Back from Hawaii!!

I guess I'm the last person to write an account of our trip to Hawaii after Chang's initial telling and Roothie's subsequent followup. Since they covered most of the highlights, I'll focus on other random elements.

OAHU
We started the first day cruising around Oahu and taking the grand tour, stopping first by the Chinaman's Hat where I got in touch with my roots.



We then moved onto a beach at the North Shore where Chang and I jumped off of a rock formation roughly 10m high into the ocean. It was pretty funny going up there and seeing several people going crazy and doing flips while others clearly had been there for a while, contemplating the jump before deciding to delay the decision. The pictures from jumping can be found elsewhere, but there must have been something in the water because I started to tower over Chang.



Even Roothie got in on the action and we dwarfed the Changina tandem.



When we weren't jumping into the water, the rest of them were usually being somewhat scholarly and reading an assortment of material while I mostly just lounged around and slept.



Since it was ridiculously hot and humid, we picked up some shaved ice, waiting about a half hour in line for a popular place in North Shore. It definitely hit the spot and was a refreshing break.



On the way back, we stopped by the Dole plantation, but there wasn't much you could do there at a reasonable price (i.e. free or close to it), so we just walked around for a bit before I was forced to take a picture with a lame pineapple cutout.



The next morning, Ruth and I started off by going to Pearl Harbor, for which we had to wait an hour in line to get a ticket for three hours later. It was pretty interesting and moving though the actual memorial is a pretty small structure.

We then went around looking for boardshorts, of which I ended up getting two pairs: one from Local Motion and another from PacSun. I almost got a third on the last day in Maui, but resisted the tempation. I think it might have had something to do with Chang setting the over/under at 3. :)

Through the course of shopping, we dropped by the famous Waikiki beach. It was pretty nice, although somewhat crowded.



On our last day in Maui, we woke up really early to head to the popular snorkeling spot of Hanauma Bay. We didn't get an underwater camera so no fancy pics on that front. It was pretty nice; we got to see a lot of cool fish and the coral wasn't bad either when we moved away from the more popular areas. After seeing what some of the other snorkeling spots looked like, it's kinda sad that the main traffic area here was pretty much ruined and devoid of coral. Here's a pic of the area that shows how crowded it got.



Since it was the 4th that night, we rounded up the day with some more shopping before catching a sweet 20 minute fireworks show at the Ala Moana.

MAUI
After being entertained for the first part of our trip by Gina and Chang, Ruth and I headed over to Maui to spend the rest of our vacation.

We didn't do much the first day but lounge around a couple beaches and plan out the rest of our activities. We found a nice shaded area at a beach in Wailea, played some cards, and stayed around for the sunset.



Before that, we had stopped by a local surf store where they recommended a place called Da Kitchen to eat, which happens to also have a branch here in Mountain View, so we'll definitely be checking it out. I got the Loco Moco... a tasty concoction of hamburger patty covered with eggs and gravy. Mmm....



The next day, we started off by visiting the local aquarium at the Maui Ocean Center. It was really, really nice there. I wish my aquarium looked like one of the tanks that they had there! The pictures of the tanks didn't come out so good, but there was this cool camouflaged fish that we snapped a shot of.



Nearby there was an ice cream and cookie store and Ruth enjoyed the homemade ice cream sandwich that they put together for us.



This was also the day that we began our endless snorkeling adventures by heading out to Honolua Bay. This was one of the marine preserve areas in Maui and the wildlife there was amazing. There probably wasn't as much fish as there was in Oahu, but there was so much coral and vibrant colors everywhere. It was also here that we ran into this huge school of fish... they weren't that pretty, but there were easily a couple hundred of them and they would scatter in the same direction in unison when we approached them. Pretty neat stuff. Anyway, here's a picture of the bay after we left the area.



On Thursday, we embarked on the Drive to Hana... a famous scentic drive through Maui. The drive itself was pretty, through the mountains and lush scenery. Along the way, we stopped frequently on small trails to scenic spots or beaches. One nice area that we stopped nearby and picked up some delicious banana bread also had some nice breakers against the lava rocks.



We found a nice beach area for lunch, where Ruth snapped this photo that included the spiffy new shirt I got from Local Motion.



Also along the way, we stopped by Ching's Pool (not to be confused with Chang's Beach that we didn't get to see), where I survived a bunch of mosquito bites to get this nice pic.



By the end of the drive, there were other nice places to see, but we were so tired of being on the road that we just turned around and headed back for some nice R&R.

The highlight of Friday was a luau that took place at the Marriott. It included a combination of Polynesian performances and some scrumptous food. Of particular note was the Kalua pig that was exceptionally tasty. In addition to the good food, there was some good dessert, too.



The most memorable performance of course was the fire juggling/eating (?) one since it broke up the monotony of the repeated hula-style dances that involved a ton of insane hip shaking :)



We had a good time there despite the fact that we were second-class citizens having not been a part of the premium seating section. We were segregated and identified by both a different colored wristband and a lei made of shells instead of flowers. I was outraged at the classification imposed by this caste system.



On the final day before our return, we took a snorkeling cruise out to "Turtle Town" and Molokini. It was definitely saving the best for last... the first place we saw a bunch of turtles that were lounging around at the bottom of the ocean before occasionally coming up for air. They must've thought we were really weird since every time they swam and surfaced, there were a bunch of people looking at them and angling for a better view.

Molokini is a sunken volcano crater that's also a marine preserve area and there was just a ton of coral and fish here... too many to describe. In retrospect, we probably should have tried to pick up an underwater camera, but it was definitely still an exciting and memorable experience.


As always, the vacations end up feeling too short, but it was definitely a relaxing time and a good way to get recharged before heading back to work!