hawaii

In honor of our two year anniversary (woot woot) we decided to celebrate with a trip to Hawaii!  We have been wanting to go just the two of us for a while, and decided that this year we were going to make it happen.  Dustin had the week off of school for fall break, and I asked for that week off from work back in May.  We got a good price on flights thanks to my mom's flight attendant benefits and found an amazing condo right on the beach on the north shore of Oahu.  What an incredible vacation - it felt like a second honeymoon!   So much fun hanging out with my best friend every day - beaching it up, exploring the island, relaxing, and eating a lot of ono-licious food.  It was hard to leave!

aloha hawaii!

day one:
We had arrived late Saturday night - we got our rental car (first time ever!), and checked in to a hotel in Waikiki.  The next morning we explored Waikiki by walking around the city.  Then we headed up to the north shore!  The drive was gorgeous, and along the way we stopped by the Valley of the Temples.  We checked in to our amazing beach front condo, grabbed some groceries and fish tacos and then took a dip in the ocean.  Also our condo had a smart TV so we enjoyed watching our fave shows on Netflix at night.

oh man those malasadas were ridiculous.  reminds me of the first time i tried a krispy kreme doughnut.

waikiki beach

photo bomb

valley of the temples

where sun and jin were married on lost!

day two:
Kailua
Boots & Kimos for brunch - omg the BEST banana pancakes with macadamia nut buttermilk syrup.  We hung out at Lanikai beach for the day then headed back up to the north shore.  We picked up Shrimp Shack for dinner - the first time I ever tried coconut shrimp! - and brought it back to our condo and ate it by the ocean.  We also tried spam musubi - my mom loves this stuff and kept telling me I had to try it in Hawaii cause it is big over there - we didn't get a pic but basically it is a slab of spam on top of a slab of sticky rice wrapped in seaweed.  I'm not a big fan of spam and it was kind of gross.

selfie 

view from our condo

day three:
We explored the beaches along the north shore!  First we went to Waimea Bay.  It was a beautiful beach but it's approaching their winter/surf season so the waves were huge and were crashing hard on the sand.  We swam for a while and while we were swimming, a huge wave came up and soaked our beach towels!  Luckily my bag with all of our other stuff didn't get wet lol.  The lifeguards wouldn't let anyone jump off the famous rock because the waves were making it dangerous.  Bummer but honestly I am kinda afraid of heights and jumping off of high things so I wasn't too upset about it.  Next we were hungry so we shared an acai bowl at a little surf shack (thanks lisa for the recommendation!).  We headed across the street to Shark's Cove to do some snorkeling.  We saw some cool fish, but it wasn't the best experience.  The water was super shallow, and there were some waves so if we weren't laying perfectly flat on the water we got slammed into rocks and coral!  We both got scraped up and I banged my knee on a rock pretty bad - it was sore for about a week after.  After that, we went across the street to Ted's Bakery for a slice of chocolate hapia (coconut) cream pie.  We watched the sunset at Sunset Beach and then spoiled ourselves with sushi for dinner in Haleiwa.

waimea bay

acai bowl

shark's cove

i made dustin buy me a pineapple drink on the beach. yeah it was overpriced and super touristy but i loved it anyway. 

sunset beach

we love sushi

day four:
We slept in, took a dip in the ocean and then drove to Haleiwa.  We had lunch at a cute little place called Grass Skirt Grill and then we went to the Dole Plantation.  We didn't pay to do the maze or the tour, we just wanted some dole whip!  After that we hung out at Haleiwa beach.  We walked out on the jetty and sat for a while just watching the surfers nearby.  And we saw a turtle!  On the way home we stopped at Giovanni's - another shrimp truck.

breakfast every morning on our lanai

those garlic fries were ono

dole plantation

i mastered the popular tourist pose

our turtle friend! 

loved driving around in our rental car!  thanks for being 25 babe!

day five:
Hanauma Bay - the best snorkeling of our trip.  We went out really far, past the shallow coral and saw a ton of cool fish, some creepy eels, and a sea turtle!  I really wanted to see a turtle and was so happy when we found one!  We swam with him for a while, I love watching them swim.  Next we headed to Pearl Harbor.  The USS Arizona was still closed but we took a tour of the submarine - the Bowfin - which was pretty cool.  After a while I started getting claustrophobic in there though!  We had cheeseburgers with pineapple on them for dinner and pina coladas.

hanauma bay

pearl harbor - uss bowfin submarine

day six:
laie temple and polynesian cultural center
The temple was so pretty.  I actually have a cousin serving her mission in the visitor's center there but she was out tracting when we were there so we missed her!  The PCC was really fun.  In the Tahiti village, we were part of a wedding ceremony where we renewed our marriage vows.  The luau at night was awesome - tons of food and fire dancers!  The night show was cool too but by that point I was pretty tired and kept falling asleep until the fire dancers at the end.

laie temple

polynesian cultural center

day seven:
our last day
Brunch at a local cafe - Papa Ole's.  Ginormous banana pancakes and an extreme omelette yummm.  It was raining a little but we went for a swim in the ocean anyway!  We had some time to kill before we had to be at the airport so we got a shave ice from Matsumoto's, and hung out at Sunset Beach for a while before heading to the airport.

aloha oe!