Hawaii Vacation, Day 3!!: Wednesday, March 2nd

I'd say Day 3 was one of our favorite days that we were in Hawaii since we kept talking about it the rest of the trip. We woke up at 6:30 a.m. to shower then we ate breakfast and did our devotions on the balcony (again- remember the view- ahhhhhhhhhhh....) and left the resort at 8:30 a.m. to drive the 45 minutes to the town of Hawi (located at the tippy top of the Big Island) where Big Island Eco Adventures is. I will briefly mention that we learned about BIEA from catching 2 minutes of the TV show The Bachelor while channel surfing (which neither Jesse or I are proud of). Jesse said the date the couple was on looked like Hawaii so he looked it up online and discovered BIEA and we started to get excited about the possibility of zip lining over a rain forest in Hawaii! Our group of 8 (Ron, Deb, Bill, Bob, Kieth, Haley, Jesse, and I) along with our guides Adam and Bethany (AKA Sister B:) got on our helmets and harnesses and hopped in a crazy 6 wheel drive vehicle (the 4 of us riding up high on the way there were told to keep our helmets on!) at 10 a.m. and drove the 30 minutes to hike to our first zip line. Sister B picked a fresh guava from a tree on the way up and handed it to me- I guess 1 guava has 4 times as much vitamin C as 1 orange- and it was yummy!!

Some ducks we saw on our drive to the course.

Amazing ocean view on the way up.

Here's Jesse on the first zip line!

Jesse taking off!

Stopping to take a picture on our hike to the next zip line.

Enjoying a break between zip lines at the Mac Nut Hut, eating local snacks and snapping pictures in front of a beautiful water fall:)

The suspension bridge on the course- don't worry, our harnesses were hooked on to a line above- just in case!

The 8th and final zip line: this was the toughest because there was no platform at the beginning or end plus it was the longest and fastest!

There I am above the tree tops- AWESOME!!! Waterfall to the right, ocean to the left! Jesse got really good at coming in straight, bending his knees, and landing the right way. I did it the right way a few times but it may have been dumb luck;) Either way, Adam and Sister B eluded to us being the quickest learners in our group (yes, I'm bragging here:) I was never nervous the whole time; I thought the whole thing was super relaxing and was able to let my arms off the ropes and have fun with it the fastest. However, looking back at the pictures and videos we took, I realize how high up we were, etc. But at the time, I was relaxed and enjoying the amazing views!

We left BIEA at 2 p.m. and drove back to the resort, stopping along the way at Hapuna Beach to walk along the shore and enjoy the ocean since we hadn't been in the ocean yet! I found a cool piece of white coral that looked like a fish smiling on that beach (don't worry, it wasn't alive!)

Ahhhhhhhhh...

When we got back to the resort, we showered and then enjoyed a fun little happy hour in the resort's lounge that we were invited to by hotel management. We're still not sure why we were invited to that- either they invite everyone or it was because Jesse's a Hilton member (more likely reason). We got free Mai Tai's (I decided I do not like Mai Tai's:) and appetizers and then walked about a mile to the second set of shops in Waikoloa Village (bought Malorie a cute grass skirt and lei there:) then ate dinner at Macaroni Grill. Another awesome day!

On Wednesday, Corban and Malorie had fun with Grandma at Kids Gym and at home visiting with Grammy:) The kids were in such good hands while we were gone! Did I mention Corban had NO allergic reactions the whole time we were gone?!?!? God is good!!!!!!!!!!!