Running (slowly) With Turtles

In January my family and I went to Hawaii.  It was our first big trip for the family - first plane ride for Baby Boy and Baby Girl.  We rented a house right on the beach and began the most relaxing week of our lives!!

The most magical time during this week was our early morning searches for sea turtles.  It turned out that we didn't have to search far.  We had sea turtles visit us on the beach every day.

We were able to walk very close to these turtles and this one didn't mind us taking his picture.  Look at that face...I truly wouldn't mind being a turtle if it meant I could live on the beaches of Hawaii!

Now a few "Cliff Claven" tidbits of knowledge:  did you know that sea turtles can stay underwater for more than 5 hours?  Sea turtles can live to be over 80 years old?  The longest migration for a sea turtle was believed to be aver 12,000 miles?

Another beautiful place we visited was the Manoa Falls (really more of a Trickle than a Fall though).  The hike to the Trickle Falls was through a rain forest-like area with lush greenery and tropical flowers.

And finally, another colorful and magical place we visited was Matsumoto's Shaved Ice.  We discovered the melt in your mouth texture of shaved ice and went back everyday.  However, it took us 3 days to discover that if you ask for a scoop of vanilla ice cream in your shaved ice it takes heaven to a new level!

Hope you enjoyed a short tour of Hawaii!  It has taken its place as my favorite vacation spot of all time!  Do you have a favorite destination?