Aloha Hawaii!

Aloha!

The story begins at the start of 2010. My sister and I were supposed to go to Hawaii together but she ended up not being able to go due to conflicts with work and school and being a newleywed. I knew the only other people besides her I would want to go with were my best friends. The best thing happened and Traci, Cheree, and Clarissa all said YES! That was in March...

 My family and I already had a trip booked for April, which I already previously posted about, and we had an absolutely fabulous time. It made me even more excited to go back with my girls. If you know me, you know that I LOVE Hawaii. I really don't know exactly what it is about that place besides the fact it's tropical, warm, beautiful, laid back, and fun but I seriously have a great love for the place. So right after I got back from Hawaii with my family I was casually looking at tickets and found the best deal I have ever seen, called the girls very early after my night shift at the hospital and it was a done deal. We were GOING TO HAWAII! A girls trip...no hubbys, no kids, no responsibility...JUST US!  Since Cheree and Clarissa hadn't been there before it was going to be really exciting to show them Oahu.  We had 5 more LONG months to wait...and waaaaiiiittttteeeeeddddd we did....September 23 took a long time to come.

Unfortunately with sadness we ended up just going as a threesome, as Clarissa was unable to go due to personal reasons. It wasn't going to be the same without her, and we held our hopes high up until the last second of stepping through the boarding gate that she would magically appear. We were sad to not have her there and there were several times throughout the trip where she was in our thoughts... hopefully the next time!

Here are a ton of the pics I managed to snap. We all took turns carrying our cameras around snapping pics so I know I am excluding a lot of the fun we had. And FUN WE HAD!

HAWAII GIRL'S TRIP 2010

Traci and Cheree giddy with excitement...I did mention no kids, no hubbies right?

Cheree and Traci at Kailua Beach

The minute we found the rental house and unloaded our CONVERTABLE! we were off to Kailua Beach. This is one of my favorite stretches of beaches due to the extrememly calm water and very soft powdery sand. It was so beautiful the first day and the entire weekend. Way more humid than I have ever felt Hawaii because I have always been between Feb and April. We had rain twice...both times at like 7 am and it lasted a whole 2 minutes each time...the weather was amazing!

We stayed at the beach for about 2 hours the first afternoon before the sun started to set and then headed to dinner in Kailua Town. We ate at a favorite of Traci's and mine...California Pizza Kitchen. Yummy!

Our first day we headed up along the North Shore. We were scheduled to visit the Polynesian Cultural Center in the evening for a dinner and night show. So we started traveling in our sexy Sebring convertable...lol...along the North Shore. The North Shore is an absolutely beautiful drive, just in case you haven't been to Oahu. There are little towns, beautiful greenery, and the road drives alongside the ocean for a huge stretch of the way. The thing about the ocean that amazes me is all the different shades and tones of blues and aquas. It's so pretty! We drove into Laie and found the Laie temple. It was still closed at the time for renovation (since has been re-dedicated in November 2010).

Pretty flower on the temple ground.

 Me, Cheree, and Traci

Next we headed to Laie Point. Last time I was there the waves were really crashing on the rocks but then again it was pretty stormy that trip. This time the waves were rather calm. Here is Traci and I.

The three of us! On occasion we were able to find a nice passerby to take our picture...otherwise it's usually two of us at a time!

Next stop, the amazing beaches along the North Shore...Sunset Beach, Pipeline, Waimea Beach. Here is a random surfer dude that caught a pretty good wave. We had spread out our towels to catch some rays and then it was so hot we decided to move our towels closer to the water. We were actually still quite a ways away from the surf until a rogue wave came swamping us with water and everything got wet...towels, bags, everything...We DIED laughing!

After the sopping wet incident we got back in the car with hopes the sun and the warm air would dry us out as we headed to Haliewa. We stopped for lunch at the most amazing Mexican Restaurant a lady at work raved about...she was right! IT WAS DELISH! Then we toured some quaint little shops and headed for some dessert and Matsumoto Shave Ice. Yummm.... Perfect for a hot day!

Finally to end the day we headed to the PCC for our dinner and night show. We were able to catch the last Samoan Village presentation (which is absolutely the best one they have) and laughed hysterically before heading around for some pics.

