Hawaii was the 50th and last state (as of this writing) to join the United States of America. Hawaii has long been famed as a vacation getaway destination thanks to its warm temperatures, sunny beaches, and extensive tourist accomodations. We were no exception in that regard as we traveled to Hawaii for those same typical tourist reasons, with this trip specifically designed as a "babymoon" to enjoy ourselves before the arrival of our first child several months later. There's much more to the Hawaiian Islands than simply relaxing along the beach, of course, and we planned to explore more of the state's unique wildlife, natural scenery, and political/cultural instutitions over the course of our two weeks of travel. We would be splitting our time between one week on the island of Oahu and one week on the Big Island of Hawaii with regrets that we wouldn't be able to visit any of the other six major islands that make up the archipelago. Over the course of this trip, we would have the chance to experience the big tourist hotels in Waikiki, visit the memorials at Pearl Harbor, learn about the political history of the Kingdom of Hawaii in Honolulu, go snorkeling with sea turtles and scuba diving on a coral reef, drink coffee on the hillside farm where it was grown, hike through the lava fields of an active volcano, and watch the sunset from the freezing top of Mauna Kea next to some of the world's most expensive telescope arrays. The pages that follow contain some of the pictures and stories that we accumulated along our travel through the islands. We hope that you enjoy seeing them!
