Catchin' Waves

This past week was our big trip to Hawaii. We spent a total of four nights in Honolulu/Waikiki, and four nights on the North Shore if Oahu. We spent a lot of time walking and exploring the first day. We spent a lot of time trying to find a good, local place to eat, but were disappointed that most everything was a chain that we had at home. We ended up at Arancino for lunch and McGillyCuddy's for dinner. The next morning, we headed to the North Shore for surf camp.

Our first day surfing was good, but I'll admit i was a bit disappointed at how small the waves were. We took a hike our first day on the North shore. Once we reached the top, we had panoramic views of Sunset Beach and Pipeline. From our condo, we could walk to Turtle Bay, and caught the sunset as we walked along the reef.

The next day, I was able to catch two waves on my own while surfing, which was exciting since that was one of the things we worked on at our last surf camp in Costa Rica. We went stand up paddleboarding that evening with the sea turtles. I was amazed at how many there were and had to make quite an effort to stay the required six feet away.

I was able to try a smaller board for the rest of the week, and I enjoyed having the challenge. It was a bit more wobbly, but I felt more comfortable by the end of the week. That night we went on a sunset catamaran ride, and after the ride we ate in town at Haliewa Joe's.

The next day we went for an early stand up paddleboard trip in the ocean.

We also went to the weekly farmer's market and had the most amazing ice cream sandwiches. Mine was lilikoi (passion fruit) ice cream with orange zest cookies.

We ended the day listening to live music at Turtle Bay while watching the sunset and drinking a Mai Tai.

Throughout the week, we also spent a lot of time at the pool hanging out and reading. We took yoga twice and had our first real massages. There was a photographer in the water with us on our final day surfing, so we were able to get some close up pictures.

Our first day back in Honolulu, we started the day at Pearl Harbor.

We had the opportunity to take a boat out to the Arizona, which was pretty interesting.

We spent the afternoon snorkeling with fish and sea turtles. We agreed that this was a highlight of the trip. The turtles were so close and there were tons of fish.

We did a ton of walking the next day on our excursion to Leonard's Bakery and Diamond Head Crater. Leonard's is known for their Portuguese Malasadas. We couldn't decide what to get, so we ordered one of each!

Our hike up Diamond Head was much busier than I expected, but we did manage to get a few pictures at the top.

We ended our last full day at the Paradise Cove Luau.

Overall, it was a nice trip, and I'm glad we had the experience of going.