Ok.. I really am going to try to be better at blogging. There have been so many days that I have been wishing to blog, but school, photography, and being wifey has taken up my time. I don't regret that time, but I'm trying to learn to manage it better so I can have time to write things down!
If you haven't noticed the little segment to the right about the funny things that happen in our lives, you should check it out; hopefully it will end up embarrassing us a little and give you a good laugh at the couple that we really are.
The night of our wedding we stayed at Destinations Inn in Idaho Falls. Thailand was the room we stayed in that night and the following night. It was AWESOME! It had this little table you would walk across a bridge to and there was a little water pool/stream surrounding the table.
DISCLAIMER- The papers that I wrote everything down on are not with me, so there may be names or other things missing.
Then we made sure we have everything, packed up our car on Tuesday, February 26 and set out for California. That day we drove past Vegas and stayed at Whiskey Pete's right outside of the California border. We woke up the next morning excited and ready to be done driving and on the boat.. We hit a little bit of traffic in California, but not too much. We parked our car at a parking garage close to the LA airport to get on the bus to take us to the boat. As we walked onto the bus, we realized that we were the only young ones. Another couple actually congratulated us on being younger than them. So keep in mind that on this whole cruise the only young people on the boat with us were Russian Olympic athletes who seemed to be everywhere we were, but they didn't speak any English.
When we pulled up to the boat, it was HUGE!!!
We had the normal cruise safety instructions after everyone was on board. After that, we just walked around explored and ate a lot of food the rest of that night.
The whole entire time we were on the boat we had so much pizza. They had such good pizza at the pizza bar and they had an ice cream bar where we could get milkshakes or ice cream cones with LOTS of sprinkles for me. By the end of the trip the ice cream and pizza people knew what we wanted before we would open our mouths. We may or may not have gained some weight :)
The boat had so many different things to do every night- hypnotists, and comedians, movies, and so many more.
One night we went to a comedian show and it was right after our dinner. We got really good seats on the front row and this was the one night we didn't have our camera with us. I got asked to come up on stage and help with something. I was supposed to be in on this joke but I had no idea what was going on. He ended up putting a head thing on me with this mouth that would move and it was hilarious. I know my face was so bright red, but Logan said it was hilarious to watch. For being part of his show, he gave me a bottle of champagne? Uh... I'm pretty sure there is a sign on the boat that says if you give alcohol to a minor it's a big fine. I'm totally a minor.
We gave the champagne to the first people we saw basically. We just said hey, do you want this?
Our first night in the dining room, we got sung too. They sang "Happy Honeymoon to You" and gave us a cake that room service delivered later- and can I just say, they have terrible timing. From then on we were known as "the honeymooners" on the whole ship.
While we were on the boat, we walked into the little shopping area and we got asked to model in the boats fashion show. We both wore Puma sweatsuits that were awesome, but we didn't get to keep them. It was so fun and weird; they announced our name and what we were there celebrating. We were supposed to walk down the stairs, do a couple spins, and strike poses. After the show a lady came up to me and said your husband is such a ham. But this lady was like 70 something, so it was even funnier. Every day for these past 6 months I have realized it's totally true :)
While we were on the boat, we celebrated Logan's 24th birthday! Isn't he getting so old :)
That night they played The Dark Knight Rises on the "under the stars" movie screen; because Logan loves Batman, that's where we were that night and I even was sporting some Batman gear myself that day!
Our first stop was on the big island in the port of Hilo. We got off the boat and there was a free shuttle to the "tourist death trap shop" Hilo Hatties. Our bus driver must have been smoking for a very long time because you couldn't understand anything he said. All of these tourists go to Hilo Hatties and buy things for mega bucks; what they don't know is WalMart across the street has the same stuff for half off. While we were in the shop though, I picked a key to try to open a treasure chest and win a necklace and I won! Free necklace? Sure! We decided to go to these little coves that were back closer to the boat so we took the shuttle back and started walking from the pier to some little coves.
This place was beautiful. Through this little tree area there was this beautiful crystal clear water and sailboats everywhere! The only crappy thing was the sand sucked. But there we met these three-
They asked if we came in on the boat and if we wanted to go to a black sand beach that was really close by. We said sure- stranger danger, we know. But they noticed my BYU-I shorts and started talking about their niece that was about to start there so we felt OK about it. They had snorkeling gear, fish spears, and were so friendly to us. They let us use their gear and asked Logan if he wanted to spear a fish.
We decided to walk around and just look at it all first. The beach had black sand and it wasn't the softest sand ever, but it was cool to see a different color of sand. As we walked out towards the ocean there was turtles everywhere!!!
