Road to Hana

Posted on Tuesday, 21 January 2014, 23:56 by Alexandra

This post used to contain pictures, but due to new storage limitations from WordPress, I had to fix the problem and decided to create a new blog that works as an archive for all the posts from my two years in California. This full post can be found here.

Wow! What a day!! I take back every bad thought I had about Maui yesterday. I am so glad we came to this hostel on a Monday around noon so we could sign up for this tour, it was amazing!! We saw lava rocks, turquoise water, black sand beach, red sand beach, bamboo forest, waterfalls, whales and swam in a freshwater cave. I will explain everything better under these headlines.

B was the Keanae Peninsula as well.

HANA HIGHWAY

This road was seriously ridiculous! You can compare it to Pacific Coast Highway 1 in California between Los Angeles and San Francisco. But this was crazier! It was sick! I just read online that it is 60 miles of scenic coastal road. It is extremely curvy and has around 620 curves and 59 bridges! I don’t get carsick but I was close today. I was very grateful that I didn’t have to drive that road and could enjoy the beautiful view. Bamboo were growing next to the road, palm trees, banana trees, beautiful red flowers. Big mountains on one side and the blue ocean on the other. It was amazing! On the way back we saw a lot of cats on the road. Someone in the van said that there are at least on cat per person on Maui. I should probably move there. The Seven Sacred Pools are part of Haleakala State Park, but we only stopped with the can for a few seconds to look at it.

KAENAE PENINSULA

Our first stop was for banana bread at a famous place called Aunty Sandy’s Banana Bread. And it was delicious, just out of the oven and so moist! I and Caroline shared a loaf and that was a perfect breakfast since the pancake batter were out when we wanted to eat breakfast. One minute away from that place was such a beautiful peninsula with a lot of lava rocks and turquoise water. The contrast was so amazingly beautiful!! And the waves were big and white clouds of water splashed everywhere all the time. It was breathtaking!

WAI’ANAPANAPA STATE PARK

The second stop was also completely taken out of a photoshopped picture of paradise. There were two parts of this stop and the first one for our van (two vans with like 12 people in each) was the black sand beach! I’ve never seen that and I was impressed by how black it actually was! The colors at this place was as beautiful and I just couldn’t believe what I saw. The black sand and lava rocks, the same awesome turquoise water and the green vegetation on the black lava rocks. I think the pictures speak for themselves! But as you all know, it is always more beautiful in real life and this place was truly amazing!

The second part of the stop was the Wai’anapanapa cave. I knew about it and had mentally prepared me for the experience. Because I knew I would regret it so bad if I chickened out. The cave is a freshwater cave you can swim through. I thought we were gonna have to swim underwater and that was what freaked me out a little bit. Swimming under water in a cave… Not exactly something safe. But apparently the water levels have been really low the last couple of months so that wasn’t necessary. Puuh! BUT, it was still scary when our guide (who btw looked like the boy’s first grade teacher) told us that once we jumped through the little hole in the cave, there was no going back. Shit! I don’t like that sentence. But I actually wasn’t afraid and I didn’t have any second thoughts at all. I knew I wanted to do it and so many other people have done it so why not me? I felt a bit like Tris in the Divergent book when she at the Dauntless initiation had to jump off a roof into a black hole in the ground. I actually went first in the black hole in the cave.

Anyway, so here’s how the cave worked. First we had to jump down in to the pool. The water was cool, not too cold, maybe a little bit colder than the ocean in San Diego. The jump wasn’t high, it was like 1.5m maybe? Probably not even that. When we all were in the crystal clear water the guide and a guy went before me into a small tunnel. When I came in the second “room” of the cave the guide was pointing her flashlight at a tiny, tiny hole. It was a little jump of a few decimeters and below it was another room with a lower level of water and it was pitch dark in there. Since the second “room” were so small we had to go through the hole right away and I volunteered to go first. Crazy me! But I felt brave. In there I have to admit that I panicked a little. I was all alone in a black water cave, I had no idea how big it was, how low the ceiling was, what else could have been there in the dark with me. It wasn’t real bad, but it was scary. So I clung to the wall like a curled up baby and hung there until everyone was in the third “room”. My fingers hurt really bad after holding on to the lava rocks but I didn’t want to tramp water in there, it was scary. When we all were in there the guide swam first into an even smaller tunnel where I was afraid of hitting my head in the ceiling. I couldn’t see anything and I tried touching the wall all the time with my hand, but I had to swim at the same time. It wasn’t a very long tunnel, maybe 4m? And then we were done with the water. One last part before we could be out in the sun again. We had to climb out of that cave! And that was the scary part for real. The black cave was scary fun, I knew there weren’t any dangers there. But climbing up on a wet and sharp lava rock wall was scary. I tried going after the guide (she had the flashlight on the wall, but it didn’t reach all the way down to the water where we were) but I seriously couldn’t find anywhere to grasp. So I got back in the water and let another girl go ahead of me. And then I tried again. And, oh my god, I was so afraid of losing my grip and fall backwards and hit my head in the wall and probably die. I didn’t, but I was really scared and I scraped the front of my lower leg a little bit. When I got up and was safe my heart was trying to pound itself out of my chest and I was shaking. Not because of the cold water, but because of the adrenaline kick I had! That experience was the best thing ever. Such a rush and I felt so alive!! The rest of the way up to the paved road was very slippery so the danger wasn’t over, but I climbed like a monkey, holding on to roots and did it. WOW!

