HAWAII

This was our first trip to Hawaii. We were supposed to leave Friday July 1st but we couldn’t catch a plane out. We were flying space A and all the flights were filled. We ended up being lucky enough to have someone get us one way tickets to Honolulu the next day. I had so much energy when we got there so we got the rental car and drove to our hotel room. The traffic wasn’t that wonderful. I didn’t realize Hawaii was so congested and had so many roads. The hotel was BEAUTIFUL! More than we had expected. We got unpacked and then headed off to dinner. I didn’t want to do anything too authentic on the first night so we walked to The Cheesecake Factory. It was delicious. There were soooo many people everywhere, and TONS of Japanese people. We both didn’t realize how packed Waikiki was in July.

Day 1 -July 3rd We ate breakfast at Eggs ‘n’ Things, it was AMAZING! I bought some coconut syrup cause it was sooo yummy. Then we went to Chinatown. Devin wasn’t too thrilled about the idea of going to Chinatown but I convinced him it would be fun. I had looked up online a good place to park that was relatively cheap well when we pulled in the garage was TINY. We could barely turn the corners in our long Toyota Camry. I tried a space but it was too narrow. Finally we found something. We wandered around Chinatown and really enjoyed the markets. There were fish everywhere of every species. There was pork and other meat chunks all over as well. It was interesting. I had looked up places to eat and found a place called Char Hung Suts with good reviews so we went and I ordered one of everything. It was a little too authentic. I thought I was going to be sick. We went back to the car after a couple hours and I went to pull out of the parking lot and accidentally rammed the car into the cement wall behind me. Not a great moment! We were both pretty ticked off but the damage wasn’t that bad.






After Chinatown we went to the Swap Meet at the stadium. It was only $1 to get in and it was HUGE! There were booths set up around the outside of the stadium that wrapped around the whole thing twice. It was crazy big. We found an ornament and a vase. Devin got a coconut. I was getting sunburnt so we decided to leave but it was pretty fun. For dinner we ate at Hula Grill and had the most beautiful view of the ocean. We ordered Ribs with a yummy pineapple mango marinade. They had this delicious dipping sauce for your bread too. We walked around a bit and found a guy who paints your name with all the cool little pictures so we stopped and had our name painted. It turned out great.






Day 2- July 4th We woke up early and drove to Kailua. We had a fantastic breakfast at Cinnamon’s. They had Red Velvet Pancakes with a white chocolate sauce. SOOO GOOD! We then rented kayaks and went from Kailua and headed out to Lanakai beach. It was beautiful out. We snorkeled when we got to Lanakai. I was surprisingly nervous to put my head under the water but I warmed up to it. I was done after an hour or so but Devin was way into it so I laid out and he snorkeled for a while longer. I started to feel my skin burn and knew I was in trouble. There was no shade and I only had a small towel to cover my shoulders. When we got back to Waikiki we were hurting SOOO bad from sunburns. We went swimming at the beach at our hotel and in the pools but decided to head back to the room. Our sunburns were way bad. We couldn’t touch each other, water made it hurt worse, aloe did nothing. It hurt to lay down it hurt to sit. Everything hurt! We went to the Ala Mona Mall to find out it was closing early because it was a holiday and there were fireworks across the street. We watched what we could from the car but Devin didn’t want to get stuck in the traffic so he didn’t stop.

Day 3- July 5th The next day we went to the ITR office to get tickets to all of the events that we had wanted to see. Post was pretty nice. I was impressed. After that we went to the Dole Plantation. It was a lot of fun. Devin did the Maui Divers Pearls thing where he opened up oysters and found pearls. He made me a ring and a necklace then I opened one up that had twins in it. It was pretty cool. They had this awesome maze where you have a little piece of paper and you are supposed to find 8 stations where you make a symbol off. We only found 5 and were hurting from the sun so we had to quit but it was an awesome maze. I would go back just to do that. The train ride was decent. There was a crazy long line which kinda sucked but it was fine. We enjoyed the best pineapple ice-cream with fresh pineapples on it. We went back to the room and napped then went back to the Ala Mona Mall. There were some beautiful views from the top floor of the mall. We went to California Pizza Kitchen then ended up buying Legos so we would have something to do since we were so sun burnt.

