I have never been to Hawaii and of course I have always wanted to go...Hawaii is one of those places that everyone would like to visit and this year it was finally time to make that happen! Jase's younger brother Jordan decided to go spend a semester at BYU Hawaii and I'm so excited that he did so that we had an excuse to go there. We had talked about going on and off but then finally Jase's mom texted us one day and said "just booked our tickets to hawaii....you guys should come". SO of course I was ALL OVER THAT and texted Jase and said "Instead of going somewhere for our anniversary, let's stay here and go to hawaii in October?" His reply was"okay i'm down (:" YAY! I was so excited and immediately we booked our flights (I had to before he changed his mind). We knew we couldn't pass up an opportunity to go since Jase's family was going to be there and Jordan would be an awesome tour guide since he had been living there for a couple months now. I'm really glad we were able to make this trip happen. I really loved Hawaii....which I knew I probably would, but I mean... I REALLY LOVED HAWAII! It's beautiful there and if I could go live there for a year, I'd do it in a heartbeat. We'll definitely go visit again.
Janelle, the twins, Jase and I all flew out together from Vegas. We had a straight flight to Honolulu and I wasn't worried at all about the length but once we were on the flight for some reason it seemed like 8+ hours rather than the 6 hours. I guess I must have been a little excited. Everything went smoothly, we got our rental van, picked up some groceries, got to our beach house on the North Shore, and then we were locked out.... The lady had actually given us instructions to another rental, which we managed to straighten out, but then the code she gave us to get inside the house didn't work. We tried calling, emailing, texting, calling some more and NO ANSWER. We ended up hanging out by the pool for just over an hour before she called us back. She wasn't super apologetic about the situation, kinda disappointing. She just gave us the right code and sent us on our way. No "sorry" or anything. Whatever, we are in Hawaii...we can't dwell on that right? (;
Jordan came over that night, we chatted for a while but then of course we were pooped from traveling all day so we crashed that night.
The next day we got up and went to Papaoles for breakfast. Their french toast was made with sweet bread and it was delicious. Jase also got a more traditional Hawaiian breakfast plate but I have no idea what it was called. It was pretty tasty too if you're into the whole hamburger meat + egg and rice kind of thing. (I'll stick with my french toast). After that Janelle dropped us all off at the beach and then headed back into Honolulu to go pick up Todd and Kaden (they had to leave a day later due to football). We spent the next few hours at Pounders Beach where the name of the beach does not lie. They were some pretty decent sized waves that we were trying to body surf/boogie board on and when I wasn't pulling up my swimsuit to be sure I was covered, I was being thrown around in the water like a rag doll. BUT IT WAS A BLAST! We had a great time and got absolutely FRIED. We didn't even think to put sunscreen on and boy did we regret that the rest of the trip.
Once Janelle, Todd and Kaden got to the beach we hung out a little longer then Jordan and his roommate (his name is Jordan too but we will call him JT) said they wanted to take us on a hike. We drove ALL OVER the island searching for this hike....we were a little lost, but we ended up finding it. We were hiking to a waterfall called the Kalihi Ice Ponds. The waterfall was pretty awesome and you can jump off into the ponds but I don't know that I would recommend it. Jase jumped, slipped and LITERALLY almost hit a rock. It's a miracle he didn't. After that there was no way I was going to jump off the top...so I went down a bit and jumped from a safer spot. Jordan and JT, had to show off a bit of course and hiked up to a 40+ foot rock and jumped from there. JT couldn't just "jump" though, he had to do a gainer off. It was pretty impressive, I am not going to lie, but holy cow did my heart stop for those few seconds he was in the air.
After our hike they took us to a rope swing, but it was getting dark so the boys each did it once or twice and then we decided it'd be best if tried to come back during the day sometime.
We then headed back to the beach house, had dinner, hung out and then crashed again. That dang time difference will get ya over there. I swear I was ready for bed at 6pm every night.
The next day we got up and made our way to Friends of Malaekahana beach. Again we body surfed, boogie boarded, got our tan on (sunburn*) and just hung out. This beach was not quite as intense as the previous one. It was actually perfect for boogie boarding. We had a lot of fun! At the end we all had gotten out of the water, showered off and then all of a sudden I see something in the water and I point it out and everyone starts yellow "that's a turtle". So of course Janelle and I start charging towards the ocean, dive in and swim our little hearts out to go touch this HUGE turtle (I'm talking 3 or 4ft) and apparently that turtle swam faster than us and it was wayyyyyy out in the ocean by now. We were so bummed. I couldn't believe how close to shore it was, if we could have only swam a little quicker. *sigh*
Sharks Cove was our next stop and this was pretty dang amazing. We took turns snorkeling. The fish we saw were so dang cool. They are some beautiful creatures. I was having a blast until a saw a water snake which totally gave me the creeps, so I was out of there after that. It really was amazing and if you ever find yourself on Oahu, you should definitely check out Sharks Cove.
