“Salt in the air,

Sand in my hair.”

(Our lives last week, basically.)

I’m pretty embarrassed to admit that it took me TWENTY-FOUR years to finally get my butt over to quite possibly one of the most beautiful places on earth – Hawaii.

I had always planned on going some time in my life, but just never seemed to get to it.

Seriously, though, what an embarrassment.

That is, until my sister surprised me by purchasing our flight tickets while I was traveling through Cambodia last December. I still remember checking email on my phone while in Siem Reap to find a random “Thanks for purchasing from Hawaiian Airlines!” email in my inbox. I mindlessly deleted it, thinking it was either (1) spam/junk; or (2) some stupid glitch in the Hawaiian Airlines database (amateurs…). In any case, I didn’t give it a second thought.

… Until two weeks AFTER I had settled back into California life… Haidee pulled a fast one on me. Just casually sitting on the couch, she goes, “Oh, by the way, we’re going to Hawaii in February. Just letting you know.”

“……………………”

*15 seconds of staring at my sister later*

“…. wtf, with who?!”

“The ACL group.”

ACL stands for “Austin City Limits”. In October of last year, six of us went to Austin (Texas) to attend ACL, a music festival. We had an absolute blast there and apparently decided to have a “reunion” of sorts in Hawaii. Well, I guess, they decided. Without me.

*shrug* OKAY, FINE BY ME. HAWAII, HERE I COME! (Thanks, Haidee.)

So yes, last week, seven of us (the ACL group + our friend Aom from Thailand!) embarked on a wondrous journey to the island of Oahu.

While I would’ve loved to blog about the trip in real time, one thing I learned quickly is there is absolutely no way to do it traveling in a group, unless I wanted to spend a few hours a day locked up indoors while I could’ve gotten my tan on in the bright Hawaiian sunshine sippin’ on some coconut juice. Plus, I had to take meetings/work for a couple of the days in Hawaii (I’ve mentioned before and I’ll mention it again: Cisco never sleeps.) So lesson learned: One cannot blog regularly on a non-solo-travel trip. Plus, you get all distracted socializing with your fellow travelers that there’s barely any time to introspect/take down things you notice, etc.

I also got really, really, REALLY lazy with photos.  I mean like paramountly lazy. While I did actually bring my GoPro to Hawaii, I did not ONCE use it on the trip. Instead, I relied on my photo-crazy sister Haidee and her GoPro for 80% of the photos you will see on this post.

Now to get to the good part: The activity/photos!!! I will organize this post by activity and guide my narrative using photos. Little caveat that everything is pretty much out of order. But whatever, you probably wouldn’t know anyways ;-).

Hiking

One thing that I absolutely loved about Oahu was its abundance of picturesque hikes – something I was very surprised to find, coming to Hawaii. Hearing from others, Hawaii was the land of  (1) Doing nothing and (2) Chillin’ on the beach.  But man-oh-man, the mountains are gorgeous; the scenery – even more so.

Hike #1: The Pillbox hike near Lanikai Beach

Haidee (my sister) and me after making it to the top!

Brb, jumping off the cliff into the water.

I really liked the graffiti on the walls at the top of this hike.

Gorgeous views + throwing up the obligatory shaka sign

Hike #2: The Koko Head hike

This one was a tough one. Not to mention quite treacherous, given we got a little bit of rain/drizzle during the descent. The hike, as you’ll see below, basically follows a train track up Koko Head mountain. While I don’t exactly know the history behind it, I surmise that it was a track to bring supplies up to the bunker at the top of the mountain for military purposes. Anyways, the tracks themselves are unkempt, uneven and quite tattered, making for some unexpected missteps and slips. …..And it’s also a damn long trail. The ascent was BRUTAL. Think Stairmaster on steroids.

This is the “happy us” before we were huffing and puffing trying to get up the mountain. (Side note: we snorkeled at Hanauma Bay right before this… which is why we look… moist.)

