Spring Break- Saturday the end

 Day 8

Saturday April 6

My second goal after a sunset was to watch a sunrise. So Charlotte got up early with me the last morning and we headed off to the beach. We just barley missed it coming over the water but got to see it before it went hiding behind the clouds. I am so grateful for this whole trip and everything I got to see and do. I would be okay coming back to Hawaii someday and doing it all over again. The beauty amazes me every moment I experience something new. The last morning as I walked along in the water I was able to just spend that time thinking and it was wonderful.

As the sun started to come up I felt like a vampire or something because I could feel every ray of sunshine beat down on my sunburn. I had to get out of the sun quick!

This is the jellyfish that stung Charlotte just before we left!

Goodbye Hawaii, hopefully not for forever!

Spring Break- Friday

Day 7

Friday April 5

We were outside almost all the time on normal days but since we were driving around on mopeds all day I was even more exposed to the sun than normal...and you will see the effects it had on my later!

I was really excited for riding around on mopeds, but it was probably my least favorite thing we did, which isn't terrible considering everything was fantastic! But sometimes I don't even like driving in a car because it can be stressful. so I am not sure why I thought I would like even less security. It also didn't help for me that we were driving on a really busy road. Anyway besides the fact of me freaking out while driving we drove partially around the island and went to and Sandy's Beach. We had heard of if because of the awesome waves that are there and wanted to check it out. I will say the drive there along the coast was a beautiful view.

Doesn't the flag in the back scream tourist! And the fact that I am wearing a helmet because no one does, but I was too scared for my life!

We finally made it to Sandy's Beach and it was beautiful! After seeing the waves though I was convinced I was not going in. Luckily Charlotte talked me out of that idea and into the water. She let me warm up to the gigantic waves by working our way in and really we just had to get past breaking point and we were fine. I thought about trying to body surf but these waves were real rough and would have tossed me around A LOT! Usually I just ducked under them when heading toward us, Charlotte on the other hand got caught in one and got thrown to shore. I just continued to hang out in the water but before I knew it I was super far out from the beach. The cool thing about it was as I looked around there were 3 sea turtles around me. But I started freaking out and swam in as quick as I could and that took way too much effort against those waves. Charlotte was still recovering from hitting the beach hard so we decided to take a break, chill out in the sand at a point where the waves barely reached us, or so we thought. A couple times we were not prepared and got washed back out because of the force of the wave. We really just sat there and talked for a long time which was the main death of me I think. Luckily I had my surf shirt on so my shoulders and back did not get sunburnt at all! GO ME!

I love this picture above of us on the beach! And below Katie caught a girl body surfing perfectly! Can you find her head?!

The place was full of locals but we felt pretty good out there with them for a while, but they are used to this stuff.

This was a lookout we stopped at while riding along the coast! I love the beauty of Hawaii!

We also stopped at some tide pools to look for some wildlife. They were really neat looking.

Finally we headed over to the aquarium for our long awaited adventure of swimming with dolphins. Although when we got there we realized we weren't really swimming with them in the sense that you hold on and they take you for a ride. Really we just stood in the water and danced with them, kissed them, and they kissed us. Then watched them do some cool tricks and that was it. The whole thing really was still a lot of fun. And our dolphin was a movie star with Adam Sandler in 50 First Dates!

This is why you should wear pants riding around in Hawaii and probably not sit for an hour on the beach watching the waves. Looking back now I cringe in pain remembering what this felt like. Luckily enough time has gone by that I am only suffering from massive peeling now. My arms looked the same if not worse than this. Again I am grateful that I was wearing my surf shirt.  Can you tell I had my feet buried in the sand!

One of my main goals while in Hawaii was to see a sunset and sunrise. With all the running around we did everyday it was hard to catch either one. So after riding back into town to return our mopeds we made one last stop at the beach and popped a squat to watch the fantastic sunset. It was a Friday night and lots of boats were out to watch it as well.

This picture is definitely my favorite with the sailboats right by the sun! AH Nature is so beautiful!

Spring Break- Thursday

Day 6

Thursday April 4

I've mentioned how we get pretty tired after these long fulfilling days we are having, well today was the longest and most tiring. Not only being out in the sun all day, but we were walking all day, and were up at 5:30am and got home at 10:30! Well what did we fill our day with do you ask....

It started in line at Pearl Harbor. We were told that if you don't get there early you probably won't get a ticket to go out to the USS Arizona. So we got there 45 minutes before it opened and got some great tickets. The reason you need tickets is because you go in a theater and watch a movie about Pearl Harbor and then you take a boat out to the memorial. What I didn't know was that they built the memorial over the actual sunken ship. I learned a lot about what happened that day that I did not learn in school. After the ship sunk there were about 900 men still on the boat that they could not retrieve. They deemed it their final resting place and it is considered a very sacred cemetery. Men who survived but want to be buried with their ship now can as they are cremated and a diver go in and releases their ashes. The other neat thing is that the ship still has oil in it and they will not go in and remove it because that would be altering the ship which they are not allowed to do. So slowly every day less than a quart of oil is released into the sea until it all runs out. 

 This picture above is really cool to me because it is President Roosevelt's first draft of his speech. His famous line, "a date which will in infamy." Really started out as a day that will live in American history. I am glad he changed it because it sounds so much cooler.

After spending the morning at Pearl Harbor we loaded back into the car and drove to the Dole Plantation. This is apparently a must see for everyone that goes to Oahu, but I think it also helps if you like pineapple and I don't! My friends all got the famous pineapple ice cream and I tried it and still don't like pineapple.

We felt a little like sponge-bob square pants who lives in a pineapple under the sea...

We did not spend much time there because the main attraction for the day was yet to come. We headed over the to Polynesian Cultural Center.  This was a place we were all a little excited for because we had heard so many great things.. and they did not disappoint. Also because what is sexier than a nice Polynesian man!?

 They put on really great shows that kept us laughing throughout the whole things. That man is really good at climbing trees, he went up like a monkey!

 The Tonga show was probably the best because of this man from Japan. He had not a clue what he was doing but it made for a funny show. There was also a guy from Canada and one from US. They had to finish the Tongan's beat that was a familiar pattern, but none of them were understanding yet somehow the whole crowd knew and were trying to help them. The Japanese man here was supposed to give him a high five and instead he slapped him in the chest hard! The Tongan guy had no idea what was going on, but again it was really funny for the rest of us.

 There is a boat show every afternoon which has all the countries come out on a boat and they do a little performance. They were all so good.

 One of my favorite things in the islands was we learned how to make this fish out of a bamboo leaf! He even goes fishing if you pull back and can fling him forward. He entertained me for a long time.

After a long day of walking around the best part was upon us! The LUAU! At the PCC you can stay and have dinner and a show and then go to another big show at the end of the night. Of course we signed up for the luau, we had to go to at least one being in Hawaii! We also got our first real flower lei's which was so exciting...they smelled so good!

Before dinner started they had dancers going and we had really great seats right in front of a stage. I love the big bow looking thing the man is wearing!

I am glad they showed us who we ate after we were already done. I have had pig before and this was not my favorite. The purple roll on the other hand was simple delicious. I have no clue why it is purple, but we were a little worried at first.

After the awesome luau we went to the show HA Breathe of Life. It was about a boy growing up in the different islands of Polynesian and how they would raise a son. There was mostly dancing and amazing fire throwing skills going on. I wish I could have taken pictures but that was not allowed.