Next up, Turtle Beach. This made up for not being able to touch the turtle we saw earlier in the ocean. There were two big turtles just hanging out on the beach. One had been there since 11am and the other since 2pm (it was about 4pm at the time). The lady said they have about 19 turtles that will come up on shore in this area. I'm not sure what's going on in those turtles heads and why they just hang out there for hours and hours, but everyone was pretty impressed by them, including myself, so I am glad that they do hang out there. It was pretty awesome to see.
We spent the evening shopping in Haleiwa and I got my self a Haleiwa Acai Bowl. Only Janelle and I liked it...more for us, right?
The next day was rainy, apparently Hurricane Ana was headed our way. We thought a hike might be a good idea this morning and I'm not sure what we were thinking. We decided to do Crouching Lion and were told there was a shorter version that was a half mile....which means it was STRAIGHT UP the mountain. We started making our way up and this is where it all began.... The "trail" wasn't much of a trail, to be honest I am pretty positive we made our own "trail". Todd, Jase and Kaden all turned around and went back down but the twins, Jordan, Janelle and I all kept climbing up that mountain. We made it to spot where their weren't trees blocking the view and I'm not going to lie the view was pretty dang amazing. The hike definitely was sketchy (the twins literally deflected a big rock that was falling right towards Janelle and I) but it was worth it. The rest of the guys missed out!
Next we headed to Pipeline to watch the waves. I couldn't believe the size of them. I could have sat there for hours just watching those waves come in.
Next stop: Waimea cliff jumping. The twins and I were the only ones brave enough to make the jump (; everyone else watched from the beach. This was probably one of my favorite things we did! It was a lot of fun!
By this time we were all ready for dinner and we decided to go Seven Brothers. It's one of the local places that is pretty popular I guess. Their hamburgers and fries are dang good. I was soooo full when we left that place. It was delicious!!
Annie (my co-worker) was in Hawaii the same time we were and I had texted her to ask what I should get at Seven Brothers since she went to school in Hawaii and was familiar with it. She said they were going to go grocery shopping by Seven Brothers so maybe they would see us. And sure enough....the second we walked out of the door, there was Annie and Tim walking down the sidewalk. We sat and chatted to them for a while about what we had all done so far. I was glad we had ran into them!
Sunday we woke up for church and ended up meeting Tim and Annie at a local ward. It happened to be their primary program that week and it was so fun to see/hear the local kids. They all did a great job and as always it brought such a sweet spirit that day. Of course there were your few kids that make you laugh by the things they say or do. Wouldn't be a primary program without them! We drove by the temple afterwards to get some picture....we had planned to do baptisms for the dead with the whole family while we were there but unfortunately the availability for non-locals didn't work with our schedules. So pictures in front of the temple would have to due for our Hawaii temple experience.
Todd and Kaden had to get on their flight this day so they could make it back in time for football practice the next day, so after we went home and changed we headed to Honolulu. We stopped at the Dole Plantation on the way and got ourselves some pineapple and dole whip ice cream. YUM! After the plantation we attempted to stop at the swap meet. Today was the day that the hurricane was supposed to hit so we weren't sure if it'd be open or not. Unfortunately only about 5 booths were open so we just stayed for a second and then headed to Pearl Harbor. I can't even explain the feeling that I had while we were there. It gave me chills. What a crazy time in history. I can't imagine the devastation everyone was feeling 73 years ago.
After Pearl Harbor we stopped at Chili's for dinner then made our way to Wakiki to do some shoppings and see the beach. It was really fun to see the night life in Wakiki and experience that but I'm glad we stayed on North Shore, away from the city. That's how I pictured Hawaii whenever I would dream of going there.
The next day, it was time for the rest of us to head home. Of course we had to stop at the Dole Plantation again on the way to the airport for some fresh pineapple and ice cream. The flight home felt a lot quicker for me on the way back, which was nice. I definitely wasn't ready to head back home but we for sure made good use of our time while we were there. We squeezed in as much as we could and boy did we have a dang good time.
I can't wait until we get to go back someday and explore some more. Hawaii is a one beautiful place!
