Hawaii Vay-cay

Quiet beach, sunny day, new book, cold beer and marinating in sunscreen...what could be better?!?! Nothing...actually sea turtles would make that better but more on that later. Bonnie, Rebecca and I decided we needed a girls vay-cay earlier this year and settled on Hawaii (3 states visited- only 47 more to go)!! We woke up bright and early (and I mean early...5 AM<-- ugh) to make our flight. Quick fyi: the flight to Hawaii is 5 hours not 3 hours...now THAT was a fun surprise when I got to the airport (always need to account for that pesky time-change). We got in with plenty of time to hit the beach...which was incredible! I ran around taking pictures because I couldn't get over how perfect it was...super sandy beaches, gorgeous blue water and coconut trees everywhere (which made sense after I found out we were on the Royal Coconut Coast <-- so fancy).

The standard vacation self portrait

The cottage

Ok lets break this vacation down- first up is the food. Oh my god we ate real good...like really really good. The stand outs? Kilauea Fish Market (best fish wrap of my life- like a burrito but better), Moloaa Sunrise Juice Bar had amazing smoothies, Mermaid Cafe had good salads and wraps and Hanalei Taro and Juice Co pulled pork plate with taro mac and cheese was the perfect meal after surfing. The pineapple was sooo good so we made sure to get some of that while we were there. We even threw some on the BBQ when we made our BBQ salmon and veggie dinner (which was awesome...yay us!). Last but not least we got a coconut from the Coconut Experience...first you drink it then they whack it open and you can eat the inside. Drinking it was fine...the slimy inside was not my favorite thing.  

One thing I didn't get? Shave Ice...I just don't understand the appeal. We went to Jo Jo's since it seemed to have a lot of good reviews and I think we all agreed it was not worth the hype. They did have a great sign though that I could relate to:

Ok done with food now onto the sights/activities- we watched our first sunset at the Kilauea light house (which is in the background of the first pic...we were cheap and didn't pay the $5 to get closer), went surfing in Hanalei bay, went snorkeling at Tunnels beach and the incredible Anini beach (where I saw FIVE sea turtles...five!!), saw a ton of rainbows thanks to the 'exotic' rain, did a mini hike to a secluded beach, and watched the sunset from the end of the road (Ke'e Beach).

More dets on the surfing- Rebecca and I took a surf lesson with Titus Kinimaka's Hawaiian surf school on Friday morning and it was awesome. The conditions were perfect and we both hopped up and rode our first wave on our first try! Highly recommend them if you're a beginner surfer like us. Also I highly recommend the following: DON'T do a belly flop off your board (it hurts...trust me), DO buy board shorts (best last minute purchase of my life), DON'T get a spray tan before doing this (the white stripes running down my legs from where the board rubbed off the tan was SUPER attractive), DO try to relax your arms when you're standing up so you don't look like a little kid playing airplane (I need to work on my style). 

So to sum up we: ate a ton, surfed, hiked, lounged, snorkeled and had a blast...oh and saw five sea turtles! Really that was probably the highlight for me. Rebecca had gone out with her gear first and came back supes excited about seeing them so I decided to give it a shot. Didn't take long since they're just chillin' about 50 feet from the shoreline. Such a cool experience...and this time I didn't try and pet them (unlike my trip to mexico 10 years ago where I chased one down to touch it <-- not good).

Lastly, one thing I was not prepared for? The freaking chickens and roosters- they're literally everywhere. Airport chickens? Check. Secluded beach chickens (+ chicks)? Check. Chickens while you're trying to eat? Check. I tend to exaggerate but no joke you could not get away from these guys.

It was a short trip but a great one- can't wait to go back!

Ps. check out the American pride: