Courtesy of United Devin and I took a weeklong vacation to Oahu in April of 2008. We had been flying a lot for work and caught a series of bad flights: delays, cancellations and lost baggage; all fairly common occurrences. (In the four years that I have been consistently flying my baggage has been lost three times, and I once had to spend an extra night in Cleveland due to my flight being canceled with nothing else available to be rebooked on). To make up for all our inconveniences United gave us travel vouchers. I had always wanted to go to Hawaii and with a practically free flight I thought why not!
We drank complimentary Mai Tais on our way to paradise and when we finally landed took a shuttle bus into Waikiki. Our hotel was on the very edge, which later ended up being a pain in the ass with all the walking we had to do, but was really nice and affordable. The first thing we did was drop off our luggage, change into our bathing suits, and run down to the beach (how can you do anything else when you’re in Hawaii!)
Our view into the city of Honolulu
Since our room had a kitchenette we walked to the nearest ABC store (if you thought Starbucks in New York was bad, you can’t go five feet in Oahu without hitting an ABC store) and bought some stuff for the rest of the week. Our first night was pretty mellow especially because we were feeling a little jet lagged, but we made complete use out of our first full day. We explored the more touristy destinations on Waikiki, the shops and restaurants. Out of all the places we checked out, the international market place was my favorite; it’s not one store in particular but a series of carts with all the trinkets imaginable. Frequenting Mexico has made me very fond of bartering, and this was the area for that; you see a necklace you like at one stand you better bet the next one has it and for fifty cents less. So by the end of the day I walked out with souvenirs for everyone, and a few things for myself (let’s face it, it’s not really better to give then receive!) I even discovered my favorite thing: pick-a-pearl.
Every other stand has oysters in a bucket that you can open up and “pick” the pearl inside, but the beauty of it is, before you pick it you can choose a raffle ticket for a discount; the highest that I ever picked was 60% off and I walked away with a HUGE black pearl for $7. According to the lady helping me, ”it was the largest one she’d ever seen” and she offered to buy it off me, but I held onto it as well as four others I picked; taking them all home swearing that I would design my own necklace (to this day, 3 years later, the pearls are still sitting in a bag).
We spent the next few days lounging at the beach, sipping on daiquiris, and working on our tans; but eventually needed a change in scenery, so we rented a car and drove up through the pineapple farms into North Shore. Our first stop was at Waimea Falls so we could hike to a “big waterfall”; it ended up being tiny and was pretty disappointing. The park itself was really pretty though, it had tons of flowers and tropical plants.
the “huge” waterfall we hiked to
The whole time we were in Hawaii Devin and I wanted to see sea turtles and next we got our chance; we went to Laniakea Beach, where sea turtles just bask in the sun all afternoon. There is an agency ( Save the Sea Turtles International) that comes and sets up shop around the turtle roping him off to protect him. Leave it to the U.S. to regulate sea turtles on the beach, but we got a few pictures.
Our first sea turtle encounter at Laniakea Beach
Afterwards we went snorkeling at Shark’s Cove. The water was so clear, and the fish were so vibrant; the whole scene was so peaceful that I had to shake it up a bit. I was standing on the rocks looking for urchins and anemones when a huge wave came over the barrier and pushed me down. It was so powerful that it dragged me along the bottom of the sea floor, scratching my body with all the sharp rocks, and leaving me breathless as I struggled to get up. Devin just sat back and watched the whole thing happen, I think he may have even caught it on camera. I was yelling at him to take my picture right before I was pummeled by the wave; the underwater camera is still sitting at home, never developed.
Next we stopped to watch a local surf competition. The waves were huge and these surfers got out there and rode them like they were nothing; Devin even ventured to jump in. I opted to just watch, still licking my wounds from earlier and too intrigued with the “plastic bag man” nearby. This guy was nude walking the beach, darker than any white man I’ve ever seen, with so many wrinkles in places they shouldn’t be, that I couldn’t help but stare. (We gave him the nickname of plastic bag because that’s literally what his skin looked like). We completed our circle by driving back to Waikiki through the East side, passing all the shrimp trucks.
