Mahoney Madness

Those of you that know me well, know that I love planes and Amelia Earhart is one of my all time heros!  So when I found out this event was going on, I was all for it!!!

Yesterday, the Pacific Aviation Museum held a super fun party for Amelia Earhart's birthday!  

The Museum looks out onto Luke Field (on Ford Island) where Amelia took off (but had an accident) in her Lockheed Electra on March 20th, 1937, for her first attempt at her Round-the-World flight.

Whitney graciously went with me :D 

Here she is dressed as Amelia in fabulous day clothes (aka not flying clothes)

We're standing by the Amelia Exhibit they have at the museum.  Below are some of the pictures they had up...

Whit was sitting down and I was like, "OH! This is too cute, I have to take a picture!" lol

I'm ready to fly away!

Uh-oh... Whit's fraternizing with the enemy!

Anything you can do, I can do better!

I had to stop and say hello to the Sailors ;)

Whit was stronger than I and able to dismiss their advances, lol

In the gift shop!  I found a new hat!!!

This is Sara, President of the Aloha Chapter of the Ninety-Nines.

If you want to know more about the Ninety-Nines, check out the history section of their website.  Their first president was Amelia Earhart!

I loved her costume!

Being goofy as usual :D

Hehehee... I couldn't help myself!

Whit saying, "What am I supposed to do with this?!?" lol

Found ourselves with a couple of fly-boys!  Whitney was complaining that she got the old man, lol.  

Not sure why I'm standing behind Whitney or why she looks so much taller than I.  But still a cute picture!

"Amelia" welcoming everyone and thanking them for coming.  

And now the costume contest!

So here are our 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners (from smallest to biggest, respectively).

I was tied with this lady for 3rd place, but they judged by applause and for some reason she got it.  Not to be nit-picky or anything but... I think my costume was way better.  Oh well.  Having a good time is what mattered!

A couple of fun pics outside

I love these boots, but being in heels all day isn't my idea of a good time lol

Yay!  Got to take off that hot cap and scarf!

Post-bobby pins.  Not too shabby!

Our poor feet!  My index toe on my right foot is STILL numb and Whitney is covered in blisters :(

But we did it for Amelia!

Whitney and I both got this shirt as a souvenir!  I had a wonderful time celebrating and honoring a great woman!  Happy Birthday, Amelia!

(P.S.  Super excited that the Museum staff loved our outfits!  So much so that they kept taking out pictures and even had us sign a release so that they could use our picture on their website!  When the pics are posted, I'll update this blog :D )

Welcome to the part three, the last part, of Madre and Aunt Barbara's fabulous vacation! The main part of this blog will be pictures and videos of Kauai :D

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Mon July 8th

So as you know from the last post, in the morning, after we dropped Rob off at the ship, Madre, Puppins, and I went on a hike.  After the hike we changed into our swim suits and headed over to Hickam Beach.

Here I am blowing up my inter-tube.  Madre's next to me, already headed out to the water.  (She's full of more hot air than I am that's why she finished first lol jk)

Lovely day for floating and watching planes take off!

After the beach we hung out and packed up our suitcases.  

In the morning, we are off to Kauai!!!

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Tues July 9th

Man, this is gonna be a long flight. ;)

The flight didn't even feel like 40 mins!  We took off, the flight attendants served us beverages, I snapped this picture, the attendants collected our garbage, and then we were prepping for landing!

Here are pictures of our hotel 

(not all taken at the same time, but since they're all of the hotel, I've put them together)

We stayed at the Courtyard by Marriott at Coconut Beach.

The view from our room

The view from the beach

Here's the beach that was right next to our hotel

Another view from our room

This is the view from the restaurant

This is always cool to see (the owners of Marriott hotels are LDS)  :)

The front of the hotel, obviously at night time

After we unloaded our luggage at the hotel, we took a drive up towards the northern part of the island.  I believe this is Kapa'a Beach or Kealia Beach.

Beautiful drive!

A few shots of Waimea Canyon, the Grand Canyon of the Pacific!

Wish we could of seen more, but perhaps another time :)

More of our pretty drive

Mmm... chocolate :D 

While we were waiting to board our dinner cruise, we stopped by this little shop!

I got chocolate covered marshmallows.  YUM!

