Weddingbee Blog

During our honeymoon, Mr. Parfait and I wanted to see all there was to see, hike all there was to hike, and learn all there was to learn. Needless to say, we couldn’t leave Oahu without a few touristy adventures! Here are the highlights of our last days in Hawaii:

The Polynesian Cultural Center. We went to a luau and a post-dinner show called Ha: Breath of Life. We preferred the Royal Lahaina Luau to the Polynesian Luau, but the post-dinner show was beautiful. I especially loved the part about the wedding.

All personal photos

Kualoa Ranch. We wanted to explore more of the island, and our concierge suggested Kualoa Ranch. We walked around the ranch a bit, then hopped on a bus to take a tour of the 4000 acres. This ranch is where the show Lost was filmed—amazingly, no one on our bus had seen a single episode! The beauty of this place inspired us to start watching the show as soon as we returned home. We just finished the whole series last week!

Many movies were filmed here, including 50 First Dates, Pearl Harbor, Jurassic Park, and the one with the big footprints below… Godzilla? (I never know what to do with my arms in photos…)

Pearl Harbor. This was one of our favorite parts of the trip. It was humbling and kind of unbelievable to stand in all these places where history was made. We spent many hours with our video iPod guides but made time for an ice cream break!

The Dole Plantation and the Macadamia Nut Farm. Out of curiosity, we briefly visited each of these food-tastic places. The Dole Plantation had lots of activities (maze, train ride, cooking demonstrations) and plenty of pineapple-y desserts. The Nut Farm didn’t offer much besides some tasty free samples. Not a bad thing.

The Sea Turtles. Staying at Turtle Bay meant seeing sea turtle heads and shells bobbing outside your door almost every day. But, as hard as they tried, they never crawled onto the sand at our beach. Mr. Parfait did some sleuthing and took me to this pretty cove on the North Shore:

We saw a group of people looking at something and discovered three sea turtles sunning in the sand! There were a lot more swimming near the shore and trying to get on land. I really wanted to help them (they looked exhausted!), but there are very strict rules about keeping distance from sea turtles. There’s a group dedicated to protecting the sea turtles at this cove. They place red rope several feet from each turtle and make sure no one crosses it.

My best friend in elementary school had a turtle named Noah, and all of these turtles reminded me of him! He was such a gentle, quietly-majestic guy. These turtles looked so tired from fighting off the waves and climbing ashore—I wanted to pet them and tell them they did a great job. Sigh. I need a pet.

Well, this concludes our honeymoon adventures! Thank you to my husband for two of the happiest weeks of my life! I miss it. Do you hear that, Hawaii? I miss you! And we will be back soon!

Are you more of an active vacationer, like us, or do you use vacations to get some rest and relaxation? And if you’ve been to Oahu before, did we miss out on anything?