hAwAii

Holy moly. This post is gonna be a mother.

I was shocked and excited when Brett gave me an 8 day trip to Hawaii for my birthday, but little did I know it would be one of the most awesome weeks of my life!

It was so fantastic to spend the time alone with Brett in such an unreal place.

I mean, really... it's paradise.

We had the perfect balance of adventure and relaxation, with LOTS of eating out, and lots of amazing beach time.

I've always considered myself somewhat of a homebody...but, man... now I've got the bug.

I can hardly wait to book our next trip... and especially to make our way back to the great state of Hawaii.

Here's the recap....

Day #1: Travel and Arrive in Hawaii-- ALOHA!

Can you tell that we were excited?

We had a bit of a delay in LA, which made a long travel day even longer...but we finally made it to Hawaii about 6 pm.

Unfortunately, it gets dark there this time of year before 7, so we only had a bit of daylight to experience the beauty that is Hawaii.

We grabbed our rental car and some food, and cruised over to the North Shore, where we would be staying for the week.

We rented a condo in the Turtle Bay resort area, and it ended up being PERFECT.

The next morning, our Utah bodies were wide awake by 5 am, so we were excited and off to explore EARLY!

Our Condo:

Just around the house and across the golf course on this path and we were at the beach.

Turtle Bay

(I was super hyper and super fresh out of bed in these pics!)

I had already figured out the traditional hula moves in our backyard of the condo.

We ate some breakfast and got ourselves ready and we were OFF for an action packed first day.

First we explored a private beach we had found in our research called Kawela Bay.

It was only about a 10 minute drive from our place, with a fantastic short walk in to the 

 beach.

This Banyun tree greeted us, and we were amazed.

Especially Brett.

Just a bit further through the trees and....

PARADISE.

There was literally no one here. 

(Granted it was about 7:30 am)

Brett made a quick spot of a sea turtle hanging on the opposite end of the beach...so we darted over to get a looksy.

Brett was more afraid than I was to confront this little honey...

I mean, how threatening can they be... just RUN, right?

He mustered up a little more courage here :)

It was a serious highlight of the trip.

First, discovering this amazing place, and second... spotting this turtle so close!

Next, we headed to do the Waimea Valley Hike.

It was hardly a hike, and more of a walk on a paved trail, but beautiful nonetheless.

It spotlighted many of the native plants, and ended with this lovely little waterfall.

We weren't totally prepared to jump in, but as you will see soon... we made up for that at a later waterfall.

After Waimea, we drove to Haleiwa, an awesome and quaint little beach town...where we ended up doing most of our eating on the trip.

This day, Cholos.  A yummy Mexican restaurant.

After lunch, we decided we needed to get back to Kawela Bay to do some beaching.

So... off we went to enjoy an afternoon of this:

Brett was real glad I brought this hat from Jackie's closet.

Nerd!

Since we hadn't seen enough beauty for one day (ha ha).

we headed to Sharks Cove and 3 Tables to see some more unbelievable ocean views.

We scrambled (Brett will love me for using that word) the rocks for an hour or so, and then watched the sun set as an awkward couple had their engagement pictures taken.

It really was my paradise!

We got cleaned up and headed back to Haleiwa for dinner at Breaker's.

Another real highlight of this trip came this night as we discovered the North Shore karaoke scene.  We stumbled across the same gig 3 different nights, in 3 different places.

It's like it was destiny.

A couple by the name of Reno and Rudy were really on fire this night, and they happen to be sitting right on the other side of this window from me singing their little hearts out.

It was all I could do NOT to stare OR laugh out loud.

(She had her own tambourine, people!)

It was magic.

We were up and at'em early again the next day. 

We may have been ready to slow our pace down a LITTLE bit after ALL of our running around the previous day, but we were still itching to explore.

We headed to the other side of the island to hike Manawilli Falls.

It was a beautiful hike, mostly through stream beds, and LOTS OF MUD.

My greatest fear was getting some creepy bacteria that signs everywhere warned us about, but... luckily... the scenery distracted me pretty good from my worries.

It was about an hour and a half hike, and pretty messy...but, so fun!

At the end of the hike was this:

And we were ready to JUMP!

We jumped and swam lots, and became friends with the Lost Boys of Manawilli Falls.

Really nice tween Hawaiian natives showed us the ropes, and we felt cool for a minute.

