The sun said to us, "Hello Mike & Emily! Welcome to paradise"!
This is what we saw our first morning in Hawaii as we headed out to sea to snorkel.

We went on a guided tour with a group out of Ko'Olina. Within minutes of being out of the bay we saw a mother whale swimming with her newborn calf. It was amazing!
We let them be and headed for a warm spot where there were two huge pipes draining into sea from a factory. The sun was out and we saw hundreds of beautiful fish. Minutes later we moved to a different spot to swim with a pod of bottle nose dolphins. I counted 17. They were so sleek and fast. Then we swam with the sea turtles. Mike swam so close to them. He had an underwater camera and got lots of great pics! We were so excited to have such a great advenure within hours of being in Hawaii.

After lunch a Ko'Olina Resort we headed up the west coast and stopped at this beach in Waianae.

While Mike was doing some work on the phone I explored the lava rock tide pools and found this crab.

Hiked Waahila Ridge and saw great views of Honolulu


Not used to having so much oxygen while hiking. Decided we had more hiking in us. Got lost looking for more falls, but saw many beautiful homes in Manoa Valley & Pacific Heights. Finally made our way to Manoa Falls parking lot.

Very thirsty after a very fast hike. Just a trickle of water. Ran back most of the way to make sure the car was still there.


We decided to head back to the hotel, but went to check out the dinner scene at Waikiki. A street performer stuck parrots all over us and I thought for sure he would steal our wallets, but we made it through with only Mike's hat's button being torn off.

What a wonderful day in paradise and a beautiful way to end it.
Waikiki Sunset

Thanks to my honey for this dream vacation