Day 4- July 6th The day was spent at the Seal Life Center. We initially wanted to swim with the dolphins but I am SOOO glad we didn’t. It was so commercialized that you get to spend like 2 minutes with the dolphins and it cost a ton of money. We are going to do it another time when it’s not so crowded and you get to spend more time with the dolphins. The Sea life center had a couple good shows but it was definitely somewhere we wouldn’t go back to. Sea World is much better. The drive to and from was beautiful. It was all on the coast. We stopped at the Hanama Bay Blowhole for a few pictures. It was gorgeous. Back at the hotel Devin took my pearls into the Exchange store where they had another Maui Divers Peal stand and he made them into earrings. They turned out beautiful.

Day 5- July 7th We left early and headed up north. We checked out BYU-Hawaii which was surprisingly small. I expected it to be much bigger. There weren’t very many food options either. I guess they have plans to expand which would be good. It was so small we were there for about 30 minutes. We went to the temple next. It was breathtaking. The visitor’s center was awesome. They had a video and a bunch of interactive stations. It was great for the public to learn more about the church and our temples. Next was the Polynesian Cultural Center. It was both of our favorite part of the whole trip. There was so much to see. It was so educational and entertaining. It was WELL worth the money we spent on it. We took a canoe ride to the different islands, tasted coconut bread, weaved some little fish, Devin climbed a coconut tree, we tasted poi, Devin learned how to make fire with sticks, we enjoyed a luau and then finished the day off with the show HA Breath of Life. It was super great.

Day 6- July 8th Pearl Harbor Day! We spent the morning looking at all of the memorials/monuments and walking through the museums. We both really enjoyed the Battleship Missouri. It was HUGE and they let you walk all over the thing. I was feeling especially crummy this day. Starting on the 1st I had begun my injections and I was having severe side effects. On the 2nd I started noticing bloating and nausea but then it increased to pain in my legs, trouble sleeping, migraines, cramping, and a couple other things that are gross. Through the trip everything was getting worse and the swelling was so bad it hurt to walk. While we were doing all of the peal harbor stuff I talked to my aunt and she said I should go to the ER because of our family history of blood clotting. So we left Pearl Harbor and headed to Tripler Army Hospital. I was there waiting from 1:20 until something like 7pm. It was ridiculous. They did an EKG ran blood work, did an ultrasound on my legs and ruled out blood clots. I gained 12 pounds in 4 days from water weight gain. NASTY! They said it was all side effects from the meds and if I could stand the pain I could stay on the meds. I wasn’t about to get off of them because we want a baby so bad so that wasn’t really an option. We decided we should leave in the morning though because the doc advised that I stay out of the sun, the heat, and off of my feet. All of which we couldn’t do while in Hawaii.

Day 7- July 9th We checked out of our hotel and went to Leonard’s Bakery one last time to enjoy their amazing Malasados. We went to the farmers market where unfortunately we couldn’t buy anything because it’s illegal to fly fruit out of Hawaii. We returned our rental car and headed to Hickam where we pretty close to the top of the list to fly out. It was wonderful that we got a flight out. We flew to California where we were lucky enough to spend some time with my friend Kristina, her two boys and her dad. I haven’t seen her in 2 ½ years. I’ve never met her boys so it was a lot of fun and kind of bittersweet. I hate living so far away from some of my friends. We caught a flight out of California and got home middle of the night on the 11th. It was nice to be home. I was able to get the swelling in my legs down pretty quickly and started feeling much better minus the two injections a day!
All in all it was a great trip.

I’m glad Devin and I were able to spend some time together before his upcoming deployment.

Im having a fun time trying to get my pictures up so ill just post a bunch on a seperate post.