It rained a lot while we were there, as it is wont to do during the winter months, but that didn't stop us from doing almost everything we wanted to do! I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked because of the rain (my poor camera was pretty wet the last few days we were there) but I think I got the important parts.
This is the view from the back porch of our wonderful friends' house. Yes, that's the ocean over there. (And yes, that's a spot on my camera lens.)
First order of business: getting shave ice at Matsumoto's!
We spent that first afternoon lounging on the gorgeous beach with very calm waves.
This is the beach next door to our house - literally 100 steps. Hey tourists, whatcha lookin' at?
This guy! We were there for his shuffle-forward-pull-rest-repeat back into the ocean after snoozing on the beach all day. The beach is a home for lots of sea turtles so I think we saw at least one everyday we were there.
After a session at the Laie Hawaii temple...
...which was absolutely gorgeous! (Why hello, sunshine.)
This is not the beach where they filmed the pilot episode of Lost, but this is where we ended up while looking for that beach. Rachel and Jase did find it eventually but it was about a mile and a half up the coastline.
Swimming in Waimea Bay. Supposedly this is where you get the biggest surfing waves during the winter but the water was as calm as a lake while we were there. So beautiful!
Our next-door beach first thing in the morning. Just incredible.
I spy with my little eye four family members "supping" - stand-up paddling. Tim and I opted out but they all really liked it and it looked really fun!
One morning we got up super early and went to Hanauma Bay, which has some of the best snorkeling on the island. It was my first time snorkeling and it was amazing! There is a reef protecting the bay so there are tons of fish, plus a happy little sea turtle that we swam around with. So. Cool.
Tim and I went to the Waimea Valley Botanical Garden and I took about a hundred pictures of all the beautiful flowers and plants. It was raining most of the time so we got pretty wet but it was a very nice walk. And the best part? At the end of the valley is the Waimea waterfall which is the waterfall they used in Lost. (!!!) If you don't recognize it from the show, that's because it was about 14 times larger than normal thanks to all the rain. Still, we were really excited to see it!
The rain and storms the last few days we were there made the waves crazy huge. Like, the lifeguards wouldn't let people go in the water. These pictures don't really do it justice, but these waves were intense.
Okay, I think we've already established that we're total nerds, but one of the highlights was finding the beach camp from Lost! Do you recognize it? It was, once again, raining hard so we didn't stay long but we were super excited to be there.
Hehe, I like this photo. We should probably post it on some crazy fan site somewhere...
Tim and I made a stop at the nearby Dole Plantation for some super-yummy pineapple ice cream topped with very fresh pineapple. De-licious!
Our last day in Hawaii was spent mainly at Pearl Harbor. I've already forgotten the name of this submarine (Tim just told me it was the USS Bowfin), but we got to tour it and it was pretty cool! I learned a lot about submarines during WWII and I also learned that I wouldn't have survived for long - it got very warm and a tad claustrophobic down there.
We took the ferry out to the USS Arizona memorial, which sits over the sunken battleship in the harbor. We watched a movie about the attack on Pearl Harbor right before going out and the whole experience was very somber and pretty meaningful. The memorial was open and the rain was almost torrential (see picture below) so I didn't get too many good pictures. I liked this one though.
And that was our trip. Things not pictured: lots of reading, watching movies at night with the fam, going to the turtle beach nearly everyday, lots of shopping, and lots of restful relaxing. It was wonderful, in spite of the rain, and I seriously can't wait to go back. We're all scheming on how to do that now - it looks like we're hooked!
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