Day 7

We took Aaron to work in the morning as usual, then we spent most of the day at Waikiki. We were thinking of just walking to the beach down the street from the apartment, but since we had some last-minute shopping to do anyway, we decided to swim at Waikiki again. The waves seemed bigger than last time we were there. A bunch of people laying on the beach got soaked by some huge waves that went a lot farther onto the sand than anyone had apparently anticipated. Ashley decided to swim with me for a bit this time, even though she didn't really want to get her hair wet. The waves foiled her plans, but we had fun anyway. I swam alone for a bit while Ashley attempted to make some sand castles, but of course the waves would have none of that either.

After rinsing off at the little outdoor beach showers, we walked up and down the strip again, getting the last of the souvenirs for people. We stopped at Cheeseburger in Paradise again at some point, where I had a Cheeseburger in Paradise and Ashley had crab cakes. We also shared cheesy fries again. Ashley ordered a soda in the collectible color-changing mug to give to Aaron since he misplaced his the last time we were there. We were going to buy some souvenir snacks from one of the many ABC Stores, but the prices were a bit ridiculous for the amount you were getting. We figured it would be way cheaper to just have Aaron take us to the Commissary on the Marine base, and we were right.

Once Aaron got off work, we went to the Commissary and stocked up on plenty of goodies, most of them containing macadamia nuts of course. Then we went next door to the MCX so we could get a few more last-minute souvenirs. Aaron had to be up crazy early for a Marine hike, so Ashley and I went to dinner while he got ready for bed. We went to a local Kailua restaurant called Kalapawai Market Deli, which turned out to be surprisingly fancy. We shared a tomato bisque soup with cheese panini and a stuffed chicken breast in a tomato and red pepper sauce wth egg noodles and zuchini. It was all quite delicious. For dessert, we had a pie that was just like pecan pie, only with macadamia nuts and served ala mode. This was right up there with the Häagen-Dazs Big Island Dazzler as far as local desserts go. Sooo delicious!

Then we had to face the daunting task of packing all of our clothes and newly-acquired souvenirs. We ended up having to leave both of our beach towels behind, but other than that, we managed to cram everything into the bags.

Overall, our Hawaii vacation was absolutely wonderful! We hope we can do something similar to this again while Aaron is still in Hawaii. A special thanks to him for making the best parts of our trip happen!

Day 6

We once again had to wake up early to take Aaron to work so we could take his car for the day. After returning and sleeping for a bit, we went to the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet which is just a huge flea market that encircles the perimeter of the stadium. So far, this seemed to be one of the best places to buy souvenirs that were not totally cheesy. Ashley bought some souvenirs for people and also bought me a ukulele with a case. She also wanted to find a souvenir for herself that really screamed "Hawaii." We found a guy making hand-carved tiki idols which were pretty well-made so Ashley went to look at one of the masks. After a few hesitant looks, the guy lowered the price from $50 to $30 and said he would would even carve her name into it. After promising to come back and a quick spin around the flea market, we returned to the tiki guy and bought the mask. We had him carve both of our names in the back, which he did very well. We came back to the apartment, had a quick lunch and waited around until the luau.

Traffic on the way to the luau was terrible. It was backed to a crawl across a five lane highway for most of the way, but we eventually got there. When we went in, we got a free Mai Tai drink and a shell lei. The location of the luau was gorgeous. It was right next to the ocean with nice palm trees bordering it, making it great for pictures. There were random activities to do before the luau started, including making palm leaf headbands and wristbands. Then, they started a short show where they had some live music, the "royal court," and some hula dancers. The dancers proceeded to show us what we would be having for dinner and then some guys took the roast pig from the pit. We were dismissed to head back to our tables and waited to be called to go through the buffet line. There was macaroni salad, pasta salad, tomato salmon salad, green salad, rice, fried chicken, mahi mahi with macadamia nut sauce, and roasted pulled pork. It was all pretty good. They also had poi which tasted odd. After eating and the sun had set, they started the show. They did many types of hula dancing and had a spinning fire juggler guy. It was all very fun. We attempted to record most of it on video camera. After the show, people were able to take pictures with the dancers and buy souvenirs. We got a few pictures and also bought a coconut tree figurine made out of a coconut. It was a very enjoyable night, afterwhich we went home and went to bed.