That’s me jumping in the cool freshwater. It was a little bit less than 2m deep.

There is a legend behind this cave and they say that a Hawaiian princess ran away from her cruel husband and hid in that cave. Her servant used a feather Kahili (a symbol of royalty) to fan the princess and the reflection in the water made the husband notice them and he killed the princess, coloring the cave all red. At certain times during the year the cave fills up with tiny red shrimp and some say it is a reminder of the blood of that princess.

Just when we got in the van to leave we spotted whales breaching pretty close to the beach so we watched them for a little while. They were way closer than the ones in San Diego. And on Friday I will see them even closer, like right next to the boat.

BRADDAH HUTTS BBQ GRILL ISLAND STYLE

The third stop was lunch. Right when I was about to order they ran out of fish tacos and that was a real bummer, I’ve heard those are really good. So I took the BBQ chicken instead and that was probably the best barbecued chicken I’ve ever had. So amazing!!

HALEAKALA STATE PARK / PIPIWAI TRAIL (WAIMOKU FALLS)

Our fourth stop was the Haleakala State Park, where the big volcano crater is. But we went to another part of the park to do a hike in a bamboo forest and look at waterfalls. It was a pretty easy hike, two miles to the big waterfall and two miles back. It took us around 2 hours in total. In the beginning I was really afraid that my calves were gonna hurt and they did when we went up. But then it flattened out and the trail was actually like a real road with planks laid out. It was perfect. In the beginning of the hike there was a huuuge banyan tree! Those trees are so cool, with their trunks going in all directions and growing how they like.

The bamboo forest later on was pretty awesome! They were so high, so it was dark in there. We saw pools and tiny waterfalls on the way and it was just a very nice hike. At the end of the hike was Waimoku Falls which was a skinny but tall waterfall. It has a drop of about 400 feet (I don’t know how much that is in meters and I’m too tired to look it up, but it was pretty tall). The flow wasn’t that good, I think it was a while ago it rained here. Our guide said that the trail normally was all muddy but today it was really dry. It was like a giant wall there with a tiny pool where the water collected. It was dripping all along the wall and it was the same colors ad before. Black rock and green lush. It was really beautiful!

Tiny Caroline among the bamboo!Waimoku falls at the end of Pipiwai Trail.

KAIHALULU RED SAND BEACH

The last stop was a red sand beach and it was also super cool! Now I’ve seen white, black (pink on Crete in Greece) and red beaches. On Big Island we will see a green one! It wasn’t just the color of the sand that was cool, it was a lot of lava rocks right outside the beach making like a pool in the small bay. The walls around the beach were massive. It probably would have been even more beautiful there if the sun would have been a little higher in the sky. It was just about to set behind the mountain.

When we started our journey I learned why I thought Maui was so boring. There are a lot of sugar cane fields here and this part of the island has flat ground and therefore a lot of fields. It looks really boring. My roommates by the way, are nice. Except Caroline, I have a 22 year old Canadian girl and an older woman from New York. She talks a lot but she is nice. AND, I forgot to write something yesterday. When we were at the mall a guy came up to us and asked us if we were from Sweden. He said we looked really Swedish with our blond hair and blue eyes. Haha!

I think that was all today. It was an eventful day. I’m tired but had such an awesome time! When we got back to the hostel at 8:30pm the list for tomorrow’s tour was already full, but we wrote our name on the waiting list and are either hoping for dropouts or an extra car so we can go to Lahaina and snorkel with turtles at Black Rock! Otherwise we will take the bus to Lahaina. Black Rock is further away so we will probably just hang out at the old Hawaiian capital and then eat at hard Rock Café.

Aloha, Maui!