This guy was soooo funny, and somewhat famous around Liae...haha...I'm laughing just thinking about his act....lol

 A cocunut tree climber

                                                             Our picture with the Samoan guy...

                                      

 Waiting for the night show to begin....

The night show called "HA" it was so so so good. We loved it.

Day 2 we headed out to go to the swap meet but due to a football game Aloha Stadium was closed. Plan B we headed to Waikiki. We walked the strip amongst thousands of tourists, ate samples at the Hawaii Cookie Company (YUM! I suggest the chocolate chip macadamia nut cookie), avoided stinky homeless people, and ate at the Cheeseburger in Paradise. REALLY YUMMY and they had the best fries. YUM!

After lunch we went parasailing. Wow...what can I say except this was one of the best decisions we made on this trip. It was so thrilling...and unlike anything I expected it to be. I imagined the wind rushing and it being loud and bumpy and I was kind of scared going into it. Not only that, we were supposed to go up only 600 ft but the girl loved us and upgraded us to 800 for free. When we went up it was very different than I thought. It was a little scary at first but it was so peaceful and quiet and it just felt like you were floating. I loved it!

After we finished, victory smiles, we did it! We drove back to Kailua and ate dinner and went to a movie. It was nice. It was warm. We liked having the warmth because back home it was cold!

Day 3 we were off to Jamba Juice for our morning ritual of smoothies then on to the Swap Meet. The weather was scorching that day. We were sweaty messes but we didn't care...it was shopping! This guy has talent. We each got our kids names painted. He is doing Cheree's son Ethan's in this pic. I wish I had a better pic to show you all but they turned out really good!

Traci examining her buys

Teddy's Bigger Burgers. We ate here a couple times. Delicous burgers and Delicious Fries. It was close to our rental house and nicely priced. Couldn't beat that! The Teriyaki Hamburger was delicious!

Later Traci drove us back to the beach in our sexy Sebring!

 The Beautiful Beach again. That little island out there is called Bird Island.

 Aww...the warm sun...something we can only dream about now...

Cooling off. We had to watch out for the Blue Bubbles ( Man O War) They were starting to drift in and we were not wanting to get stung.

Cheree and Me

 We all brought book thinking we were going to read, read, read. However, we people watched, talked, giggled, laughed, waded, posed, and pretty much did everything on the beach besides read! It was so much fun...The day we went kayaking to the Bird Island Traci was going to stay behind because it was a two person kayak and we were short one....however, leave it to Cheree and Me, we snuck our kayak around and got a pic of Traci with her nose in her book before we kidnapped her. It was a sight to see all three of us on that kayak (there was plenty of room!) trying to keep it balanced enough not to dump us over a mile into the ocean....it was a little scary but we did it....

 We had our toes done before we went on the trip. Cute right?

 Kailua Beach at sunset.

 The second night we went to a movie we had to get gas. At the time 3.27 was expensive. Not so much now that I know our gas is getting close to that here but at the time we were paying around 2.60 I think....

 The mall parking lot had these blue stop signs....have you ever seen a blue stop sign?

Our handy dandy GPS got us from point A to point B. We would have been seriously lost without it! Thankgoodness for Bertha...she saved our day on numerous occasions!

These last pics are of Bird Island. Our last full day in Kailua we just spent the day at the beach and enjoyed the sun immensly. Somehow my sister's camera I borrowed since mine is broke got too much moisture in it and it fried....so these were the last pics I was able to take....and yes, then I had to buy my sis a new camera! Traci didn't have shoes since we had kidnapped her and the rock was so sharp so I walked around the little island trying to spot some sea turtles with no luck. I was hoping Cheree and Traci would get to see one cuz they are super cute but oh well...next time right?

Our girl's trip was amazing. It was everything I hoped for and more. We had so much fun...we never fought or argued once...we had so many bonding experiences! We shared deep thoughts and secrets, experienced some seriously hysterical moments together, ate some delicious, delicious food, got really nice tans, and yes, we did miss our families too but this was our time to let loose and relax without hearing "mom. Mom. MOM" every 2 seconds. I love these girls, they are my best friends...life wouldn't be the same without them! I am so thankful they gave me such a great experience that I will remember forever.