Trip to Hawaiian Paradise

So as some know that I went to Hawaii with my friend at the last minute. We were there for a week and what an awesome week it was!

We were lost for about 4 hours trying to find the hotel from our airport.. which should have been only 20 minutes away... the street signs were so small and confusing! Though we benefitted alot getting lost because we ended up knowing all the streets... and that happened when I opened my big mouth and said "Maybe when we get there, we can go out and drive around and get lost so we can learn the streets".. well it happened a bit sooner than I thought. I of course learnt to zip my big out after that because whatever I said kept coming true, believe it or not!

So we were in Oahu, Waikiki area... our cute little hotel was called Aqua Aloha Surf.. yes very funny name ain't it? The street we were on was Kanekapolei street... try saying that really fast... even we can't pronounce it!

Parking in our hotel cost an arm and a leg... luckily though there was a parking lot right next to it where we can pay 10 bucks for parking 5pm - 7am... people even cut us a deal and tried to help us out. We blended in very well and the locals assumed we were locals too. Only prob with that was that when they gave directions they gave it as if we knew what the heck they were saying...! Their directions were like "Keep going straight and turn left, then you keep doing past the tree and turn right" ahem... what tree? and what street name? I got quite frustrated driving, then I finally gave up and said... ah heck, you can't get lost in this place, it's just a giant loop!

We walked quite a bit too... we walked in the morning and the evening and liked to watch the other tourists.. We didn't do those tourist package crap because we were almost broke when we went there anyways...! But we did find our own fun, and met some new and interesting people. I'm telling you, I felt like I was finally in a place that feels like home with wonderful culture and people... and we felt really really safe.

We feasted on hole in the wall Korean, Japanese food places and they were yummy! We met a few people who came from Prague and what not who mentioned Astoria when we said we were from Oregon.. it was like WHOA..!

I spent majority of the time being around people that Roseby knew but hadn't met in person... and they were very welcoming and warm... We went for mainly a church thing, I'm not complaining, it was a wonderful experience.. a spiritual awakening as well. We went to a church called "Word of life christian church" and the music there was like watching a concert... They asked if there were people visiting there for the first time and when we stood up they put shell lei around us and hugged and kissed us... ROFL. The famous Preacher Jesse Duplantis was there as the guest and he was just simply captivating and hilarious! That's the first time I've ever seen him and that too in person was so awesome. We also went to another small church and that's where they do healing and deliverance prayers... A few people I met ended up praying for me and helped me with a few issues that's been bugging me since I was little. Now I feel peaceful and happy (just ask mom.. because when I came home, she had cleaned out my closet.. and I usually through a fit and a big tantrum if anyone were to mess with my stuff.. but all I said was that she was nuts didn't raise my voice at all... imagine that!).

We didn't hangout as much in Waikiki beach area ( I was so surprised to find the Zoo right there! but didn't go there).. We would wing it wherever we went and it was always fun. It taught me to stop being so uptight because to an extent I liked planning things out, but I knew it wasn't going to be that way the minute we got our tickets at 10pm the night before we had to go to Hawaii.. talk about spontaneous! I've never done that in my life.

Anyways... many of the people we met would tell us to check out a certain beach away from the crazy crowd and that's what we wanted.. We went down to North shore and hung out there the whole day and caught the sunset... woow! and the drive there was just breathtaking. The next day we went to South shore and that too was breathtaking.. We hung out at Lanikai beach till 6 before we hawled back to the airport to head back to good old Oregon with sand still suck on our butts and what not!.

The place reminded me of being in Maldives and Sri lanka all at once... a very very clean version and a very SAFE version too. I'd love to move my butt over there and live there but it's just too expensive.

We had a very bumpy ride back home.. 5.5 hours of shaking and rattling... and got greeted by 33 degrees cold and fog and shivered all the way home LOL! The coldest the winter gets is apparently 70 something degrees and that's just perfect.. I mean when was the last time you were outside 6 in the morning with just a tank top and shorts on waiting for the sunrise????? Or out and about 11:30 at night in your tanks and shorts getting some good old Koren food for the soul?

I had a blast waking up early to go watch the sunrise... though only 2 days I saw the sun come up and that was a bit boring because without any clouds.. the colors kinda stink. Caught the sunset only twice.. not complaining..! :) All in all.. it was just a fantabulous 1 week.. and we had a hard time leaving the place.. but I was ready to come back home though because I missed my family.. but not ready to face our wonderful Oregon weather =P

Heh...

I filled up 2 - 8 gigs of memory card with pics.. being a photo nut of course it's going to be this and that I see.. I've processed SOME pics... but it will take me forever to process the other stuff haha...

Here are some pics, and will keep adding more whenever I feel like it... I also put some pics here Merino & Roseby's Hawaiian Trip

Few pics from South Shore