Started from the bottom now we HERE. We made it to the top!!!

There was a portion of the trail that was completely elevated above the mountain; the ground was ~15 feet below the tracks. One slip and you might tumble down the hill. It was SO SCARY.

The third hike we did was called Diamond Head. It was by far the most crowded with tourists… and to be honest was quite disappointing view-wise (though still beautiful – don’t get me wrong. Wow, I sound like a spoiled no-good toddler.)

Passing out on the car

Not to brag or anything, but this was an activity four of us in the group absolutely EXCELLED at. Including yours truly. (*Brush my shoulders off*)

So let me just come clean before displaying this embarrassing set of photos: Ever since I was little, there wasn’t a single >30-minute car ride when I didn’t pass out. Something about the rocking motion reminding me of a baby cradle or some shiz.

Okay, now to put this habit into Hawaii-context. Oahu is definitely a “drive-around” type of island. One NEEDS a car to get around to the different sites/eating establishments/beaches. And naturally, after hiking/snorkeling/whatever shenanigans we partook in throughout the day, most of us were completely spent! (I dunno, I probably shouldn’t speak for the entire group, but I was pretty exhausted and I consider my cardio level to be “not bad”.)

We could always count on our responsible driver and navigator, Haidee (left) and Anna (right), respectively, to capture the precious moments of our slumber. On snapchat. To display to all our Snapfriends. Thanks, guys, you sure are givers.

This time, all of us but Fenton dodged the sleeping bullet.  SUP, FENTON.

Straight Beaching

Of course, a trip to the land of the beaches requires copious amounts of beach/sunset photos.

The first beach we went to: Ala Moana. While not my favorite beach, it gave us a good teaser of the Hawaiian beaches to come. I was actually surprised at how cold the water was (it wasn’t actually cold-cold, but I guess I was disillusioned through so many tales of warm Hawaiian oceans…)

FYI – Like I mentioned, most of these photos are from Haidee’s GoPro, so she’s usually the one holding the selfie stick 😉

Waikiki beach in Honolulu at sunset. Probably the most touristy of beaches. Borderline overwhelming.

Hanauma Bay. Sadly, this beach had an admission fee (who pays to go to a beach?!) And maybe it was the doom and gloom of the weather (rainy + windy), but I didn’t think it was the most beautiful beach either. We went snorkeling here to experience the reefs/underwater life.

  

Lanikai beach: We came to this beach twice: the first time when we kayaked (photos to come), the second time just to chill out on the beach. It’s a gorgeous, secluded beach with high-end residences lining the beachfront. Dream homes!

Waimea beach: My absolute favorite beach in Oahu! It’s located on the North Shore of the island. I have a couple of reasons why I love this beach so dearly. Firstly, it’s not that touristy/crowded (definitely not at the level of Waikiki or Hanauma Bay). Secondly, THE WAVES. Let’s just say the waves at Waikiki were pretty tame/boring. At Waimea, the waves are absolutely on point.The first time we went there, the waves were actually HUMONGOUS. Like to the point of danger. The lifeguards were definitely on watch that time. Especially towards our group. HAHAHA. We decided to venture out into the tumultuous waves and (very poorly, I might add) body-surf the gigantic waves (and get tossed/flipped/pummeled around pretty badly in the process). I guess the lifeguards thought we were pretty dumb/couldn’t swim/were likely risking our lives so they especially came up to our group and said, “We would HIGHLY recommend you guys STOP doing whatever you’re doing.”

Oops. Oh well. Yolo. We still did it anyway.

Below is our group photo shoot. You’ll notice we’re all wearing jerseys that say “HELLA CALI” on it. These jerseys come from our trip to Austin for ACL that I mentioned earlier (we brought Aom an extra jersey to join the crew!) We needed a way to represent Northern California in Austin… and now in Hawaii!

These are our “nicknames” we chose during ACL.

