the hawaiian honeymoon: o'ahu arrival

            

               

           

            

          

Well, hello.
We've been busy.
Two and a half weeks ago, Evin and I got married!  I'm Mrs. Murphy now.  Well, I will be once I file all my paperwork with the government.  It's very exciting.
Three days after the wedding, we got on a plane and headed west.  We stopped in San Francisco for a hot second and then boarded a second plane, bound for Honolulu!  Our honeymoon began there, with Evin's uncle and his wife, Seamus and Tina, playing tour guide for us.  The first night, though tired, we stopped for a drink and a bite to eat at a restaurant in Waikiki before retiring to our hotel.  Early the next morning we were awake (that time difference really gets ya) and headed to Diamond Head State Park.  We hiked to the top, admired views of Hawaii's impossibly blue waters and the Honolulu skyline, and caught our breath.  I played with my tilt-shift lens there and love the results...unfortunately I didn't do much with it for the rest of the trip.  After returning to the bottom, we weaved around the coast to the east.  Evin and I drove in front so we could pull off the road wherever we wanted to.  We were pulling over a lot.  After a handful of lookouts, we stopped for lunch in Waimanalo at a little place called Sweet Home Waimanalo.  It just so happens that it's a place we'd seen on the Food Network once (I remembered because they had this special tofu burger that required about 100 steps to prepare it).  So, naturally, I tried that for lunch while we sat outdoors enjoying the breeze and view of O'ahu's insane mountains.  We walked up the street a bit to visit Tina's auntie's house and check out her garden full of Hawaiian plants.  Being a lover of flowers, you know I had a lot of questions!  I picked a pretty pink and yellow plumeria for my hair and we were on our way.  We stopped for a swim at Kailua beach, a beautiful spot with almost-white sand and more of that gem-like water.  After becoming sufficiently pruny, we dried off and drove up the mountain to stop at the Pali lookout for a fantastic (and windy) view of the windward side of the island.  Again, more photos of the impossibly steep and fluted and green mountainsides.  Finally, it was time for mai tais (which quickly became our drink of choice) and sunset back in Honolulu.  A very full first day.
More soon!