Spring Break: Hawaii

This year for spring break, since Amy is a senior, we went on a special trip to Oahu, Hawaii. We left on Friday, March 15, and on our way to the airport, our tire blew up. We called a tow truck and put on the spare, and though we were worried we'd miss our flight, we made it in time. When we got to the Honolulu airport, Mom and Amy got fresh plumeria leis. Then we got our rental car, a convertible, and drove to Turtle Bay Resort on the North Shore. We swam in the hotel pool and relaxed that night.

The next day, we had breakfast at the hotel. Unfortunately, they closed down the delicious buffet for the month, so we couldn't eat there. That morning, we explored a lot of the North Shore beaches. They have huge waves, so usually we just dipped our feet in rather than completely submerging.

For lunch, we ate at a pizza place called Spaghettini's. The slices were gigantic:

 We also stopped at a beach to see the sea turtles, or honu, that swim ashore. Their names were Isabel and Olivia:

After that, we decided to stop for some shave ice:

 And we ended our day with a stunning sunset seen from our hotel balcony:

On Sunday, we walked around the Laie temple before church started.

We attended sacrament meeting and then visited a few more beaches.

I don't know why, I just really like this picture:

On Monday, we went on a catamaran to go whale watching. The guys who took us out were named Don and Kahleo, and we saw several whales, though none from very close up. We were hoping to see a breaching whale (one that is jumping out of the water), but we saw a lot of flukes (their tails right before they dive down deep) instead. It was still really cool. We also saw a huge group of dolphins that came swimming and jumping close to the boat. We saw a seaturtle in the water as well. Here are Josh, Mom, and Dad on the catamaran:

 And Amy and Josh on the netted part of the boat:

Here are some pictures of the whales we saw (taken by a guy we met on the boat who had a really nice camera and sent these to us:)

After whale watching, we went to a couple more beaches and then hiked to a waterfall in Waimea Park. We got to swim in the pool underneath the waterfall, which was cold but felt refreshing.

Amy at a beach:



We saw another gorgeous sunset that night, after buying fresh pineapple on the side of the road and swimming in the hotel pool:

 

 

On Tuesday, while Mom and Dad went to the temple, Josh and Amy stayed in the hotel for the morning and swam at the pool. The hot tub was painful because of sunburned arms and legs. At noon, we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center and saw the village of Samoa, where a guy climbed a coconut tree and made fire with two sticks. He was a funny guy: he shredded a coconut and fed it to chickens, then said "this is how you make coconut chicken." Then we saw Tonga, which involved lots of drumming.

 

Eating lunch at PCC:

Waterfall at PCC:

 

Dad and Amy took a break in the afternoon to go to Sunset Beach, then came back to have the luau together. We ate delicious pork, ribs, chicken, rice, and lots more. After dinner, we went to Ha: The Breath of Life, a show put on by the PCC. It involved a lot of dancing and fire twirling, which was pretty cool.

 

 

On Wednesday, we visited Pearl Harbor in the morning. We saw some museums, watched a short video about the history, and then rode a boat out to the USS Arizona Memorial. After that, we had lunch in a mall, then drove to Hanauma Bay to snorkel. The water was pretty shallow, so we got cut on the reefs a bit, but we saw a lot of fish and two baby honu! We didn't have an underwater camera, but I found a picture on Google because I think honu are so cute:





Josh especially had a great time snorkeling and would have stayed there all day if he could have. After Hanauma Bay, we went to Waikiki Beach, which was warm and had calm waves. It was nice to swim in. Then we shopped at Hilo Hattie's and bought LOTS of souvenirs. We then tried to find somewhere to eat dinner, but our GPS kept taking us to different places, like an oil change place instead of the restaurant we wanted. We even considered a restaurant called Cafe Duck Butt, but we eventually settled on Wendy's and Jamba Juice after an hour of searching.

On Thursday, we swam in the pool, then checked out of our room.
Here are the boys on our balcony with their PCC leis on:

We also figured out why Hawaii is called the "rainbow state":



We left our suitcases with the hotel while we went to a few more beaches. Unfortunately, the tide was extremely high and the lifeguards wouldn't let anyone swim in the water. We just dipped our feet and watched the waves and surfers. Then we ate a great lunch at Cholo's Mexican Food, returned to the hotel, showered, and went to the airport. We had a redeye flight from Maui to Denver, and we hardly got any sleep so we're exhausted today. It was hard to leave Hawaii after such a relaxing and wonderful vacation, but it's also nice to be back home in Laramie. We had a great time!:)