If you're looking for an incredible view, a great place to scuba dive (and get eaten by a shark), or fish (judging by all the fishermen) this is the place. It really is beautiful here.
Look at a map of Oahu, find Laie, find what looks like a point...bingo, you're there.
I really couldn't take enough pictures, it was so pretty there! Just look at the color of that water.
See where those people are standing on that huge rock? I'm told people love to jump from there into the water. (woah.) The hard part I guess is getting back up the rock. There is a little area where you can climb up, but the waves are crashing pretty crazily so you should probably know what you're doing.
See that little step^^? That's where the jump from. I wouldn't even go over and stand on it so obviously you won't catch me jumping. There are no lifeguards (JUMP AT YOUR OWN RISK!)
The above photo is taken from the shore in Laie of goat island, courtesy here.
Goat island isn't far from shore in Laie. In low tide it's (fairly) easy to walk from the beach to the island and believe me, the trip is well worth it.
Water shoes are a necessity for walking across the rocks and the reef to reach the island. And don't bother bringing lots of stuff with you. (We brought a cooler and it was just a big hassle). The area you walk across is right where waves from either side of you break, so it is a bit of a balancing act. Expect to get wet.
Once there you can take your time walking around the whole island and enjoying the view, the sea life, and tons of shells. We had a blast sifting through shells and found some really beautiful ones.
On the left side of the island is probably the best beach I have ever been to! The sand is so soft and white that I wanted to roll around in it. There weren't many people there, which was nice because the beach is small. And I assume the walk through the water discourages lots of tourists from going there.
Most incredible beach!
Chris found some buoys and tried to float on them.
Verdict: Go! Do it! Don't bother with a towel (you'll get wet on the way back) just leave one in the car. Bring a small bag with a bottle of water and sunscreen and WEAR WATER SHOES!
So it turns out that to get to this cute little waterfall where people love to jump off into the water, you have to hike. You have to hike a lot. And if it has rained recently that hike is very muddy and very slippery.
Somehow we missed the whole hike aspect and showed up in flip flops. Boy, was that a mistake. It was so muddy that we ended up just going barefoot to avoid slipping. There is something satisfying about feeling the mud squish in between your toes.
The biggest problem about this whole hike thing is that is was three miles and not especially easy. I was just barely starting to get over the whole wanting to puke my guts up 24/7 stage of pregnancy and the most exercise I had done was walking from my bed to the bathroom. So we took our sweet time and took A LOT of breaks.
In normal conditions (not newly pregnant and with proper footwear) the hike would have been great. It was pretty and there were great views.
But the mud was pretty fun too.
When we finally made it, it took some coaxing to get me into the water.
And some more coaxing to convince me to jump off the waterfall. But I did it:
Here's Chris jumping off.
And here we do it together!
And lastly, our nasty, very sore feet at the end of the day.
Verdict: It was a blast and I highly recommend it. (And it's FREE!)There's no way you could bring a stroller but I did see people with kids (albiet crying kids, but kids nonetheless). Make sure you bring water and wear hiking shoes and a bathing suit!
And in case you don't see anyone who knows where they're going, when you get down the stairs to the water, cross the water and there is a trail on the other side. Don't take the 'trail' to the right of the water.
Enjoy! And comment and let me know what you thought.
We actually went to the zoo forever ago, but I didn't have anything to edit the video on so I'm not uploading it until now.
Don't get me wrong, the zoo was fun.
HOWEVER, if I had saved up my pennies to go to Hawaii I would not waste those pennies at the Honolulu Zoo. It was a great activity for living here and needing something to do on a day off. But it wasn't free and it was just a zoo. Nothing especially Hawaiian about it.
Actually there were these really cool trees that looked like they were painted.
But I'm sure there are other places in Hawaii where these trees grow.
Verdict: If this is your one and only trip to Hawaii and you want to make the most of your life savings...just go to the beach across the street and boogie board. More fun and it's free!
We went to Pearl Harbor to see the USS Arizona. However, because you have to take a ferry out to the Arizona and the viewing area is on some sort of dock (I guess) and the weather was a teeny bit windy and sprinkly, they weren't letting anyone over there. So instead we toured a super cool submarine, the USS Bowfin.
For $10 a person ($7 with a Hawaii ID) we got to tour the Bowfin museum with truly hilarious posters encouraging men to live in a place where they didn't even get their own bed with lots of other men and inadequate showering facilities to serve their country. Also some other cool submarine stuff. And by cool I mean it was a little bit boring.
Then we were given a head set with one of those things where you press the number of the station you're at and a husky male voice tells you all about the history of where you are standing.
We walked around the deck of the sub first and Chris pretended to shoot the bad guys.
Then we were absolutely mystified to learn just how small the living area in a submarine is. I mean look at this. There is a good majority of American men who seriously would not fit in those beds.
And they didn't even get a bed to themselves. People would take turns sleeping. And this was an actual room but there were beds in other places that just sort of folded out of the walls. In any given room you could reach out and touch both walls at the same time.
