Hawaiian Vacation - Part V

It was our last full day in Hawaii and we still had a lot of things that we wanted to do.  We started out by going for a hike along Manoa Falls trail, a little north of Honolulu, to see a waterfall. 

The thick bamboo was remarkable.

It was a nice walk through lots of dense trees and interesting sites, but to tell the truth, I think we were expecting a little more water falling over the waterfall.  I'm not sure if it was just b/c of the time of year or if it was just from lack of rain, but there was no huge waterfall like we imagined there would be.  All in all, it was still a great hike and I'm glad we did it!

After hiking, we went back to the room, showered and changed (it was hot and muggy) and then headed out to see the battleship USS Arizona which was sunk during the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in WWII.  We learned some pretty interesting facts about that day and went out to the memorial where you could still see parts of the ship sticking above the water.

This submarine is the USS Bowfin, which was responsible for sinking over 20 Japanese cargo ships and 5 warships of the Japanese Imperial Navy. 

The USS Arizona memorial.  The platform straddles the sunken battleship.

Part of gun turret #3, still stands above the waterline though the ship rests on the harbor floor. 

Below is the USS Missouri "Mighty Mo" where the Japanese signed their surrender at the end of WWII.

After spending time at Pearl Harbor, we went back across Oahu and headed for Sandy Beach to play in the waves.

Here I am playing in the waves....they were huge but it was fun!

 

It doesn't seem like it would make you so tired, but I was exhuasted after only like 30 minutes.  It's hard work trying to swim in that crashing surf. 

Malisa didn't go in the water...she was too skeeered!! 

We had one more dinner left in Hawaii and we chose to go back to the Yardhouse, the place with all those beers on draught.  This time, I had to have the ribs which I had no chance of finishing and Malisa had salmon with some fried carrots and wasabi mashed potatoes. 

And finally, here was our last view of Hawaii as we were in the airplane on our way back to Massachusetts.  It was a great vacation!!!!

Hawaiian Vacation - Part IV

This is a repost of a blog from May 10th, 2007 which was originally on the social media website, Myspace.

The next day we really took it easy.  We started our morning at the gym once again and then moved out to the pool to lounge around.  We saw our friends from dinner a couple nights before, the two ladies that were at our table.  This time they were at the pool and doing water aerobics to 50's music.  They knew all the words!

We met another lady at the pool that recommended we go to this restaurant called The Yard House which was there on Waikiki.  We took her advice and headed over.  This place was great!  They had over 160 beers on draught!  You could order them by the pint or the yard in these big long glasses.  They had a keg room which was all refridgerated and then all the keg lines ran up into these pipes on the ceiling, 10 keg lines per pipe, which were also refridgerated.  These lines then ran to the taps themselves.  It was pretty impressive. 

We got friendly with the manager and she ended up buying us our appetizer which was pretty damn nice.  She also said that they're going to be opening another Yard House in Boston sometime in the next couple years.  I highly recommend it!

We ate fish for lunch and it was delicious.  I had the Ono and Malisa had the Mahi Mahi.  You could get it 3 different ways...she got hers blackened and I got mine covered with Macadamias.  Then they gave you some pesto, some white sauce that had a sort of lemon taste and some mango salsa to eat it with.  Yum!

After lunch we went to the U.S. Army Museum on the beach right next to the Hale Koa hotel.  It was pretty interesting and focused on Pearl Harbor and Hawaiians that have fought in ever war from WW II to the present.

After lunch and the museum, we walked back to the hotel and then did some shopping at the mall.  It was a nice mall, but very expensive with stores that pretty much only Paris Hilton could afford to shop at. 

 

Finally...we headed back to the hotel for more lounging around....sometimes it's nice to do nothing at all.

Hawaiian Vacation - Part III

This is a repost of a blog from May 9th, 2007.  It originally appeared on the social media website, Myspace.

The next day we decided that we'd just drive around the entire island of Oahu and check out the scenery.  It's not a very large island and we drove all the way around it in just a few hours.  We started at about 0800 and finished before 1400...and that included making plenty of stops along the way.  Here we are getting started on our trip...top down in the Jeep!

Below are some of the cool sights that we saw.  On one side of the road there were these great mountains from past volcanoes and on the other side, the beautiful blue Pacific.  The waves were hitting these rocks with incredible force, shooting spray about 30 feet up in the air.

I was proudly sporting the necklace I earned the night before from hula dancing my ass off...

We saw this cool little shrine along the way, but we weren't sure what it was for or to.  People placed all kinds of offerings on it, from leis to M&M's, and there was a lot of incense. 

 

The next beach we stopped at was Sandy Beach.  The waves here were amazing!  They were just like you see on TV when you watch a surfing competition.  The classic pipeline and clear, light blue water.  We didn't go in, but we'd revisit it a couple days later to try it out.

This little island was right off the Eastern coast of Oahu and was called "Chinaman's Hat".  There's a children's story behind it. 

Some more views of the island as we drove along.  More beaches and a small town..

This was actually a point of interest on our map.  It's a mormon temple.

We passed Turtle Bay and were on the Northwestern part of the island now.  This beach was Sunset Beach and is supposed to be famous for surfing and finding gorgeous people sunbathing.  I saw a few surfers and I know the latter part was true...*I* was there.  We did decide to take a break and do a little swimming here.  The water was perfect and we pretty much had the beach to ourselves until a couple tour buses showed up.

 

We continued on our way, taking a bunch of infamous self-photos along the way...come on...don't act like you don't do that crap too...  (Edit 19 JUL 2014 - We were taking selfies before selfies were cool).

We went through another small town and there were some people jumping off this huge rock into the ocean....it looked like a lot of fun. 

 

 

We stopped for lunch at this cool little place called the Waialua Bakery.  The food was delicious and they make their own bread right there each day.  While we were eating, we noticed a picture of Owen Wilson (I love that guy) behind Malisa.  Apparently he loves this place. 

After lunch it was pretty much a straight shot down the western side of Oahu back to Honolulu and Waikiki.  The Western side of the island was pretty much just farm country.  There were a lot of cattle and horses.  It looked like Western Mass with Palm Trees

After getting back to the hotel and resting up a bit, we decided to go out to dinner that night.

Fish face

Not fish face

We walked downtown to the restaurant that we wanted to eat at, but they said it would be like a 90 minute wait...we were starving, so we just went back to the hotel and ate at the restaurant downstairs called Bibas.  No wait...happy people...good food.

I tried my first Tahitian beer...it was great!