Posted on Monday, 20 January 2014, 22:21 by Alexandra

So far I’m not impressed to be honest. I was taken aback when we arrived at the hostel, it wasn’t as nice as the one on Oahu. The room was super tiny, but the common area was pretty nice. They even have a Jacuzzi here!

The flight here from Honolulu were about 30min and the plane barely even flattened out up in the air before going down again. It was nice! I really like Hawaiian Airlines, the service is awesome! Even with this short flight, we got a complimentary tropical juice. We got our baggage’s very fast and booked a shuttle right away and within minutes we were on the shuttle to the hostel. 40 minutes after we landed we were checking in and took the last two spots for the “Road to Hana” tour tomorrow. Now the waiting list for the trip is so long. We got lucky! And we had almost a whole day here on maui to do whatever we wanted. I almost wish we didn’t. We wanted to go to the beach, it didn’t matter which one. I just wanted to enjoy the beautiful weather. Over the mountain there were a lot of dark clouds, but over the coast it was beautiful. And it was warmer here than on Oahu. Maybe 85F? I’m still not very good at temperatures. So we kinda got directions but it didn’t help. We got off the first bus to early and had to wait another hour for the next one. But we did a little snack shopping during that time. I bought something called Mochii. It is something baked with sweetened rice flour and it has a very weird and gooey/sticky/chewy consistency. I’m not sure I liked it. It didn’t taste bad, it was just weird. I also tried M&M Coconut for the first time and I loved it. And the third and last new thing I tried was apple banana. It looks like a banana, but isn’t as sweet and taste a little like apple I guess. We didn’t have to wait too long at the big shopping mall for the next bus that took us to Kihei. I didn’t like that beach. I might have liked it better if we got off the bus one or two stops earlier. But I didn’t complain, I just wanted to hear the waves crashing against the beach and feel the sun warm my body. And I did. I just imagined myself on Lanikai Beach instead. The palm trees there had coconuts in them.

We left the beach at 4:30pm so we had time to do some grocery shopping before going back to the hostel to shower and eat dinner and update blogs and post pictures on Facebook. I did all that except eat dinner. For some reason I wasn’t hungry at all so I just ate a small bag of Jelly Belly and a roll of Rolo. I’m gonna miss the American candy. The showers are shared with everyone here on this hostel, both girls and boys which is not so fun. But I managed to take a shower anyway without any awkward encounters.

I’m tired tonight so instead of socializing outside I’m just sitting in the room and will go to sleep as soon as possible. And besides, everyone out there is drinking and screaming like crazy. It’s gonna be a long day tomorrow. Free pancakes for breakfast at 8am and 8:30am the tour buses leave. I’m not sure what to expect, but I am really excited!! I just hope that we are gonna be able to do all the tours (otherwise we’re gonna be stuck at the hostel for a day…) because the new sign-up papers don’t come up until the tour of the day has left. I think this Road to Hana is the most popular, and probably the volcano hike too on Saturday. Maybe we could ask someone who’s not going to sign us up :).

Okay, time to go to bed, I’m seeing double…

Banana Bungalow Maui Hostel is the green building on the right in this picture. Mochii. From the right angle, the beach we went to today actually looked okay!

Roadtrip in a convertible

Posted on Sunday, 19 January 2014, 23:02 by Alexandra

Today was all about doing a roadtrip around big parts of the island of Oahu since this was our last day here. And I have to admit that the car made a big part about it better. For $11 extra we got a convertible Chrysler!! It was so awesome! The guy who helped us got us a discount so we pretty much got the GPS for free, and the upgrade was $20 normally. Maybe it’s good to be blonde and blue eyed.

#1 Our first stop was Matsumoto’s Shave Ice. It is Oahu’s most popular shave ice place. Shave ice is just ice in snow form with flavored juice poured over it. Really good actually and it looked cool. Mine with mango, pineapple and watermelon flavors looked like a rainbow.

#2 Our second stop was Turtle Bay. I got fooled by the name of the place. I thought that was a beach where turtles always lay in the sand, but no. It was a big resort and a cute little bay. It wasn’t as nice with the bunch of grey clouds completely covering the sky and I was disappointed when I only saw some tourist lying on sunbeds.

#3 Third stop was Mokoli’I, also called the Chinaman’s Hat because it looks like an old Chinese worker’s hat. The park, Kauloa Regional Park was so beautiful. The beach was almost empty and the mountains were right behind it and if it weren’t for the clouds it would have been even more perfect. We tried taking a few funny pictures with the hat and then Caroline drove us to our next stop. And while she was driving it started raining. Quite a lot too. So we had to pull the roof back in the car. Too bad. But good too, because my hair got so messy after driving 70mph on the highway.

