Pink Scrubs: Hawaiian Vacation

I just got back from the most amazing, relaxing, fun, adventurous vacation with S! It was the first time in....i cant remember how long...that both S and I have actually had real vacation time where we didnt have any school work to do. This was his pre-residency and my post-boards getaway to just relax, have fun and be together. Even though it was a short 4 days, we did SO many things. It was really the perfect balance between scheduled adventures and relaxing beach time! Gahh...I want to go back right now.

Day 1: Travel Day. I left my apartment in East Lansing to head to the airport at 5 AM (11 PM Hawaii time). After 3 flights, 6 hours of layovers, meeting S in Los Angeles, the Titanic, 4 episodes of Boy Meets World, and Toy Story...we finally arrived in beautiful O'ahu at 6 PM hawaii time. So, I had a very very very long travel day, but I didn't mind...because I was just so so excited.

In LA

When we got to our hotel, the check-in lady told us that it was our lucky day, because we were getting a room upgrade. This hotel was rediculous. Like...by far the most incredible place I have ever stayed. It was right on the beach, tons of pools/bars/restaurants, penguins, and beautiful scenery. Our room was also ridiculous. We were upgraded to a gigantic ocean-front suite with 2 private balcanies. We woke up each morning literally staring at the beach. It was gorgeous.

(Google image of part of our hotel)

Penguins at our hotel!

View from our tower!

That night, we had all of the intentions to go out and explore, but I was so exhausted that I fell asleep the second I got to our room. Thats ok though, because I knew I would be rested and ready to go for the rest of our vacation days!

Day 2: Today, we went to Sea Life Park to go play with sea creatures and swim with dolphins! It was SOOOO FUN!

Sadly....it was eventually time to leave.

That night, we had a FANTASTIC dinner at a sort of Hawaiian-Italian fusion restaurant! Some highlights:

Hawaiian Bruchetta: mango-tomato salsa, fried
avocado w/ blue cheese, and a mushroom mix...
absolutely delicious!

Dessert: Chocolate moose + fresh fruits + macadamia nuts

The rest of the night, we just hung out on the beach and in our room....went to bed early and got a solid 8-9 hours of sleep. Glorious.

Day 3: The next morning, I woke up early for a 7:30 AM Hula aerobics class. We learned a hula dance to the Hawaiian song "Little Grass Shack." I had tried to get S to come with me, but he declined..saying he thought the class would be full of only women. I assured him it wouldn't...but like usual...he was correct. It was definitely all (old) woman. Oh well, it was a lot of fun nonetheless!

After the aerobics class, the hotel was having penguin feedings/petting. So, I stopped by to watch these cute baby penguins!

Later that day, S and I went on a hike to the Diamond Head Crater. It was only about 2 miles long and was a pretty easy hike that a lot of old people could easily do...but the view was absolutely beautiful!

(Google image of the Crater from afar)

Our awesome bus driver/tour guide.

Inside the crater

Back at the bottom

Oh something else kind of crazy that happened on our hike! One of the old ladies on our tour bus had to stop half way up the mountain because of she was diabetic and became hypoglycemic. So, we had a whole "is there a doctor nearby" moment. So, S got to step in and say that he was a doctor and give the little old lady some help. In all reality, all that she needed to do was eat a granola bar...but still, it was neat that S could step up in a time when a doctor was needed nearby!

After we got back to our hotel, we hung out on the beach for the day! We also rented a paddle board for the afternoon. I had paddle boarded once before, so I knew how to do it very quickly. But my poor lack-of-balance boyfriend struggled. I hate to admit it, but it was pretty hilarious watching him. It was such a fun/relaxing afternoon. And...I got a really great tan! I just love the beach.

The beautiful sunset on Waikiki

The next morning, I made S wake up at 5 AM to go watch the sunrise. Sadly, it was hidden away by clouds/hotels...but, it was nice to sit on an empty beach in the morning, even if the view wasn't as magical as I had imagined it to be.

After we went back to sleep for a few hours, we decided to try out the breakfast buffet at our hotel. Boy, was it legit! Besides your classic cereals, fruits, and bakery items...there was an omelet bar, dim sum breakfast items, and COCONUT french toast! Yuummm. Plus, this was the view from our table:

After breakfast, we boarded a bus to spend the day at the Polynesian Cultural Center. It was about an hour and a half away (on the total opposite side of the island), so there was a lot of really pretty sites along the way.

WHERE LOST WAS FILMED!!!

The Polynesian Center was really really awesome! It was basically split up into 6 lands: Hawaii, Tahiti, Tonga, Fiji, Aotearoa, and Samoa. Each island had a show and lots of different cultural activities to take part in. The activities we participated in included: canoe rides, spear throwing, traditional cooking, fire making, leaf weaving, ukalele lessons, hula lessons, traditional cultural games, fishing and many others! They also had their version of a parade, which was lot of different people dancing traditional dances on canoes. It was basically the Hawaii version of Disneyland. So, obviously I loved it.

More Hula lessons

Ukalele lessons

More Ukalele lessons

A traditional Hawaiian nut spinning game

Traditional Hawaiian chess-like game. We got really intense.
The guy running it said he hadn't seen people get as far as we had before.
Yes. S and I are a BIT competitive haha

"Bowling"

I forget what these were called...but you spin them and dance
with them. S and I were both awful at them!

Tattoos. Mine says "family". S's says "warrior". Naturally.

My weaved fish on a fishing rod.

Spear throwing.

Fishing

Unsuccessful fire making

Lots of videos of the beautiful dancing at the park:

That night, we went to a luau and the Cultural Center's Show: Ha - The Breath of Life. It was FANTASTIC. Like, seriously amazing. Its the coming of age story of a boy, but with tons of beautiful dancing, really awesome fire dancing and a tear jerking story line. Such a great end to our vacation.