Commence self-timer photo shoot:

  

Kayaking/Snorkeling

Can I just boast a little bit and say that our Hawaii group is pretty darn athletic?From the hikes to kayaking, we always managed to get things done 50-100% faster than the recommended “duration time”. For instance, the instructional video that we watched prior to kayaking said the one-way trip from the beach to the destination island would take around 1.5 hours. Well we did that trip in about 45 minutes (including dragging the kayaks from the rental shop to the beach itself)! But that’s not to say we weren’t tired. Man, is kayaking an arm workout!!! We also saw a turtle in the water!

After we kayaked to the destination island, we did some snorkeling in the waters. Here, we saw two turtles! I had initially thought I would hate seeing turtles since they’re reptiles (and I generally hate any type of reptile), but seeing them in person and how gentle/graceful they are really made me warm up to them! (but yeah, sorry, no photos captured of said turtles. Haidee has a video of her swimming next to a baby one, though!)

Haidee & Anna with their snorkel gear!

After snorkeling, us kayaking back.

Like I mentioned, we also snorkeled at Hanauma Bay.

Not many photos of this particular snorkeling experience, but I LOVE this photo of Anna snorkeling next to the reef (LOOK AT THOSE LEGS).

I must say, I’m not a huge fan of snorkeling. Something along the lines of “I don’t know what creature will emerge from the depths of this coral reef” and “I don’t know if there’s going to be a sudden drop-off into the ocean abyss ahead” and “please don’t touch me, fish”.

But I’m still glad I did it, though! Great experience.

Getting owned by waves

Yes, I am blatantly listing this as a separate activity. Because it absolutely was one. We literally sought out to do this. And I will admit this was one of my favorite activities.

To remind you, the waves at Waimea beach were monstrous. At one point, I almost drowned, no joke, because the waves were crashing at frequent intervals with zero remorse. Terrifying but thrilling at the same time.

This is us gearing up for a crashing wave. Notice the facial expressions.

We survived!!!!

Cliff Jumping

Yes. Much like “Getting owned by waves” is a thing, “Cliff Jumping” is also a thing. This was also done at Waimea beach. We held off on cliff jumping until our second visit since the waves were too crazy the first time around.

First, the ascent up the slippery rock. I would say the cliff was… about 40 ft. high?

Haidee had done this her previous trip to Hawaii and said she landed funny in the water, which screwed up her tailbone (and it hasn’t exactly healed since)… so imagine my hesitation as I stared down the cliff into the water. Except we saw a huge turtle swimming in the water while we were on the rock. That was pretty cool.

Here’s a short video of Haidee and me jumping off the first time around (we did it twice):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lFkacNdnPg

Absolutely not kidding when I say the cliff jump was scarier than my skydiving adventure (photos to come). Halfway into jumping into the water you’re thinking “what have I done, why am I doing this, why haven’t I hit water yet, when will I hit wat–“–BOOM. WATER.

Nom-ing

I have such an unhealthy (figuratively and literally) relationship with food, you don’t even know. Hawaii only fed (again, figuratively and literally) the insanity.

First up: I discovered my infatuation with Shaved Ice. Prior to this trip, I had a meeting with a Cisco manager who used to live in Hawaii, and he gave me strict instructions to try the Hawaiian Shaved Ice. I remember my reaction so clearly. I gave him a weird, suspicious look: Are you kidding me? Do I look like I’m five years old? Do I look like I would indulge in syrup-on-ice? I thought to myself.

Well, I’m here to admit to the world: I AM IN LOVE. HOPELESSLY, HEAD-OVER-HEELS IN LOVE. I WOULD MARRY IT IF I COULD. My travel companions will confirm: I was/am obsessed with Shaved Ice. Out of the 8 days we were in Hawaii, I’m quite certain we got Shaved Ice 7 times.

This place called Waiola was really close to the place where we stayed. *evil grin* Perfect…….. I made sure we went as frequently as humanly possible.