#4 The fourth stop was supposed to be for the rest of the day but the bad weather caught up to us and we had only 20 minutes before the cold wind and rain came. The stop was at Hawaii’s most beautiful beach, Lanikai. It was indeed beautiful. Not exactly as the pictures on google, but we might have been at another spot on the beach than the photographers on google. The sand there was the finest sand I’ve ever seen. It was like a powder. I wish Waikiki Beach could have been that amazing! We took a few pictures and started towards our last stop on our little roadtrip.

#5 Nu’uanu Pali Lookout. Our last stop for the day. From up there you’re supposed to see the northeast coast of Oahu and we did. At least part of it. Because of the bad weather there were a lot of fog. But we could see the ocean, not all the way to Chinaman’s Hat, but we could see Valley of Temples and the city (don’t know which one) down there. I read online that it was supposed to be super windy up there, like you literally could be blown away. But it wasn’t particularly windy at all. It was chilly because of the drizzle of rain. The story about that place goes like this. To try if a person was a liar, they threw them down the side of the mountain and if the wind carried them upward to save them, that meant that they were honest. Otherwise they were liars and deserved to die.

It was an Alaskan older couple who told us the story after they so kindly helped us change one of the tired on our car. This is the really stupid part of the day. When we started driving we heard a noise. We went out of the car as soon as we got the chance to take a look at the tires but couldn’t see anything at all. So we continued to drive for like 6h. Still a noise and a tire pressure warning sign lighted. I know that’s common among rental cars so I thought it was no biggie. But it was. When we were parked at Pali Lookout to wait for the rain to ease a couple of Japanese women came up to us and told us that one of our back tires were completely flat. We got help from the super nice Alaskan couple and we got the tire change within 15 minutes. We saw that there was a big nail stuck in the tire. Now the noise made sense. But it wasn’t particularly nice of the rental place to give us a car with a ticking flat-tire-bomb. So when we returned the car we asked for some money back, and we got $36 back without any questions.

At 3:30pm we drove back to Waikiki to return the car. An hour later when we were in the hostel the lobby was full of policemen. I have no idea what happened and I didn’t want to stay and find out. I was hungry so we went to Burger King to bring it to the beach and eat it while waiting for the sunset and Vasoula (she is the German girl living in my neighborhood in San Diego). She found out this morning her hostfamily’s secret destination. It could have been Costa Rica, Mexico or Hawaii. So after the last sunset on Oahu we met up and talked on the beach for a couple of hours. So weird, but nice, seeing her here on Hawaii!

Back to the hostel, took a quick shower, packed everything and went through all the pictures from today so I could upload them to my blog. Now I’m done and so tired! I will fall asleep as soon as my head hit the very flat pillow.

Tomorrow a new island waits! Maui!! I really look forward to it :). I’m guessing it will be completely different from Oahu.

Matsumoto’s Shave Ice. They had so many flavors I didn’t even read them all, I just took three of my absolute favorite tropical flavors, and it turned out like a rainbow. Big waves on the North Shore! Turtle Bay. Chinaman’s Hat. Kualoa Regional Park. Beautiful scenery while driving (Caroline was the photographer). Waimea Bay Beach Park. Way out in the water on the huge waves some surfers did what they do best. Lanikai Beach. Powder sand. Nu’uanu Pali Lookout. On my right side is Valley of Temples and on my left side is a city (don’t know which one) and farther to the left is Chinaman’s Hat supposed to be. Sunset on Waikiki Beach. A small reunon with Vasoula in front of Duke Kahanamoku! 🙂

Diamond Head and TURTLES

Posted on Sunday, 19 January 2014, 0:24 by Alexandra

Another eventful day has come to its end. It started early with a pretty easy hike up the side of a crater. It was called Diamond Head State Monument and took one hour up and down. So not too bad, but it was hot so the sweat was everywhere anyway. The view during the whole hike was amazing. Mountain in the background, the ocean with the sun rising and the Koko Head Crater in the distance. That’s the big mountain we saw from Hanauma Bay the other day. The view from the top was incredible! We could see all of Honolulu and Waikiki and even as far as Pearl Harbor. It was so beautiful!

When we were done we took a quick look at the Farmer’s Market at the bottom of the crater at the University there. They had a lot of weird stuff like Apple Banana and Avocados the size of a baby’s head! I bought a slice of Hawaii’s Original Farmer’s Market Pizza. It was tomato, cheese and a basil pesto sauce. It was really good.

Back to the hostel to change into bikini and then off to Waikiki beach again. I didn’t get burned today but I did get a lot darker brown. Wonder how I will look after another two weeks. I am using sunscreen all the time. I’m alternating between 30 and 70.

