Hawaiian Vacation-Part 1

Oahu-Day 1-20.03.08-Surfing Tips

Because of excitement, I was not able to sleep on the 5 hour flight from Seattle to Honolulu, just thinking of sunshine and seeing my family again. I arrived in Honolulu around noon, the airport is outdoors and the weather was lovely and sunny. Brendan met me and immediately put a flower lei around my neck, paradise vacation beginning. Warm winds and sunshine greeted me, it was unreal.

We headed straight to Diamond Head beach to lay on the sand. I cam across wild roosters and had to get a closer look at that, since I've been commissioned to paint a rooster.

After the beach, Brendan took me to Ghenki Sushi. It was one of those places where the sushi comes around on a conveyor belt and you just grab the ones you like. For some weird reason they also had bowls of fried chicken. The Japanese beer made it an extra delicious lunch. We later stopped to get a Kona Coffee Milkshake from Jack-in-the-Box.

Enough about food. In case you're wondering, I didn't just eat and lay on the beach the entire time. We picked up Lance, my brother's good friend from the island, and his boards and hit the beach. I used his new long board, it had a padded grip type of mat that stretched the entire length of the board.

Surfing was challenging at first. Riding atop the smooth water and gliding takes balance. Many times I plummeted into the salt water, tasting more than I should. Balancing became easy after a little while, but catching the wave was challenging. I couldn't tell which waves were good to catch at first. I learned a few new things though.

1. Never paddle out in the middle of breaking waves(this seems like common sense, but not when you're out there). Instead go out to the sides of the waves. This will prevent you from flipping over and causing collisions with other surfers.

2. If you are heading towards breaking waves; hit them head on, not sideways. Hitting a wave sideways will most likely make you flip.

3. Lance told me not to worry about crashing into other surfers, they will move. I'm not too sure about this one. A few times I had to yell; "I don't turn yet". I think it was obvious by the amount of times the board flew out from under me.

Being in the deep water, sitting on my board and watching the other surfers look out into the distance was a beautiful image. Their silhouettes faced the deep, endless ocean patiently awaiting the next wave. The sun set just before we rode in. Breathtaking imagery, dreamlike.

Brendan said earlier that he loved watching the surfers shower their boards off. I love the calming way they sit up on their boards, await the wave and gaze into the sunset.

Later that evening we met mom, Peter and Maggie at the hotel. From our balcony, we had an excellent view of the ocean and Waikiki beach. The reunion of my family was great.

Oahu-Day 2-21.03.08-Jumping off Waterfalls

Yes; jumping off waterfalls is something we experienced today. Craziness really. My mom was so scared, she couldn't even watch. She would've had an instant heart attack, for sure. I guess she has forgotten youthful days of skydiving.

We did a strenuous hike to the Maunawili Falls, just outside of Honolulu. Pure, sticky, humid rain forest hike of about 4 miles round trip. After arriving at the waterfall, Brendan, Maria and Peter climbed up and jumped in. It took me about 20 minutes to conjure up enough courage to jump from the small landing. Scary stuff. I could not see the bottom and was afraid of slipping or landing on a pile of stones.

The hike worked off the thousands of calories we consumed eating the delicious, hot, greasy malasadas(Portuguese donuts). Leonard's has the BEST Malasadas on the island for about 70cents each.

Oahu-Day 3 22.03.08-Hanauma Bay

Everyone woke up late today. After picking up Tony and Maria, two of Brendan's good friends from school, we headed to Hanauma Bay to go snorkeling. The entire parking lot was full, so they had to drop us off. After paying the admission, we were required to watch an instructional/educational/safety video for new visitors wishing to snorkel at the bay. It was pretty basic; no touching the coral, no touching/bothering the fish and other sea creatures.

After finding on a half shady-half sunny part on the beach, I put on the flippers, supposedly the correct term for them in Hawaii is "fins". The snorkeling mask worked surprisingly well, I thought that I would be claustrophobic. It actually has a tube that blows the water out that goes into it. So if waves splash over you and the tube, you won't swallow water. The waves were a bit rough at times and I was glad to have this breathing apparatus. Plus the other upside, you can stay under water for long periods of time.

This was my first time ever snorkeling and it was captivating. Fish were swimming in front and next to me. After being under water for about 15 minutes, Maria grabbed my arm and pointed to a sea TURTLE! Not more than 10 feet from us was this amazing, gigantic sea turtle. It was feeding on some plants attached to the coral. At first I was a bit apprehensive, do sea turtles attack? Do they bite? I didn't know. I realized that he was very calm and peaceful. I followed and observed him for about 20 minutes. Watching this large circular creature swim, reminded me of planetary movement or a mobile. He was this gigantic blob floating under water. I would've swam with him all day, it was so soothing. The waves started picking up and I was getting cold, so I waited till Peter found the turtle and then we decided to head back in. On the way back in, I spotted ANOTHER turtle, this one was smaller than the first and more hidden in the coral. It's a whole different world under the sea.

After lounging on the beach for a few hours, we were all royally BURNT. Yes, our fair skin was no match for the deceiving partially cloudy skies. I think I got more burned than ever before. Air pollution is not as great here, so the sun rays have less to block their power. Clean air= intense UV rays.