Day 5

Today was our first day to entertain ourselves since Aaron was at work. He had to be at the Marine base for a run or something at 5 AM, so we had to get up at 4:30 to drive him there so that we could use his car during the day. After dropping him off, we went back to the apartment to get a couple more hours of sleep.

After waking up again, Ashley had her leftover Chicken Katsu for breakfast, and I planned on eating later. Ashley wanted to check out Chinatown, so we attempted to go find it based on what we had looked up on the internet. Once we got to "Chinatown," it didn't look like what Ashley had expected, so we ditched that idea and just went to nearby Waikiki instead.

At Waikiki, we went to McDonald's so I could grab a bite to eat. I ordered an expensive Big N Tasty with fries and a tray of pineapple (it seems that all meals come with some pineapple). While we were there, we saw that they served not only apple pie, but taro pie. We didn't try it, but we thought it was cool anyway.

We walked along the Waikiki strip just looking in shops, trying to find souvenirs and stuff. We found this cool little area called the International Market Place. There were a bunch of little carts, a majority of which were selling the same jewelry and stuff. After some wandering around here for awhile and not buying anything, we walked back up the strip and got some Häagen-Dazs. We shared a Big Island Dazzler which consisted of Macadamia ice cream, pineapple and coconut ice cream, fudge, shortbread cookie chunks and chopped macadamia nuts, all topped off with whipped cream. It was delicious!

Next, we bought some cookies from the Honolulu Cookie Company. They had free samples of each of their 12 cookie flavors (all in the shape of little pineapples.) We wandered around alittle more, then walked back to the car and headed to the apartment. Not long after getting back, Aaron was dropped off at home by a fellow marine. Then, all three of us went to the Saigon Noodle House for some phở since Aaron had never had it. It was pretty good, but it still wasn't nearly as good as Phở Hien back in Wichita. Aaron didn't seem too impressed by it, but Ashley told him he had to try the phở in Wichita before he wrote it off.

We walked to the nearby Safeway to buy a few groceries. We bought some Applejacks, vanilla wafers, Garden Salsa Sun Chips, and sunblock. We prcoceeded to the apartment and watched Pirates of the Caribbean 3 on my laptop since Aaron didn't remember ever seeing it. Then we went to bed.

Day 4

Today after breakfast and discovering all the mosquito bites we got from the jungle hike, we went to the Honolulu Police Department where I finally recovered my lost iPod. It was pretty painless. I'm so thankful for the anonymous female who turned it in instead of keeping it. Thanks, whoever you are!

After that, we went to Hanauma Bay for snorkeling. There were so many awesome fish to see! Even in the most shallow parts of the bay, there were beautiful fish. I took my camera and underwater camera case to try and get some good photos. I let Aaron borrow the camera for awhile and he got to see a sea turtle! He took a bunch of really good pictures of it. After that, Aaron tried to help us find a sea turtle since we hadn't seen one yet, but we never found one. I took some more underwater photos on the way though, before my camera decided to die. It seems that some humidity had accumulated in the bag and got inside the camera. I wasn't able to turn it on since then. I was able to recover all of the awesome pictures from the SD card though. In spite of the camera trouble and the few snorkel issues I was having, I would say the trip was completely worth it.

On the way to the apartment, we picked up some Jack in the Box for a snack. We tried the tacos and mini sirloin burgers. Ashley also had a teriyaki bowl. The mini sirloin burgers were the best! After showering, we headed to the Ala Moana Mall, which is apparently the world's largest open-air shopping mall. It was the most beautiful mall I've ever seen. It was a really pleasent atmosphere. They had a bunch of the typical mall stores plus a bunch of other stuff. We found a Sanrio store, where Ashley bought a mini Chococat iPod Speaker box, a Hawaiian Hello Kitty plush, a pencil and a keychain. At the Disney store (which Wichita no longer has) I bought Stitch plates and Nemo Plates. We wandered around other stores and found a few souvenirs for people. Then we stopped at the food court which was also amazing! Ashley had some Chicken Katsu Don and I had some Kal Bi (Korean BBQ). The mall started closing and Aaron had to be up early for work the next day, so we went back to the apartment to sleep.

