Sunday, March 14, 2010

Hawaii

So, we have been back from Hawaii for about a week now and I must say that I am dying to go back. This Oregon weather is just not cutting it for me. It is so cold and rainy. Although our weather in Hawaii wasn't perfect, it sure beat this yuckiness. The first 3 days in Hawaii, the weather was perfect. After the tsunami scare (yes I can be one of the few to say that I lived through a tsunami), the weather was pretty windy and cloudy at times. It even sprinkled on us a few times. But, I'm not complaining.
The first 2 days, we layed out on Waikiki Beach and enjoyed walking what I will refer to as "the strip". I don't know that the official name of the street is, but it reminds me of the strip in Vegas. It is the waterfront street right on Waikiki Beach where there are lots of stores to shop in. Day 3 we got a wake up call at 5 am from my dad who advised us that Hawaii would be experiencing a tsumami that day due to the earthquake in Chile. I naturally freaked out and questioned whether we should use our rental car to retreat to higher ground. We were staying at a hotel only 1 block from the beach. Chris went and spoke with the hotel staff and after eating breakfast at 6 am, we decided that we should be pretty safe on the 34th floor. For the remainder of the day, we experienced tsunami sirens and kept our eyes glued to the news. Luckily, the tsunami was nothing to get excited about and we were able to resume our vacation as planned. Unfortunately, we pretty much missed a whole day of sun coooped up in our hotel room.
A few highlights of our trip include driving over to the North Shore, enjoying a luau at the Polynesian Cultural Center, visiting Pearl Harbor, snorkeling with a huge sea turtle, and hiking Diamond Head in addition to enjoying some time together. This was our first time to Oahu and it seemed that we were pretty busy the entire vacation. I was actually pretty exhausted when I got home and then had to rush and throw a baby shower for my sis the next day! (We'll cover that in another post). I included a few pictures to just give you a taste of our vacation. I will probably post more to facebook because I get less frustrated uploading pics there than I do to this site. I am not sure how to delete pics here. The first pic is offcenter and the 4th pic is not the one I inteded to upload as it is blurry. I also have a video I want to post but it is sideways and I don't know how to turn it. Oh well. Anyway, enjoy!





We hiked all the way to the top which I believe was .8 miles one way. Not too shabby!


View from the top of Diamond Head. Absolutely gorgeous.


Stupid picture that I didn't mean to upload. Blurry pic of Chris and me at the top of Diamond Head.




I had to get one stereotypical Asian picture in. All of the Japanese tourists literally posed like this in every picture!



On our way back down. Don't worry, most of the hike was pretty uneven.




















Trying out the bunks on the USS Missouri








Arizona Memorial









Chris and me at the Polynesian Cultural Center










Nuuanu Pali Lookout which was sooooo windy but an awesome view











North Shore. Pretty chilly that day