Aloha! By Popular Demand...

So I didn't plan on doing this but we had quite a few people ask.. and then Brad insisted... that I do a blog from Kauai while we're on our honeymoon.



First of all.. I'm still having a hard time realizing that the wedding actually happened! It wasn't actually that the whole thing breezed by.. though most of it did, the chaos came in waves. I definitely had a few opportunities to sit back and take it all in, but there were moments that I wouldn't be able to retell accurately if my life depended on it. Brad says he felt like the most popular kid in school and his arms literally hurt from hugging/greeting/taking photos with so many folks. He cracks me up!!!! All in all we had a wonderful time and we're so pleased with how it all came together. Our photographer already put up a sneak peek slideshow if you're interested in seeing a lot of photos of me and Brad.. ha. All photos will be available soon.



http://www.kenbuckphotography.com/data/slideshow/83/Colleen.Brad/index.html




And now we're in BEAUTIFUL Kauai!!!! It is amazing here. We stepped off the plane and the first thing I noticed was the incredibly sweet smell in the air. I wish I could bottle it up and sell it. The first thing we did upon arriving was get lost on our way to our "treehouse"- which is basically a condo in the middle of nowhere.. or the hills of Kalaheo if you happen to know where that is. We were given the address but no hint that the mailbox we were looking for didn't exist. It was pitch black, the locusts were screaming, and Brad and I were imagining what life would be like without our kidneys as we went down the wrong driveway and found what we imagined were slaughterhouses, but were probably just sheds. We called our host Neil and he met up with us after he let loose a few frustrated fucks! and other four letter words. It was funny because he is Australian.. it would have been scary if he was from anywhere else, we're sure.

Neil is a character and can't stop talking and cursing. He brought us to our honeymoon abode and we were so thrilled at how awesome it was. Neil thought it would be a good time to talk about how bad the economy is and then told Brad about cockroaches and killer centipedes. Oh Neil, why!! Surely he didn't know about Brad's insane cockroachophobia. Ha! Brad put on a brave face and mentioned how neat it would be to have a couple of beers. Suddenly Neil pulled three Coronas out of god knows where and we were sipping on beer and talking about even more ridiculous topics such as how he isn't making any money yet on his investment aka the very treehouse we were staying in. I don't know how we escaped his grasp but eventually he was gone and Brad and I were almost in tears laughing about how funny the whole thing was.

The next morning we took an amazing doors-off helicopter tour of Kauai. It was absolutely breathtaking and the perfect first thing for us to do because it gave me ideas for what we would do for the rest of our trip. There were so many good shots but I'm only going to leave you with a few due to the time it takes to upload them!

The following day, we did the most intense and crazy thing either of us has ever done.. and brace yourself for this because you will probably laugh at first: a raft ride along the Na Pali coast. Yes. Now you must know that it was more like a raft/speed boat combo and all passengers sat along the edge of the boat while it sped for an hour and a half up the coast to get us to the beautiful views and photo ops. It was really fun in the beginning- we stopped and photographed spinner dolphins and sea turtles, learned about some history, took a walk through an ancient-ish village (not a lot of ruins as it's on the coast, so they re-created a lot). Super fun! The highlight was speeding through an arch along the coast and doing an ocean donut (if that exists) within an open ceiling cave. It's the stuff I always dreamed of when thinking about my honeymoon as a little girl- yes, I thought about my honeymoon more so than the wedding, even at a young age ;)

The "Screen Saver" Shot:

Open Ceiling Cave:

After that, we went snorkeling.. which is what I was looking forward to the most. Unfortunately, after I jumped into the water, I remembered my fear of the ocean and nearly panicked completely. I only stopped when I realized that Brad was struggling with his snorkel. He kept trying to scuba dive with his snorkel and of course breathed in air. Then he had to pee and refused to do it until he could "stand on something." In Brad talk, that meant he needed his feet to touch the sand in order to pee.. so he began to swim to shore, which looked deceivingly close because we had a 2,000 foot cliff towering over the beach. I forced him to stop when we swam for 10 minutes and were still nowhere near the beach. He finally did his business and then we swam like Phelps back to the boat so we didn't end up being stranded. We had a long haul back to the harbor so we braced ourselves on the boat and held on for dear life as we sped at what felt like lightening speed over the ocean waves, dodging sea turtles and huge swells. Brad's knuckles and hands were bleeding from holding on so tight and I had to stop looking forward because our final destination was never anywhere in sight. It was like being on the Grizzly or Giant Dipper for 90 minutes straight... with no seat belt. OUCH!!!!! Still, we both agree it was the most amazing thing we've done on this trip so far and the beauty of it all made it worth it.

We weren't too tired for a trip up to the North Coast where we stopped for dinner and shopping then a photo op at Hanalei Bay during sunset. Brad was really eager to get this photo and scouted out a couple to perform the task. I almost had an anxiety attack watching him approach a young couple strolling along the beach, because I thought for sure he was interrupting a potential proposal. Fortunately for us.. that wasn't happening. But it reminded me to watch for proposals!! Good grief I wouldn't want to be responsible for ruining that moment for anybody!!

We woke up in MAJOR pain this morning but fought through it for our ATV tour through Kipu Ranch. Brad was excited to drive an ATV and I was excited to do a rope swing and swim under a real waterfall, so we booked the waterfall tour! We started out clean:

And ended up looking like this:

Fortunately, there was a waterfall to clean off under at the end. Brad and I held hands and jumped in... from a rock on the surface of the pond :)





So it has been an amazing time so far.. and we're just getting started. I had to give up on the whole "relaxing in Kauai" idea I had when booking this trip.. there are a lot of opportunities but we've been running around like Kauai chickens doing everything dangerous that we possibly can. I even had tried to remedy this with a Mai Tai and instead of feeling amazing, I passed out. Ha! We love it though and are so excited for more. What a wonderful way to start married life!!


That's it for now!