Getting ready to set sail on the Southern Star!

Madre and I were really the only ones brave enough to hang out in the hammocks up front.  It was the BEST spot!  We were really cruising along. With the ups and downs of the waves, it felt like we were on a roller coaster!  We, of course, squealed the whole time! lol  It was AWESOME.  We also got insanely drenched, but it was worth it!!!

Just before we hit the curve of the island and headed up to the Napali Coast, we had some welcomed guests!  Rob told me that Dolphins LOVE to swim along with ships, he sees them a lot when they are out to sea.

Here's a link to a video that I took of the dolphins swimming with us :D

(as I have mentioned in previous blogs, posting videos directly in the blog takes forever and then eventually never loads.  So I've put them on my facebook and just added the link.  Enjoy!)

The Napali Coast line

Sunset!

Here's a map of Kauai to give you a reference of what we did today.  The lower blue circle is Lihu'e, that's where the airport is.  The blue circle above that is Kapa'a, where our hotel is located.  The lowest red circle is Port Allen, that's where our catamaran set sail from.  The arrows show you the direction in which we traveled and the Napali Coast is where we ended (of course we sailed back the way we came and ported in Port Allen again.)  Quite an adventure!

(Thank you Uncle Richard for suggesting that we have to see the Napali Coast while we were in Kauai.  It was gorgeous!)

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Wed July 10th

We went on a great zip-lining adventure!  It was soooo much fun!

This is the State Tree of Hawaii, the Kukui (or Candlenut) tree.

This is a Taro Plant

Looks kind like the Swiss Family Robinson's Tree House!

It's kinda blurry, but here are my feet while I'm zipping through the air!

Madre 

Barbara

On a very bouncy bridge hiking back to zip-line again!

This is the hand of one of our guides, Cole.  He found a Japanese Lilikoi Fruit Tree and shared it with us.  It may look gross, but it was very sweet!

Video of Madre zip-lining

On our hike we saw the Sleeping Giant (also known as Nounou Mountain), with his head at the right side of the picture, and his feet on the left.  Our other guide, Jana, told us that he was a protector of Kauai.  He would throw boulders at incoming enemies.  Well one day he accidentally, not knowing if they were friendly or an enemy, threw a bolder at some innocent fisherman.  So the locals threw a big feast for him and when he fell asleep from all the food, they tossed vines over him and trapped him into the mountain.  He has yet to awaken.

Video of Barbara zip-lining

Video of me attempting to go upside down.  It was harder than I thought, I guess I didn't throw myself back hard enough.  I eventually did go upside down, but the tree obstructs your view.  Oh well.

Video of Madre and I zip-lining together

Video of Barbara and I going together

I ate this tiny little flower.  Jana told us that they tasted like mushrooms, so I tried it.  At first, it just tasted like I was eating a tiny little flower, lol, but the after taste did taste like a mushroom. 

After our zip-lining adventures we went into the Poipu area and had dinner.  DELICIOUS Fish and Chips followed by this...

Mint Hula Pie!  Good thing there were three of us to eat it!

:D

OH! Before I forget, I have to mention what a GENIUS Barbara is for wanting to go to Costco when we landed in Kauai.  With out her fortuitous insight we would of never found my awesome underwater camera!  And we got a fantastic deal :D

When we returned to our hotel, we changed into our swimsuits and jumped into the hot tub.  Felt great!  Madre and I rotated back and forth from the hot tub to the pool.  After that we layed on the dark beach and listened to the waves and watched the stars come out.  I definitely wished Rob was there with me to enjoy in the beauty of it!  But he was working, surprise, surprise. :(  

This picture is of the fire they had going outside that you could sit around. 

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Thurs July 11th

All good things must come to an end. :(  This was the last day of our vacation.  We enjoyed a nice breakfast, packed up our belongings, and headed to the airport.  Madre and Barbara left first (there wasn't enough room for me on their plane when we got our tickets).  And then I left about an half an hour later.  They landed in Oahu and were boarding their flight to Phoenix by the time I landed in Oahu.  

I had so much fun and am insanely blessed to have such an amazing family to come visit me and take me on all these wild adventures!  

Hope you enjoyed the pictures and videos as much as I enjoyed taking them! :D