Hawaii!

Trav and I have been talking about traveling to Hawaii for ages now... and finally a few months back, Trav jumped on a flight sale and bought us some tickets! We left a week and a half ago (on Thursday), and spent the most amazing week on the island of Oahu!

Its so amazingly gorgeous... and the sun is so hot! Lol. We had beautiful weather the whole time - temps hovering in the 80s - with only a few rain showers, none of which lasted more then an hour at max. 

We made no plans before we flew down. Seriously, none! We were staying at an AirB'n'B, and had booked a car through Turo, so we figured we'd just wing it. It worked great! We went to beaches on the North Shore, both the Leeward and Windward sides of the island, and on the last night walked on a beach in the south (Waikiki).

 We headed to Pearl Harbor, and talked with Gwen about that piece of history...

We also happened to be there at just the right time to head to Honolulu Pride!! 

We swam, hiked, ate so much amazing food, and built a fairy house. 

We loved Diamond Head trail, and the Lighthouse Trail. We got stuck in the mud on Ahuimanu Trail, but enjoyed it just the same! 

Trav and Gwen caught an amazing sunrise one day (she never fully adjusted to the time change)... and we caught some lovely partial sunsets from behind some mountains.

We ate so much shaved ice, got to try Dole Whip (from the actual Dole Plantation!), ate spam and musubi. We ate the most amazing fresh fruit from roadside stands, and drank coconut water from an ice cold, freshly opened coconut. We loved squid lomi, chicken and long rice... but weren't huge fans of poi.

(Baby pineapples are so cute!)

We ate macadamia nuts fresh off the tree that we cracked ourselves, and drank pineapple smoothies from inside the pineapple it was created from. 

We got tanned, Trav got burnt. We saw a million adorable little lizards, tons of beautiful birds, a pod of dolphins swimming... and finally on a boat cruise on our last day, sea turtles!!

We drove pretty much the whole of the island, heading up and down, to both sides, and crisscrossing all around.  

We ate mochi, sno-capped our shaved ice and drizzled it with liliquoi syrup, added azuki beans, and tried malasadas so fresh they burned our lips (the one stuffed with coconut custard was my favorite!). Food really is my favorite way to explore a new place! 

 Before we knew it, it was the end of our last day there and we were heading to the airport.

Hawaii is so amazingly gorgeous (and there are still other islands to explore!), and I hope we get back again some day!