After we had walked around, we used their snorkel gear; they told us that there was sea turtles out there swimming with them so I was excited to swim with the turtles. But there was nothing on our swim. There was a lot of pretty fishies, but no turtles until we went back in. As we swam back into the shore, I had turned to look at Logan under water and when I looked back I let out a blood curdling scream because a foot in front of my face a turtle was coming straight for me. In my mind I could see him biting my face and so I quickly gave some hard kicks away and he just kept swimming right on by. When I came up everyone was looking at me and Logan just started laughing because he had heard the scream underwater and watched the whole thing happen.
Our next stop was Honolulu, Oahu. When we got off the boat it reminded me a lot of LA- big buildings, lots of traffic, etc. We found the public transportation to take us to Pearl Harbor. That bus was pretty cool. That was the first time I had ever ridden anything like that. We got to Pearl Harbor around 9:45, but our tour time wasn't until 1:15. That was a really long wait, so we looked at and watched everything we could.
Being there on the Arizona Memorial had one of those chilling affects on me. I was very humbled and grateful for what had been done and the sacrifices made and the lives lost to protect America.
We were going to try to go over to Waikiki Beach, but we decided to just explore and walk around. We got back on the boat and swam in the pools and watched the sunset over the city and it was a gorgeous yellow haze settling down into the water.
The next day we woke up at one of our favorite ports- Nawiliwili, Kaua'i. It was a small island, but it was extremely beautiful. We took a shuttle over to WalMart of some snacks to hang out at the beach the rest of the day. There was a cove/beach thing right off of where our boat was and it was incredible! There was places to rent all kinds of things for the beach; we rented a paddleboard for an hour and it was AWESOME! It was huge and I was completely terrified to stand up at first, but I wish we could have had it all day.
This was one of our favorite places because it really felt like Hawaii. It just seemed like a natural beauty and Hawaiian feel was present. It wasn't commercialized and the beach was gorgeous.
The next day we woke up and were in Lahaina, Maui. While the boat was out in the ocean, we had to have smaller boats take us into the port because our boat was too big. We saw so many whales when they were taking us in! It was whale season when we went and there was definitely a lot of them everywhere. We didn't go out on a whale watching boat, but we could see them from where we were.
When we first got off the boat, a woman was there to give the women a flower to put in their hair. Right side if you were single and left if you were married, it was fun to be able to put it in the left side and know- hey, I'm really married! For the first part, we walked around the shops and looked at all the food to decide what we wanted.
We decided on a burger from Sure Thing burger after a local told us that is his favorite burger. And he was beyond right. In 100% honesty that was the absolute best burger either of us have ever had and sometimes we have cravings just for that. We also had a Hawaiian shaved ice. If you haven't had a real Hawaiian shaved ice, you are missing out- best shaved ice.
After we ate, we hopped on a bus and went to Kaanapali beach. It is known for how soft the sand is and it lived up to its expectations.
From the beach we saw a ton of whales breaching, swam, and read our books.
This tree was crazy. It took a whole block and it's branches are growing out in every direction.
Our view of the whales from the beach.
And the day ended with the prettiest sunset. This is Logan's favorite picture from the whole trip.
Our dressed up pictures are from our last formal night at dinner on the boat. Don't we look so tan? I miss that tan. We had a great table to sit with. We sat with a couple from Utah and another from Tennessee. They were so kind and so excited for us to start our new adventure together. The couple from Utah actually drove us back to our car so we didn't have to pay for the bus when the cruise was over. They were so kind.
On our way back to LA we stayed outside and read and relaxed every day. There was one day however, that Mr. Logan didn't want to put on sunscreen. That was big mistake. He got so burnt that day that he never left the room after we went in. I would run up to get him ice cream or pizza. And we kept him all lathered up in aloe vera. The next day we were stopping at Ensenada, Mexico and I was going boat crazy. I needed to get off the boat, but Logan was so burnt I didn't think he would be able to make it. But he was so kind to sacrifice and come with me so I could get my land legs on.
We bought some cool poncho looking things and a MicPetey bracelet for me. It was great except our ponchos smelled like fish. Gag me.
But Mexico had so many bright colored buildings and cool architecture, so we really enjoyed the short time we had off the boat.
That night we found the shuffle board! That's how big our boat was- we literally were on it for 14 days and hadn't found it yet. We played that for a long time and the next day we were sore as we got off the boat at LA.
Our honeymoon was paradise. We spent two weeks away from everyone and everything else. All we had was each other and I'm so grateful we took that opportunity to go. I can't wait to go again someday and get another burger and shaved ice and dip my toes in the water again.
When we pulled up to the boat, it was HUGE!!!
We had the normal cruise safety instructions after everyone was on board. After that, we just walked around explored and ate a lot of food the rest of that night.
The whole entire time we were on the boat we had so much pizza. They had such good pizza at the pizza bar and they had an ice cream bar where we could get milkshakes or ice cream cones with LOTS of sprinkles for me. By the end of the trip the ice cream and pizza people knew what we wanted before we would open our mouths. We may or may not have gained some weight :)
The boat had so many different things to do every night- hypnotists, and comedians, movies, and so many more.
