Hawaiian-scapades Part 2

We begin our trip with a rocky start. Unbeknownst to both of us, our luggages would fall apart 3 hours prior to our flight. We ended up searching for a new/used/old/trusted replacement luggage - rushed to repack everything, me thinks we set a new world record for this.

Upon arrival in Hawaii International Airport, we were greeted by Will, hereby dubbed as the bug that won't go away. Zeroing on 2 Asians with no parents in tow, he immediately launched into a monologue on which tours are the MUST DO to take while in Hawaii... Leach much.

Anyways, with the memory of the BTWGA now slowly fading here are my top 5 fondest experiences in this vacation:

1. Upgrade!!! - Disaster # 1 (you know with the luggage) out of the way, we both headed towards the airport to meet with impending Disaster # 2. Huff! They have apparently run out of seats next to each other. What?$* A freaking 10 hour and so flight with a stranger beside you? Me thinks the universe is totally playing us. So what's a girl to do? Hmm... Smile. Pose. Name drop. And get ourselves upgraded to Business Class of course. We drank wine. Ordered our hearts out and basically didn't noticed it was already the 10th hour. Thank gaawd!

2. Surfing - Nothing screams more Hawaiian than their # 1 sport. We took up a group class, although it might as well have been a private one as our oh-so-hot-I-have-to-remind-myself-I’m-engage surf instructor paid us extra attention. Heehee...pays to be the only 2 girls who speak English then. In between trying to catch a good wave, oh-so-hot instructor alternately flirts, smiles, chats and shares just about anything there is. Silly me even got kilig over hi-fiving when we discovered our favorite Pinoy food is the same, Adobo.

Back to surfing, fortunately we were able to stand up albeit for just a few seconds on those damn long boards. Surf gods there mentioned that you apparently stand up on the board only when you feel the waves catching you hence even if it's behind you already; you still have to do some paddling. Paddling is what killed Happy Feet and me. It was just for too long long and for too much effort.

On the way back to shore OSHI had to paddle for the both of us, because we pretty much were useless at that point. Yes! That's how effing hot he is; with just a toe on each of our board, in a superman effort, he was able to "carry" us back to shore.

His partner gave him flack about it cause he brought in four already and was coming back for more whereas OSHI just has 2 under his name - me and Jean.

Ooooh forgot to mention, OSHI eventually invited us to a party at his place. But it turned out he lives a good 40 to 60 minutes away from our hotel, all the way to the next mountain. Yeah, no guy no matter how hot is worth crossing a mountain over!!!

Surfing costs about $50 along Waikiki Beach.  This includes board rental, rash guard, surfing instruction and most importantly professional pictures from instructors.

3. Sight Seeing - So many sights to see.  So little time to do.  Since we wanted our trip to be relaxed an schedule-free majority of the time, we only participated in one tour.  We took a one day tour that brought us all the way to the North Shore mountains.  We got to see gigantic turtles at Turtle Bay

.... We got to see gigantic pineapples at Dole Plantation.  Hawaii is very famous for its pineapple.  In fact it's one of top their export products.

.... We got to see gigantic mountains over at Kualoa Park :) it's actually where they shot the very first Jurassic Park movie.

.... We got to go to to the Iolani Palace, where history says, then Hawaiian king and queen got beheaded.

.... We got to see gigantic temples + wishing bell.  Hmm seems a tad more appropriate for a Japan-travel but what the heck.

...And of course, we got to not only see but lounge around at the world-famous Waikiki beach.

4. Hawaiian Culture - Hula dancing originated in the Hawaiian Islands by the Polynesians.  And who are we to say no to centuries-old of tradition.

at the Polynesian Cultural Center 

A huge part of the history of Hawaii is what happened to Pearl Harbor during World War 2.  We payed our respect to the fallen men and women (some of whom were civilians) at Pearl Harbor and over at the USS Arizona Memorial

At Pearl Harbor