tide pools, blow holes, & luaus! OH MY!

After watching the sunset last night…

I went out for some St. Patty’s Day celebrating in Chinatown with Erika.

For big celebrations, Chinatown has a HUGE block party where they fill the streets with vendors and bands. It’s INSANE how many people congregate to one area….

I didn’t know there was that many Irish people in Hawaii? :)

When we woke up the next morning, we decided it was a great day to go for another hike! We went to the Makapu’u lighthouse trail that’s a nice paved road up the mountain. However, then we veered off the paved trail and down a rocky goat trail to lead up to the tide pools & blow holes!!!

It was a crazy trail, but so rewarding when you finally got down to the bottom.

We hung out for a few hours and ate some lunch.

To reward myself for making it down the side of the mountain (and because it was so hot) I got in the tide pool. The tide was coming in so I had to be quick or else I would be pummeled by a 50 foot wave. 

As soon as I got out, a wave crashed and the tide came right into where I was standing. Talk about perfect timing!!

My FAVORITE part was the blow holes!!!!

It was so incredible to watch the water come up through two holes in the rocks. The pressure was insane and made such a loud noise, like a jet plane taking off.  So it was kind of scary standing by them, not knowing how much water was about to shoot out.

After our hike straight back up the rocky mountain, we rewarded ourselves with a smoothie & went back to the house to get ready for the Luau!!

We went to Paradise Cove, about 45 minutes away, for an authentic Hawaiian luau filled with leis, seashell necklaces, mai tais, and more!!

There were activities set up all around for us to partake it…

Including inviting us on stage to learn a Hawaiian hula dance, which of course I immediately jumped on such an opportunity!!

(I’m on the ride hand side….in front of the red pillar thing:) )

It is 9AM now (3 PM if you’re in Jersey) and I am going to go get ready to start my day! Who knows what today will bring, but in Hawaii it will most likely be amazingness:)

Stay tuned! Mahalo for reading!!

Aloha for now,

xxoo

Surfin' USA

Yesterday morning was mellow and a perfect start to the day. We ate our French toast muffin from the fruit stand, chilled out, and took our time getting ready.

After some deliberating on what to do today, we decided to head to the beach! Then we stepped outside and the 50 mph winds made us turn around to make a second decision. We got the weather report from Dana’s friend in Kailua to see if today was a good day for a waterfall hike. She gave us the go ahead, so we drove to Maunawili Falls for a fun 3 hour hike.

It’s unreal to walk through what nature has to offer. There was a bamboo forest…

…we had to hike through some streams, over some rocks (which I almost bit it on a few times).

And finally we made it to the waterfall.

The water was freeeezziinnggg but we sucked it up and jumped right in!

We chilled out on some rocks for a little bit and enjoyed the view. 

We also watched people jump from a million feet high and cringed every time they hit the water, which was very entertaining.

On our way home, we were starving so we stopped at South Shore Grill for some yummilicious fish tacos with some garlic fries & mac salad on the side.

Afterwards, we picked up some supplies for a BBQ we decided to have tonight. We got some fresh pineapple, red peppers, onions, mushrooms, steak & chicken. We marinated the veggies in some Italian dressing and the meat in some delicious teriyaki sauce and skewered them up! Some friends came over and we just chilled out with some Longboards, Hapas, Stellas, & a few bottles of wine:)

This is Dana & Carlos's new humble abode...it's sooo cute!!

This morning Carlos picked us up some Malisadas (hawaiin donuts). They are so fluffy and covered with cinnamon & sugar…soo delicish!

Then we headed out to Waikiki for my first surf lesson from the most fabulous surf instructor

…miss dana herself!!!

I definitely got up on the board a few times and I rode a wave in for like 2.2 seconds, but it felt amazing! I eventually got tired from paddling my life away and rode the white cap in on my knees back to shore.

Dana’s friends hooked us up with some beach chairs and an umbrella, 

so I recuperated for a few before we headed to Duke’s for a burger & beers to celebrate my successful first surfing experience.

