DAY 3 (finally!): my dad still had part of his conference in the morning, so mom, the boys, and I hiked Diamond Head. it wasn't a really strenuous hike because most of it was paved, and if a Japanese tourist could hike that thing in platform shoes, then anyone could. it was very windy and on the way back, I lost my hair tie. but it had a gorgeous view.
typical shot with tourists
after the very strenuous hike, we went back to the apartment, the boys watched TV, and Mom and I went shopping. then we had to pick up Dad from the conference, and our next stop was Pearl Harbor! I feel like I was the only one really excited about this because I'm a history enthusiast. my very favorite unit (ok, maybe besides Europe) in AP world history was the World Wars unit. since there are many Japanese tourists in Hawaii as earlier stated, I didn't expect a lot of them to be at Pearl Harbor because....they were the ones who bombed it. but then again, we were the Americans at the Japanese World War II museums in Tokyo. there were more American tourists (including one of Justin's friends), but there were also plenty of our Japanese friends. it was very windy so we weren't able to go on the model of the U.S. Arizona, but we were able to go inside a submarine from WWII! our favorite audio tour guides made a return (a highlight from England and New York ), and it was so interesting to see how they lived and fought. Justin asked why the ship didn't have any windows. I told him it's a submarine, they are underwater and there isn't much to see. when we were finished with the submarine, we exchanged our audio tour guide for another audio tour guide, this time in the submarine museum. by this time, Mom and the boys were getting a bit impatient, but Dad and I wanted to spend as much time as we could learning about submarine warfare.
return of the audio tour guides
listening to their guided tour
outside the USS Bowfin
(I edited this so it looks good)
DAY 4: a day full of snorkeling, safety videos, driving, wind, teriyaki burgers, discovering unknown facts about my father, more driving, more safety videos, sea kayaking, getting lost, almost getting shipwrecked, abandoning the group, sitting on the beach, getting sand in places that shouldn't have sand in them, and more!
nothing will do justice for how awesome Hanama Bay was. we don't have any cool underwater cameras, so you will just have to trust us and believe me when I saw we saw a lot of fish. when I was little, my parents got me a picture book about different kinds of fish, and I recognized at least half of them from that book. it was amazing. if you look at the ocean from the surface, you can't see anything. no one would think there are any fish in there. but when you actually go snorkeling in it, it is like a whole new world. I probably said that in my part 1 post, but holy crap there was SO MUCH MORE FISH here than at Shark's Cove. it got really windy and the currents were getting strong after a little bit, so we only spent like..an hour ish(?) snorkeling, but it was beautiful.
we drove for a bit, stopped at some lookouts, enjoyed the scenery, listened to Crowded House, and then we found a really good teriyaki burger place called Teddy's. all week I'd wanted a juicy, delicious teriyaki burger with pineapple on it, but for some reason, there was nothing in Waikiki that offered anything like that. I was so happy to finally get my burger. most of us ordered the same thing, except my dad ordered some Swiss burger with mushrooms on it. I asked why he didn't get the traditional Hawaiian one, and he said, "I don't like pineapple." well, this was a shock to all of us, especially my mom. she couldn't believe she had been married to him for 21 years but had no idea that he didn't like pineapple. you learn new things every day!
our next phase of our adventure was the sea kayaking phase. we went to some kayak shop in Kailua Bay (which is where Obama likes to visit on holiday), and watched a really long safety video that claimed that it would only take 15-30 minutes to kayak to the island we were trying to reach. Mom and I shared a kayak, Dad and Justin shared another one, and Wesley had one all to himself. some really kind Japanese man launched us from the beach, and we started paddling towards the island. however, the wind was a lot stronger than we expected, and we spent 15 minutes going in circles. well, at least Mom and I did. somehow, the boys were able to fight the strong winds and actually make headway. after a near encounter with seasickness and more spinning around in circles, Mom and I decided to turn around. and in less than one minute, the wind just blew us straight back to shore. at least a half mile from where we were originally launched. Mom and I had our cameras, so the boys weren't able to take any pictures on the island. we were on the beach for about an hour watching kite surfers do tricks and (of course) staring at the ocean! when the boys returned from their island adventure, they made fun of us and said we were sissies and we gave up, but we had such a good time watching kite surfers and it would've taken us an hour to get to that stupid island!
kite surfers
shaka
I peed while this was taken
after getting teased by all the boys, we headed back, just in time to watch the sunset. I'd been in Hawaii for 5 (counting the day we arrived) days, and had never seen a Hawaiian sunset. it was either raining, or we were stuck inside doing something else. but mom and I took a walk to the beach and got some amazing pictures. but even these pictures don't do any justice for how beautiful it is. you have to go there yourself and see it with your own eyes!
DAY 5 (FINALLY): I like to erase the morning part from my brain. basically, my parents were freaking out trying to pack this place up, Justin was singing "Need You Tonight" by INXS nonstop, we lost a key, Wesley wasn't feeling great, and it took forever to find our car. it would be a day full of driving and hiking and eating shrimp and driving and driving and going to the airport. sounds great, right? I love gorgeous scenery, but I don't like getting stuck in a car all day. our hike was gorgeous until it started raining on us. the shrimp was amazing, until the wind came and it started raining. and our last lookout place? that just pretty much sucked, because it was raining on us and we all got muddy.
no one wanted to be in this picture
I didn't want to take this picture
Justin didn't want to be in this picture (he did have underwear on in this one. he was probably unhappy about being in the car all day instead)
Laie point
we arrived at the airport sometime in the evening. we had about an hour and a half before our flight came. we were obviously not dressed for Utah weather, so some people (Dad) changed in the parking lot, some changed in the car, and the sensible ones (Mom and I) changed in the airport bathroom and wiped off all the mud we got from hiking in the rain. this flight was one of the most depressing flights I'd ever been on. first of all, it was a red-eye and the AC was on full power all night. second of all, Mom wasn't being very courteous and wanted to read a book, so all the lights were off except for her seat, and this wasn't a nice subtle light. this light would blink on and off every 5 seconds. but the worst was the seat quality. I've been on several long flights, many longer than this one. I've endured through many discomforts, but these seats were literally filled with rocks. I did sleep for maybe 2 hours (a new record for an airplane!), but I woke up with the worst numb bum I'd ever experienced. my back hurt, my neck hurt, and I was really sad that I was actually on my way back to Salt Lake and I wouldn't be in paradise anymore. getting off that plane was a relief, but it was very depressing. as soon as we walked outside to the shuttle, it was snowing. all I had on was a light jacket, yoga pants, and Converse. not the warmest option. our van was buried in snow, and we had to just stand outside and freeze while Dad scraped the snow off. (what a saint. also the only one to have gloves with him.) we were all so jet lagged, we slept the entire drive back to Provo. it took a while to get used to the crappy weather, and I still want to go back. I always will. as much as I loved England and New York and all the other places I've been, I have never been so sad to leave a vacation. the weather was perfect, the scenery was gorgeous, and I was able to get a tan. it was the best way to ever spend winter vacation, and I better save my money because I don't know if I can handle another Christmas break in Provo after this!