My flavor of choice: Pudding (there was a hidden vanilla pudding treasure beneath my mound of shaved ice) with Lychee, Lilikoi (Passion Fruit), Mango syrup on top, and then an extra drizzle of sweetened condensed milk. If I felt extra fancy, I’d add mochi to my dessert. Man, I feel like I’m gaining weight just listing out these ingredients in words.

The love of my life:

Obligatory photo with the cute Waiola statues

At Waiola’s, I rarely strayed from my above-listed flavor. However, there was another Shaved Ice place in North Shore called Matsumoto’s that had the best Green Tea, Azuki (Red bean), Vanilla Ice Cream Shaved Ice. Also highly recommend.

Shoutout to thuggy Anna in the back:

This is not specific to Hawaii necessarily, but I also love Acai bowls. For those of you who don’t know, Acai bowls are basically really thick Acai berry smoothies with a mound of Granola + Fresh Fruit + Honey drizzled on top. The one I got in Hawaii was pretty ridiculously large. Here are my sunglasses as a size-reference-point. (Note: I still finished it all.)

If you couldn’t tell, our Hawaii diet consisted of a lot of sweets. (After all, we were 6 girls, 1 guy. Majority rules.)

So naturally, we also went to the Dole Plantation (where they grow all those yummy Hawaiian pineapples) to get our share of Dole Whip (basically Ice Cream). Anna and Haidee enjoying their Pineapple-flavored goodness.

(Btw… did you guys know Pineapples grew like this?!!?!?!?! WTF?!?!)

I know, I’m getting diabetes just writing this post myself…

But one last thing sweet thing: A few times during the week we got Leonard’s which is a famous bakery that sells Malasadas (or Portuguese donuts). They make every batch fresh-to-order, so when you take it out they are piping hot!

Okay, as you’ll see, we definitely prioritized taking photos of the sweet stuff. Kind of neglected the savory stuff. But that’s not to say we didn’t eat full meals. Because we did. A lot. And a lot of it was fried chicken. Case in point: This one meal from Sugoi that consisted solely of Fried Chicken and Carbs.

I think we had fried chicken like two more times after that. Everything was pretty much fried, fried, fried. I don’t even regret it because it was all delicious at the time, and hey, WE WERE ON VACATION.

Another Hawaiian staple is Butter Garlic Shrimp, which is most notable on the North Shore. We got shrimp from two Food Trucks: Macky’s (first photo) and Giovanni’s (second photo). I liked the former better, but honestly…. how can you AT ALL go wrong with Butter Garlic Shrimp?!

Not one of my favorite meals in Hawaii, but I think it’s worth mentioning since it’s such a traditional Hawaiian staple. The dish below is the Loco Moco plate. It consists of a hamburger patty, topped with a fried egg, topped with gravy. All over a bed of white rice. With a side of macaroni salad.

Not sure if it was just because I’m not a huge fan of hamburgers, but I wasn’t thrilled by the Loco Moco. I think the best part was the mac salad.

Nighttime Shenanigans

After abstaining from alcohol for about 3 months (for no particular reason other than disinterest), I decided I would drink a little in Hawaii. By no means did we go crazy, but a little alcohol never hurt anyone 😉 (ha… famous last words.)

Twice, we went to a famous bar called Duke’s right on Waikiki beach and got drinks. One drink called the Lava Flow was sooooooo yummy. Think Piña Colada with Strawberry syrup in it. Sadly, I don’t have a picture of it. I do, however, have a picture of my Maui Mule (like a Moscow mule) in an angry Tiki cup:

Some post-drinks nighttime frolicking on the beach:

The girls in the group also decided to go to a bar/dance club one of the nights! No boys allowed.

Bad Modeling

… There was a lot of this on this trip. And trust me: we know we do not look good.

Is this our “come hither” face or our “get out of my sight” face? I can’t tell; please advise.

Work ittttt, Vanessa!!! (She’s probably the only natural we have in our group.)