We were definitely on a high getting ready to head back.

About 10 minutes into the hike back...

DISASTER STRIKES!

Sarah followed Brett up this hill...

and stumbled on a root...

and 

fell directly onto this metal spike sticking out of the ground.

Pretty sure it was the only metal spike on the mountain, and my thigh found it.

Twice.

Initial impact was brutal, and then I bounced off of it a second time.

Thank my lucky stars it was a square tipped peg, or I would have impaled myself, and probably would have rolled over and died.

I writhed and swore and rolled in the mud while I got my bearings.

Poor Brett didn't know what to do.

I had a perfect indent of a square on my leg, and luckily it only slightly broke the skin.

Unfortunately, I couldn't hardly move my leg...and my low blood pressure really came in handy because even when I shook off the pain, I couldn't stand or I'd faint.

Thanks mess.

Lucky for me, the family of the Lost Boys we had befriended stumbled across my wounded mess of a self, and told Brett about a short cut that would cut the hike back in half and would be much easier on an paved road.

Hallelujah.

Saved my life.

I finally gathered myself and my blood pressure, and drug my gimp leg out of there with lots of help from Brett.

(This was my leg the morning after...gulmp!)

I was pretty wasted, and so bummed... what a damper!

We got a first aid kit and washed me up, and then headed to Kailua Beach nearby for the rest of the afternoon.

I was pretty much out for the count, and just laid out and watched the kite surfers do their thing.

Brett stuck by my side, and did a little exploring and snorkeling here and there.

He was so patient with my invalid self.

We headed home, got cleaned up, and headed back to Haleiwa that night for some grub at Pizza Bob's.

We knew we had to pick our next day's activities wisely, as hiking and strenuous activity were pretty much out for my gimp leg.  It was still really sore, but I could move ok at a slow pace, and did plenty of hopping down stairs on one foot. :)

We decided to head into Honolulu (about an hour drive, clear to the other side of the island).

We got to Pearl Harbor EARLY to guarantee tickets, and we had success.

It was a unbelievable and sobering experience... but, something we really enjoyed and were so glad that we did.

Pearl Harbor

After our tour there, we decided to stay in the city for the day, and after lunch in the city, we ventured over to Waikiki.

I mean... how can you not when you're first timers?

It was really pretty, but really packed and touristy.

We had been spoiled with our other beach experiences.

Brett was going to have a surf lesson, but instead of catching waves with 900 other knuckleheads, decided to hang mostly with me and my beach chair!

He did go snorkeling for a bit, and came out with a piece of urchin in his toe.

Doh!

I hobbled my dead leg across the street to a convenient store, and got some tweezers, and another injury was mended!  What a pair!

Our favorite part of Waikiki was being there at sunset.

The city surrounding the area was neat, and the setting was priceless.

We even got in on a luau happening on the beach, which was a total added bonus.

We walked though some pretty amazing resorts and hotels until we found our way back to the beach.

A really cool beachfront with the city right there.

We had a LONG and traffic filled drive back to the North Shore, and finally found ourselves sleeping in and being lazy the next morning.

After rolling our bones out the door, we headed to breakfast at Ted's...oh man! A real treat that was.  We visited like 3 more times before we left.

Ted's:

Next, we went back to Shark's Cove with the intention of doing some snorkeling.

Brett's family gave me gear for my birthday, and man did I look legit!

HA!

My leg was feeling a bit better, but it was still a bit rough with all of the rocks here to swim through/around.  A few currents had me worried for my lack of leg control, but all in all, it was spectacular.

Brett stayed in a bit longer than I did, while I caught a nap and some rays.

Woke up to this little devil in my shoe... Brett!!!!

We were really only at the beach a couple of hours that morning, but man oh man, there must have been a hole in the ozone, because WE GOT FRIED!

I mean, FRIED!

My lower arms were trashed, and *somebody* forgot to cover the lower fourth of Brett's back.

OOOOOPSIES.

Needing a sun break, we decided to hit up Laie, and the Polynesian Cultural Center.

We were Hawaii virgins, and had to do it.

We were too fried to take many pics.

It was neat, and although we probably got there a little too late, we still saw some cool shows.  We had a luau dinner, and went to the Ka! Breath of Life show that evening.  

It was really overpriced, but I'm glad we saw it.

We made a mad dash afterwards to the market to buy some sunburn remedies!