We weren’t very hungry because we had just stopped at the Turtle Bay resort to eat some appetizers and have some cocktails down on the beach (the restaurant from the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall). But after passing ten shrimp trucks we decided we couldn’t come to Oahu and not do this. So we stopped and split a plate. It was delicious and seriously worth stopping for. The rest of our drive was very scenic down the coastline with the sun setting in the backdrop.
Another great sunset we saw was at our luau. Every Hawaiian vacation must include a luau, and so ours did. If you’ve ever been on one, they are typically all the same; if you have not: you get laid with plumerias, make a few crafts and eat a huge roasted pig. I am a firm believer of not wanting to see what I’m about to eat in a somewhat animal like form; I know the meat we eat is at one time a living, breathing animal, but I don’t want to see it on display before I eat it. Needless to say, I had a hard time eating all the food. The luau was a lot of fun but nothing crazy to rave about.
Part of the Ritual performed at the luau
Dinner yum…
The panoramic views from the Diamond Head Crater were though. The next day we started our journey to climb it. It really was a journey, we walked from our hotel to the base of the crater- over four miles, and were exhausted before we even began the hike. While cars were passing us on their way up to the welcome center we were still climbing the steep incline of the asphalt. The hike itself was pretty easy, all uphill but only .8 miles each way. Writing this now after my Angel’s Landing experience, an incline gain of 580 ft is nothing. The hardest part was when we had to climb the two sets of stairs, 175 steps total. I was pretty winded by the time we got into the top, but the views were absolutely worth it. I wish I had more pictures to share, but sometime between when we reached the top and when we got back to the hotel we lost our camera.
taking a breather after climbing 99 steps
The last picture taken before we lost our camera- Devin is exhausted
Devin remembers the cab driver (yeah we were so exhausted from the hike that we were not about to walk another 4 miles back) telling us to make sure we had our camera before we left. He obviously saw it somewhere we didn’t; it wasn’t until we were ready to go on a dinner cruise that I realized our camera was nowhere to be found. Luckily we had run out of room on our memory card so we bought another; we have some pictures from our vacation, but so many were lost. I wish I had known about these sites when we lost our camera: “Camera Found” and “I Found Your Camera”; someone may have been nice enough to post it, but we were shit out of luck.
We spent our last night on the dinner cruise. We watched the sunset over the island and took in the breathtaking views from the balcony of the ship. It was a perfect evening, complete with crab legs and vanilla ice cream (two of my favorite things). It was a real classy event, so naturally I had to trash it up a bit…. as a souvenir I took the crab cracker and little fork. Terrible I know- way too old to be stealing silverware from restaurants, but these ones were adorable and I knew I would get good use out of them at home. As part of my justification I thought about my camera that had been taken hours earlier and not turned in (I would call that stealing even though it wasn’t intentional)
Our flight home wasn’t until the evening so we had planned to finish up our souvenir shopping and lounge on the beach for our last day. I had to convince Devin to go to this huge shop which was out-of-the-way instead of the places right down the street, what a mistake that was! On the airplane, at the hotel, and in all the tour books this souvenir shop was mentioned; they even had a free shuttle to transport everyone around- so I thought it must be legit. Well after our shuttle finally picked us up at the hotel (30 minutes later than it was supposed to) and we finished picking up everyone else (another 30 minutes) our driver got in an accident. He full on hit another car as they were stopped at the light and we all had to get off and wait an hour to get picked up. If we weren’t in the middle of nowhere we would have headed back, but we were stuck waiting.
The shop was huge and had tons of stuff, but in all honesty it was stuff we could buy anywhere. Devin was so pissed and at this point so was I. It was our last day there and this was supposed to be a quick hour trip, not an all day extravaganza. By the time we returned home with the macadamia nuts and coffee it was time to pack up our stuff and head to the airport.
Our trip was so much fun and we did tons of things while we were there. I would recommend that everyone travel to Hawaii at one point in their lives; as for which island, until I go to all of them I can’t give a favorite. Hopefully in a few years that won’t be the case.
Peace & Love
xoxo, andrea
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