So once Kyle and I were done with our 9-5 jobs, we decided to have a little fun! You see, Kyle's friends, Tyler and Janna West and their new baby Lilia, are stationed for the Airforce in O'ahu, Hawaii, so we thought we would be so kind to come and see them. It was really the least we could do. So once we got there, it was about midnight Mountain time so we were really tired and went to sleep and woke up quite early that next day. We were very privileged on this trip because since Tyler is in the Military, we got to make it to all of the cool things that most tourists don't get to see. Our first day we got to take a special Naval tour of Pearl Harbor. We got to see the Arizona Memorial, which we learned so much about. There are 7 holes on each of the sides of this memorial, and also on the top representing the 21 gun salute. And the curvature of it represents initial defeat, and the higher sides represents the overall victory. We were also able to see the USS Utah Memorial which is closed to public access because the island it is on (Ford Island) is an active Navy Base so its the "Forgotten Memorial".
After this wonderful excitement, we went to the Swap Meet, which is pretty much a huge Flee Market. We got all of our souvenirs here because everything is so cheap. We then went out to dinner at Hale'iwa Joe's. Which is a very nice restaurant. And just an FYI, Hale'iwa is a huge surfing town in O'ahu, which is the same hometown that Jack Johnson is from!
The second day was a little more relaxing. We went on a hike to Manoa Falls, which the Hawaiian name for this means "trickling water", and then we went on a drive with our hosts around the South Shore of O'ahu. We went to a cool little beach park and bbq-ed dinner and went boogie boarding. The third day we were a little more adventurous. We got up around 4:30 and hiked the 'Stairway to Heaven'. Its 3,922 steps to the top that was originally built for the military satellite. In the beginning they had like a wooden ladder, which would be freaky. But then they replaced those with a wooden staircase, which you can see parts of off the side of the trail you are on now. But now they have these steel steps that are so sturdy, but still a little scary since the staircase is on a ridge with drop offs on both sides. But still its very cool. We went with Tyler and his friend. Now we woke up that early because technically its trespassing
hiking these stairs. They put a Rent-a-cop out there to turn people away. Normally they don't cite you, but they can. Once we got down to the bottom, the guard was talking to us, and come to find out, he hiked these stairs a week before on his day off. Well once we were done with that we went home and slept, my legs were shaking so much that all I could do is lay down. But after that we did go snorkeling and saw the prettiest fish ever! We had dinner on the beach and watched the sunset. The fourth day we decided that we would go surfing, since we were in Hawaii we might as well right? So we had really good teachers, Janna and Tyler. Of course Janna couldn't come out there with us, but she coached us from the shore. So we paddled out there and figured out that surfing takes patience. Its not like snowboarding where you can go whenever you want, you have to wait for a good wave and hopefully it will be strong enough to take you far enough to work up the courage to stand up. A couple times we would catch a wave and wait a while to stand up, and by then the wave would die out. So it ended up that we were kind of boogie boarding on surf boards. But all in all we had fun. I quit when a guy accidentally ran over me with his surfboard, and Kyle had to stay out there until he caught a good wave, because he loves to end things on a good note. So we came in and Tyler wanted to go and catch some good waves. We then went home and rested.
The fifth day was Sunday so we went to church which we got to experience how great and different church is than it is in Utah. I loved going there. Kyle was also able to help Tyler bless their new baby. We then went for a drive to Punchbowl Cemetery. This is where thousands of soldiers are buried. This was a cool experience. The sixth day we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center which was so cool. Its hard to describe but we got to experience 6 different cultures of the Polynesians. Our very favorite was the Samoan culture. Not that the others weren't fun, this is just where we stayed the longest and they had the funniest shows. But we went to get some shaved ice between going to all the villages and the night show. The Luau was sold out so we had to find dinner on our own. So we first went to Mossumoto's for shaved ice then to a Thai place right next to it. We normally wouldn't eat dessert before dinner if it was up to Kyle, but the dessert place closed before the dinner place. We then went to the night show and that was so cool seeing all the different cultures preform for us. We also got to see the Hawaiian Laie Temple, we didn't have the opportunity to go do work there but we got to drive around it. The seventh day, our last day there, we went Kayaking in the ocean. This was really fun, hard, but fun! We kayaked out to an island and back. This was pretty much the only day where I got really burned. We put sunscreen on before we went, then put it on again before we came back from the island. However one -just one- of my legs got fried. So either the sun just really likes that leg, or we forgot to put it on that leg, it's all a mystery really. But we got to come back to Tyler and Janna's house and eat an awesome dinner before we had to catch our plane ride home. It was a great trip and fun to see our friends again. We had a blast! Check out our pictures!
