Hawaii semi-surprise trip!

For Chris's internship he worked for Allegiant Air, which was awesome overall... but one of the most awesome-ist things was we got to fly for free! So of course before we left for back to school, we took advantage and flew to Hawaii! Our buddies Alex and Cynthia came too, and we had a blast.

We are about to skip this huge line at the airport, thanks to Chris and his employee badge. Some people came to line up behind us (when we skipped and went straight to a desk person). Alex told them that we were "priority" in an effort to let them know that they couldn't line up behind us. He felt slightly jerk-y, but being priority became the joke of the trip.

We rented a car and stayed up on the North Shore. On our first day we had to pull over at a random beach because it was so beautiful (which it was pretty much everywhere). We took advantage of the rocky beach and skipped some rocks. I actually skipped a rock once on this throw, first time ever.

The vacation home we stayed at was awesome. It was only a minute and a half walk to a little protected beach. We could have used air conditioning in the bedroom, but it was awesome to have a full kitchen. We saved ourselves some money by eating out for lunch, but eating in for breakfast and dinner.

There were some tide pools just off of the beach that we had a lot of fun in. Alex caught all sorts of creatures. This starfish wiggled like mad... it was scary to hold. We saw lots of pretty fish, eels, crabs (some huge crabs), star fish, cucumbers, and sea anemones.

One day we drove down to Waikiki. You have to visit there at least once. Chris and I enjoyed seeing things from our honey moon. We walked down Waikiki and stopped by the Hyatt (where we stayed before). I wanted to find out how much breakfast was if you weren't a guest, since its the best breakfast Chris and I have ever had. And it would have been fun to eat there once. Found out it was $30 a person! For breakfast! So that didn't happen. 

We did eat at California Pizza kitchen, where we ate at almost every day on our honey moon. We got our favorite pizza, chipotle chicken.

Chris got me the largest lotion they had at the salon. I have kept this tiny bottle since our honey moon (they give you one when you stay, you know hotel size). I still have just a tiny bit of it left. I love it! It smells so good. I've used it so sparingly the tiny bottle has lasted 3.5 years. I was looking at getting a smaller size, but Chris grabbed the largest one. I was so happy. The salon lady gave me a sample pack with shampoo and conditioner and stuff (larger than hotel size, but smaller than big size) since she saw how excited I was.

We left our snorkel gear in Rexburg (bummer!). But luckily Alex and Cynthia got some, and shared with us. Everyone snorkeled at Shark's Cove except for me. I was scared of the rocks and waves, I'm a baby.

 

But we snorkeled  at Turtle Bay too (where it is not so scary). After Alex and Cynthia went out, Chris took me out. It was one of my favorite parts of the trip. I loved snorkeling with Chris, and I loved how close he stayed by me, since I was a scare-dy baby.

While Alex and Cynthia snorkeled, Chris and I built a sand castle. Chris built the double mote system, while I started building the village and cow pasture. The villagers could then built the rest of the castle. Chris's mote system actually lasted a really long time. The ocean threatened to destroy the castle many times, but in the end it was giant-sized children who took down the castle like godzilla. It was pretty hilarious how they went for the village and cows first, typical monster style.

We went to Haleiwa a few times during the trip (main North Shore town). It wasn't very far from us. And was super fun. Our favorite restaurant from the whole trip was GrassSkirt, where they served hawaiian food. The chicken was the best.

They also have the world famous snowcones! Which were awesome! I really needed a good snowcone. I have to say though, I think Rexburg Idaho still has the best shack I've ever been to. But Hawaii would be second favorite.

My one goal of the trip was to see turtles. And we did! Chillin on Turtle Beach. They have them roped off when they come up on the sand to sun. A lady stands there and tells you about them. Each turtle has a little sign they've stuck in the ground telling you about them (and also telling you how they know which turtle is which). This turtle was my favorite. His name is Brutis. He's 40 years old and had his back left flipper bitten half off by a shark.

Alex and Cynthia went to the Polynesian Cultural Center. Since we've been before we skipped. We went to the temple (right next door). When we came before in 2009 the temple was closed for remodels.

Though we had been to most of the Polynesian Cultual Center, we had not been to the luau. I wanted to go to any luau, but turns out the PCC has the cheapest one in town. We guessed its because they don't serve alcohol. My hopes came true when we got real flower leis. Plus we got to go with Alex and Cynthia.

The rolls were purple. They tasted just like normal (super good) rolls.

That red drink actually ended up being terrible. But Chris was nice enough to drink mine so I wouldn't have to. The boys then got endless pitchers of mountain dew. And I got my favorite anyways, water.

So deja vu from the trip Chris proposed to me. I smashed my toe. Only this time, Chris actually smashed my toe. The chairs had spikes for legs, and the point of his came down right on the end of my toe as he was scooting forward. It hurt so bad. But this time I was smart enough to ask (or more correctly ask Chris to ask) for a band-aid. It took a while, but finally I was tapped on the shoulder. I expected to see the waitress standing there with a single bandaid in her hand. Nope. They brought me an entire first aid person. I felt pretty silly. I asked her what she usually treated day to day. Fire burns and knife cuts. Man I felt like a wimp.

We went to the Dole Plantation one day. It was a bright and very warm part of the day (it rained most the rest of the day). We took bets before we got there whether the pineapple juice drinking fountain was still in operation. It was not, sadly. That would have been epic. We went through the worlds largest hedge maze though. That was pretty awesome.

The best part of dole though, was the pineapple soft serve icecreams. Holy cow, they were GOOD!

Chris thought I was so lame for listening to the little radios they gave you for the self guided tour. I for one love informational tours. They got to hear the best parts from me after I had listened to it.

I had to go for a hike. So on our last day (when it was the most rainy) we went for what the internet said was not that big of a hike. Alex and Cynthia opted out, since you could barely climb the beginning since it was so slick with mud.

It rained hard the whole way. We were soaked. And the trail just kept going. We were following (kinda) the directions we got from the internet that a scout hand drew online. So we thought we were doing pretty good when we reached what we thought was the "pine forest". Looked like more than half way there. That kid should have his map-drawing merit badge taken away. It was way off. The hike was way longer than it appeared and we almost turned around. Chris actually had to motivate me (which usually its the other way around). He was right though, if we had turned around, we would have regretted it and had to have gone back someday to finish that hike. 

But we finally found the sign. And the falls were just over the ridge.

We are in between the two falls, with one right below us. It was still raining really hard, so we didn't keep the camera out for very long.

We had so much fun. It was awesome to take advantage of Chris's benefits from his awesome internship that he did such a good job at. I got to take home North Shore sand and Waikiki sand (since we started collecting sand after our honeymoon I was missing Waikiki). And now we are ready (we hope) for the oncoming changes in our life together.