Sunday, January 13th, 2008
After arriving home from Jamaica, we sifted through our huge order from www.backcountry.com (Thanks Christian!) and started packing for the next big leg of our trip. Dermot filled his new backpack as Katie packed up her old trusty one and many hours later, we were ready to travel the next 6 months of our lives with only the things we could fit into these packs.
Michael and Erin picked us up in the city and brought us to there apartment in Weehawken. We went out for dinner and then got a good night’s sleep before our trip was to begin. The next morning we had breakfast with Michael, Erin, Tom and Bridget and then headed off for good ol’ Newark Liberty Airport where our trip was to begin. We said goodbye to NYC and aloha to Hawaii 11 hours later.
Dermot’s high school friend Mike picked us up at the airport (with leis of course) and we headed back to his place where we met up with his wife Heidi.
Mike and Heidi are expecting their first child and just found out the baby would be a boy the day we arrived (Congrats Mike and Heidi!). We were beat from our flight, so we headed to bed soon after arriving at their place.
Mike and Heidi had their teaching jobs to attend to, so Katie and I explored the North Shore of Hawaii on our own. We got some shrimp from the famous shrimp trucks, watched some seriously big surf, had lunch at Turtle Bay and toured the Dole Pineapple Plantation.
We then took a midweek trip to the Big Island of Hawaii to check out Hilo and Kona. We stayed in a beautiful bed and breakfast (Hale Hawaii Bed and Breakfast). One of the most interesting things we did on the Big Island was to hike around Volcano National Park.
While on the Big Island we also snorkelled at The Place of Refuge, attended a local farmer’s market, visited a brewery and saw some amazing waterfalls among other things. The Big Island is a perfect place to relax and appreciate what “Old Hawaii” used to look like.
Back to O’ahu, Mike’s work week was over and we went to a luau, played some golf and got to watch the New York Giants beat the Green Bay Packers at an outside bar. The weather at the bar was slightly warmer then that the players had to endure.
We also got to meet up with some of Katie’s friends up on the North Shore. Juanita and Amber joined us for some beach time at Waimea Bay.
Our week in Hawaii was a blast, but we had to get ready to go to our next stop . . . Vail, Colorado. We braced ourselves for a 70 degree swing in temperature and were excited to get some skiing in this season.