Okay, so to the coolest thing that ever happened to me. In the afternoon I rented a paddleboard. One hour $20. And it was totally worth it. First I went out by myself and even if I actually could stand up with the big waves (today the waves were perfect for surfing, but because of the sharp rocks I resisted the urge to rent a surf board) it was nicer to be on my knees or sit criss-cross-applesauce (as my hostkids say). But, to see something you had to stand up, so when I realized there were some turtles swimming around I stood up and just went around. Didn’t see any though… When I went in to the beach (I was far out, really far out, but it is shallow and everyone else were out there too so it felt safe, and I don’t think there are many sharks here) to get Caroline I actually saw one! It was far away from me, but I definitely saw the shape of the turtle. It might have been around 1m from head to tail. I picked up Caroline so she was sitting on the board while I was paddling us out. And when we were out there we saw five more turtles and they were within touching distance, except that it is illegal to touch them! I seriously can’t believe I saw huge sea turtles right at Waikiki beach, right next to my board and they were also swimming under it. It was the most awesome thing I’ve ever been through!

We changed seats so I was sitting down with my legs and feet in the water looking out for more turtles. One of them were of course the biggest we saw and I’m not joking, I’m sure it was 1.5m from head to tail. It was huuuuge!! I cannot describe how it was to see and experience that. It was so awesome I couldn’t sit still, couldn’t stop smiling and couldn’t stop saying all the time how fucking awesome it was!!

I returned the board and spent another 30 minutes in the water. It was a very hot day today, maybe 85F (I’m not very good at guessing temperatures, it was too warm to just be at the beach all day, you had to be in the water) so we spent a lot of time in the water. And then was when we saw the 7^th and last turtle of the day. It was like 5m away from me and when I saw it I jumped and screamed and pointed (and squirting water at Caroline at the same time and scaring the shit out of her). If you thought I was excited about the dolphins in Cali… Haha, compared to today, I wasn’t!
I regret that I didn’t bring the underwater camera with me out. If I did I could have gotten some cool pictures of the turtles from above the water. But I will probably have time to get cool pictures of one of the most amazing animals in the world!

Back to the hotel at 5pm where a strange girl was laying on my bed. She had taken away my sheets, my pajamas and everything that was one by bed because she blindly believed the confused receptionist that she was supposed to have that bed. How can someone think that a bed is hers if stuff is on it still at 5pm when checkout is at 11am? I got it back but I had to put on the sheets again which was annoying… I took a shower and then go back to the beach to watch the Hula dance show. It wasn’t anything special but it is nice to have seen it.

We said goodbye to Jair who’s leaving tomorrow and then went to Cheesecake Factory. It was a two hour waiting, but we spent that time in souvenir shops. I probably shouldn’t have, but I bought two cute shot glasses, another bracelet for myself and an opal turtle necklace. And some Hawaiian candy. Now I’m done with shopping. I have some money, but I have to get everything home too.

We shared a Farfalle with Chicken and Roasted Garlic, my favorite there. And for dessert, and my 18^th Cheesecake, we shared a Pineapple Upside Down Cheesecake. We are on Hawaii!

Back to the hostel where I’ve planned tomorrow. We are gonna rent a car and drive around the island. Our first stop is gonna be a shave ice cream place that is supposed to be the best on the island. The next Turtle Bay, after that Chinaman’s Hat (Mokoli’i) and after that Pali Lookout and the rest of the day we are gonna spend at Kailua Beach. It will be a long but fun day 🙂

So now I really have to go to bed! Goodnight!

Inside the crater. The crater with the mountains in the background. Honolulu and Waikiki from the top of Le’ahi Diamond Head State Monument. Farmer’s market. #18 Pineapple Upside Down Cheesecake. This is the trip we are gonna do tomorrow. Four hours of driving in total. Good thing we are starting at 8am!

Pearl Harbor

Posted on Saturday, 18 January 2014, 0:13 by Alexandra

My third day on Oahu is over. This morning we took one of those buses for more than 1.5h to Pearl Harbor National Park. When we studied WWII in school the focus was mostly on what happened in Europe and I didn’t even pay that much attention. It just didn’t interest me. I wasn’t super excited about Pearl Harbor. But I will probably only be on Oahu once, and Pearl Harbor is a pretty big deal here. And it was interesting to learn it from the Americans point of view. I didn’t really understand why Japan attacked the Americans like that. It had something to do with China and Japans previous invasions and America who didn’t want to sell oil to Japan anymore and Japan who wanted to vanquish the American fleet. They didn’t really explain that in the movie we saw. I should probably google it. There were two exhibitions, “Road to War” and “Attack”. We only had like 1h before the USS Arizona Memorial tour so I spent most of the time in “Attack”, learning about those 2 hours when Japan surprised the Americans and killed 2400 people. It was interesting and the Japanese were smart. They had specially engineered torpedo’s that could go in the shallow water of the harbor. They had designed bombs that could penetrate the battleships and they attacked from different directions so all the battleship sunk. All the American aircrafts were blown to pieces too. 64 Japanese died, 9 airplanes out of several hundred crashed. They really knew what they were doing. December 7^th 1941 was the day USA joined the war.

