21 June, 2018

My Vacation in Hawaii

Aloha!

It's been a while since my last post. I have a reason for that! And it's not because I forgot. But because I was on vacation!

For two weeks, I got to enjoy the relaxing atmosphere in Hawaii, on the island of Oahu. It was my second visit and just like the first, I felt charmed and thankful to be on the island. There's a culture there that has survived one way or another on the island and hearing/seeing it never got old. And the food! Oh my gawd. I had the best banana bread on a street-side fruit stand. It was ono.

If you ever get the chance to visit, don't hesitate! You won't regret it. (Just make sure you have a jacket with you for when you go into Safeway. XD)

That being said, this trip started off...interesting. Living in Florida, it would have made sense for me to fly to the west coast for a layover before heading all the way over to Oahu. BUT! My cousin was flying in from Germany. So we tried our best to meet at one airport like we did last time and then fly over together. And like last time, we tried for the Seattle airport. Silly me, flew to Los Angeles to Seattle to Honolulu. I thought it would be okay. Since my cousin would be with me for the last leg.

Come to my surprise as mother-dearest drives me to the airport, my cousin messages me and says that her plane was delayed. Then later, once I get to L.A. and turn my phone on, she says she got taken off of our Seattle flight. She tried to get sent back, but apparently her seat was taken already.

Now, while disappointed, I was still kinda hopeful that my flight to Honolulu would go well.

Silly me.

The person who ended up next to me smelled badly and kept leaning toward me. For six-ish hours I sat there, wishing the plane would go faster...or something.

Had to wait an extra hour for my cousin to finally land, but once there, we whisked her to my brother's car and left for his house!

The next week was so relaxing and low key. Pool visits and a few trips to the beach were very nice. We even had a catamaran ride where there were All-You-Can-Drink drinks. The best kind of drinks with a beautiful sunset on the ocean. We made it out to the Dole Plantation where you can find Dole Whip. You have not yet lived the pineapple dream until you've had Dole Whip.

I'm not joking.

Moving on...the second week started off, well I really don't know how to explain it. To put it bluntly, I fell into a dishwasher and got stabbed by two steak knives. The ER trip was quick and painless (pun intended) and didn't slow us down one bit on our vacation.

In fact, a couple of days later, I was stuck in a car for practically eight hours (give or take). The four of us decided to use the Shaka Guide app that uses your GPS location to take you on a tour with your own car. It was loads of fun and took us to places we wouldn't have thought to stop at! I strongly recommend the app! To my understanding, they have an option for quite a few of the islands. (Unpaid recommendation :))

But before we went on our Shaka Tour, we found ourselves in a theater watching Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson impersonators after our luau. I'm still not sure what Michael Jackson has to do with Hawaii...

And to ensure we ended the trip with a great time, we did Harry Potter trivia night at Honolulu Beerworks. I shined like a lightbulb crafted by our very own sun in Round One.

So yeah. Hawaii was a blast. It had it's high moments and its low ones (and I'm not talking about my trip to the ER. That was actually a rather amusing time!!), but Hawaii is definitely a place worth visiting.

Good luck with the H-1 and mahalo!
#SaveOurToya