Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Hawaiian Honeymoon

Our honeymoon was a surprise for me. :) Adam planned the entire thing and managed to keep it a surprise until the morning after our wedding when we arrived at the airport. When we got to the airport, we checked our luggage at the American Airlines counter and got our tickets. I opened my ticket and read Honolulu, Hawaii; I screamed and jumped up and down with excitement! I was so ecstatic, I couldn't wait to get on the plane!

We flew from Lubbock to Dallas, then Dallas to Hawaii. The flight was 8-9 hours total! :/ It wasn't as bad for me as it was for Adam. Poor guy! His height made the plane ride slightly uncomfortable for him. When we arrived in Hawaii, we were greeted with leis and a shuttle to take us to our hotel, The Royal Hawaiian!
Here is a picture of our arrival. You can tell the plane ride was rough. Ha!


The Royal Hawaiian Hotel was amazing! I loved the fact that it is a historical resort. It was built in 1927 and there is so much history to it. Adam knows me so well! One of the reasons he chose The Royal Hawaiian is because of my nostalgic side and love of all things old/vintage. Another reason is because it is very romantic. :) He did so good! It was perfect and I couldn't have imagined a better place to stay, or a better honeymoon.


Did I mention the lobby of the hotel was completely open?! Meaning, you could see right out to the beautiful beach of Waikiki, or The Royal Hawaiian's courtyards, depending on which way you were looking. It was absolutely breathtaking, as was all of Hawaii! Here is a picture looking out from the lobby toward ocean. Oh, and my cute hubby too!


Adam planned some of our week, yes we were in Hawaii for an entire week, but left some of it open for us to decide what we wanted to do together. :) Two of the things he planned prior to our arrival were: dinner on Top of Waikiki and Germaine's Luau. Top of Waikiki is a revolving restaurant that overlooks all of Waikiki. It was really neat getting to see all of Waikiki while we enjoyed dinner. Germaine's Luau was great! It was so much fun. Adam and I liked learning about the Polynesian culture. The food wasn't too bad either! ;)

Oh, I have to mention that we had one of the funniest tour guides/luau group leaders of the entire bunch. We took a shuttle bus from the hotel to the Luau site. I'm not sure what side of the island we went to...I'm terrible with direction, but it was about a 40 minute drive. Our luau group leader entertained us the entire way and taught us some things about Hawaiian culture. If you are ever in Hawaii on O'ahu, you have to go to Germaine's Luau!


Us with one of the luau dancers!

Two things we did on the honeymoon that Adam hadn't planned prior to the trip were: going to Pearl Harbor and going to Kailua beach. I was really excited to go to Pearl Harbor. I thought, how could we come to Hawaii and not go to Pearl Harbor?! Adam didn't really have a preference about going at first, but once we went, he was glad we did. It was a neat experience and I'm glad we had the opportunity to see something that had such an impact on our country's history. We spent the entire day there and saw all of the exhibits.

Kailua beach was BEAUTIFUL!!! Talk about paradise! As many of my close friends and family know, I am not a water person, unless it's in a pool. I am deathly afraid of open water, especially the ocean. I do not like sharks or whales. I don't even like to see whales on TV; it gives me the willies. However, we went to Kailua to snorkel and boogie board. :) Crazy, I know! Adam convinced me to get in the water, and I am so glad that I did. It was warm and crystal clear. This was my first time to go in the ocean and to see the ocean, other than in Galveston, TX. We bought a disposable, waterproof camera and had so much fun that day!

Pearl Harbor

Kailua Beach


On the flight to Hawaii, Adam sat next to a guy who was originally from O'ahu. He was going back to Hawaii to visit family. He lives on the mainland now, and married a woman from Post, TX. We thought that was interesting since Post is so close to Lubbock. He told us about some things we should check out while we were there. One of them was the flea market, which is held every Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. We went on a Wednesday. We rode the shuttle bus from our hotel to Pearl Harbor and walked, yes, I said walked, from Pearl Harbor to Aloha Stadium. The flea market, or swap meet as some referred to it, was great! We got some great souvenirs. One of my most favorite things we got in Hawaii were two customized signs. One says Aloha and the other says Greer. They were hand-painted by a guy right in front of us. The detail is the best part! I don't know how to describe it so, I will just let the picture speak for itself.


I can't believe I haven't even talked about food yet! One of the benefits to honeymooning in Hawaii, more specifically Waikiki, is we had some inside information on where to go. Adam's aunt and uncle lived in Hawaii for many years. One place Adam's aunt and uncle recommended was Duke's. It is right on Waikiki beach, and was literally a few steps away from our hotel. The food here was so good! We ate here our first night, and then two more times throughout the week! :) I'm not kidding when I say it was good. We also went to Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville! It was good too, and the live entertainment was fun! There was a little coffee shop connected to the hotel. We spent a couple of mornings there. The balcony overlooked one of the Royal Hawaiian's courtyards.

Duke's Cheddar Burger

Adam's nachos at Margaritaville. They were huge!

Pretty self-explanatory...

The band stopped in the middle of their song to pose for a picture, without me asking! They were great!

There is so much more I could share from our Hawaiian Honeymoon, but I feel like I've written a novel already. I have to mention, however, that the weather in Hawaii was perfect. It truly is a paradise! I am so thankful for my amazing husband Adam, and the awesome honeymoon he planned. We had a great time and made memories that will last us a lifetime!

Our Wedding: Mr. and Mrs. Adam Greer

For those of you who actually read my blog, I would like to apologize. I have been a terrible blogger. Hopefully, I will get better. I'm working on it. I still have a lot of catching up to do, but I will get there.

I already blogged a little about our wedding. So, I won't go on anymore about that. I just thought I would share a picture from our wedding day.

Our wedding was on August 14, 2010 at The Spirit Ranch in Lubbock, Texas. The property is beautiful and our wedding was beautiful, as well.

We did the traditional thing and didn't see each other before the ceremony. So, all of our pictures were taken after the ceremony. Nowadays, many photographers prefer (some even require) couples to see each other before the ceremony for pictures. I was thankful we had a professional photographer (a family friend) who allowed us to do what we wanted. At the time, I didn't think I had a preference about it, but Adam did. He wanted to do it traditionally and not see each other before the ceremony. After, I was glad we did it that way. It was more special and exciting not seeing each other until I was walking down the aisle.

Okay, I know I said I wasn't going to talk anymore about the wedding, but I wanted to share a little about our picture experience. :)

Now introducing Mr. and Mrs. Adam T. Greer