Hawaii - Day 4 - Hula Dancer

Today we dropped the hubby off at the airport because he has to get back to work, so the rest of the trip will be just me and the momma.

We kind of took it easy this morning and hung out on the balcony in the sun until our 10am hula lessons! I need to preface this with that me and my momma are two of the least graceful people alive. The guy taught us the moves for our feet, but then changed it up when we applied it and we got all confused. The momma reached her limit when we were expected to move our feet and arms at the same time, so she became a photographer. I stayed in the game, but there were four verses so I would get lost and it wasn't very feminine like you would expect it to look. I kind of took on an Army stance a couple times, so I looked a bit manly. The last time through I (mostly) remembered the moves. I'll teach the momma the routine later because the instructor didn't have the patience for remedial lessons.

Afterward, we headed to the beach! We laid out in the sun for awhile, but the sand was irritating our marathon wounds (blisters) so we went to play doctor (I am a journalist, not a doctor so you entrust life or limb in my hands at your own risk) then moved pool side.

Pretty much, would took a day to just enjoy the sun. Aloha!

*Update * I thought our evening was going to be quiet and uneventful so I went ahead and posted earlier. I was wrong.

We decided to walk to a restaurant that was only a mile and a half from the hotel, so we didn't even think it would be a sketchy area, but it was. We ended up in a shady part of Chinatown, we were running out of daylight and you could tell people knew we shouldn't be there. So, we got our food to go then took the most direct route back to Waikiki Beach so we could follow that back to the hotel. We felt much safer being back in a more touristy area, but we almost let our guard down too soon. As we were crossing the street, a homeless man was in front of us. We were both keeping our eye on him, just in case, but he wasn't being too suspicious. He stopped at a bus stop and we both thought, "oh, good, we don't have to worry about him." Nope. As I walked past, he did this backward ninja kick and tried to make contact with me. What. The. F@ck. Seriously? Did that just happen? After all we had been through to get that food, I would have been livid if he would have kicked it. Luckily, he missed and we just kept on walking and made it safely back to the hotel in time for Friday night fireworks. And the food was amazing! Don't know if I'd go as far too say it was worth the hassle, but it was delish.

Hawaii-Day 2 - Turtle sighting!

Another beautiful day in Hawaii. Can I stay?

Today we went to Laniakea Beach, also known as Turtle Beach! We were walking along when my momma goes 'oh! Oh! Oh!' We had our first official turtle sighting! After that there were so many of them right along the beach line, poking their heads up to say hi.

We went beach hopping after that and stopped at a cove as we were driving along and got to see a Hawaiian Monk Seal that was only about 5 feet away from us. He was just chillin in the shallow water enjoying the sunshine.

We found another beach and attempted paddle boarding. That was an adventure all on it's own and definitely a full body workout. None of us had ever done it before, so the rocky bottom, snorklers, and extreme winds were not ideal for first timers. Seriously, the wind was insane and you can't stop paddling because as soon as you do the wind takes you past the buoys and that's not where you want to be. Ask my momma. She turned paddle boarding into surfing and caught a couple waves on accident, while my hubby fell off his board, then handed me his paddle and then had nothing to steer with. We were a bit much to handle for the instructor.

On our way back we hit up the Dole Plantation and rode the Pineapple Express. We learned all kinds of tidbits about pineapples, like that they're all planted and picked by hand, it has an enzyme that aides digestion and once a pineapple is picked it will not ripen any more. Who knew?? We also split a 'Dole Whip' which was pineapple ice cream, and is highly recommended.

Isn't it amazing how exhausting being out in the sun is? Aloha!