Fenton is not a natural.

Remember the ridiculous positions the photographers put us in for Prom photos in high school?! This is our reenactment. The “hand-on-chest” and the “sorority squat”.

Kristin’s and my “awkward hover hand” pose.

We couldn’t take the awkward.

I also couldn’t take the “hands around waist” prom pose.

Me posing with Haidee’s ALOHA hat (I borrowed it from her this entire trip so my face would get sunburned). Please direct your attention towards Vanessa and Anna in this photo.

We did not choose the HI life. The HI life chose us.

Does this look familiar!?

This was one of our last photos as a group in our Hobbit House (booked on Airbnb). The place itself was really cozy, but man, those low ceilings!!!

We’re a good looking bunch, don’t you agree?

HAHAHAHAHA Even better, us doing our asian, moisturizing face masks. Gorgeous. High fashion, for sure.

Here’s a slew of photos of us poser-yogaing on the beach.

Please do not disturb. Centering my qi.

Okay so this is seriously crazy. Kristin doing a HEADSTAND ON THE BEACH. You go, girl!!!! So impressive.

I’m not BY ANY MEANS a yogi, so I don’t even know if we’re doing these positions correctly. Perhaps we are insulting yogis all around the world.

Skydiving

Last but certainly not least…… Haidee, Vanessa, and I went skydiving off the North Shore coastline! We weren’t entirely sure skydiving was going to happen on this trip, since we had initially wanted to go earlier, but was rained out that day.

It was an absolutely crazy experience.

Here’s the three of us prior to getting suited up/hopping on the plane/jumping. Still happy/not freaking out.

And no, we were not required to wear any jumpsuit or anything. Just us in our HELLA CALI tanks and shorts. This didn’t strike me as weird until afterwards. But yes, while we were at 14,000 ft…. it was COLD.

I was the last to board our plane, which meant, to my dismay, that I would be jumping first. The plane ascent was pretty smooth. We even saw a whale surface in the ocean on our way up!!!

I want to say the climb was around 20-30 minutes, but honestly, the adrenaline might’ve botched my sense of time.

What I did not and could not prepare myself for was how quick everything would happen after we hit altitude (14,000 ft.)

The moment it happened, the three photographers tumbled out of the plane. 1, 2, 3 – all three guys literally jumped out of the plane within half a second of each other. While this was happening, the Randy, the guy who I was strapped to was forcing me to the door. That meant within 3 seconds of realizing we were at 14,000 ft. I was being forced out the door with zero warning/indication/opportunity to back out.

I am not kidding; it took me 5 seconds AFTER jumping out of the plane to realize “HOLY SH-T I’M FREEFALLING.”

*cue music from Disney’s Peter Pan* “I can fly, I can fly, I can fly!!!!!” Side note: Given that I literally had no time to react/think/do anything as we jumped out the door, I completely disregarded the instructions given to me by Randy of keeping my arm at my chest when we jumped. Given the position of my arms, I guess deep down I really did want to fly like Peter Pan ;-).

GERONIMOOOOOO

❤ ❤

I think there is a theme going on here, because there was also literally no warning that Randy was going to release the parachute. Which is why I look so startled. “OH GAD WE’RE GONNA DIE.”

On our way down…

Such a cool experience. Though I wouldn’t consider myself an adrenaline junkie, I totally understand those who are.

So that wraps up my post for this amazing trip to Hawaii! A huge thank you to Haidee, Anna, Aom, Fenton, Vanessa, and Kristin for making my first island experience unforgettable!!!

Spoiler: Our ACL group is actually already planning another “reunion”……. perhaps this time…. INTERNATIONAL. Muahahahaha >:]

With love,

Mendi

28 Feb This entry was published on February 28, 2015 at 2:00 am. It’s filed under Exercise, Hawaii and tagged beach, beaches, hawaii, north shore, oahu, skydiving, snorkeling, waikiki, waimea. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.