Day 3

We started our day by taking a hike to Manoa Falls. Ashley and I planned to take some engagement pictures while we were there, so we wore some decent-looking attire. Ashley looked so pretty in her dress! ^^

The forest was beautiful! There were so many great photo opportunities. There were a lot of moments were it would start to rain for a bit which was awesome. The last half of the trail was pretty muddy, but it was fun. The actual waterfall at the end wasn't very big at the time since we didn't go during the rainy season (Winter), but it was still cool to see. The hike alone was totally worth it, especially since we got so many good photos. Aaron was nice enough to take millions of pictures of us.

After the long hike, we went to the Dole Pineapple Plantation. We rode the Pineapple Express and had some pineapple whip in a cone. Apparently they have the world's largest maze or something, but we didn't have time to check it out before they closed. Maybe we'll go back later.

We headed back to the apartment after that to rest awhile, then had dinner at the Honolulu Hard Rock Cafe. Aaron and I split a cheeseburger and Ashley had a chicken sandwich. We bought fruity non-alcoholic drinks again and paid to keep the glasses. Ashley also bought a shirt and a pin from the gift shop.

Oh! I finally learned how to blow the conch after Ashley was watching a video on YouTube. I think I have the hang of it now. I took the conch to the hike with us and blew it a couple of times for fun.

Ok, Ashley and Aaron have already gone to bed, so goodnight!

Day 2

After waking up rather early (Hawaiian time) we started our first official day in Hawaii!

Aaron made us a breakfast of eggs, bacon, toast and pancakes (all of which were very tasty). We planned to go to the Waikiki Aquarium and then the Waikiki beach. On the way to the beach, Aaron took us to our first lookout point, the Pali Lookout. It was an amazing view and we got some good photos.

When we got near the beach, we realized the roads near the Waikiki strip were blocked due to a parade which we did not previously know about (King Kamehameha Celebration Floral Parade). So, Aaron let us out of the car so we could watch the parade while he found a parking spot. The parade was pretty cool; there were horses, marching bands, armed forces, floats, etc. Near the end of the parade, Aaron was able to meet back up with us again and then we decided to hang out at the beach before going to the Aquarium.

At this point, I realized that my iPod Touch was missing! I looked everywhere, in my bag, in my pockets, and Aaron even was nice enough to go look in the car. I had no luck finding it and was kind of bummed out about it, but eventually came to accept the fact that I had lost it or it was stolen. Afterall, I was going to be getting a new iPhone next Friday anyway, so no big deal.

Anyway, after that, Aaron and I went swimming at the beach and Ashley stayed on the sand since she didn't want to swim today. I brought my prescription goggles and had fun swimming underwater. I didn't see anything that exciting down there. Aaron and I thought we saw an eel or something though. We also saw some little black crabs on this rock ledge thing on the beach. After we finished swimming, we rinsed off and then walked to the aquarium. They had some neat fish and stuff, but it wasn't that big of a place so we were done fairly quickly.

We were all pretty hungry so we walked back down the strip to the Cheeseburger in Paradise. I had the Cheeseburger Island Style (it had pineapple and teriyaki on it), Ashley had the Chicken Burger Island Style, and Aaron had shrimp and fries. We also had some cheese fries. Ashley and I ordered smoothies just so we could have some fancy non-alcoholic drinks. I had banana and she had mango. The food was delicious and when we finished it was still around 4 PM so we had time to go do more stuff.

Ashley bought a cute flower clip for her hair from an ABC store. I decided I wanted to get a blow conch since I sort of like to collect musical instruments, so Aaron took us on a trip to a shell store he had seen before. When we got there, it had already closed at 4 PM, so he decided to take us to the Marine base since he knew they sold conch shells there. On the way, we stopped at a couple of lookout points along the Kalanianaole Highway, including Blowhole rock. We got some good photos here too.

