our hawaiian adventure...

hawaii was the best vacation ever. eric and i had so much fun and i already miss it. there is so much to say about our trip i don't even know where to begin and i don't want to do a big ol' daily update, so here are some pictures and highlights of our trip.


here is a view from our room. we stayed at the miramar waikiki and it was a pretty nice hotel. it was just a block and a half from the beach and we had a partial ocean view from our room. so it was nice to go out onto the lanai (balcony) every morning and look out onto the ocean or look to the other side and have a nice view of the city.


here is me and eric at the international marketplace. it was right next door to the hotel that we were staying at. we went here a lot to eat and just to look around! it was a cool place to get souvenirs too, but nothing beats the swap meet at aloha stadium.


here is a picture of eric's cousin joe, his girlfriend michelle, eric, and me. here we are at duke's canoe club for drinks. i had a lava flow there cause when rachael ray went there on her $40 a day show, she had one and it looked really good. it was really good and it ended being my drink on our trip. so joe and michelle were in hawaii vacationing as well. they stayed at joe's co-worker's condo and we went there to watch the super bowl. joe and michelle are both chefs and they hooked us up with a lot of really good food!


here i am with my shaved ice from matusumoto's in north shore! it was really good and worth the drive up to north shore! that was one of my favorite things that we ate while we were in hawaii. we ate a lot of places, like yummy's (korean food), bubbies (for mochi ice cream), ono's (for authentic hawaiian food), kai 'uina (for burgers in north shore), ted's bakery (for chocolate haupia pie), oh and at the luau, we had some hawaiian food as well. i love hawaiian food!


here is a picture of waikiki beach... eric and i spent a lot of time just laying in the sun and relaxing. it was nice to feel in the heat in february. after days of being in the sun, eric and i came back to the bay with pretty nice tans! not only did we lay in the sun but we also played in the water. it was surprisingly warm. it was a lot of fun to just let the waves push us and jump whenever the waves would come!


ahhh... haunama bay. it is so beautiful here. here we went snorkeling and there were so many fish! we went snorkeling when we went to catalina but this was nothing like catalina. the water was warm and there was a lot of different types of fish. it was really nice. after we went to haunama bay, we drove up to kailua and then to pali lookout. the view from pali lookout was spectacular!


this pic was taken in north shore. the whole vibe is so different there. it's not touristy like waikiki and it's pretty laid back there. while in north shore, we had some yummy burgers at kai 'uina's and shaved ice at matsumoto's. oh and chocolate haupia pie from ted's bakery. we also hung out on the beach and people surfed. the waves in north shore are way bigger than those in waikiki!


aloha... talofa.. bula vinaka... hello... here is a picture of us at the polynesian cultural center. we spent the day here and went to the luau and horizons show after. here we visited 5 of the 6 villages and learned about different polynesian cultures. we visited tahiti, hawaii, marquesas, fiji, aeteora (new zealand), and samoa. i had the most fun at samoa because the guy doing the show was really funny. while visiting the villages, we learned a lot, like how to say hi in different languages, we learned to hula and do a little tahitian dancing, watch the guy from samoa make fire with two sticks and climb a tree with his bare feet (no ladder!). we also went to the luau while there. it was cool since i've never been to a luau before. afterwards we watched the show at pcc called "horizons." the show showcased each village and the different dances they did. it was a really cool show. it ended with an awesome fire dance!

eric and i also went parasailing. it was really fun... we were 700 feet in the air over the beautiful hawaiian ocean. the view was beautiful and we can see the waikiki shoreline and diamond head. while we were on the boat we even saw dolphins.

the weather overall was beautiful... always sunny and warm. but it rained on the last night we were there, but it was ok cause eric wasn't feeling well so we just stayed in and watched ladder 49 in the hotel.

overall this was the best vacation i've ever taken... i cannot wait to go back! i miss the atmosphere, the food, the music, the beach, the weather. i even miss the hawaiian sun drinks we had almost everyday! ahhh... back to reality.