Honolulu from the air on our way to Maui that afternoon: