ALOHA (Part 1): OAHU

FINALLY...

some postings on our vacation!

(WARNING: Long post due to LOTS of pictures! Sorry for any typos, it's a long post.

But no worries, Rand will point them out as he reads it and then I'll fix them.) :o)

We were able to take a vacation last month to Hawaii and it was a blast!

When scheduling our flights we planned in a longer layover in San Francisco so that my parents could drive down and we could hang out with them for a few hours. We grabbed some lunch, walked around and hit a few 'musts' while there.

Here we are on the pierSo there was this fruit stand with AMAZING (and amazingly expensive) fruit. I saw these peaches that looked different than I had seen before, more thin rather than round. When I picked one up to look at it the tag said UFO peaches. I missed the little picture that was also on it and pronounced it Ewefo (more polynesian sounding, seeing as how it was fruit and we were on our way to Hawaii.) Rand's laughter quickly showed me the error of my ways as he pointed out the picture of Buzz Lighyear on the tag...hence the brand was U.F.O.

Rand had never been to nor driven down Lumbar Street,
so we made sure to check that one off the list.

We met a nice man from South America (I think) who took our picture for us,

and Rand was able to speak spanish with (which he loves).

Rand had also never driven across the Golden Gate bridge.

Check!

We also enjoyed driving around near the golden gate bridge and trying to figure out where Emerson and Rocia (some friends of ours) lived. Never came to any conclusions.

Funny moment while there: we had been talking about something with being in Hawaii and being more relaxed there and such, and someone had stated the phrase, "When in Rome" as the excuse for it. Well, later as we were getting back in the car after eating Rand went to open the door for me. But, I didn't see him do that and I just walked to the other side of the car. So Rand decided instead to get the door for my dad (or maybe my dad for him, can't remember) and Rand then said, "well, when in Rome." haha. I thought it was a quick witted comment.

We hopped back on a plane and headed to HAWAII, Oahu to be exact!

We got there in the evening, were picked up by Rand's brother Jason, dropped off our bags at the hotel and headed to dinner at the Jimmy Buffet restaurant.

It was a pretty fun atmosphere with live music, fun scenery, and great food.

The next morning I had to take a picture from the balcony of our hotel room

(we shared a room with Rand's brother who was there for work).

We basically just spent the first day stocking up on breakfast and lunch items at Walmart (saved so much money for us rather than eating every meal out.) Then we just chilled at Waikiki beach. As the day wound down we took a walk along the beach.

That night we went to dinner with Jason at the Cheesecake Factory. We were seated in the best location in all the restaurant: outside with tiki lamps all around and a nice

garden area right next to us. Totally beat being seated inside!

And I had a menu item I don't think is found at other Cheesecake Factory locations (and if it is, I doubt they make it quite as good): BBQ pork sandwich.

On the walk back to our hotel we got a nice picture with 'Duke'.

He is apparantly the father of surfing.

While we were on Oahu so were a few of our friends from Utah.

Jory and Lacie from our ward, and Josh 'Hink' who Rand grew up with, were there for a baseball tournament for UVU. So we met up with them early one morning (6:30 AM) at Hanauma Bay for some snorkeling.

Rand and Hink

It's pretty cool to just chill above all these fish swimming around and just watch them.

This picture was too perfect to pass up as we were leaving the bay.

Next we headed to Waimanalo Beach to try out some boogie boarding.

The waves were pretty good, but they would break right on the beach. So if you didn't catch it just right you were violently thrown into the sand by the wave.

We had alot of sand in our suits after this outing! haha...but it was a blast!

If I ever wanted to do hang gliding, Hawaii would be the place to do it.

But my incredible fear of heights will probably never let that happen.

After the beach we cleaned up and went to watch one of the baseball games that Jason was covering between the University of Hawaii and Louisiana Tech.

La Tech won with a walk off homer...it was heartbreaking.

We decided to make one day on Oahu our 'hiking day'.

We started out with a hike to Diamond Head.

This isn't a very long hike, but it got pretty steep with alot of stairs involved.

and some tunnels too!


and then some more stairs.