I almost wished we could have stayed longer so I could learn more about “Road to War”, but I would rather stay longer at the beach. So after the short boat trip out to USS Arizona Memorial (it was like a white cube above the sunken battleship) and back, we took the bus back to Waikiki.

Caroline took a surf lesson for an hour and Jair rented his own surfboard for several hours to try. When he was out there he told us that he saw three turtles swim by!! I am so jealous! The waves were so tiny, so I didn’t want to spend money on a surfboard rental because I would get so frustrated when I wouldn’t be able to get speed enough to catch a wave. And, when I got in the water (it was warmer today, probably 28C) I realized the whole bottom was full of sharp rocks. And it was shallow, so if you fall you will most likely fall on sharp rocks. I decided to rent a Stand Up Paddling Board instead, but I fell asleep at the beach so I will do it tomorrow instead.

We stayed at the beach and watched the sunset. It was so beautiful! I took a lot of pictures but it doesn’t give the real thing justice.

Then we waited for the hula dancers that were supposed to dance at the beach in the sunset. But they never showed up so we went to Subway and bought dinner to eat at the beach while watching tonight’s firework from Hilton Hawaii Village. The funny thing is that the firework was behind the tall buildings so we didn’t see anything. Too bad! The rest of the evening was spent in an ABC Store. There are millions of souvenir shops here but they are all the same. There is like one ABC store on each block here, it’s ridiculous. But anyway, both of me and Caroline bought so many souvenirs to our loved ones and a little to ourselves too of course. I bought a new bracelet and a tiki statue. I’m not gonna write about the other stuff, in case someone happens to read.

A quick shower back at the hostel and tonight I’ve just been going through pictures, and a little bit of tiny things. I should go to bed, because tomorrow I have to be ready at 7:30 so we can do the Diamond Head hike before it gets too hot. I’m really excited about our first hike :).

Caroline’s system camera is slightly better than my HTC One phone…

Hanauma Bay

Posted on Thursday, 16 January 2014, 23:29 by Alexandra

This day has been so amazingly fantastic! Hawaii is paradise. I, Caroline and Jair spent the day at Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve with is a very pretty lagoon on the east side of Oahu. You have to pay an entry fee of $7.50 and then watch a movie about how to behave around the reef that’s in there. Look but not touch and don’t feed the animals pretty much.

We took the bus out there and it went really smoothly. 30 minutes and the AC was perfect in the very warm morning. $2.50 for every ride out here and you can go wherever you want to on the island.

When we got to the bay we were awestruck. My jaw was at my knees. It was sooo beautiful!! Just imagine those big mountains from the Jurassic Park movies, the ones formed from lava. They were circling the turquoise water and you could clearly see where there were sand bottom and reef. A lot of palm trees and mongooses running around on the grass next to the sand. Mongooses are very common here apparently. They are really cute. I tried getting a photo of them, but they were fast.

Anyway, we stood up on the side of the lagoon and took a lot of pictures and then walked down the steep hill into the lagoon. The sand wasn’t perfect, it was kinda rough actually. So my soles under my feet hurt now. But it’s okay, we’re not gonna do a hike until Saturday.

We did a lot of snorkeling but after the Red Sea in Egypt I wasn’t impressed. There were a few cool fishes. I recognized them all from Egypt and they are pretty. But the reef just looked dull and grey. I bought an underwater camera yesterday though so we took a few pictures today and will save the rest of them for Maui when we are gonna go snorkeling with turtles!

When we weren’t in the 80F water we just hung out at the beach. It was exhausting snorkeling without fins so I think I actually fell asleep a few times. I had sunscreen with factor 70 and I only got burned in my face where I forgot to reapply it a second time. And I think I got a lot more tan after today. I’m not gonna be recognizable when I go back to Sweden if it continues like this.

The sun disappeared behind the mountain at like 4:30pm so that’s when we went back to Waikiki to shower and get ready for dinner. We went to Tiki’s Grill and Bar where Crystal (Chad’s cousin) works. I had coconut shrimp and it was really good. It was a very tiny portion, so we decided to have ice cream at Cold Stones after. Marshmallow ice cream with Heath bar as a mix-in was pretty good!