We woke up to still steaming sunburns and my pretty lip looking like this:

Total Bubba Gump.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!

Luckily, this, and our sunburns mellowed dramatically as the morning went on!

We went back into Laie, and visited the temple there, and did a morning session.

It was beautiful, and neat to see a lot of the local people. 

We didn't stick out at all!!!!!

I looked like a fried little pineapple!

After,  Brett hit up a shrimp truck for lunch, and then we took my picky bones back to Ted's.

A little post-temple smoke never hurt anyone!

Little hyper... can you tell?

After this, we headed to spend some time at Turtle Bay... which we hadn't yet spent any real time at other than on our morning walks.

It was a perfect beach.  So close and not too busy.

We also had an epic snorkeling experience, which was one highlight of the trip for sure.

We came out of the ocean on cloud 9, until Brett realized he had been swimming in salt water for two hours with his brand new iPhone in his pocket.  DOH!!!

It's hard to be too bothered, mad, sad, or anything negative when you're in such a beautiful place.

So, we threw it in some rice (humorously), in hopes that maybe we could salvage it.

*2 days later, we would take it out of the rice to find that salvaging it was NOT happening.  BOO!* 

We headed into Haleiwa for some grub, and found that since it was the weekend, everywhere had a pretty long wait to get in.  We somehow wound up at B's Bar and Grinds, and man... it was a real treat.  I think my meal was Campbell's ABC soup, but aw well!!

I got to spend the night with this handsome lad...

AND our karaoke friends were back... so.. all was not lost!

We were starting to already feel the pains of leaving at this point, and the next day we decided to soak in the sun and eat up our last days in paradise.

We drove to Turtle Beach, where supposedly there are turtles to be seen.

We had a delish breakfast to-go (thanks Ted's!) on the beach while we waited for some turtle action.

We didn't see any turtles.

(which just highlights how lucky we were to see that one on our first day)

Brett, however did see a whale jump completely out of the water nearby.

I think I was too busy eating my cinnamon roll.

We headed back to our favorite spot of the trip, Kaweila Bay for more snorkeling and some sunset beach time.

We love us some Banyuns...

Again, there was nearly no one here, perfect!

SUNSET TIME:

(ignore the fact that my foot is still planted in the sand.  Tricked ya, didn't I? 

Remember? GIMP leg?)

It was really sad to see our last sunset come and go... so, we made ourselves feel better by heading to Turtle Bay for a really fancy and spendy meal.

We treated ourselves well, and had the perfect last night in our new favorite place.

We weren't about to go home without a fight...

So, we squeaked out every last inch of Hawaii life we could before our plane left the next day.

We headed off the North Shore (sniff sniff), and back to the other side of the island en route to the airport.

We spent some time that morning at Lanikai Beach, and man, it was NOT making leaving any easier.  We were a little sad that we hadn't spent a previous day there, because it was the most breathtaking beach we had visited.

We grabbed some sandwiches,

and then drove the scenic Pali Highway for some last-chance views.

It was totally amazing.

At the top, we got out at the Nuuanu Pali Lookout, where I whipped my hair back and forth like nothing else.

Serious wind AND serious views.

We choked down the lump in our throats as we ate our sandwiches at a quaint little park, and then headed to the airport to catch our 1:00 flight.

Not happy.

We stayed in Vegas with Brandon and DeEtte that night, and caught an early flight home the next morning.

It's been nearly a month since this trip, and just writing this post brings back all the happiness I had there, and the sadness of leaving.

Man...the end of trips is the pits... isn't it???

I guess that's the sign of a WONDERFUL, PERFECT, and UNFORGETTABLE time.

Brett knew exactly what he was doing when he planned this, and I'm so glad he knew EXACTLY what I needed. I'm so lucky to have him... not only to give me awesome trips for my 30th birthday, but also to experience these memories with! No one I'd rather be with.

I was leery leaving my little sweeties for so long, but was so fortunate to have so many amazing people look after them while were away.  Once I landed in Hawaii, I was able to put my fears aside and just enjoy our getaway knowing that they were in the best possible hands.

Thank you Laurel, Tiffany, Mom, Annie, and Kate!!!!

You made my trip what it was by allowing me to relax and enjoy some much needed time with my sweetheart.

Until next trip....

(which I hope is REEEEEAL soon!)