My Hawaii Photo Journal...

Get ready for the longest post of my life, don't worry there are PLENTY of pics ;)

I can't believe how fast the time flew by in Hawaii, and I LOVED being on "island time." Even just driving down the two lane highway never became dull or boring for the beauty that surrounded me was just breathtaking. We definitely made time for some adventure in addition to the relaxing, as I had the chance to go out in the ocean on a waverunner over some pretty large swells! It was SO much fun, and I don't know if I can ever take one out on a lake again for anything else will probably be too boring. :)

Thanks to some new friends that I met through my awesome friend and roommate, Josh who was also in Hawaii for the wedding, I learned how to surf tandem and I can't even tell you how much more I fell in love with surfing after that. Usually I head down to San-O (old mans) with my dad but the waves usually end up being a bit bigger than I'm comfortable with so I kind of just do my best to get through the break and then float around to catch my breath... then I try a wave that's too big for me! This time though, the waves were nice and small and with Rush's paddling we were catching almost every wave we tried. It was AMAZING. Rush and Brandee were so much fun to hang out with, so if they end up reading this I just have to say thanks again you both for the fun times!

This is the beach we were at, well it's to the left of the beach we were surfing..


At one point we went to Matsumoto's for the best shaved ice ever... and don't even try to compare it to a snow cone, this guy comes without that ice crunchiness and has ice cream on the bottom.


Not to mention the gazillion different flavors you can try...


I got a large, I don't know what I was thinking!!


On another day we were hanging out at Waimea Bay and we could see some whales off in the distance just spoutin' about..


And of course one of the stops in Oahu had to be at Pearl Harbor. We toured the memorial to the USS Arizona, and the site was just incredible. Piecing together the history of what happened here along with my travels to Normandy's D-day beaches and the remnants of the blitz in London just made the world feel so absurdly small.










This is Jack, Dan's nephew who was one of the ring bearers in the wedding. He was so captivated by the boat ride, it was precious.



Here is the memorial above the Arizona that you can visit...



And part of the Arizona as she lays.







It's strange to see it resting so peacefully. The movie they show you before heading out to the memorial site is all actual footage of the harbor being bombed and an explanation of the times. One second you are watching Pearl Harbor explode, and then next you walk out into a bright and sunny day for a leisurely boat ride over to the same exact location. Kind of wierd.


On another day I headed over to Pipeline to watch the bodyboarding competition they had going on and the waves were absolutely breathtaking. I have never seen anything closer to a perfect wave! I have a lot of learning as to what those look like though :) Every once in awhile there were a couple HUGE sets coming in... I think while we were there it was something ridiculous for them and they had no swimming signs posted everywhere. Since they had the competition going on there was of course some serious glass that I felt a little jealous of. And then I remembered what it might feel like to carry that sucker around and then I was really happy with my lovely Canon G9.

That's me :)

And one of my loves, the ocean...




Once I had my fix on the ocean and watched a bit of the competition, part of my vacation I just spent exploring around the northshore a bit. Beautiful hikes and scenery were everywhere.




































Waimea Falls


And "ohhhh the roosters"... Annie had said that before we left but I had no idea that they practically own the island, they are everywhere! And their cockadoodle doo business was just all over the place. This one posed quite nicely for me, I think he thought I might feed him or something...


Cool bird...


Pretty beach...


And cool convalescent home...

Tilt



Wow. Oahu has to be one of my favorite places now, and I can't wait for the day that I can come back. It was really hard to get back on the plane and return to what southern California calls a winter. One of the really cool things though is that I've had two people say something to the effect of "you're so tan!" I never stand out much in summer around here with what I can pull off as a tan, so now that it's winter I finally have a chance! Thanks to Gabriel Ryan and my friend Peter for making my week.

That was a long post, hope you stuck through it okay! I just really wanted to remember and document the time I had there for nostalgia's sake. Hope you are enjoying your surroundings too!