Alright guys. I know some of you are anxiously awaiting the run down
of our Hawaii trip. It was a total blast. So here's the details
The trip actually started out kind of crappy. It seriously starts snowing like a freakin' blizzard in Ogden all the way down past Salt Lake City. We got up early and got the car packed up and everything, had a nice breakfast, and left for the airport thinking that we had plenty of time to spare. WRONG. Little did we know that we would only be able to go 35-45 mph on the freeway! We ended up getting to the airport about an hour before our flight was to leave. As we walked into the airport and saw the long ass line for check-in, I started feeling an overwhelming sense of doom. Anyway, to make a long story short, we ended up basically running our butts off trying to make sure we get to this plane on time, and when we get to the gate, everything looked normal. So we gave them our boarding pass along with everyone else and walked what felt like half a mile over to the gate where our plane was, only to find out that THAT plane was not on it's way to San Francisco. I can't remember now where it was on it's way to, but it wasn't our desired desitnation. The guy working on the plane said that OUR plane was still in LA. Great. Now we were really freaking out because Kaleb and I only had a 45 minuted lay over in San Fran before we were supposed to board our planeto Honolulu. Anyway, about 45 minutes later, we end up getting onto a different plane that takes us to San Francisco and we end up missing our connection flight by 7 FREAKIN MINUTES. They couldn't hold the damn plane (that 30 people needed to board) for freakin 10 minutes. No...that would have been too nice, and too easy. So we ended up having to wait for 3 and a half hours for the next flight going to Honolulu. Wedecided to go todinner with another couple on our flight. We actually had a really good time. They ened up being professors from the Eastern College of Utah, and what do you know, HE was the professor of Music. We actually ended up knowing a lot of the same people, and he let me listen to a cd of the musical that he just composed. It was very good. So at least the time was passed by in good company.
We finally ended up getting to our hotel at around 10:30 pm (which is 1:30 pm our time) and we decided we were beat and went to bed. Of course this also meant that I woke up WIDE AWAKE at like 5:30 am Honolulu time. Great. That basically ended up being our sleeping schedule for the whole trip. We'd go to bed sometime between 9:30-11:00, and get up between 5:30-6:30. It worked out well though as we had a lot of EARLY morning activites.
So our first real day in Hawaii we just wandered around and did whatever we wanted to. We went to breakfast in the morning, then went downstairs where we got offered $100 if we would go sit in this time share presentation. As we had no plans yet, and it was only around 9:00 in the morning, we just figured "what the heck?" and went for it. Yeah, that hour and a half time share presentation ended up becoming 5 hours long, AND we ended up BUYING. Which is ok since now we will ALWAYS have a fabulous vacation every year. So yay us. Anyway, after that we ended up going down to the Waikiki Market Place. It's an outdoor market place where you can get cheap (and expensive) souvineers, and there's a food court. We ended up at this little fast food sushi restaurant that had some of the BEST sushi we have ever had! Imagine totally filling up on sushi for less then $30.....and that's for TWO people. Very yummy. I miss the sushi already. So right next to this sushi shop is this Pearl Factory stand. Now, before I left for Hawaii I had already decided that I was going to go to one of these places and pick my oyster, and of course, was going to get a black pearl. So I start talking to the girl working the counter and find out that the black pearls are every 1 in 600. So my chances of getting one weren't fantastic. She's been working there for over a year, and once a week she buys an oyster and STILL hasn't gotten a black pearl. I did not, however, let this get me down. I enthusiastically chose my first oyster and out popped a HUGE, GORGEOUS white pearl. Pretty, but not what I was really after. So next they let Kaleb choose an oyster, and again, we got another white pearl, although this one wasn't near as nice as the one that was in my oyster. So we decided to just choose a nice setting and be done with it. But right as she was about to set my pearl into a nice pendant setting, I nearly screamed "WAIT! I have to pick ONE MORE!" She told me that that was ok, but I'd have to pay for that pearl. I didn't care. What was $13 more if I ended up with the pearl I wanted? So this time, Kaleb and I chose the oyster together. And what do you know. Out pops a gorgeous black pearl. It was funny because the girl at the counter kind of seemed a little peeved. She said to me "That's one less black pearl for me to get!" But she was funny about it, so it was ok. So I ended up with my black pearl in a very pretty white gold ring setting. Now, the girl working there was wearing the most gorgeous neckalce with a BLUE pearl in it. After seeing this, I REALLY started wanting a blue pearl, too. (selfish, I know) But we decided to leave since we'd just spent a good chunck of change, and still had our whole vacation left.
The next morning we woke up early, ate breakfast (which Kaleb later learned was a mistake) and went on our snorkeling advenutre to Turtle Cove. I guess a lot of tropical fish can show up around the cove. They've seen sting rays and eels as well as turtles and fishes. They basically just informed us that if we saw anything dangerous to just leave it alone, and it would leave us alone. We didn't end up seeeing anything like a sting ray though. Darn it. We DID however, make friends with a very friendly turtle. The turles are protected by the state of Hawaii so you aren't allowed to touch them, and ifyou got caught attempting to touch one, they'dyank you right out of the water.So it made me a little nervous when the sea turtle swam right up to me and was almost nose to nose with me. It was actually a really cool experience. It just kind of looked at me, waved, and then swam away. We saw a lot of cool tropical fish also. The sad news is, none of the pictures of the sea turtle came out. :( But here's a pretty good one of the fish.
