Kimberly and I were blessed with an opportunity to spend 12 days in Hawaii recen
tly to celebrate her birthday and our 14th wedding anniversary. Before heading out there, we were under some notion that Hawaii was not really a christian state because we had always heard about the worshiping of different gods. The god of volcanoes, weather etc. Anyway, the first day we were there, we went on a tour of Hilo on the island of Hawaii. Our tour guide was a natural born Hawaiian named Jarret. He was great! He was knowledgeable, kind and very funny. In fact, most of the time he would tell a joke and be laughing at his own joke while he was telling it. One of the jokes was about the meanings behind how Hawaiians were flowers in their hair. If you wear it on the left side it means that you are taken. If you wear it on the right side, it means that you are looking. If you wear it in back, it means to follow me. If you wear on top, it means that you are confused. But if you wear it on the right and left sides it means that you are trying to trade up. We thought that was funny!
tly to celebrate her birthday and our 14th wedding anniversary. Before heading out there, we were under some notion that Hawaii was not really a christian state because we had always heard about the worshiping of different gods. The god of volcanoes, weather etc. Anyway, the first day we were there, we went on a tour of Hilo on the island of Hawaii. Our tour guide was a natural born Hawaiian named Jarret. He was great! He was knowledgeable, kind and very funny. In fact, most of the time he would tell a joke and be laughing at his own joke while he was telling it. One of the jokes was about the meanings behind how Hawaiians were flowers in their hair. If you wear it on the left side it means that you are taken. If you wear it on the right side, it means that you are looking. If you wear it in back, it means to follow me. If you wear on top, it means that you are confused. But if you wear it on the right and left sides it means that you are trying to trade up. We thought that was funny!
It was close to the end of the bus tour we were on, when Jarret asks the bus if we would like to listen to Hawaiian music or hear a couple of stories about Hawaii. Of course, we all wanted to hear the stories! He went on to tell us about the real way that Hawaii became a state. He said that in 1900 there was a princess that ruled over Hawaii and she believed in many different gods until someone from America came over to Hawaii and taught her about "the one true God that sent his son to die for our sins". When Jarret said that, the bus erupted with applause! It was incredible! He went on to say that when the people of Hawaii noticed that she was breaking the old god's rules and was not punished for it, then the rest of the Hawaiian people started to break away and become Christians as well. But, not all of the Hawaiian people totally understood this and felt that it was a way to break any rule and law that they wanted without consequence. This caused a lot of kaos on the islands which resulted in the islands reaching out to the U.S. and our military to try to restore order in their country. That was the start of the U.S. absorbing the islands into a U.S. territory in a very friendly, non-hostile manor. I have not researched this out, but it was a VERY cool story!
We ended up having a great time in Hawaii and highly recommend taking a trip out there if you can handle to 9 hour flight. We went to the islands of Hawaii, Oahu, Kaua'i and Maui. My favorite was the big island, known as Hawaii, and the Kona coast. The big island has the active volcanoes. We actually got to go down into the crater of one of them, Mt. Kilauea, where there was steam coming up out of the ground. Also on Kona, we took a tour of the coast which we saw dolphins. On each island, the scenery is amazing! 
From waterfalls, mountain peaks and valleys to rainforest and white sand beaches. I even hiked behind a waterfall and was able to take a picture. On Oahu, we only visited Honolulu. I guess it was nice in the sense that we can say that we have been there, but we would not want to go back to there. It was like someone took part of Chicago or LA and put it onto a beach. It really was different from the rest of the trip which was rich with tradition and culture. .JPG)
On Maui, I went kiking through the rainforest while Kimberly found out there was a Tiffany Jewelers on the island and decided to see how different it was from the one in Chicago. On Kaua'i, we went on a tour called Hollywood in Hawaii which we got to see where different movies were made such as Jarrasic Park, Blue Hawaii and Honeymoon in Vegas. After the tour, we went to a Luau where there were people dancing with fire. TOTALLY COOL! On each island there are coutless beaches and they are all public by state law. Other than Honolulu, the state has a law that .JPG)
no building can be built higher than a coconut tree which is about 4 stories high. Here are some photos. I hope that you enjoy looking at them as much as we enjoyed taking them. We took several hundred photos.
From waterfalls, mountain peaks and valleys to rainforest and white sand beaches. I even hiked behind a waterfall and was able to take a picture. On Oahu, we only visited Honolulu. I guess it was nice in the sense that we can say that we have been there, but we would not want to go back to there. It was like someone took part of Chicago or LA and put it onto a beach. It really was different from the rest of the trip which was rich with tradition and culture. .JPG)
On Maui, I went kiking through the rainforest while Kimberly found out there was a Tiffany Jewelers on the island and decided to see how different it was from the one in Chicago. On Kaua'i, we went on a tour called Hollywood in Hawaii which we got to see where different movies were made such as Jarrasic Park, Blue Hawaii and Honeymoon in Vegas. After the tour, we went to a Luau where there were people dancing with fire. TOTALLY COOL! On each island there are coutless beaches and they are all public by state law. Other than Honolulu, the state has a law that .JPG)
no building can be built higher than a coconut tree which is about 4 stories high. Here are some photos. I hope that you enjoy looking at them as much as we enjoyed taking them. We took several hundred photos.
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