1st Day in Hawaii

Our first day in Hawaii was AMAZING...

ALOHA 

Our flight was great... we slept... a little, watched movies and I edited some Gymscool videos... I loved that I could charge my phone at my seat thanks to my own personal USB port!  The flight crew was not as cool as Southwest when it comes to accepting handstands at 30,000 feet but we did manage to capture a quick one...

Our flight arrived early... wahoo!  And the captain was super friendly as we walked off the plane.  We were so excited to be in Hawaii.  P.S. The Honolulu International Airport is really cool in that a lot of it is open to the outside so you could feel the warmth and see the sun right away!  Thankfully all of our bags arrived safe and sound!  We were greeted by our friends who were waiting outside of baggage claim H with leis and Hawaiian flowers for our hair... Thank you Chad and Serene...

It was a quick drive to the place we were staying... even quicker if there wasn't such crazy traffic in Hawaii!  People are almost too friendly when driving... everyone slows down to let others merge... totally not like Maryland and DC... at all!  We arrived at the house and were happy to be greeted by Dallas... the German Shepherd Dog, Melvin... the cat, and Striker... the friendly stray cat!  First mission after unpacking the car... handstand pictures at the house that we will call home for the next 10 days...

After spending a few moments outside we decided it would probably be a good idea to get into clothes a little more suitable for Hawaii weather... shorts, t-shirts and flip flops... wahoo!!!  And since the weather was so nice, we decided to put bathing suits on as well.  It was still early so why not go to the beach...

On the way to the beach, we stopped by the Dole Plantation... PINEAPPLES GALORE...

We made sure to take our handstand pictures first then we walked around the gift shop and enjoyed pineapple ice cream... YUM!  I got mine in a waffle cone... so yummy!  We also made sure to buy some fresh pineapple... best pineapple EVER...

We also stopped for a handstand picture by this famous sign on our way to the beach...

Our first beach stop in Hawaii was to a very famous beach... Waimea Bay Beach... a popular spot in the filming industry but also a very famous surf spot!!!  During the summer months, the waves are reasonable for good swimmers but there are times of the year where only expert surfers are allowed in the water!

The water was fairly calm unless you were near the famous jumping rock... Waimea Rock...

This is probably one of the coolest handstand pictures I have ever had taken of me... I love the perfect handstand shadow in the surf!  I may have to enter this one into a photo contest!!!  Between the wind and the uneven ground, this was definitely a challenging handstand... a little scary too... there were not a lot of good places to fall if I lost my balance so I picked a spot that wouldn't end in death but definitely wouldn't have been fun if I had fallen!  This is not one for my girls to do!  Even though it is a rock that people jump off of, I wanted to explore the landing zone so I climbed down instead of jumping.  It is better to jump as a wave is coming in so that the water is a little deeper... not something I wanted to just wing!  I actually enjoyed the walk down because all of the guys that were climbing up and flipping off of the rock mentioned how cool my handstand was... Yay handstands!!!

On our way home from the beach, we discovered why Hawaii is...

THE RAINBOW STATE

This is definitely one of the most beautiful and vibrant rainbows that I have ever seen!  And it was a FULL rainbow... We could see both ends go all the way to the ground... so amazing!!!  We've only been in Hawaii a day and already we have taken so many amazing handstand pictures!  What a day!!!

~Day 1 Hawaii Handstands