Hawaii1:

Let's see...

We flew into Honolulu, HI and crashed in our hotel since we arrived pretty late. The next few days we relaxed and took some time exploring Honolulu. It's a pretty cool city with a loooot of shopping and a lot of beach. We were right across the street from the famous Waikiki beach.

This is the view from my parent's room balcony.

It was a fun place, though as one would expect the waves attract a lot of young people and the beach becomes one giant version of "the show" around midday. Maybe it's just my conservative worldview.

We spent a day at Pearl Harbor and saw the museum and memorial there.


(It was more sunny there than it appears)

One afternoon we hiked up Diamond Head peak. It was a short, one mile trail but it had a lot of features like steep steps and tunnels. From the top you had a pretty good view of a lot of the island including our hotel, a neat light house, and the beaches.

Come Sunday we rode out to Hanauma Bay which was beautiful. It's considered one of the best places to snorkel. I didn't see any sea turtles, but I saw a whole bunch of different fishies. They were very tropical looking with bright colors and strange shapes. I saw this one fish that had a silver body and a long, bright red beak. I'm not sure what the fish is called, but it was absolutely beautiful. The rest of that day we spent riding along the North Shore visiting beaches and eating shrimp cooked in a vendor truck parked on the side of the road. It was an ultra local thing to do, which was refreshing because of all the touristy things we'd been doing. The next day we boarded the boat, so onto the next chapter...