Day 3, Pearl Harbor and Waikiki beachin'

 

 I forgot that on Sunday I had hoped to make it to Pearl Harbor.

It is only 15 minutes away from the airport so I

 thought it would be perfect to head straight there after landing.

I tried getting tickets online but they were all gone.

Pearl Harbor is free but you still have to have a ticket to get in.

I guess the ones online you have to reserve like 4 months in advance.

Who knew? Even 2 months prior apparently isn't enough time.

They only have a certain amount of walk in tickets per day and I guess those go fast.

So low and behold when we got there around 1pm, they were out of tickets for the day.

They said our best bet was to get there first thing in the morning

 to ensure we could get in.

 

We decided Tuesday morning we would head there as early as we could.

They open at 7, bleh. We left our hotel at 8 and hoped for good traffic.

Not possible in Honolulu.

The worst highway, traffic, and construction reside there.

We got there at 9 and Casey dropped me off while he parked.

The crowds were unreal and I got in a looooong line for tickets

with my fingers crossed there would be 2 left for us.

By the time I got to the front I could see the stack of tickets in the mans

hand and had a sigh of relief!

The only down side, they were for the noon tour.

 Now we had 3 hours to kill.

 

We went back to the car and decided to eat brunch at a restaurant

the valet guy at the hotel recommended.

It was just down the street from Pearl Harbor.

It was called Anna Millers.

It had a Denny's, Village Inn feel to it. But much better!

By the amount of food on our table you can see we were torn on choices

from the menu.

We each got our own omelet then shared the special of the day,

banana macadamia nut pancakes.

Somehow we were still hungry enough for some pie!

They had 30 homemade flavors to choose from.

I love pie so choosing was very difficult.

Since we were in Hawaii I chose the baked coconut custard pie.

Casey got the peanut butter, chocolate cream.

 

 

After brunch we still had about an hour and a half till our tour.

We checked out the harbor. Casey found a mini battleship he could hold:)

We also walked around the museum then sat in a nice

shaded area with a lovely breeze and people watched.

Seriously one of my favorite things to do!

We noticed a TON of pregnant ladies. Like far along pregnant ladies.

And lots and lots of families with little kids.

And it wasn't just at pearl harbor, I am talking everywhere we went we saw this.

Who takes their family of 3 and under to Hawaii????

Doesn't seem very relaxing to me but whatev.

Oh, and Tevas. Lots and lots of tevas.

 



 12 o'clock finally came around.

We watched a 40 minute film then got on the boats to take you to the memorial.

 



 

It really was crazy to think that you are standing on top of a huge battleship

that serves as a tomb for thousands of men that were stuck inside.

It was neat and special and makes you appreciate those that sacrifice their lives

for our country.

After Pearl Harbor I was excited to hang out on the beach at our hotel.

We rented the 2 chairs and umbrella for a few hours.

The beach was nice but not nearly as nice as the North Shore.

You kind of get spoiled there.

Don't get me wrong it was still fabulous!

 Another little tour of the backside of our hotel.

You can see a sign to the right that says Shorebird.

That is the restaurant I was talking about earlier.

If you go in and keep walking straight-ish

 you would run into the swimming pool.



 

A view of the other 6 hotels that line the Waikiki beach front.

 

walking on a little bridge or pier out into the water.

 

the view from the end of the walk way looking at our hotel.

When the sun started to set we went in and ate at the Shore Birds buffet
dinner. This was REALLY fun! For dinner you order your meat. It
comes out raw then you cook it on ginormous grills yourself!



 

We ordered steaks then quickly added pineapple to the grill and

buttered garlic bread.

 

The dinner comes with the salad buffet.

It is some good eating!

 

And of course we ended the night in the hot tub.

It quickly became our end of the night routine:)

 

 

Hawaii, day 2

 

As far as our schedule went, I had nothing.

I knew what I wanted to go do and see but nothing was lined out.

Casey is such an easy travel partner because he could have truly

 cared less about what we did.

Sunday night we talked about what we could/wanted to do.

We both wanted to do the Polynesian Cultural Center so we

went to the activities desk at our hotel to book our tickets.

After talking with the guy who was super nice we somehow

within 10 minutes had our whole week lined out!

He was a local and had great advice and tips on what to do.

It was a stress reliever to know what was ahead of us each day and

knew that we would get it all in without missing something!

 

Monday was lined out to be our North Shore exploration day.

We left our hotel about 9am.

It was a 30 minute drive until we came upon the Dole pineapple plantation!

We bought tickets and hopped on the pineapple express.

It was a beautiful day and the clouds were unreal.

 

It's funny because I guess I didn't really know how a pineapple grew.

I thought these baby pineapples were cute.

We walked around the humongous gift shop then got our pineapple whip!



Our next stop was Giovannis shrimp truck for lunch!

This took us a little bit to find.

Our phone maps stunk and were confusing.

Poor Casey, he was trying so hard to find the shrimp van

 and he doesn't even like shrimp.

Finally, in the horizon I saw the sign. We found it!

 

I ordered the shrimp scampi.

It was finger licking yuuuuummy.

 

 

Casey wandered down the field and found a philly cheese steak truck.

 

He said it was the best he's had.

And I was proud of him,

 he did actually taste my shrimp to get the whole experience:)

 Next, I took Casey on a tour of BYU campus.

I went to school there almost 12 years ago with my sister.

Pulling up brought back so many emotions!

Honestly, it hasn't changed a bit.

The Hale we lived in.

 

 

 Our room was up the stairs and to the right.

I couldn't see our room because they had the door locked

leading into the hallway because it was a male/female shared dorm hall.



 

The congregating room where we would watch tv.