One night we went to a comedian show and it was right after our dinner. We got really good seats on the front row and this was the one night we didn't have our camera with us. I got asked to come up on stage and help with something. I was supposed to be in on this joke but I had no idea what was going on. He ended up putting a head thing on me with this mouth that would move and it was hilarious. I know my face was so bright red, but Logan said it was hilarious to watch. For being part of his show, he gave me a bottle of champagne? Uh... I'm pretty sure there is a sign on the boat that says if you give alcohol to a minor it's a big fine. I'm totally a minor.
We gave the champagne to the first people we saw basically. We just said hey, do you want this?
While we were on the boat, we walked into the little shopping area and we got asked to model in the boats fashion show. We both wore Puma sweatsuits that were awesome, but we didn't get to keep them. It was so fun and weird; they announced our name and what we were there celebrating. We were supposed to walk down the stairs, do a couple spins, and strike poses. After the show a lady came up to me and said your husband is such a ham. But this lady was like 70 something, so it was even funnier. Every day for these past 6 months I have realized it's totally true :)
That night they played The Dark Knight Rises on the "under the stars" movie screen; because Logan loves Batman, that's where we were that night and I even was sporting some Batman gear myself that day!
We decided to walk around and just look at it all first. The beach had black sand and it wasn't the softest sand ever, but it was cool to see a different color of sand. As we walked out towards the ocean there was turtles everywhere!!!
After we had walked around, we used their snorkel gear; they told us that there was sea turtles out there swimming with them so I was excited to swim with the turtles. But there was nothing on our swim. There was a lot of pretty fishies, but no turtles until we went back in. As we swam back into the shore, I had turned to look at Logan under water and when I looked back I let out a blood curdling scream because a foot in front of my face a turtle was coming straight for me. In my mind I could see him biting my face and so I quickly gave some hard kicks away and he just kept swimming right on by. When I came up everyone was looking at me and Logan just started laughing because he had heard the scream underwater and watched the whole thing happen.
The next day we woke up at one of our favorite ports- Nawiliwili, Kaua'i. It was a small island, but it was extremely beautiful. We took a shuttle over to WalMart of some snacks to hang out at the beach the rest of the day. There was a cove/beach thing right off of where our boat was and it was incredible! There was places to rent all kinds of things for the beach; we rented a paddleboard for an hour and it was AWESOME! It was huge and I was completely terrified to stand up at first, but I wish we could have had it all day.
The next day we woke up and were in Lahaina, Maui. While the boat was out in the ocean, we had to have smaller boats take us into the port because our boat was too big. We saw so many whales when they were taking us in! It was whale season when we went and there was definitely a lot of them everywhere. We didn't go out on a whale watching boat, but we could see them from where we were.
When we first got off the boat, a woman was there to give the women a flower to put in their hair. Right side if you were single and left if you were married, it was fun to be able to put it in the left side and know- hey, I'm really married! For the first part, we walked around the shops and looked at all the food to decide what we wanted.
We decided on a burger from Sure Thing burger after a local told us that is his favorite burger. And he was beyond right. In 100% honesty that was the absolute best burger either of us have ever had and sometimes we have cravings just for that. We also had a Hawaiian shaved ice. If you haven't had a real Hawaiian shaved ice, you are missing out- best shaved ice.
After we ate, we hopped on a bus and went to Kaanapali beach. It is known for how soft the sand is and it lived up to its expectations.
From the beach we saw a ton of whales breaching, swam, and read our books.
Our dressed up pictures are from our last formal night at dinner on the boat. Don't we look so tan? I miss that tan. We had a great table to sit with. We sat with a couple from Utah and another from Tennessee. They were so kind and so excited for us to start our new adventure together. The couple from Utah actually drove us back to our car so we didn't have to pay for the bus when the cruise was over. They were so kind.
On our way back to LA we stayed outside and read and relaxed every day. There was one day however, that Mr. Logan didn't want to put on sunscreen. That was big mistake. He got so burnt that day that he never left the room after we went in. I would run up to get him ice cream or pizza. And we kept him all lathered up in aloe vera. The next day we were stopping at Ensenada, Mexico and I was going boat crazy. I needed to get off the boat, but Logan was so burnt I didn't think he would be able to make it. But he was so kind to sacrifice and come with me so I could get my land legs on.
But Mexico had so many bright colored buildings and cool architecture, so we really enjoyed the short time we had off the boat.
Our honeymoon was paradise. We spent two weeks away from everyone and everything else. All we had was each other and I'm so grateful we took that opportunity to go. I can't wait to go again someday and get another burger and shaved ice and dip my toes in the water again.
