Aloha Hawaii

Ever since going to Maui 3 1/2 years ago for our honeymoon, Nathan and I have wanted to return to Hawaii, and after all our city traveling to San Francisco, New York and Las Vegas, I was ready for a relaxing tropical vacation, so earlier this month Nathan and I booked a trip to Oahu. My sister Summer has been living there for a year, so it was a great way to visit family while vacationing. We stayed at the Hotel Renew in Waikiki which was a nice quaint and chic newly remodeled hotel.

We arrived Sunday evening and went out and walked around Waikiki. The next day we layed out on the beach. It was so blue and pretty, but it was HOT. The water was very refreshing.

For lunch that day we walked up to a local hole-in-the-wall for lunch called Rainbow Drive-In and ate some summer steak and rice and then laid out for a while longer. Now, when Nathan and I got to Hawaii we were pretty tan seeing as we spent two weekends in Vegas and laid by our pool quite often, so we figured we didn't need a high SPF sunblock so we bought SPF 4. Boy did we get sunburned, and on the first day of our trip too.

After getting burned, we went and got a refreshing snack frozen yogurt and then went to a near by movie theater to see Inception, which is an amazing movie.

We thought this was funny. This was a seat in the theater, only your view of the screen is completely obstructed by a wall-- who would sit there?!

The next day Summer and Darrell came down and picked us up to go to Pearl Harbor. Our scheduled time to go out to the Arizona wasn't until 1:15 which was 2 hours away, so we went to a local mall to do some shopping. Nathan bought himself a bunch of T&C t-shirts, which is a surf brand he used to wear in elementary school, but now they only sell the brand in Hawaii, so he was pretty "stoked" about that.

Pearl Harbor was neat. I loved the movie and WWII stuff always intrigues me so it was pretty amazing, and sad, to see the sunken battleships.

Summer couldn't find Hawaii on the map...look under her foot...only Summer...

Going out to the USS Arizona

After Pearl Harbor we went to a nearby beach and talked and enjoyed the sights.

This is Summer and Darrell's puppy Poalima (Poa for short)

Me and my baby.

Summer's Family

Poa

That night we went to the Cheesecake Factory. It was super crowded so we sat in the bar. Nathan and I ordered our favorite Chicken Madeira and Red Velvet Cheesecake.

The next day Summer wanted to take us to a popular beach to swim with the turtles and along the way we did some sight seeing. Some of it intentional, some unintentional because we got a little lost along the way. We went up to Nuuanu Pali lookout where it was SO windy! My skirt kept blowing up around my waist-- good thing I had on a bathing suit. But you get a really great view of the island.

While driving to the beach, we saw the set for the 4th Pirates of the Caribbean and the Black Pearl which was pretty cool.

And we saw China Man's Hat

Finally, after a 45 minute detour we arrived. I never thought I would snorkel because I am seriously terrified of seeing a shark, but I am glad I did. It took some time getting used to the breathing, but once I got the hang of it, we swam through the coral and rocks and saw some tropical fish and other weird sea creatures.

This beach was also extra special because there are tons of turtles. They just swim amongst the people without a care, and if you get in their way they will just bump right into you and knock you over. They even sneak up on you and scare you. Walking around, you cannot tell if it is a turtle or a rock. They were so sweet.

I had a situation with my mascara and Summer helped me with that.

After the turtles we went down to the North Shore for some shaved ice at Matsumotos. You could tell it was a popular place with the locals and tourists alike.

We then went to Koalina Beach to watch the sunset. It was a perfect paradise-like cove. While Nathan and Darrell talked in the water, Summer and I occupied ourselves by taking pictures.

For dinner we went back to Rainbow Drive-In.

We flew out the next day, but we had enough time to enjoy the beach before we left. Summer and Darrell came down to hang out and then drove us to the airport. It was a quick trip. We wish we could have stayed longer, but we are glad we were able to make the trip out.