 

 and where we would email our family and friends.

This was back in the day before I phones and I pads!

 

The cafeteria where we ate breakfast, lunch and dinner:)

 

This is the beach we would walk to everyday.

It is gated off now so I was sad I couldn't go down and see where I spent

most of my time that summer.

And once again the clouds were breath taking that day!

 

I could hardly pull Casey away from the tour to get going to the beach:)

First we went into Foodland to stock up on water bottles and treats

for the rest of the week.

Then we drove to Sunset beach.

This guy was chopping away at coconuts with a machete

and selling them for $5.

We never bought any coconut juice, I have never like the store bought

stuff but maybe I should have tried the authentic juice. 

I have video of it but it's not loading.

He was going crazy fast and I don't know how he didn't loose a finger.

"Another day at the office" was what he said to us.

 

 

And here we are at what I now call my happy place.

AWE, I couldn't get enough of that beach.

Perfect weather, perfect company, perfect scenery.

 It was sublime!

The waves in Hawaii aren't like the ones in California.

They don't roll in. They suck you out then spit you back to shore.

And they are strong! It takes all of your strength to keep standing when the

water is pulling back into the ocean.

The water temp was perfect and we spent about an hour just swimming and playing.

 



 

Enjoying everything in the name of Hawaii.

Even our choice of food flavors:)

 

After a couple of hours at Sunset we drove a little down the road to the

Pipeline beach. I didn't take any pictures, boo.

The pipeline wave isn't big this time of year so it just seemed like another beach.

I had heard about an amazing Mexican restaurant called Cholo's in Hale'iwa.

I was excited to try it out. Ya, it was really good.

Then we went across the street for some Matsumoto's shaved ice!!

 

We enjoined the hour drive back "home" then went hot tubing to end the night.

It was a full first day but of course got us excited for the next day!

 



We went to Hawaii! Day 1

 

 

For our 10 year anniversary we celebrated with a week in Hawaii!

To say it was awesome is an understatement.

This trip will be tough to top.

We started planning way in advance for it.

Like 8 months in advance.

It was so far in the future that it was kind of tucked back in my mind.

When the week before we left actually came it didn't seem real!

I was a mad woman trying to get all the laundry done, clean the house, back our bags.

And of course 2 days before we left Lindi came down with a fever.

I was kind of freaking out because of her last episode with a high fever

and a trip to the ER and no answers.

I took her to the doctor to find out that it was an ear infection.

I silently shouted hooray that that's all it was and I didn't have to play

the guessing game on her sickness.

Sad, I know.

But the next day rolled around and she seemed way worse.

She had a super sad voice and cry that sounded all broken up and scratchy.

A super runny noise and cough...plus her fever was still there.

Just to make sure and calm my fears I took her back into twilight hours.

Our flight was at 8am the next morning and I still had a ton to do.

The doctor reassured me she would be fine.

She had a cold virus on top of her ear infection and it would just take time.

 

I was never worried about our kids care while we were gone.

Marcie, my mom, Casey's mom and sister were all lined out to watch them.

 Sunday morning rolled around and we left bright and early for the airport.

I was trying sooo hard to leave my guilt and worry behind.

This was the longest we have ever left home without our children.

And with a super sick baby, I was dying!!

But of course once we got on the plane I was getting really excited!

 

These pictures were cracking us up!

We are not the best at selfies!

Casey hates getting his pictures taken.

Trying to get him to smile.

 

Awe, a little better:)

We flew on Hawaiian Air which is the way to go!

It is the only airline that still offers complementary meals.

We were served breakfast.

And that was our first taste of aloha for a whole week.

Love me some Hawaiian food!



Getting ready to land on Oahu!!

 

 We arrived at 11:30 am.

We gained lots of time because Hawaii is 3 hours behind AZ time.

We picked up our rental for the week.

It was a cute car. A Chrysler 200.

Makes me wish I could have a small car to zip around in.

 

 We then drove into Waikiki to our hotel.

Deciding on where to stay was hard!

I really wanted to stay on the North Shore.

I love it there and it feels more like paradise.

But the only hotel on the North Shore is Turtle Bay and it is $$$

I looked into renting a beach house/condo but I didn't

 want to end up in a sketchy place, either.

Waikiki is crowded but well known and a popular place to stay.

Plus I figured there would be lots of places to eat,

 get late night ice cream or whatever.

So I started looking up places to stay and that was a hard decision, too!

Finally after reading lots of reviews, asking around I decided on the Outrigger Reef!

There are 7 hotels that are beach front in Waikiki and ours

 was the last one on the west end.

When we pulled up I knew it was a great place!

 

Past the pool you keep walking and this is the entrance to the beach.

To the left is really fun, yummy restaurant called the Shore Bird.

Marcie had told me about this place when she went on her honeymoon.

I had it on our check list of places to eat and low and behold it was

apart of our hotel and I didn't even know it!

 

We were starving so we decided to go in and eat.

It was awesome dining beach side with no windows and the breeze blowing in.

I wish the picture wasn't so glared.

We then walked around the shopping strip of Waikiki for a bit.

It kind of reminded me of Vegas..

Lot's of shopping and LOTS of Asians!!

Holy cow, I didn't know China was that close to Hawaii.

We had to start the trip with some coconut, macadamia nut chocolates.

These things are GOOD!

When you buy 3 bags you get a free gift.

That carrying bag. Ha!

And we ate those 3 bags, GONE!

I wish we had ABC stores in AZ!

And this is us walking and exploring our surroundings.

 

 

We were bushed because of traveling all day and the time change

 so we called it quits and went to bed at 8!

But gear up for LOTS more pictures.

I might have to take this one day at a time.