But it's all worth it in the end...check out this view!

and this doesn't do it justice at all.

I still need to stitch together a panoramic picture that I took and get it posted.

You could see alot from up there.

After Diamond Head we took what we thought was a quick drive to Waimea Falls.

Little did we realize it was on the other side of the island. And when there are only a few major roads to get you there, travel time is not fast. But it was a nice little scenic drive!

Then we arrived at Waimea Falls park.

We were greeted by this little guy.

At first I thought I was so cool getting so close to it.

Then we walked inside the park and saw tons of them just roaming around all the people.

Not so wild...very domesticated. :o)

The 'hike' to the falls isn't much of a hike at all.

It's more of a nice stroll on a paved path.

But the end result was still amazing!

We of course had to get in.

It was so refreshing (especially compared to the ocean water we'd been in).

If you ever go...GET IN! You won't regret it!

One of the wonders of a digital camera:

it comes in handy when you don't have a mirror but are out in public.
I had to make sure my hair didn't look too wacky after the swim.

Since Rand was in a huge hurry to get from point A (the parking lot) to point B (the waterfall), we didn't get many pics of things on the way in. But I made a point to try to capture some of the beautiful scenery and flowers on the way back.

I LOVED these trees. They were everywhere. They have this crazy way of creating a canvas over you. And when they were together like this it looked so cool. My pictures do them NO justice (Travis...if you ever go to Hawaii, please take a good photo of these!)

I just thought this tree trunk was pretty cool.

I wouldn't want to get caught in a forrest full of these at night without a flashlight.

A few other things I just thought looked cool:

We then made a very brief stop at Waimea Bay. We weren't able to push our dinner reservations back, so all we were able to do was snap a quick picture. I took this one, its one of my favorites.

It is now the screensaver on my computer!

Then we headed to dinner at Duke's in Waikiki.

Rand had been SO excited to eat here from the moment we booked our tickets.

He called a few weeks in advance of our trip to make a reservation and it paid!

He was able to get us one of the best seats in the place right on the beach.

We got to eat a delicious dinner and watch the sun set all at the same time.

These cute women were going around serenading people.

Had to get a picture on our way out with the surfboard.

I also got this lei from a woman selling them there.

They had flower ones too, but I really liked this one.

Plus, I could take it home and make it part of our island theme bathroom (here).

After dinner we did some walking around the International Market.

This picture is for those I work with...and I'm leaving it at that.

How pretty is this bird?!

One day, after spending the morning trying to boogie board at Waikiki Beach

(note to all: not a good boogie board beach...more for surfing!) we then headed towards

the Polynesian Cultural Center.

On the way we made a stop at the Pali lookout.

Another gorgeous scenic view.

Then we finished off the day at the PCC!

If you look closely, you can see the guy near the top of the tree on the left.

These moai are replicas of the ones on Easter Island (which was part of Rand's mission).

After visiting some of the villages and taking a canoe tour we headed over to the evening show.

On our way we passed a guy working there that Rand said looked like a guy he went to high school with (a lot of polynesians went to his high school.) As he turned to take a second look, the guy saw him and sure enough...it was him: George. So random.

Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of them together!

Here we are eating our delicious fruit and ice cream at the show.

and ofcourse, the show entertainment highlight: FIRE!

The next day we headed over to Pearl Harbor.

I have always loved studying history in school, and I can't ever go visit a place that has some major historical value and not visit that site. Pearl Harbor was a must on my list from the beginning. Both Rand and I had grandfathers who served in WWII, so it was really neat to visit and think about the history they took part in.

Also, a little history on my grandpa (hopefully I'm getting this right) that ties in directly with this day in history. On the morning that Pear Harbor was hit my grandpa was attending a church meeting in California as an investigator. Thanks to my grandma who refused to go out with him unless he attended church, he began to attend.

That morning while at church, he had made the decision to be baptized.

It was after leaving church that day that he got the news about Pearl Harbor and was called in.

We walked around and read a bunch of the plaques honoring those people who died while serving on submarines. Then we headed on our tour to the USS Arizona Memorial.

