Aloha!! As most of you know we took a trip to Hawaii this month to celebrate our 3rd anniversary!!! Wow, three years of being married to my amazing husband...and to know that there are many more years ahead is awesome!! I am so overwhelmed by God's goodness to me as I chose to wait for God to bring the right man...it may have taken longer than I wanted, but it was soooo worth the wait! Now, before I make you sick with my sappiness, here is an account of our time in beautiful Hawaii.
One reason we chose Hawaii as our destination was because Portland, Oregon, is one of the few locations that you can fly non-stop to Honolulu (which we thought would make it cheaper, but we were wrong) on Hawaiian Airlines. I often feel like flying these days has lost all of its luxury and glam as you get herded onto an over packed plane where you barely have room to breath! Not so with Hawaiian Airlines! The have put the glam and service back into flying and were constantly feeding us, giving us drinks, blankets, pillows and all while smiling and wearing colorful Hawaiian shirts and beautiful flowers in their hair!! Once we reached Honolulu we needed a cab ride to our hotel and we needed a cab that took credit card (which in our experiences before is not a problem). Well, apparently the only non-cash only "cab" available was a limousine!!! I was so giddy and felt like such a movie star riding in that thing. It was the first time I had ever been in one and my honey thought it was the first time for him also.
Here is a picture of our hotel, it was hard to get a proper picture because there are so many hotels and resorts crammed into this small space that everything was built straight up!
We stayed in a 4-star hotel that was across the street from the beach and was steps away from the beach walk. The beach walk was a lot like the Miracle Mile in Chicago for those of you who have been there...it was beautiful and completely lined with high-end shops and indoor-outdoor restaurants. That is something that I love about places that are sunny all the time is that they build most of their restaurants and malls to be open to the outdoors so that even when your inside you still feel outside!!
Our room with a very comfortable bed...we were shocked at how small our room was, but apparently that's the way hotels are in Hawaii. Apparently they assume that you are going to be outside most of the time and don't need a lot of fanciness in your hotel room (even if you did pay a premium for it!).
I was given this flower because it was our anniversary and it smelled so good! About two days after we had been in Hawaii I found out that married women are supposed to wear their flower behind their left ear and single (available) women wear them behind their right ear, signalling that they are open to guys pursuing them. Of course, I found this out when I shop lady saw me with my honey and questioned my regarding my flower being on the right side!! My honey made sure that we stopped, in the shop, and changed that flower to where it was supposed to be!!
We, unfortunately, had rainy weather most of the time we were there so we only went to the beach one day for about an hour...that was a bummer, but we made up for it by exploring the area and finding other entertaining things to do.
Here's my honey in a tree on the beach (the one time we got to go). The trees there are so beautiful and are great for climbing!
On one of our days we took a full-day tour of Oahu (the island we were staying on) and learned a lot of history and stopped at the particular beach where most of the real surfers go.
Here's another picture from the one time we went to the beach!
The first night we went to this Italian restaurant that was recommended to us by our concierge and boy, was it amazing!! I haven't had food that good in a while...I had to keep myself just going there every night instead of finding new places to eat!
One evening we went to this Luau that was indoors (due to the rain) and had traditional Hawaiian cuisine and watched a show that included hula dancing, fire dancing and warrior dancing. The show was really great but the food was disappointing considering how much we paid (by the way, Waikiki and Hawaii in general, is super expensive). Anyway, we learned some good history about the native Hawaiian people and their culture.
Here we are standing with one of the very muscular men who performed in the show! My honey was impressed with him and we learned that the hang loose sign is really used by native Hawaiians (not just surfers)!!
This is the bus that we rode in for our island tour...it was comfortable and dry!
This is a beautiful alcove that was created by a volcano crater that was partially washed away...there is such unusual beauty in Hawaii...it is amazing and looks a lot like what you see on TV!
One of our tour stops was at this replica of some temple and we both got to ring the "bell" or gong or something like that. I actually found a kitty cat hiding in the gift shop at this place...that was the highlight of this stop for me...besides the enormous Koi and beautiful geese.
Crouching Tiger rock...the locals tell a story of an ancient king who was banished by a conquering king and frozen as a stone tiger!
During our island tour, we stopped at this great little restaurant along the highway. Jason loved it because they raised their own shrimp behind the building and he said it was quite good. People (including locals) lined up to order and seemed to just keep coming.
Our tour took us to the Dole plantation where we had yummy pineapple ice cream!! It was delicious and really refreshing.
The whole time we were in Hawaii I wanted a lei, but you had to pay a high price for them, but I was determined not to leave without a real one. On the next to last day in Hawaii, I saw a fresh lei in our hotel hospitality room and the lady that worked there told me to take it because someone had left it...so there you go, I got my lei!! It smelled so good and was so beautiful...and free!
One of my favorite experiences from the trip was finding these little guys performing on the street one night while we were walking around. There was two brothers and then this little 7 year old girl who was singing "Someone Like You" by Adele...I was super impressed!! We stood there for awhile enjoying the amazing music they made...I loved it (live music, outside, is one of my favorite things)!
The Yard House was right by our hotel and it had amazing food and nearly 40 beers on tap (which excited my honey)! We actually did eat there twice, but the second time I was not feeling well so I'm glad that I got to enjoy it the first time around! We decided that now we can say we have a favorite restaurant in Waikiki since we went there twice...because if you can say you have a favorite restaurant somewhere then that means you are there often!!
Something that was crazy to us was all of the shooting ranges and gun clubs that were advertised along the street where we walked. It apparently is a big attraction to shoot a gun in Hawaii. We think its because most of the tourist in Hawaii are Asian and they probably don't get the opportunity to shoot very often!
One of the "perks" of staying in our hotel is that you could rent this Lotus for a day and be-bop around the island (for a price, of course)! We decided that a picture would suffice!
So, there you go, folks, our Hawaii adventure in a nutshell!! We had a great time just getting away and relaxing together even though it was dismal weather. One of my favorite things was going into this Hawaiian cookie ship and eating samples...it was a fund thing to do when it was raining and they tasted so good!!!
We love you all and hope to see you soon!
Amanda
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