Oahu, part one of our trip to Hawaii

We had such a fabulous time in Hawaii. We flew out early in the morning so we could have more time in Paradise.

Us on the airplane

We stayed on Oahu in Waikiki for the first part of the trip. After we got situated at our condo, we took the short walk down to Waikiki beach and walked from the Outrigger Reef down the beach towards Diamond Head. It felt so nice to finally be in Hawaii. It was a beautiful day and the warm air smelled like plumeria. I love it there SO much. It just feels like home to me. We walked farther then we ever have, past the Duke Kahanamoku statue all the way down to Kapi-olani beach and the tide fed pool. We walked down to the end of the pier that forms one side of the pool and sat down, just enjoying the aftenoon.

The view of the canal from our lani.

Me on the lani.

The view from the top floor of our building, where the pool deck and hot tub are is amazing. You have a 360* view of Honolulu with Waikiki beach, the Ala Moana canal, the city, the mountains, and Diamond Head. It is especially beautiful at night with all of the stars shining on the ocean!

The Pink Lady and Waikiki from the roof.

Waikiki

The Canal and Diamond Head Crater.
Diamond Head
The Mountains

That evening we walked through the International Marketplace and stopped to listen to the steel drum band that plays there. I bought one of their cd's last year. I love to listen to them, but this time they didn't have any cd's, which was a bummer! We walked all around the Waikiki shopping district, enjoying the scenery and the beautiful night. Before dinner we decided it wold be fun to go inside the Moana Surfrider (the first hotel on Waikiki beach). We took a self-guided tour and wandered around absorbing all of the amazing architecture and reading the articles posted on the walls upstairs.

The Moana Surfrider.

Me on the balcony of the Moana Surfrider.
A beautifully carved column at the Moana.
Mike on the staircase.

The Moana was so beautiful! We had dinner reservations at Dukes at 8:00, so after we done at the Surfrider we headed over to Dukes in the Outrigger hotel on the beach to see if our table was ready. I had the fameous cesar salad and taro rolls, and Mike had a seafood thing that was really good. After dinner we had a romantic walk on the beach. It was the perfect way to end the day:)

Dinner at Dukes

My first Blue Hawaii of the trip :)

The next day we scheduled a bus tour that went to some LOST locations and other points of interest. First we took a drive to our favorite ice cream shop on the island. On the way we stopped at a few of the scenic viewpoints a few miles past Hanauma Bay.

The beautiful Pacific, just past Hanauma Bay.

Dave's Ice Cream, our favorite little local spot.

Me with Kona Coffee and Coconut and Mike with Mudslide icecream.

After Ice cream we drove back to Waikiki and met up with our tour. The tour guide was like one of those nature guys with their own tv show where they go out into the jungle and build a hut to live in and go fishishing with bamboo poles they made themselves, complete with hooks they carved from shells. He was intense! But we got to see some places where episodes of LOST were filmed, so I still enjoyed myself. :)

A clif at the edge of a pool of water (If you lool closely, you can see some people at the top. They were jumping in!) This was the place where Kate and Sawyer went for a swim and Kate found her luggage under some plane wreckage in the water.

We also visited this really cool place with amazing views (unfortunately I forget what it is called). It was up really high on a cliff (apparently a major battle took place here in ancient Hawaii where an army was driven over the cliff. Gross) and it was amazingly windy there, but the views were fantastic!

The view out to the ocean.

The view of the Kualoa Mountain range was breathtaking!

A closer up view of the coast and Chinaman's hat (the island).
My hair going wild because of the crazy wind!

The tour group heading back to the bus.

After we got back into Waikiki from the tour we grabbed a really late lunch and walked down the the beach. I love walking on the beach!! Because of the late lunch, we weren't really hungry at dinner time, so we just went back to Dukes and had Kemo's famous Hula Pie, my absolute favorite desert ever!!!! If you are ever in Honolulu you have to go to Dukes and try it!!! It alone is worth the flight over from the mainland!

Mike and the Hula pie. YUM!!

The next morning we went sailing. While we waited for the boat we had the breakfast bar at the Shorebird in the Outrigger Reef. The coconut pound cake was really good (though a strange breakfast choice) as was the bread pudding, but my favorite, of course, was the fresh pineapple. I can not get enough of it. It is sooooo good!

The inside of the Shorebird. Note the bird...

The view of Waikiki beach from the Shorebird Barefoot Bar and Restaurant. :)
After breakfast was sailing!!! Mike and I absolutely love to sail. They took us out pretty far and let us all dive in and snorkel. It was awesome. There were so many sea turtles! There was even a baby one. It was so cute! There were lots of neat fish too. The were feeding them, so there were lots of them swimming all around us. It was so much fun. Mike especially liked it. He loves to snorkel!

Us on the sailboat!
Mike

A view of Waikiki beach and the Pink Lady (the second oldest hotel in Waikiki).

Diamond Head.

The Diamond Head Lighthouse.
Heading back to shore.

We had so much fun sailing! After wandering through the outdoor International Marketplace, we took a trolley to Hilo Hattie's. We had never been before and Stephanie said it was a cool shop, so we decided to check it out. It had good prices and I bought a few things, but it was just a store and because of the stop we didn't get to finish the hike we went on afterward.

Waiting for the trolley to pick us up at Hilo Hattie's.

A cute little bird we were feeding banana chips in the parking lot at Hilo Hattie's.

When we finally got back from Hilo Hattie's, we took the Moana falls trail and were going to hike to the falls, but it started to get dark before we reached the falls, so we had to turn back. Since this was our last day in Oahu for this trip we didn't have a chance to go back, but we will go next time because it was really beautiful. There is this stream that winds all around and you have to keep crossing it to stay on the trail. There were also lots of ginger blossems growing all over the place that smelled wonderful! Since we didn't get to finish our hike, Mike drove us out to Kailua beach, and went for a moonlit walk. The sand was powder fine and we walked barefoot in the surf and kissed. It was a beautiful end to our last day on Oahu. :)
Check back for pictures of our time on the Big Island.