It's so surreal, and humbling, realizing that you are looking down at an underwater graveyard.

I'm very grateful for those men and women throughout history who have fought for this country and for what this flag stands for.

"To the memory of the gallant men here entombed and their shipmates

who gave their lives in action on December 7, 1941 on the USS Arizona"

There were no McFadyen's...but we did find an R. Erickson.

Here we are at the bottom of the flag pole. Behind us in the water is

part of the ship that actually sticks out of the water.

In the little museum they have at the bay there is this replica of the memorial as it sits over the ship. That is just so crazy that this ship sits in the harbor, and more so that there are bodies still inside. Because it is a graveyard there is obviously no diving or exploration of the ship ever done.

But interestingly enough, of the shipmates who survived the attack...they have the option after they die to be buried, or placed, inside the ship with the rest of their shipmates.

A number of them have chosen to do this.

Another 'must' for Rand was getting shaved ice w/ice cream at Matsumoto's on the north shore. As we drove up the line was out of control. We stood in line for around 30 minutes waiting to get ours. Funny thing is that about 30 feet away was another shave ice place, but no one was there. This is apparantly the BEST place to go for it. And it was worth it...SO GOOD!

If you go...make sure to get the condensed milk on top, YUMMY!

After the shaved ice we headed over to theLaniakea Beach, aka Turtle Beach (I made a quick change as you can tell). We had heard (first from Josh and Janae's blog, and then from Jason) about how these huge turtles just come up and chill right on the beach. We had to check it out...I was SO excited to see them. You have to park just off to the side of the road, cross over to the beach, and then walk down a little to the cove area.

There are some people there to help protect them. You have to keep about 15 feet away from them since they are on the endangered. They were such amazing creatures!

I couldn't get enough of them!

One of the men there watching over them told us that at any given time there could be up to 100 sea turtles in this bay. And you CAN go snorkeling there, you just have to keep your distance.

Unfortunately we weren't snorkeling that day...that would have been awesome!

I wanted to swim with the turtles so bad!

As we were leaving we asked this lady to take our picture with the sun going down in the back.

It didn't turn out the best picture due to the placement of the sun,

but I had to post it because of the story attached.

The whole time at the beach Rand was being really careful not to get his pant legs wet.

So right as we are leaving we decide to take this picture and get posed for it. The lady took it right as the wave came in behind us and took out Rand's dry pant legs. haha!

After Turtle Beach we headed to the Laie LDS temple.

The temple is currently closed for renovations so we weren't able to walk right up by it, but

at least the grounds and visitor center were open. It is such a pretty and unique temple with beautiful surrounding!

Unfortunately they don't have the temple lit up right now either,

but the picture turned out pretty cool still.

The temples always have the most beautiful grounds.

And of course the temple grounds in Hawaii have to have the Hawaiian Hibiscus!

For out last night in Oahu we went to dinner with Jason and this restaurant called the Shore Bird Restaurant. We were on the same flight to Oahu as the Fresno State baseball team and Rand recognized the coach outside the airport while waiting for Jason to pick us up. Rand said hi, introduced himself as Jason's brother (since Jason works with the coaches) and we had a quick conversation with him. He told us we had to go to this restaurant...and he was right.

It was delicious, right on the beach and a fun atmosphere. What makes it more fun is the fact that you BBQ your own meat! Once you order they bring you your meat raw on a platter and tell you how to cook it to your liking. Jason and I ordered steak (I also had a shrimp cabob)

and Rand ordered mahi mahi.

Here we are with our raw meat.

Then we headed to the grilling area, seasoned our meat and threw it on.

As you can see, we decided to grill some pineapple from the salad bar as well! Yum!

The meat was SO good and we had fun being the chefs.

And considering the prices there, we realized that the place had to be doing really well considering the money they are saving on chefs!

All in all, we had a great time on Oahu.

Thanks Jason for sharing your room with us, for the company, the suggestions, the ice cream and other treats! And especially thank you for the use of your GPS system..

that is the greatest invention ever! We had a blast hanging out with you!

More to come on the second half of our trip as we headed to KAUAI!