Flashback Friday: Two Weeks in Paradise (Hawaii)

In April of 2006 I was teaching at a year-round elementary school with a two week spring break.  One of my best teaching friends, Janelle, and I decided it would be the perfect opportunity to travel to Oahu, Hawaii.  Janelle's parents were living in the North Shore while her father was teaching at BYU Hawaii, so they hooked us up with pretty much everything...boarding, transportation, food, and even locals to show us around.  They also got us discounted tickets to the PCC and several different restaurants.  They were the only reason we were able to stay 2 weeks in Oahu on teacher's salaries!

I couldn't quite decide which pictures to show, so this post is going to be a little long.  I apologize in advance...

(MAKE SURE TO CLICK ON THE IMAGES TO ENLARGE)

The best deals on airfare that we could find were out of Vegas, so Janelle, Tammy, and I drove from Provo to Vegas then flew to Honolulu.  I still remember the exact instance we walked off the plane.  Coming from dry Utah, the humidity of Hawaii was almost overwhelming at first.  We quickly got used to it, but you'll see my hair was almost NEVER down after the airport!  Janelle's parents greeted us with gorgeous leis and big hugs.  You can totally tell where Janelle gets all her kindness!

Janelle's father served several years in the military, so our first couple nights we spent on the military base in Honolulu.  It really is another world on the base.  They even have there own discounted stores and everyone is so kind, open, and respectful towards each other.  I remember walking through the grocery story there and everyone saying hello.  It made me wonder why it couldn't be more like that off the base as well.  At least there, they all know they have something extremely important in common...they're all serving their country.

Our first tourist stop was Pearl Harbor.

I can't put into words the impressions felt there.  All I can say is that they've successfully created a beautiful place to remember those lost in the attack on Pearl Harbor.  It was amazing to catch glimpses of the sunken ships and walk atop USS Arizona.  I'm so grateful to those that have dedicated there lives and continue to do so in defense of our nation.

After spending a couple days down in Honolulu, we drove up to the North Shore where BYU Hawaii is located.  The Laie temple is absolutely breathtaking only a few feet from the ocean.  We walked along the gorgeous grounds and visited with the sister missionaries in the visitor's center.  They gave us beautiful leis to wear for the rest of the day.  I love how no matter where you are in the world, if you enter the temple grounds, you can feel the spirit, and it always feels the same...comfort and peace.

Janelle's dad introduced us to one of his students, David, who periodically spent time with us over the course of the two weeks that we were visiting.  He was from China and VERY funny.  He ended up showing us around the island several times and literally made us laugh the entire time we were together.  One of the first places he took us to was Matsimoto's Shaved Ice.  It was to die for!  They put ice cream at the bottom of the shaved ice and you can get incredible and exotic flavors.  We ended up going there a couple times throughout our stay.  David took us out to Turtle Bay and snorkeling at some really cool tide pools after getting shaved ice.  As you can tell, it rained a lot while we were visiting.  It was at the tail end of Hawaii's rainy season, so the first week it pretty much just rained, flooded, etc and then the clouds parted and gave us gorgeous weather for the second week.  It was actually fun to have the extremes of both weathers...nothing like dancing in warm puddles and singing in the rain!

The next day we ventured out in a downpour on a hike to Waimea Falls.  I guess no other tourists wanted to be out in the rain, because we literally say NO ONE on the trail.  It was so much fun just acting like kids in the rain!  Waimea Falls was beautiful, although I'm sure it is prettier without all the rain creating muddy runoff, but we stilled loved it.

Janelle's parents got us killer discounted tickets for the PCC, so we ended up spending two days there.  The Polynesian Cultural Center is a huge in and out door living museum.  Almost all of the workers are BYU students from different Polynesian islands around the Pacific.  The proceeds go to scholarships and help in paying for their schooling.

It is a pretty amazing operation.  You can have guided tours around the facilities where there are several different villages created.  Each island has it's own village where all sorts of interesting facts are shown about each of their unique cultures.  You can learn how to make crafts, build, dance, and sing all specific to that island culture.  It's pretty fascinating and I'm SO glad we had a couple days to spend there.  It's pretty big and we wanted to do everything!

In the evenings the PCC puts on a huge luau dinner and show.  The food was incredible, even though I don't like being able to recognize what animal I'm eating, let alone see the entirety of it laying roasted on the table in front of me!  The show was amazing, with such talented dancing and singing from the different islands.  They gave us gorgeous leis and flowers for our hair to match.

Throughout the day there are a couple parades as well along the river that cuts through the different villages.  Each island is represented and dances on their floats as they pass by.  It was all incredibly beautiful and I'm so glad we were able to spend so much time there!

The next day was a dedicated beach day.

Tammy went scuba diving for the first half of the day, so Janelle and I thought it was a perfect day to lay out at Sunset beach and watch the surfers along pipeline.  Tammy met up with us after scuba diving and we were able to see one of the most breathtaking views of a Hawaiian sunset ever.  There's definitely a good reason they call it sunset beach!

The next day David met up with us again, bringing a couple of his friends from BYU Hawaii.  They took us all over the island to a bunch of local hideaway spots; great tide pools, geysers, shrimp trucks, etc.  We had so much fun with them and loved being shown the different sides of the island that tourists don't necessarily get to see.

The next day we spent at Waikiki.  The weather was gorgeous so we did lots of swimming, laying out, shopping, surfing, etc.  It was pretty packed with tourists, but was a lot of fun to people watch...especially all the surfers!

One of my favorite adventures we had while in Oahu was going on a whale and dolphin safari and snorkeling trip.  They had a guarantee to see whales or you get a free voucher to do another tour.  We didn't see any whales in the morning and since we were leaving in a couple days, they let us stay on the catamaran for the second tour of the day.  It was GORGEOUS and we saw a bunch of whales and dolphin on the second tour.  The captain even let us sail the boat while we were out to sea for a bit.  The snorkeling was great but I definitely should have used more sunscreen!

After our sailing adventure all day we spent the late afternoon evening snorkeling at Hanauma Bay.  We were pretty exhausted after being in the sun all day, so we only stayed there a couple hours.

One of our last adventures we took was a film and studio tour.  I can't remember all the details, but they took us out to the areas that Jurassic Park, LOST, Pearl Harbor, 50 First Dates, and several other films and TV shows were filmed.  It was pretty fun and absolutely stunning to see the gorgeous landscape as the back drop.  I have to admit I was a little nervous a raptor was going to jump out and get me a few times...the curse of having a too active imagination!

On our last night, Janelle's parents took us to a nice dinner on the military base in Honolulu next to the airport.  We received our fourth and final lei, stuffed our luggage full of chocolate covered macadamia nuts, and gave them all hugs goodbye.  It was such a great trip!!