Honeymooners & Randoms

Here are the last couple of good pictures we have from our honeymoon. We got the keys to our new house in Queen Creek yesterday, so we will be busy moving and painting. Any volunteers? Hopefully the Internet will be up right away so I can post pictures of our new home!

Nicki, my MAID of Honor got us these cool shirts for our honeymoon. They were really cute, we got a lot of compliments on them. Thanks Nicki :)

Picture of the front up close.

Picture of the back.

Here is the last picture we took, which happens to be on the airplane that we rode 6 hours on. Yes, we look trashy but its ok right?

Kualoa Ranch

Another stop in Hawaii, and one of our favorites was the Kualoa Ranch. This is a 400 acre cattle ranch North of Waikiki. The ranch makes its money by raising beef cattle, providing sets for movies, and tours.

Pictures of the ranch. The one on the left is immediately west of the freeway, the one on the left is immediately east of the freeway. It was really weird to see a ranch so close to the ocean. The cows could literally fall into the ocean if they got close enough to the edge. It was raining the day we visited the ranch, which is why they pictures are all foggy looking.

Before our bus tour. I will explain the shirts later.

The ranch offered a couple of different tours. One on horseback ( you should have seen the Japanese tourists getting on :)), movie site tour, which is the tour we took, quad tours, and some scenic tours. This is the bus we rode on the tour.

This was the first stop on our tour. During WWII the army took over part of the ranch and made bunkers like this one as well as a runway. The army has since given back the property to the ranch, but the bunkers are all still there today.
The ranch is known for the movies and tv shows that have been filmed on it. Some examples are 50 First Dates, Pearl Harbor, Jurassic Park, Godzilla, and all episodes of the tv show Lost.

Here is the the log that the people of Jurassic Park hid behind when the dinosaurs were chasing them in the valley.

One of Godzilla's footprints.

A picture from You, Me, & Dupree. Not sure what scene it was from though.

50 First dates scene. We went down the road that Adam Sandler used to stop Drew Barrymore every morning on her way to the Diner. The diner is still open, we didn't get a chance to go see it though.

A recreation of how the Hawaiian people used to live. The women and children used to live together in a hut, and the men lived in another hut. By the way, in this culture, men are the ones who COOK!!

Some cows that are on the ranch. They have about 400 head of cows and 15 head of bulls. They were really proud of this number, but to put it in perspective, the ranch Sam worked on a couple of summers ago has 3000 head of cows and about 500 head of bulls on 132,000 acres. So, a large portion of the money made on the ranch is definitely not from the cattle. But, if you think about the fact that all the cattle in Hawaii had to be imported from somewhere else, 400 isn't that bad of a number after all.

Picture of us on that wonderful bus before we got done with our tour. Sam says it was like riding on Dad's limo dump truck

Dinner Cruise (Thanks Alex & Patrick!!!)

When we got to Hawaii and checked into our Hotel, we were pleasantly surprised by a dinner cruise that our friends Alex & Patrick purchased for us. The cruise ship left from its port and took us up and down the Waikiki beach while we eat a really nice dinner. This was one of our favorite parts of the trip.

Here we are getting ready to take off.

While in Hawaii, we got the most "cultural" experience that we will ever get. Mainland Americans were definitely the minority. The island is filled with Japanese tourists taking pictures of EVERYTHING! After being inspired by the Japanese, we decided to be like them and take a picture of our food, since it looked so delicious.

I can't take him anywhere! Good thing we don't do the fancy meal thing very often. Or maybe we should go more often so he will stop doing things like this!

Sam and his new ring :)

Sunset from the cruise.

View of Waikiki from the cruise.

Polynesian Cultural Center & Pearl Harbor

The Polynesian Cultural Center was a park/museum type thing that displayed all the "Island" Cultures that are near Hawaii. (e.g Tahiti). The park had different sections devoted to different islands where you could participate in activities related to that specific culture. Unfortunately almost all the activities were outside and it was raining, so this was actually one of our less favorite things we did.

Our standard pose. :) This was a canoe parade we went to. These were dancers from the island of Hawaii. The cultural center was built by Mormon missionaries and now over 80% of the workers are BYU Hawaii students. The reason the center was built was to create jobs for the students as well as raise money for scholarships. Most of the students who worked at the center are from the other islands, so the dances are really apart of their culture which was kind of neat. After seeing these dances, Native American dances don't seem so odd! This man taught us how to use sticks to make a fire, get coconut milk, and climb a tree, just like the people on his island do. I apologize for the fat head in the bottom of the picture.

Standard pose #2.

Pearl Harbor
]Here we are before we started our Pearl Harbor experience. Standard pose #2 again. :) Yes, Sam does have the same shorts on everyday,lol. He didn't pack any shorts and it was too hot and humid to wear pants. He tried to wear his sandals to get some sort of sun tan. Jennie, I'm pretty sure that you can call Sam clear in these pictures, since I would bet that your legs are tanner than his right now!

Our favorite part of Pearl Harbor was the tour of the Missouri we took. It was HUGE!

U.S.S. Arizona Memorial

Guns on the front of the boat.

This picture absolutely amazes me. These are the beds that our sailors have to sleep on. I don't know how they can get a good nights rest sleeping on these things. There has got to be something better for them! Rick, my mom's husband was in the Navy for 20 years, I can't imagine being on that ship for that long. I think my dogs have a better bed.

Dole Pineapple Farm

While in Hawaii, we found the cheaper it was, the better it was. Seriously! Here are some pictures of the Dole Pineapple Plantation.

Newlyweds! Can we say losers??

Getting ready to ride the Pineapple Express! This was a train tour of the plantation that grows pineapples as well as bananas.

Here is the train we rode!

Fun Facts about Pineapples: It takes 2 years for them to grow, and only 1 pineapple grows per plant. Their are over 6 different kinds of pineapples. If you take the top off of a full grown pineapple, you can plant it, wait 2 years and get another one! Also, their is a really neat way to cut pineapple to get the most for your money. If you go to the Dole website, they have a knife for $6 that works wonders!!

Hotel Views & 1st day to North Shore

Hotel we stayed at. Was very nice, definitely would recommend it.

Views from our hotel Balcony. The dark part in the ocean is actually coral reef. We stayed on the Waikiki Beach, which is about a 20 minute drive from Honolulu.
More views, notice the surf boards next to the other hotel. They gave surfing lessons right outside our hotel.

Here is some pictures from our drive up to the North Shore of Oahu. This side of the island was was prettier, and more relaxing than Waikiki. Their were less tourists, and more locals here. I took this picture while we were driving along one of the main highways. It was amazing how close we were to the ocean while we were driving. Almost scary, actually.

Picture of us on one of the beaches. All the pictures of us were taken by Sam holding up the camera, or us setting the timer which required a flat rock, etc., so if the poses are all the same, Sorry!

View from the highway. (Opposite of the ocean, obviously) :)
These are pictures of a beach we stopped at on the North Shore. The waves were HUGE and extremely violent, and their were warning signs posted all along the shore.

Thank goodness for flat rocks to hold our camera on!!

A really cool picture that Sam took!