The Grand Finale...

Our final stop on our Hawaiian islands tour was on the Big Island. Thinking back to my favorite activities during our trip, most of them took place on the Big Island. It was an island with plenty of activity, but it was also an island that made you feel like you were not overrun with tourists. Maybe it was the resort we stayed at, or maybe it was the time of year, but it was the perfect end to our vacation.

The helicopter tour was an amazing experience. If any of you have been following the volcanic events currently taking place in Hawaii, we were able to see the volcano that is currently active. Not much of the lava was visible from the surface, but we were able to see a small bit. Our helicopter tour took us from the fiery hot volcano to the lush, green waterfall side. It was one of those experiences, where if you are going to do it, pick an awesome location. Hawaii was the perfect location for my first helicopter ride. 

We also did a night dive/snorkel with manta rays. This was by far the coolest experience I have had in the water. We had some amazing experiences in the Maldives, but something about having a manta ray with a span of over 8 feet rub belly to belly with you is like no other experience.  Ryan has some amazing video of the experience, but I cannot for the life of me, figure out how to upload the videos and/or turn the videos into pictures in order to post. You all are just going to have to wait until I can get him to sit down, and upload them to the blog.

I think our trip to Hawaii was a great way for us to celebrate living back in America, and taking the opportunity to further explore our country.

If you want to view more pictures from our helicopter tour, and a few pictures from our other activities while on the Big Island, click on our Big Island, Hawaii photo album below.

The Big Island, Hawaii