Well, we arrived in Hawaii on a Monday afternoon and spent the rest of the day settling in at my sister's house and catching up. My sister is a GREAT cook, it's always a treat to have her cook for you. It was nice and relaxing and helped us recover from the long plane ride.
Tuesday - We went to Waikiki in the morning and did the touristy thing... posing for silly pictures, buying souvenirs, eating shave ice.
The trees were pretty neat looking there, so Doug took advantage of a photo op.
We were walking down Ala Moana Blvd in Waikiki when this guy sticks a bird on my shoulder. He was charging $10 for a picture, but told us afterward. We didn't have any cash on us.
This picture cracks me up every time I look at it! Doug really thought that the bird was going to bite off his ear and the homeless looking man holding our camera was going to run off any second.
Doug LOVES shave ice and jumps at ANY opportunity to eat some.
I just like turning my tongue different colors!
After walking around Waikiki for several hours, we decided to hike Diamond Head, this huge old volcanic crater that has a great view of the island. It was really windy, but a lot of fun!
Wednesday evening, we went a a "fancy pants" place called Roy's. I had swordfish. It was awesome! I didn't take pictures because it was TOO fancy. Seriously, the waitress put the napkin on my lap for me.
Wednesday - Seriously the best part of my day was waking up to this picture below. Doug is always an early riser, but he claims that all children annoy him. Bekah's two boys were up and about getting ready for school and Doug was reading them a story. He actually... had a smile on his face...
We hiked Maunawili Falls Thursday morning. I already blogged about that here. Here are a couple pictures that I didn't post before.
This is what happens when Doug holds the camera for 30 seconds of our hike.
Doug forgot his walking stick at the waterfall by accident, so he made another one (it was WAY cooler) out of a fallen piece of bamboo. Everyone commented on it on our way back.
After our hike, we randomly starting driving to try to find a place to eat. After running into TWO construction zones, we happened upon a place right on the beach called Buzz's. It had yummy crab sandwiches and there were blowfish hanging from the ceiling.
See!
We walked across the street to Kailua Beach Park and walked the beach for until the evening.
Thursday - Doug went into work for a while and I lazed around the house. We tried the whole find a beach by just driving toward the ocean again and failed horribly. We ended up in some ghetto neighborhood and needed to call my sister at work for directions. Luckily, she was able to lead us here...
I played in the sand and read a little while Doug read a lot. It was very relaxing!
Friday - I've blogged about Doug's salt water aquarium here. While we were in Hawaii, he wanted to see some of the fishy life up close and personal. He forked out $$$ to go on two scuba diving excursions. We are not scuba certified, but they gave us a little class on how to get by and were able to take a supervised dive. Doug has a history of some serious seasickness, so he made sure to take some non-drowsy Dramamine, but unfortunately it was not enough. We got all suited up by the time we were to our dive point he was too sick to even get off the boat. I went ahead a went because we were paying so much to go and Doug had to sit on the rocking boat for several hours puking while we were on our dives. Needless to say it was NOT a good experience for him. Don't mention it if you talk to him.
Pre-boat - All geared up and ready to go! He was just being goofy at this point... he wasn't actually sick yet.
Saturday night, we went to the Paradise Cove Luau. It was a lot of fun! He got to throw spears, get our faces painted, watch a great show, and eat some yummy food!
The whole tribal face tattoo thing was Doug's idea. I was a lot of fun!
Saturday - We went to Lanikai Beach and hung out with Bekah's family for the morning.
Kate then joined Bekah and I at the mall where we all got mani/pedis and went shopping. Bekah bought me an AMAZING purse and some awesome red shoes. She knows I'm a cheap skate, so she spoils me. ...I don't mind one bit!
This is the day after my bad sunburn. My skin is so red and swollen! When he went to do the mani/pedi at the mall. They did a pomegranate scrub on the legs before my sunburn had shown up. OUCH! They did this foot scrub thing that tickled so much, I couldn't stop laughing. I'm not really cut out for this fancy stuff, but it sure was fun!
Sunday - My sister and her family took us to breakfast at Turtle Bay Resort. It was SUPER nice and the food was amazing. The boys did a little Easter Egg Hunt afterward.
I found this color filter feature on my camera. Doug is colorblind and only sees the color yellow. I call this picture, "Dougy Vision"
It was breezy, but you could feel the heat radiating off of my skin!
After breakfast at Turtle Bay, we went to Shark's Cove, which is a beach nearby that is surrounded by sharp lava rocks. Fish get washed inside the cove and can't get back out again. We saw some pretty neat creatures. It helped Doug feel a little better after the scuba diving fiasco.
Monday - Monday morning, we hiked another falls near Waikiki called Moana Falls. Doug and I are LOST fans and were really excited to see part of the set near our hike. We actually just saw the scene a couple episodes ago where Whitman locks Kate and Sawyer in the cages again. It was so awesome to see it in Hawaii and then see it on TV a few weeks later!
Taking a picture in front of Moana Falls. It's over 100 feet tall!
...and people say everything is bigger in Texas. Have they been to Hawaii??
Here's the LOST set that we saw a few episodes ago.
After hiking the falls and stalking some LOST sites, we drove up o the North Shore to spend the rest of the day at the Polynesian Cultural Center. We got to make kissing fish and headbands. There were tons of things to do, but unfortunately we couldn't get to everything. We ended the night with an awesome show by the students of BYU-Hawaii. It's one of the biggest attractions on the island!
The picture I didn't post before... :)
Final Scene of the show at Polynesian Cultural Center
Tuesday - We had a flight to catch in the early afternoon, so Doug and I had a lazy morning and met my sister for lunch. Doug went to go visit Jon, Bekah's husband at work, and Bekah and I went shopping! We picked up lei's for my whole class and I walked around Target with 25 leis around my neck. It's always a good time when I get to hang out with my sister.
We flew back home Tuesday afternoon and arrived in Dulles Wednesday morning.
Here is a picture of my class with their lei's.
Hawaii was awesome! I hope to be able to return again soon!
ALOHA!