Danaburger had to do her thang over at Jimmy Buffet’s after our fabulous day, so my Nook & I took a stroll to the beach to watch the sunset. 

Now it’s off for some St. Patty’s Day fun w/ Erika! :)

Stay Green<3

Mahalo for reading!!!

Aloha til tomorrow!

xxoo

Mele Kalikimaka

is Hawaiian's way to say Merry Christmas to youuu!!!!!

(can't stop singing this song!!)

After some after dinner drinks @ the Yard House last night, we headed home to CRASH from our long day. I also had to be up at 3 am Hawaii time to call back for a job offer that I missed yesterday while hiking. In order to call when the NJ work day started, I had to be up by 3 at the latest to call by 9 am. Ends up she was in a meeting so I stayed awake for 2 more hours waiting for a return phone call. After holding my eyes open with toothpicks, I called back to try again. She was in another meeting, but “this one should be short and she’ll get back to you soon.” So, I stayed up for as long as I could (roughly 20 more minutes) before passing back out/waking up every 5 minutes to make sure I didn’t miss her call again. In the end, I ended up waking up at 9 am and called again, got a hold of her (at the END of her work day) and accepted the job offer!!!! Woo-Hoo! Have to wait til after Wed. to get approved by the board, but all should be good & I should come back home with a job back in teaching:) YAY!!!

After very little sleep, it was time to start our day. I lathered up on my SPF (which I still got burnt anyway) and we headed out to Bogart’s for a bagel works (bagel with sundried tomato cream cheese, capers, sprout, & tomato-YUM!) and coffee!!

Dana and I then cruised over to the North Shore (about a 45 min. drive) and beached it up at the Waimea beach. The waves here are crazy huge!!

You are not allowed within like 20 feet of the water or else you will be called out by the lifeguards over the mega phone, which is quite embarrassing.

This beach is famous for people just coming to watch the surfers.  It’s like stuff you see out of movies. The surfers were far out so you can barely see them on my camera, but check out these waves they were riding…

From Waimea beach we cruised over to pick up a six pack of red stripe and sushi roll for the ride.

Then we headed to Giovanni’s shrimp truck for some deliciousoooo skimps!!!!!

We ordered the shrimp scampi & spicy shrimp.

The aftermath….

The spicy shrimp left our mouths on fire and the whole thing left our hands stained with garlic and butter, but it was AWESOME!!

With our bellies full and our lips numb from the hot sauce, we cruised over to do some shopping in Hale’iwa where there’s tons of little stores full of jewelry, trinkets, art, etc.

On the side of the road there was a fruit stand, so we stopped to check it out.

Dana tried super hard to bargain with these precious little fruit women. The lady asked Dana what “8 + 6 was” to confirm the price, and Dana was like “It’s 2” and the poor lady was so confused. Lol “5+4=9” no “8”…this continued until we got whatever deal we got on some delicious lychee, sour apple, sugar fruits, mangos, and one big green prickly fruit that I keep forgetting its name....

At one point driving to go shopping, Dana pulled over to a beach that’s popular for turtles. It was roped off because of the tide and the lifeguards not wanting people to get swept away by the current, BUT we did see a turtle!! One on the rock (that looked like a rock itself)

and one in the water…

During our shopping excursion, the one lady took some time to teach me about the Hawaiian alphabet.

A = /a/

E = /eh/

I = /ee/

O = /o/

U = /oo/

and whenever the letter “w” is between two vowels, it is pronounced as a /v/, but any other time it’s still /w/.  Pretty interesting…..

After being schooled, we watched the sun set as we took the H2 back to Honolulu.

We chilled out for a bit then headed over to TACO TUESDAYS!!!! @ ChaChaCha’s.

After 2 hours of sleep last night and 2 margaritas I was about to to go face first into the quacamole, so we ate our $2 beef tacos, hung out for a few then went home to pass outtt.

Tomorrow’s another day :)

Mahalo for reading!!!!

Aloha<3

xxoo