Hawaii in a nut shell

So, I apologize immensely for completely and utterly slacking on my blog posts every day!! It just seemed silly to spend that much time in the morning writing a post when I'd rather be out enjoying Hawaii. And by the time night crawled around, I was more than tired and a only had enough energy left in me to check facebook and reply to messages. But I will fill you in now on all on our adventures!

Wednesday the tenth - We spent the first half of the day on the beach. Gnorman, (My travel Gnome, in case you didn't meet him from my Vegas posts) tagged along and managed to get a hot date with Barbie! They shared a beach towel for a bit and soaked up some sun together. Meanwhile, me and Kelsie found a puffer fish! We scooped him up in a bucket and took a few pictures. I even yelled BOO! at him, but he didn't get scared and didn't want to puff for us, so we let him go. We wandered down the main strip and checked out some other hotels and markets, and then we stumbled across the Ala Mohana mall. Neither of us were in a shopping mood though so we just browsed for a bit then took the bus home. It was one of those awesome accordion buses!! I have never been on one of those! We sat right in the middle in the accordion section =] That night was also the Senor Frogs party. Most bars allow 18 plus, so we could still go to all the bars and clubs, we just couldn't drink. Which was fine by us! We met a couple guys who were in the military and stationed in Hawaii so we talked to them for a while and then we all went and hung out in the foam pit for a while, which was SO fun! If you've never been to a foam party then I highly suggest you add it to your to do list!!

Thursday the eleventh - Most of this day we spent on the beach, until I got a little rosy on my shoulders and chest. I guess that's what happens when you fall asleep in the sun. We spent the rest of the evening doing some shopping and watching the street performers.

Friday the twelfth - This was the day we went surfing!!! =D I absolutely, totally and completely am in love with surfing!!! I could do this every single day of my life!!! It's a very painful sport. We went to an area that wasn't very deep because it was surrounded by a reef. It was a great spot to learn to surf, because the reef made perfect waves and the shallow water kept them simple, great for learning, but inside the reef, right below the shallow water was jagged volcano rock, covering the ocean floor so when you fell, your knees and ankles scraped up against it and cut you up like no tomorrow. And paddling back out after riding the wave in was a lot of effort and tough on the muscles right behind your shoulders unless you are used to laying on a board and paddling through the water against the waves. But even with all that, surfing was more than worth it.

Saturday the thirteenth - We did some more shopping and a bit of time on the beach, but that evening was that fun part. We went on a pub crawl to five different bars in Waikiki. Again, we were still underage so we couldn't drink but we still had fun. When we first got there we met two kids from Alaska who were visiting Hawaii for a bit, and later on we met two more military boys named Matt and Dakota stationed in Hawaii. We spent the rest of the crawl with them, they were a lot of fun and danced stupid with us and took crazy pictures and all in all made it a good time, by the time we got to the second last bar though me and Kelsie were tired and that bar sucked so we sat outside till the group went to the next bar, but by that time we had lost Matt and Dakota, so we just called it a night and took off early. But it was still a fun time.

Sunday the fourteenth - Tuesday, we walked down to Senor Frogs. It's a fun little restaurant that every once in a while they turn into a bar for the night and throw a party, this is what we attended on Wednesday night, but the first time we went there we were in the gift shop and we talked to the cashier (Corey) and asked him what there was to do in Waikiki during the day, because we were sick of walking up and down the strip already by the second day. He said well actually, mostly you'll what to get out of Waikiki. We told him we didn't have a vehicle and weren't familiar with anything around the island. That's when he told us about Your Way Adventures. He did day tours where you payed 150 for a full day of whatever you wanted to do. And Sunday was the day we booked him for. So he took us up to North Shore, away from the big touristy areas. We drove around and looked at all the really pretty, uncrowded beaches and saw some HUGE waves! The kind that the pro surfers ride. One of the beaches was were the Pipe Masters competition takes place. Then he took us up to the volcano and we hiked up a bit of that to a pretty little waterfall site. Me and Kels went in and took some pictures with his water proof camera. Right as we were about to start the hike back down my flip flop broke so I walked down most of the way bare foot which was fine cause it was mostly just mud but then we got closer to the bottom and the mud stopped and the shale like rocks began. This is where Kelsie started piggy backing me. Good thing she has leg muscles like a champ! We learned that there is not a single snake on the Hawaiian islands which baffles me, but what they do have, and this we found out when they ran across the path in front of us is wild roosters!!!
After the hike we went to a look out point closer to the top of the volcano that over looked all of Waikiki Beach. t was a really nice view. Then Corey drove us to the local swap meet, which was like a farmers market. I bought some fresh Hawaiian fruit. Most of it I had never tried before but it was all pretty good! Then we went for lunch and on the way stopped at the Dole plantation which was pretty boring. We burned to a crisp waiting for our food in the outside restaurant. After that we went to turtle bay, where the sea turtles like to crawl up onto the beach and soak up some sun, there were five of them there that day. They are SO huge, but super cute =] We tried to snorkel at that beach but the waves were too big and just thrashed you against the rocks and stirred up the water so we headed down a bit more and found Shark's Cove. No sharks but the area was surrounded by a high reef so the waves didn't come in and the cove was very calm and filled with life! We saw lots of cool fish and some crabs and sea urchins and lots of really pretty coral. It's awesome seeing things from that point of view. After that we headed back home. The drive back was really pretty. The north side of the island gets most of the rain so the vegetation is really thick up there and it's just like a jungle of tropical plants. That side of the island is also where like a zillion movies are filmed like Forgetting Sarah Marshal, 50 First Dates, Lost and Jurassic Park, just to name a few. All in all that day was my favorite. And again, WELL worth the money.

Monday the fifteenth -This was Kelsie's birthday. We spent it at the Polynesian center which was really cool. It was like a huge place made up of different villages each representing one of the Polynesian islands. They did lots of demonstrations of how they used to live and one guy climbed a coconut tree and pick, husked, cracked strained and cleaned out a coconut shell. Really cool. We learned how to do the hula and the fast hip shake dance and we road a traditional canoe. They ended it off with a luau and dance entertainment while you ate and then a show after wards called Ha Breath Of Life which was AWESOME!! They did traditional dances throughout and fire dances where they would literally dance IN the flames of the fire. And lots of cool tricks with fire. Really cool.

Tuesday was our last day. We had a ride on the Screamer booked, which is like a roller coaster boat in the water but it got cancelled so we spent the day doing some last minute shopping. Our plane ride was at 830. Our seats were in the middle at the VERY back of the airplane, and we sat beside another military guy. He was also 20, (same as all the other military guys we met). He was a lot of fun and made the 7 and a half hour plane ride go by fast. He was going home for a funeral, but said we were the best way to get his mind off of it. By far one of the most enjoyable plane ride I have been on yet. We landed in Dallas Texas and had a two hour layover, which I slept 99 percent of. Then our 4 hour ride back to Calgary,which I also slept through. Kyle (Kelsie's boyfriend) and our friend Jesse picked us up at the airport and then made us spend another couple hours in the Cross Iron Mills mall. Cruel if you ask me, all we wanted to do was go home. By this time it was about 530 pm and Wednesday. I slept again then entire way from Calgary to home.

The trip was awesome and I can see myself living there someday, but I was definitely ready to be home =]