Hawaii

My mom and I had fabulous trip to Hawaii. Our main purpose in going was for my cousin Coleman’s wedding, but we arrived early and left late to enjoy Hawaii. We arrived on Monday July 12 and left Tuesday July 20. We stayed at a condo in Waikiki Beach to be near everything and everybody and rented a car so that we could go wherever on the island that we wanted to.

Our first day there we laid out at the condo pool and then went grocery shopping. Tuesday, we were going to go snorkeling at Hanauma Bay, but it ended up being closed on Tuesdays. We had even gotten up early to avoid the lines and everything! We ended up going back to the condo and going to the North Shore Beach instead. We ended up in between Hale’iwa and Waimea Bay. Afterwards, we ate a great little Mexican place called Cholo’s.

Wednesday we went back to Hanauma and went snorkeling. Snorkeling is weird/fun/scary. Sometimes the coral seems so close to you that you feel like you might get scratched or gashed or whatever. Luckily, no such harm came upon us but it was still trippy. We saw TONS of cool fish though, including Humuhumunukunukuapua’a.

Most of my extended family arrived on Wednesday night or Thursday morning…that’s when we saw them anyway. My cousin Brittany and her husband Eric, their son Kai, daughter Dylan, and brand new baby Audrey Mae (my late nanny’s namesake) were there doing pictures for the wedding…just as she did for mine. My aunt Kelly and her two kids, Isabella and Ethan, and my cousins Brooke and Ian were also there. Obviously my cousin Coleman, the groom, and his mom Karin were there as well.

 Brookie and I

 Brooke and baby Audrey Mae

Thursday was the “wedding” beach party where all friends and family got together on Waikiki beach and met each other, ate, and participated in normal beach activities. That night mom and I went to dinner with Ian at Mariposa. The next day we headed back up to the North Shore with Brooke and Ian. This time we went all the way to Waimea Bay. It was beautiful! It was also one of our favorite parts of the trip because we used these plastic inflatable rafts ($3 a piece! Cheap!). The water was calm enough once you got far enough past the shoreline to just float out there. All four of us got on our rafts, held hands, and just floated. It was so calming and so fun. Of course, we never realized how far we had actually floated out…we ended up having quite a swim back in! There also was a huge rock that you could jump off of…which we did of course.
Friday was also the rehearsal dinner…let’s just say poi is disgusting. We also took the little kids to see Despicable Me to give Britt and Eric the night off, but then they ended up at the same movie as us anyway! So much for that…the movie was cute though; I liked it.

Saturday was the day of the wedding! Since it didn’t start until four; we went back to Hanauma Bay with everybody else. It was a lot colder on this particular day but we still enjoyed snorkeling around.
The wedding was beautiful…Coleman and Cobey are very much in love and it was so fun to be there. They had a sushi bar...best wedding food I’ve ever had and I loved dancing around with my cousins.

Sunday we went on a submarine cruise that my cousin Ethan was dying to do…let’s just say it was fun sitting next to him but totally lame in general. After that, we had lunch, taught my aunt Kelly how to cut a pineapple and then headed to Kailua. Coleman’s dad Jeff actually grew up there and they were having a farewell barbecue of sorts there. We stopped by, then went sea kayaking out to “Flat Island.” I went by myself and Ian and Brooke shared a kayak. I kept up with them the whole way…let’s just say I am awesome. I love kayaking…watersports in general actually. Mom, Ian, Ethan, and I didn’t stick around for the barbecue because we wanted to go a restaurant that my mom and dad had tried when they were in Hawaii in October. I had really good pizza and some grilled asparagus. Yum!

We bid farewell to the happy couple and wished them luck on their new adventure together… Gainesville, Florida! My cousin has accepted some sort of coaching position with Gator Football. He’s been at Stanford (Cobey too for that matter) for the past couple years and I always got excited when I saw him on the sidelines on clips on ESPN. It will be fun to see him with the Gators this year! Hopefully after football season is over, Aaron and I can find a way to meet up with them or visit or something…an 11 hour drive isn’t close but it’s closer than Vegas or California!

Everyone else pretty much left on Monday. Ian’s flight wasn’t until the afternoon so we had a late breakfast at this really great restaurant…Orchids I think. I had pineapple pancakes…AMAZING. I also ordered a side order of bacon and it may have been the best bacon I have ever had. Ian and mom weren’t as thrilled as I was with my food but I guess I just know how to order. After that, we went the Iolani Palace. The Iolani Palace is the only palace on US soil and it was a nice little tour. The house was beautiful and the tour was very interesting. We then rushed Ian to the airport and then we went shopping…We ate dinner at Wahoo! Fish tacos while we wrote back and forth emails with Colby.

Monday night we both started feeling sick…like we had a sore throat. We both woke up Tuesday morning pretty sick. We’re calling it the “Honolulu flu.” I am writing this a week later and I still have not yet fully recovered…it’s been frustrating more than anything. We survived the flight back without a lot misery other than a lack of sleep. Going east is always a lot harder than going west in terms of jetlag.
Anyways, it was a happy trip and so lovely to see all my family again…it had been awhile!