Hawaii Week 1: Adventures in Oahu

Aloha from Hawaii! In case you didn't already know this, we are living in Hawaii this month. Since we both work from home we are trying to see if it's possible to travel and work from fun locations. It will be a fun experiment =). Thus starts our travelogue. No promises that it's not going to be boring, but it beats our normal routine in Utah.

Day 1- We both woke up super early so that we could hitch a ride with a neighbor who works in Salt Lake. We were 3 hours early for our flight, but it beats having to pay $50 for a shuttle to the airport. This started the longest day of travel ever. In order to save money on our flight we had to do some layovers in Phoenix and Los Angeles so it was a lot of waiting for flights. It wasn't too bad though Matt got some work done and I entertained myself surfing craft blogs, talking with my sister on Google chat, playing Sonic/Mario Kart on our Nintendo DS, and sleeping. We had a couple funny stories in the airport. First off on our first flight Matt somehow spilled coke all over himself and it dripped down his leg into his sock. For the rest of the day he walked around with a coke stained sock and a huge stain on his pants. It was kind of funny some of the stares he got. Also we kept seeing doppelgangers, Matt and I swore that one of the Delta employees looked just like Newman from Seinfeld. It was uncanny. After 13 hours of travel we finally reached the Honolulu airport. We were grateful that our bags made it there ok and the rental car place was very fast and efficient.They upgraded us to a Prius for free so we will be saving money on gas. This is awesome when gas in Hawaii costs $4.35 a gallon. After about 45 minutes we made it to our studio apartment near Sunset Beach. We immediately hit the hay because we were exhausted.

This is a picture of the house we are staying in. The owners live upstairs and we live in the bottom on the left. That is our rented Prius!

This is the view from our deck. You can see the ocean in the distance.

This is a picture of Matt working on his laptop on the futon. See work is getting done! =)

Day 2- Since we were both tired from traveling we decided to take it easy and slept in. Matt got some work done and made some phone calls. Around 11ish we decided to take a trip to Costco to get some supplies. We have a kitchen so we can save money on food while we are here. We got a little lost while trying to find the Costco, but eventually got there. Actually we didn't mind driving around jamming to some island music. We were shocked how packed the Costco was especially the food court. We did our shopping and ate some pizza then headed to Laie. It was pouring raining all day so we decided to avoid the water and just walk around. Matt and I walked around the temple grounds then headed to BYU Hawaii where Matt showed me where he lived and went to school. They had a good deal on sweatshirts so we bought some as souvenirs. Then we walked around Pounders beach and watched all the body surfers ride waves and do flips into the barrel of the waves. We finished the day by getting shaved ice at Matsumotos and going to the grocery store to pick up some smaller items for our trip. It was a pretty relaxed, but still a really fun day.

Day 3- Since it was raining in the morning we decided to go to the Polynesian Cultural Center for the day. When we got there it turned sunny so it ended up being a great day to go. May I just say Hawaii weather is so weird. One minute it is sunny and the next it breaks into a pouring rain which can stop after 5 minutes or continue for hours. Luckily for us the weather was in our favor and it didn't rain for long. We spent the whole day with a tour guide walking around the exhibits and learning about the different cultures. Each different island has their exhibit to show off their culture. For example we saw how coconut bread was made, we were taught Tahitian dance moves, saw some performers dance on canoes, listened to songs/ drums, saw how they climb coconut trees, how they cook with fire, and how they slice open a coconut. The BYU Hawaii students did a great job making everything fun, entertaining, and hilarious. After touring the exhibits we headed off to eat some dinner that was included with our admission. Once dinner was over we headed off to the night show. It was fun to watch all the different dances and hear music from other cultures. Matt and I loved the fire dancers at the end of the show. Overall it was a very fun experience that I would definitely recommend. I loved it.

Day 4- We started the day by going snorkeling at sharks cove. We saw some really cool fish. One was 4 feet long! Then we headed back to make lunch in our kitchen. After that we drove to Hukilau Beach to walk around the beach and body board. After body boarding for awhile Matt decided he wanted to find some bigger waves so we headed to Pounders Beach. The waves were so intense that we saw someone split their surf board in two. Our Costco body board also got damaged by the waves. Good thing we can return it. I decided to sit that beach out and just watch Matt get pounded by the waves. It started to get dark and cold so we headed home to take a shower. We went to bed early since being in the ocean tires you out.

This is a symbol that means Aloha in Hawaii. People use it to say hi.

Day 5- Since Saturdays on the beach are crowded and parking is a nightmare we decided to go on a hike to Kaena Point. It's a 6 mile round trip hike to the northwest edge of Oahu. We walked along a muddy dirt road with beautiful green mountains to the side of us. It was very hot and the sun was intense! We have some painful sunburns to prove it, even with multiple sunscreen applications. I was grateful for our camel backs so we had plenty of water otherwise I might have not made it. After we reached the end of the dirt road, we came to a sandy dune part of the hike which lead us to our final destination. It is a very beautiful area with black rocks protruding out of the ocean. You can walk around the rocks and look in the tide pools and see all the fish swimming around. That was cool, but our favorite part of the trip was seeing the Hawaiin Monk Seals laying out on the rocks. Since they are an endangered species this is one of the only places on the island that you can see them. Overall it was a fun hike and we got a really good workout. After the hike we came home and ate lunch then headed off to tour the Dole Pineapple Plantation. We rode a train to see where they harvest the pineapple and to see some of the equipment they use to do it. We also did their garden tour to see some of the plants that grow on the Hawaiian Islands. They also let us try some pineapple and it tasted amazing!

I added the last pic for extra cheesiness! Haha!