And then there were the doors. Once again, modern day American food portions are not creating men to fit through these doors.
I have to be honest, we didn't really listen to our headset so much except when we were somewhere that seemed interesting. (Or that confused us).
At the end of our tour we were offered a picture that one of the employees had taken of us (That looks much like this one) which we could purchase. But it wasn't just a normal picture. It was the front page of the newspaper the day Pearl Harbor was bombed and our picture was the headline photo. We were totally prepared to purchase it but they wouldn't take our credit card, only cash. And thus we left without a picture.
It is our full intention to go back at some point and actually see the USS Arizona. The chances of that actually happening are unknown. If you find yourself at Pearl Harbor, I would recommend the Bowfin tour. You may enjoy the museum more than we did, but how often do you get to walk around a submarine?? (Also remember cash to buy your cool souvenir picture).
We finally hiked the Makapu'u Lighthouse trail I can't believe it took us so long since it's like a 10 minute drive from our house. The hike really isn't difficult and the view is absolutely incredible!
There is no charge to get in, which is probably one of the reasons we chose to do it. We were bored and it was free. I was all dressed and ready for a hike, but Chris was in slippers (flip flops) and he did fine. We also passed a girl wearing a dress.
The whole hike is paved but parts of the road have pot holes and cracks. It's basically like walking up a steep-ish hill with an incredible view.
Supposedly you can see whales from up here in the winter, and we were on the lookout, but we didn't see any.
Off the main path,there are different trails you can take. you can walk right up along the lighthouse, but it doesn't go all the way up.
We just went to the top and got a great view of the lighthouse and the beach below.
A little ways up from the main path at the top are some old military...something or the other. There's not really a path up there but it looks like other people have gone up that way and we just followed their path.
I would highly recommend this hike and heck, I'd even do it again. It's about 2 miles round trip for the regular pathway and did I mention it was free??
I decided to go to Bishop's museum because I read about it, somewhere and I pass the sign for it every morning on my way to work. Unfortunately, our trip there was a bit of a let down. Even with our in-state discount it still cost $22 for the both of us.
For some reason, I feel like when you get older you're
supposed to like museums and learning and stuff. Well despite the fact that I'm not a teenager anymore, the museum was pretty boring.
The exhibits are all about the Hawaiian culture and whatnot which is probably interesting, but in a museum atmosphere, it was just boring.
The good news is that since I wasn't there with my mother or a school group, I could skip through the boring stuff and just look at what I thought was interesting (which wasn't much) and I wasn't the only one. I think Chris was also disappointed that we spent so much money on something that was such a dud.
The only actual fun part was the science exhibit (but who
doesn't love a good science museum?) There were cool games, that were actually science but the pretended to be games so people would like them.
We watched this lava demonstration which was pretty cool and relevant because we're living in Hawaii and there are volcanoes here. It was interesting to learn about the life of a volcano and see what lava looks like up close.
There was this weird tunnel with a black light and neon painted sea life. That was interesting. We were all glowy.
So in the end I probably wouldn't go back (even though they just opened this cool bug exhibit). It was too expensive and when it all comes down to it, a museum is just a museum and for the most part, museums are boring.
More Pictures:
Early Hawaiian renditions of...women?
Sea creatures hanging from the ceiling.
Ancient Hawaiians hung these over their children's beds to scare them into falling asleep. (haha jk)
As is natural in Hawaii, I've done a lot of swimming while I've been here. However, swimming here at Waimea Valley falls has been my favorite by far, and I'll tell you why. But first, the hike up to the waterfall:
The hike up to the waterfall is a collection of gardens to showcase flowers and plants that can be found around the islands. There are apparently also areas that you can stop and do an activity or talk to a tour guide, but we didn't see any of that. The 'hike' is only half a mile but if you walk through all the different gardens it's a little further than that. If you aren't able to walk the half a mile to the waterfalls, there's a transport service in golf carts to and from. But honestly, the hike isn't bad. It's all paved and if you walk straight there it doesn't take very long at all.
Here are some of the fun plants we saw:
Hugest lily pad ever!
Crazy roots
I have to be honest, while it was really cool to see all the fun plants, I really just wanted to get to the waterfall and I would have much rather seen these cool plants in their natural habitats and not in some gardens where they were planted.
I assume this hut was apart of the activities you can partake in if there are people there to lead said activities.
So now onto the awesome waterfall and why I liked it better than any ocean.
I LOVE to swim. It's a little hard to do the kind of swimming that I love in an ocean full of salt where I'm extra buoyant and waves that make it hard to swim in the actual direction you're meaning to go in. Plus a lot of the parts of the ocean I've been in have been super shallow so they're good for snorkeling. It doesn't make for good swimming when you're afraid you're going to kick a rock or the reef.
So this 30 foot pool at the base of the waterfall was pure heaven to me! If it wasn't an hour and a half away and cost $10 a person I would come here all the time. But alas...