We sat on a bench by the beach while eating our dessert and then went back to the hostel to get some sleep. It’s exhausting snorkeling and lying in the sun a whole day!

On tomorrow’s agenda is Pearl Harbor, Honolulu downtown and surfing at Waikiki Beach and later fireworks at the same beach.

80F (26C) in the water isn’t all wrong :). The air temperature was the same! On the way back to the hostel after our dinner we saw Boo Boo the Amazing Guinea Pig. I wonder how that guy made the guinea pig so obedient.

Jan 15: Aloha, Hawaii!

Posted on Thursday, 16 January 2014, 8:18 by Alexandra

It’s been a really exhausting day. I woke up at 5:30am, did the laundry, said a small goodbye to the kids and got driven to the airport by my hostdad. I had plenty of time at the airport, read a little and then got happy when I got the window seat. Not that it really mattered since there was only water outside, pretty much the whole way. I got a complimentary breakfast consisting of fruit, some crackers and macadamia nuts. It was enough to still my hunger.

After that I tried to read, but after a few pages I got too tired so I tried to sleep but that didn’t work either. So I tried reading some more and when I got tired I tried to sleep. And so it went on. Super annoying and this is the first flight that I actually didn’t enjoy. Even if the service was awesome, you had your own TV screen in the seat ahead of you, I just wished for it to be over.

Five and a half hour later it was over and I got out of the aircraft at 1pm local time. I got on the shuttle to the hostel and met a guy who were gonna stay at the same hostel. He is from Mexico, but went to high school in Canada and is now studying in San Jose and decided to go to Oahu by himself for four days. He was nice so I told him he could join us for our plans if he wanted.

After we got settled in at the hostel, Hostelling International Waikiki, like one block away from Waikiki Beach, we decided to go explore a little before Caroline got here from D.C. So we talked and walked up and down the whole of Waikiki Beach. I’m not that impressed to be honest. The beach was way smaller than I thought. But it was a pretty fantastic view with the skyscrapers right at the beach. And the water was so warm! I really did want to go in it, but I didn’t have my bikini on… The weather is pretty nice too. It is around 80F (27C) and humid (that was one of the first things I noticed when I left the plane, it was really humid). It is pretty windy, actually it is a lot windy. But it’s not a cold wind so it’s fine. But my new hair got messed up…

We watched the sunset but the clouds were in the way so we only saw red/pinkish light glowing through them. It was pretty, but I look forward to the day there will be no clouds to cover up the setting sun. Hawaiian sunsets are pretty famous. It seems like there is always a lot of clouds here. That’s sad.

At 6:30pm Caroline arrived at the hostel and I helped her check in and we got ready for dinner. On my request we went to Hard Rock Café and I had the local burger which had pineapple, teriyaki sauce and sausage (that reminded me of falukorv!) on it. Really good! With it I had a Long Island Ice Tea for the very first time. It was good, but I thought it wasn’t supposed to taste any alcohol at all? I liked it anyway though.

When we were done eating Crystal and her boyfriend Alex came by to have a drink with us. Crystal is Chad’s cousin who moved to Honolulu last September. They both were really nice and told us about stuff to see and do around here.

We said goodbye around 11pm and on the way home I and Caroline stopped by in one of those ABC Stores so she could buy a mask and snorkel. I also bought an underwater camera since we are going snorkeling tomorrow at Hanauma Bay which is a very nice reef here on Oahu.

I wanted to go to the lounge when we came back to the hostel to update my blog because I bet all of my 7 readers are super excited about how my first day on Hawaii was. But it was closed and that is the only area where there is Internet. So I have to post this tomorrow morning I guess.

I got my 9^th Hard Rock Café glass and I also had time to buy one of the refrigerator magnets and also a little key chain with my name on it and how it is told in Hawaiian (?) on an Hawaiian registration plate. Like the one I have from Texas.

I’ve been up for so many hours now. My body thinks it is 2:30am and I’ve been up since 5:30. So it is high time to go to bed. And I feel even more sorry for Caroline who flew for 10h and have 5h of time difference instead of my two.

It will be nice with a pretty mellow day tomorrow. I’m just so exhausted now. And my legs hurt after the long walk on the beach. Goodnight and mahalo for this opportunity!

