Farewell Hawaii

Well, we started our last day in Hawaii by accidentally stepping on something sharp in the sand when we first got to the beach.  Poor Bade, he wasn’t able to comfortably play in the water the rest of the day.  But don’t worry, the day gets better…

After an unsuccessful last afternoon at the beach, we got ready for an evening at sea. We took a sunset fishing boat tour just off the coast of Waikiki and Honolulu. We caught a bunch of colorful, yet small fish that the boat captain cooked up for us.

There were around 20 people on the boat this evening, most of them were fishing, and Bade and I caught the most fish out of anyone! Go us!!

Best Oahu Hike – Koko Head

Fireworks, fire dancers, surfing and hiking, Oahu vacations are pretty awesome! The Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki launches fireworks every Friday night at 7:45, so we had dinner at the beach, watched the fireworks, then saw some street entertainment.

Surfing was great at the military beach, White Plains. The waves were long and consistent, the rentals were lax and affordable, and the boys wore themselves out catching waves for a few hours. Unfortunately they stayed so far out for the most part, that I wasn’t able to get a good shot of them on their boards.

Now, my favorite hike in Oahu was also the most tiring, Koko Head in Hawaii Kai. The hike is pretty much a straight shot up the side of the mountain following an old military supply train track. It starts with a mellow slope, but quickly steepens to the point where every step is going up 2 stair steps at once. Although this hike is tiring on your thighs and calves, the view is one of the best on the island.  You can look down the coast almost to Waikiki, over the hill and see Hanuama Bay, then behind to see up the East coast towards China man’s Hat. This is definitely a hike you want to do in the morning or evening.  Better yet, if you can catch sunrise or sunset, you will be in awe.

Mixing Work With Pleasure

In order to take this pseudo-spur-of-the-moment trip to Hawaii Bade and I had to bring some of our work with us.  Over the last few days we have done half days of work and half days of play.

We saw how ukuleles are made at Kamaka Ukulele and where pineapples are grown at the Dole Plantation.

We were also able to hike in the crater of a volcano to Diamond Head lookout.  This area was used by the military in WWII, but is now one of the most popular hikes on the island.  I’m surprised I have never done it before, but then again, the whole hike was exposed, so you have to go really early (7am clearly wasn’t early enough) to hike without being too hot :).

We spent some time on the West coast of Oahu, snorkeling at Makaha Beach and Ko’Olina Resort beaches.  Bade typically wears a rash guard while we snorkel so he only sunscreens his legs and neck, but he took if off for about 20 minutes to body board.  I just wear my swimsuit, so I make sure to screen everywhere. Apparently I must have touched Bade’s back after I screened me, and before he went body boarding…he now has a cute little wife-y hand print tan line :). What’s a vacation to Hawaii without at least 1 sunburn?

Beaches, Hammocks and Chance Encounters

Over the last 2 days, Bade and I have chilled at five beaches, been to four viewpoints, kicked three corals and only skipped one hike (woke up too late :( ), oh…and we ran into one of Bade’s friends randomly when we were leaving the grocery store.

Sunday we spent the afternoon at Hanauma Bay and saw a cute but mangy baby mongoose, lots of big fish, and no turtles :(.

Monday morning Bade and I got up early to enjoy the sunrise at Lanikai beach (hard to find, but great view of the sun rising between/next to two islands), then worked from our car for an hour, before hunting down breakfast.

Bade’s friend we didn’t know was on the island, was walking into the grocery store we were leaving (needed to make a sudden pit stop for the pregnant lady).  We decided to make a day out of our chance meeting, running into these legit beach bums… sleeping in a treehouse/shed in some guy’s yard, hitching rides around, no schedule or plans whatsoever.  We spent all day Monday with these 2 guys, snorkeling and diving through caves, lounging and playing games at the beach, and swinging in the trees.

We snorkeled at Shark’s Cove and found some hidden caves and underwater arches that we could swim through and in to.  The cave was really scary to go in because you just went into the darkness and hoped there was something on the other side.  Going out of the cave was awesome because on the way out everything was blue with black rock silhouettes. We saw a bunch of very large turtles at Haleiwa Beach.  We watched our two friends play spike ball at Turtle Bay Beach.  Then we ended the day at Mokuauia Beach where we could see Goat Island, and the boys did tricks on a rope swing we knew about from our last visit to Oahu.

Day 1 – Wasting No Time

After 2 flight delays, we finally arrived in Honolulu, HI at 10:38pm last night (over 6 hours later than we were suppose to). The second flight delay wasn’t told to us until we were in the air; our flight was going to land nearly 40 minutes later than it was suppose to, which meant we were going to get to the airport AFTER our car rental service had closed. We downloaded Uber for a long expensive taxi ride, and made it to my cousins and crashed around 4am our time.

This morning, not able to sleep in, we got up, had breakfast, and hitched a ride with my cousin to pick up our car rental. Then we immediately headed to the mountains to start our morning with a hike. We took a 2 mile hike to Manoa Falls. The falls were at the perfect incline so there wasn’t actually a free-fall portion, but the trickle along the rocks was really pretty, and the hike to the falls was lush and gorgeous, and a bit slippery at times.

We ran our trip-starter errands, which included getting some lunch and dinner supplies for the next 2 weeks at Costco, and some beach essentials at the grocery store, then we met up with my cousin and her husband at their house, and had lunch while their 1-year-old finished napping.

In the afternoon we all headed to Bellow’s beach, which is a private beach for the military. It was a little windier than normal, so there was some concern over jellyfish. Sure enough, talking with the lifeguards we found out that the wave-breaks were full of little jellies. A few weeks ago my uncle was out here and he got stung. These tiny little jellyfish have tentacles that can stretch around 2 feet, enough to have wrapped around my uncle’s arm, then around his whole back to sting him on both sides of his body. So us girls stayed and played on the beach, while the boys braved the waves for some body boarding.

We saw a few kids who got stung, and Bade and my cousin’s husband saw a few of these tiny blue jellies next to them when there were in the waves, but they never got stung themselves.

For dinner we had steak, shrimp and some fish tacos from a little shack, which were great. And finished with some pineapple shave ice dessert. This was a great way to start our second Hawaiian vacation.