I bought the blow conch I wanted, but found out it wasn't as easy to operate as I had hoped. All three of us were having a hard time getting the right sound. Aaron and Ashley got pretty close though.

Then we went to a mall where we were thinking about seeing a movie but we just decided to walk around instead. I found a Pokemon capsule machine so I spent $1 to see what I could get. I ended up getting Happiny, meh. Ashley bought an Edward Scissorhand shirt and Nightmare Before Christmas shoes from a Hot Topic. She even got to use Aaron's military discount!

After the mall we just went home. I checked my (temporary) cell phone for messages and saw that I had a voice mail from an unknown number. It was a sergeant from the Honolulu Police Department calling to tell me that they found my iPod! He gave me a number where I could call them back, but when I called, a different guy answered and said they did not have it there, but to try the main police station, which unfortunately isn't open until Monday. He gave me the number to that station, so I might try calling the same number again tomorrow to see if someone else can tell me for sure whether or not my iPod is there, otherwise I'll wait until Monday to contact the main station. Man, I was for sure I would never see my iPod again, but now there is hope!

Ok, time for bed now. We plan on taking a hike tomorrow so we will need our rest.

Day 1

We finally made it to Hawaii!



Our day started out at 4:00 AM, as we had to be at the ICT airport for our first flight at 6:35 AM. We got to Denver with no problems. We had a three hour layover, so I just watched four episodes of Avatar on my iPod while Ashley napped in a chair. We grabbed some McDonald's breakfast right before our flight to Los Angeles. And then, the drama began.

Now, when we got our boarding passes back at the ICT airport, we did not get ones for LAX to HNL. When we arrived in LAX, we had two hours until our next flight, so we went to the gate and asked if we could get our boarding passes there. The man told me "Yes, but not until an hour before the flight." So we waited until then, and we started lining up with everyone else in front of the counter. Then after awhile they announced that they will not be giving boarding passes for another half hour, so they told everyone to sit down.

About a half hour before the plane was scheduled to leave, we started lining up again to get our boarding passes. We saw that there was another line of people who already had their boarding passes. Soon they announced that they would start boarding, but we still didn't have boarding passes! We started feeling uneasy about our current situation and Ashley was sort of freaking out. The lady at the counter was in the process of calling out passenger's names a few at a time to hand out boarding passes and most of the other passenger's had already boarded by the time they called Ashley's name. When we went up there, Ashley got her pass but then they were saying that they didn't have any seats left. Apparently they had overbooked and there were still quite a few people who still were waiting to get on the flight. They told Ashley to go ahead and get on the plane, but she told them she wasn't going to leave without me. So, she gave up her seat so that we could catch the next flight to Honolulu. They offered us free round-trip tickets to anywhere in the continental U.S. as compensation and gave us tickets for the American Airlines Honolulu flight leaving in two hours.

Ashley felt a little better after that since she was excited about the free tickets. We called my brother Aaron in Hawaii to let him know we would be coming in later than expected as we headed from the United Airlines terminal to American Airlines. We had to go through this long, empty, ominous hallway to get from one terminal to the other. It was kind of creepy since there was no on else in there. Of course we had to go through airport security again after we got our new tickets, then we waited for about another 2 hours before they changed the gate on us. Once we went to the new gate, they announced that they had to change planes, so everyone had to get new boarding passes for new seating assignments. At this point, we were starting to wonder if we would ever get to Honolulu, but we did get our boarding passes this time and eventually made the long journey to Hawaii.

The flight wasn't too bad, but since we came in later than anticipated, it was already dark when we arrived, so we didn't get to experience any cool sights on the first day. Aaron met us in baggage claim and gave us awesome leis. We had to go to the United baggage claim since our suitcases had gone before us, but that was easy since our bags were right there waiting for us.

Aaron drove us back to his apartment and he made us chicken and rice with mashed potatoes for dinner. It was delicious! After that we promptly went to bed after a long day of travel.