Hawaii Day 1 and 2

Our flight left at 6:30 am, so we left our hotel in Portland at 4:00am - so of course I didn't sleep hardly at all the night before.  Amazingly, we made our flight, and made our connecting flight in San Fransisco.  I could not believe it!  I was actually going to go to Hawaii!!! I was freaking out the whole plane ride there. 

When we got to the airport we were greeted by Hans and Jodi who gave us some fun Hawaiin necklaces.  I wish I got a picture!  It was so fun to see them.  They picked us up, we grabbed a bite to eat and headed to the White Planes Beach where Darren was determined to learn to surf.  He and Hans rented surf boards and I layed on the beach.  It was so nice to not have to worry about a baby or toddler drowning in the ocean. 

That night Hans and Jodi treated us to dinner at a fun restaurant called Monkey Pod.  I could have sworn we got a picture of all of us- but I can't find it.

The 2nd day we got up early to go snorkeling. We went to a spot called Paradise Cove.  It looks pretty simple from the surface, but underwater there were all sorts of amazing fish! It was also pretty protected from the ocean by a bunch of rocks,  so it was nice snorkeling.

This is Hans.  He is a Jag.  Which means he is a lawyer for the military.  He really enjoys his job.  They have lived all sorts of places, South Korea, Vegas, and now Hawaii.  He and Jodi were great hosts driving us all over the place taking us to the best spots on Oahu.

Have I mentioned that snorkeling is one of my favorite things to do?  I love it. I loved this cool trumpet fish or something like that.  I saw a huge variety of fish is this tiny little area. 

This was a Sea Cucumber.  We weren't sure what it was when we picked it up- I thought it might be garbage or something, but then it squirted me and stuck to Paul's hand and he couldn't let go of it.  It was hilarious, it had microscopic suction cups all over the outside of it.  Sea creatures are fascinating!!

Here's a dead crab shell we found in the tide pools.

Paul slipped on some slippery rocks exploring the tide pools. He hit his shin really hard, like could have broken his leg hard.  It also cut it deep.  It was bleeding almost constantly the rest of the trip.  He still has  huge scab on his shin.  I was so grateful it wasn't more serious. He was brave and didn't whine or complain.



One of the tops things I wanted to do in Hawaii was snorkel with a sea turtle.  Out of all the snorkeling I've done- I've never seen a sea turtle while I was in the water!  Hans brought us to this sight where they always see Sea turtles.  We didn't see one that morning so we were packing up our stuff to leave when I saw one in the water- right by the shore! Like in water that was 2 feet deep!  I grabbed my snorkel gear, dropped everything else, and yelled to Paul and Darren.  We all got in the water and watched the turtle swim around.  That turtle had no fear of humans, and kept swimming really close to us! We would try to keep our distance, but it would come right up to us and look at us like it was checking us out.  Then it would swim right under us.  It was amazing to see such a beautiful sea turtle!

After snorkeling we headed to the stadium flea market.  It was great.  Hans and Jodi told us it would have the best prices for souvenirs.  They were right.  We found all sorts of fun things to take home to the kids.  I got almost all my souvenir shopping done in an hour!

Then we headed to the North Shore for some more snorkeling.  We stopped and had lunch at this yummy food truck.  It was probably the best shrimp I have ever had.

If you haven't heard, Hawaii has wild chickens everywhere.  I like it and think it's so fun to see them everywhere.  This is Paul and Han's daughter- either Audry or Lizzy, they look almost identical and it's hard for me to tell them apart.

After lunch we headed up to the North Shore snorkeling areas: Three tables and Sharks Cove.  The traffic was really bad.  It was stop and go for about 45 min.  We made it there and set up our stuff.  The snorkeling there was amazing!  I saw a few more sea turtles, and all sorts of beautiful fish.  This is a picture of an eel we saw eating a dead fish. We watched it for a while before it headed back out to deeper water. 

Shaved Ice is pretty big in Hawaii.  The stands are everywhere.  And we tried pretty much everyone we saw.  We had to decide which one was the best!

We stopped at this food stand that a guy from my High School opened.  I had seen it on Facebook and recognized the food truck.  We had dinner here and it was delicious!  I was quickly learning I would probably be eating fish, shrimp or fish tacos for the next week.  I didn't mind- I loved it.  I only wish I could have eaten more sushi- but was trying to be careful because of my pregnancy.

We stopped at Pipeline Beach after dinner and watched the sunset.  It was the end to an amazing day.