Hawaii 1

I suppose the best way to delve into blogging is to get started with my most recent adventure...Hawaii!  I went to Hawaii last year, although I enjoyed it, I didn't have any plans on returning anytime soon.  One of my goals is travel around the world one destination at a time, therefore when I travel I plan on going somewhere I haven’t been.  It just so happened that as I was planning my vacation flights to Hawaii were ridiculously cheap, since I wanted to surf and relax I figured I would go back one more time.  Another wonderful coincidence was that a good friend from college (Chris T.) would be there upon his return from Iraq. 

After many months of counting down the days, September 3rd finally rolled around and I was beyond ready.  Mind you, the drawback to cheap flights is they are usually terrible.  We (Chris B and I) left Saturday morning at 11:00 a.m. and arrived in Hawaii at 8:30 p.m.  That might not seem bad, but Hawaii is five hours behind therefore we had three different flights and flew for a total of 13 hours (a direct flight is 6 hours). It was quite the journey, but definitely worth it.  The weather was absolutely perfect, mid 70's with a cool breeze, it beat the 100+ days we have been having in Houston.  Once we arrived, we checked into our hotel on Waikiki beach and met up with Chris for dinner and drinks.  A couple of Chris' army friends joined us and we had fun evening of bar hopping.   Our hotel pleasantly surprised us by upgrading us to a larger room with a view. 



View from the hotel room



Day 1

The next morning we were up early exploring the sights and sound of Oahu.  First on the agenda was snorkeling in Hannamu bay.  We hopped on the local bus outside of our hotel and headed to the bay.

  

After snorkeling we ate some lunch and watched the Aggies BTHO SMU.  We finished off the afternoon with some surfing right outside our hotel.  Unfortunately the surf wasn’t the best, but it was still good enough to give Chris a feel for what it’s like to surf.  Even though it was his first time surfing he picked it up quickly.     

Day 2

We were up again ridiculously early so we decided to catch the sunrise while surfing.  The surfing was a little slow, but there is nothing more calming and peaceful as sitting on a surfboard out in the ocean watching the sunrise.  After a delicious breakfast we headed up to Chris' house to spend some time with him and explore the north shore.  We had some local grilled garlic shrimp for lunch and then hit a couple of beaches. 

North Shore

 Since Chris had some work to do we left him alone and head for Pearl Harbor.  I enjoy visiting various war memorials because it reminds us what sacrifices have been made to give us the freedoms we have today. 



Pearl Harbor



Day 3

Tuesday was our last day on Oahu so we got up early for some more surfing.  It was a little slow, but still quite enjoyable.  I could easily get used to surfing every morning.  After breakfast we decided to drive to the North shore and go Skydiving, and what a better place to do it than beautiful Hawaii.  Even though I have jumped before it took a little while to work up the nerve.  Chris has never been so he was excited.  After we signed up I got pretty excited as well.  I met my tandem partner and it turned out he used to work at the place I took my first jump.  Since I had jumped before he asked me if I wanted to have some fun with it.  Sure why not...how bad could it be, I am already jumping out of a perfectly good airplane.  He explained to me that instead of going face first we would be exiting the plane backwards and would do a series of back flips.  My brain was screaming noooooooooooooooooooooo, but my mouth said yes.  Before I had a chance to second guess myself or say no I found myself tumbling backwards out of an airplane 14,000 ft in the air falling at 124 mph straight for the earth.  What in the world was I thinking!!!  After the back flips we had a minute of freefall, that entire time I was falling I was praying that the chute would open.  Final after what felt like days I heard that glorious sound of the chute opening and all the noise of the wind had stopped.  There I was floating peacefully down to the earth, strapped to a complete stranger that I entrusted my life to, talk about a rush.  Chris liked his first jump and even said he would be ok with doing another.  Hum what other places in the world would be great for jumping...(just kidding Mom)



View when you jump out of the plane



After skydiving we drove around the island and headed back to the hotel to pack our stuff for our flight to Maui the next day.  For dinner we met up with Chris to see him before we left. 

Stay tuned my next post will tell you about our four day adventure in Maui and our survival of the Road to Hana.