2014-01-16, 00:35

Waikiki Beach, Oahu, Hawaii #9 hard Rock Cafe Honolulu

Goodbye San Diego

Posted on Wednesday, 15 January 2014, 6:24 by Alexandra

My sheets are in the washing machine. My room is empty from all my stuff. Well, except for all my suitcases with all my stuff in them. Evertything is packed except my computer so now I’m totallt ready to go! But I am a little bit worried about my travel partner. I asked for her phonenumber on Facebook two days ago since I don’t have any Internet on my phone. And she still didn’t answer. Didn’t even read it… Well well, I’m sure it will turn out fine!

I am tired, I slept less than 5h last night so I guess I will sleep on the plane. That will be nice. I think the excitement will partly replace the tiredness as soon as I’m on the airport to check in!

Goodbye San Diego! See you for a few hours in 18 days! ❤

Last day in San Diego

Posted on Tuesday, 14 January 2014, 23:47 by Alexandra

I can’t believe I’m writing this. This was my last day in San Diego. The day I’ve been dreading for so long has finally come. This whole day has actually been really awesome. I didn’t spend so much time with the kids since their school started today, but when we did in the afternoon, it was just so nice. The boy couldn’t stop hugging me and the girl kept saying that she didn’t want me to go. I don’t want to go either. I love this family! I love this place! I love the people!

But I’m grownup enough to know that everything has to come to its end eventually… And this is the end of a fantastic adventure. I’ve had the best year ever with no regrets. I just wish time didn’t fly by as fast as it did.

I cooked dinner for the whole family and I made tacos with the girl’s help. She cut all the vegetables. And she put away all the groceries before that without me asking for it. She is so sweet! It was a very nice dinner but it felt like a normal dinner. Because even if I’ve been waiting for tomorrow for so long now, it still doesn’t feel real. Normally I’m excited like crazy at this time but now I can’t feel it. It’s probably the sadness dulling everything.

I actually look forward to go home so I can get rid of all these mixed feelings, it’s driving me crazy. And I also want to get rid of the nervousness about my trip home. I’ve packed everything now and it barely fit. I have to extend one of the suitcases and I’m not sure how good that is… But I don’t have any options. That one is 49.5lbs and max is 50. What if the scale here doesn’t work and I have to pay $200 for overweight? The other suitcase is 48lbs I think so I can’t really put anything in there either. I wonder how strict United Airlines are? I hope they will have some mercy when they see me crying.

This morning I went to Moda Hair Salon to finally get my hair cut. I haven’t cut it since December 2012. I put in some highlights too and it got really nice. A lot of hair disappeared, almost 2dm, but I like it. We’ll see how much the sun is gonna bleach it during the next couple of weeks.

Tomorrow my alarm will go off at 5:30am. My hostdad will drive me to the airport at 6:45am. So very nice of him! And the flight takes off at 9:20am. In the morning I will wash my bed sheets and mentally prepare for the trip. It’s actually a pretty long flight, almost 6h. Hawaii is very far away from everything but I have my eReader. Today I finished the latest Bane Chronicle Novella: The Last Stand of the New York Institute and it were as good as the rest of the 8 100pages novellas. I think that that imaginary world (The Mortal Instruments, The Infernal Devices and The Bane Chronicles) is my favorite. I loved all of those books! And Cassandra Clare is gonna write a sequel triology to be released in 2015: The Dark Artifices. The 6^th and last book in The Mortal Instruments series: City of Heavenly Fire will be released in May and the 10^th and last Bane Chronicle book will be release in the end of February. Can’t wait!
This means that I started on The Throne of Fire, the second Kane Chronicle book today. I will probably read a lot in it tomorrow.

I’m going to Hawaii tomorrow!! 😀

The Red Pyramid

Posted on Monday, 13 January 2014, 18:04 by Alexandra

Today I finished the first Kane Chronicle book, the Red Pyramid. I’ve read better books and some parts were confusing. But it was worth reading anyway. Now I’m reading the 9^th Bane Chronicle book (The Mortal Instruments extras) and then I will continue with the two last Kane books.

It’s getting late but I have a lot of things to do still. First I have to go to the library and print some things, and then I need to go to like Target and see if they sell tiny screws to sunglasses. Mine broke again this weekend and I don’t wanna go to Hawaii with a safety pin holding them together. It’s awesome engineering, but a normal screw would be better. And then I wanna find snorkeling equipment, I think it might be cheaper here than on Hawaii.

Can you believe I’m going there in 39 hours?! I can’t, but I’m sooo excited anyway!!!!

Bemm

Life's a Beach

Monthly Archives: January 2014

Road to Hana

Aloha, Maui!

Roadtrip in a convertible

Diamond Head and TURTLES

Pearl Harbor

Hanauma Bay

Jan 15: Aloha, Hawaii!

Goodbye San Diego

Last day in San Diego

The Red Pyramid

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