Here's one word of caution to all. DO NOT EAT a three plate buffet breakfast about 40 minutes before going on a boat and going snorkeling. It WILL make you sick. Just ask Kaleb. He'll tell you all about it. Poor boy........
Anyway, that night we ended up going to the Polynesian Cultural Center to see the last of the presentations, attend the luau, and see the neat show they do at the end of the night. Basically the Cultural Center does these shows in straw looking "huts" for all of the islands that make up Polynesia. (Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, New Zealand. etc.) We only ended up seeing the shows for Tonga and New Zealand. And since Kaleb was camera happy, all I have of those shows are video clips. Well, I do have one pic. Sorry guys. But they were really neat. The luau was fun. We ended up meeting a couple from Canada, and Kaleb and the guy hit it off pretty well. They ended up talking and hanging out for almost an hour anfter the luau. The show was SPECTACULAR, as always. It basically features people from all of the different islands, in their cultural dress performing dances from the island. The best part of the show is the very end where there is a guy (I beleive from Tonga) who juggles fire sticks. He is SOOO good! We weren't allowed to take pictures during the show as it distracts the performers, but we again got some good video clips. Anyway, anyone ever going to Oahu MUST go here! It is the neatest place!
The next day we decided to rent a car and drive out to Pearl Harbor. The only thing that REALLY sucks about driving around Waikiki is that they literally have one way streets EVERYWHERE!!! It's so hard just trying to get across the freakin street! We probably would have had less stress if we'd just taken the tour bus like everyone else. Not to mention saved some money. But oh, well. You live, you learn.
Anyone going to Oahu should definitely take a moment (or two) and pay thier respects to the people who died that day in Pearl Harbor. They have a historic museum where you can see pictures, uniforms, and all kinds of paraphenalia from Pearl Harbor. They also show a video with footage from the day the attack occured. It's a very sobering experience. Finally, they take you out onto a Memorial that was built on top of the ship The Arizona. 415 men died on that ship, and their bodies are still inside of it today. Inside the memorial is a huge wall with all of the names of the men who died that day.
After visiting Pearl Harbor, we went over to the Flea Market. I guess it's basically a "Farmers Market" Hawaii style. We bought some yummy dried fruit, and Kaleb found his token chess set (he buys one on every vacation we go on). He was really looking for a wood carved chess set, with the chess peices being Tiki men, but we could never find anything like that. I hear they have chess sets like that on Maui though, so next year when we go we'll have to look there.
That night for dinner we went to a restuarant called the Top of Waikiki. It's a slowly revolving restaurant where by the time you are finished with you meal, you've seen all the way around the entire city. VERY good food here. We had a nice time.
Which brings me to our last day. This by far was my favorite activity we did (and also the only new one for me). We did the 6AM hike of Diamondhead. It was spectacular! The funniest part to me was, here are Kaleb and I, the two largest people on the hike, and we beat everyone (including the tour guide) to the top of the crater, and we beat everyone on the way back down. And we weren't even trying. You're at sea level in Hawaii so there is SO MUCH AIR. There was a man from Colorado at the top of Diamonhead when we got there that joked "when you get off the plane, you take one big breath, and you blow it out when you get back on to go home." That is so true! Anyway, my favorite things about the hike were....A) Our tour guide. His name is Joseph and he was very informative and entertaining. Just a really good guy. B) The View (see the pictures. Words can't describe) and C) There was an Asian lady at the very top doing yoga, and it was just so neat to watch her as the sun was rising over the ocean. It was so peaceful up there. I can't imagine being lucky enough to have the kind of life where every morning, you go hike beautiful Diamondhead, sit at the top and relax while doing yoga, and the climb back down to start your day. It was just amazing up there. If we ever end up in Oahu again (which I'm sure we will) this is absolutely something I would do again.
After the tour we just went back to our room, packed up everything, showered and got ready and checked out. (You have to check out of the hotel by noon, even though our shuttle wasn't coming to pick us up for the airport until 8pm that night). Luckily the bell hop will take your luggage for you to a secure area and keep it for you. So we wandered around some more and went to the zoo, got bored at which point I decided that it was fate that I go and try for that dang blue pearl. So we went back to the same little Pearl Factory stand we'd been to before and told Wayne (the owner) that we were going to pick ONE oyster, and that if it had a BLUE pearl in it, we were going to set it in the chopsticks pendant setting. If we got any other pearl, we were just going to buy it and leave. So of course, Kaleb and I decided to pick the oyster together again and we handed it over to him. He cracked it up and was fishing the pearl out when all of the sudden he starts jumping up and down and screaming "You got it! You got it!! Oh my gosh, you got it!!" At first I thought he was just teasing me, but low and behold, there was a gorgeous HUGE blue pearl right there. Totally nuts. Wayne told Kaleb that he needed to take me to Vegas because obviously I was "on fire!!!". Silly Wayne. So I ended up spending over $300 on jewelry while we were in Hawaii. Oh well. It must have been meant to be, right? Oh, and I found out that the blue pearls and 1 in every 400. So it's a rare pearl also.
Anyway, that's about it! We hung around for the rest of the day and then flew home. I still have the worst jet lag imaginable. Work today was hell. But the vacation was worth it. Until later........Mahalo and Aloha!