Oahu

This is the island where we stayed for our whole month-long trip. It’s also home to the city of Honolulu, which I’m sure everyone has heard of. We didn’t stay in Honolulu; we stayed in a city about 20 minutes away called Ewa Beach. My first impression of Hawaii was how much more beautiful it really was. From everywhere, you could see the mountains and ocean. Considering you could drive from one side of the island to the other in about 2 hours, we got to everything fairly easily. When we first arrived, we went to the beach, of course, and it was so nice finally getting a tan and enjoying the heat after we spent January in Denver. We could see Honolulu and Diamond Head Park from Ewa Beach, which was so beautiful. We only ended up going to Ewa a couple of times because, for some reason, it was very windy on that part of the beach. We alternated days between going to Honolulu for dinner and going to the mountains to hike. Getting to stay here for a whole month really made going to see everything much more relaxing and fun.

Our first weekend started out with a bang. We visited the Spitting Caves and did two hikes, the first being Koko Crater. It was very unique considering you just hiked straight up a mountain on old train tracks, so it was steps all the way up, but don’t think that made it easier; the steps were pretty much vertical, and I was dying already at about halfway. But once at the top, it was a spectacular view of Honolulu and even an old war bunker still open to roam in.

The next day we did the back way to the Stairway to Heaven hike. This one actually tested my sanity. We spent 5 hours getting to the top, and it was anything but easy. With 20 mph winds, loose rocks, pouring rain, and parts of the mountain you had to use a rope to scale, I tried to turn around at one point, but Mark talked me out of it, thankfully. Once at the top, it was the prettiest view I had ever seen from a hike; you could see the south and north beaches/ocean, along with multiple cities. It was totally worth almost dying for, haha. At the top, we got to eat a sandwich, but we didn’t stay for long because the winds got harder, and it was super cold. The way down was way faster and easier. In all, it took about 8 hours to complete the hike. Definitely a wild way to start our trip.

We spent our other weekends on different islands, which I talk about below, so we spent the weeks on Oahu always doing something. We went to Kualoa Ranch, which is a 40,000-acre nature reserve where the Jurassic Park movies were filmed. We did a UTV tour that took us around the notable parts. At the beginning of the tour, it started to pour rain, and it was pretty funny because we got soaked, and you could barely even see the mountains that we were there to see, but thankfully the rain eventually stopped, and we dried off in the sun. I think the rain actually made it more fun because we got to go through muddy areas. Our tour guides were very informative, and we learned a lot about the island and the culture on this tour. I would definitely recommend everyone visit the ranch when going to Hawaii.

Our favorite beach on the island was Electric Beach. It wasn’t too far away, and it was on the west side of the island, so you could watch the sunset perfectly over the ocean. It was never crowded and super good for snorkeling. I loved this beach a lot; it was perfect for everything we wanted.

Throughout the month, we visited lots of restaurants and bars, made new friends, and spent lots of time on the beach. We were very surprised at the number of chickens on the island; they were literally everywhere. It was pretty funny. We visited every part of the island and even attended a luau and took surf lessons. I would definitely come back again; nothing is better than a beach in paradise.

Kauai

One of the smaller islands of Hawaii, but probably the most beautiful. We only went for one weekend, but it only took three days to know how much I loved it. We started by stopping by this huge, wonderful canyon with a waterfall that was a must-see, then we went hiking to see the Na Pali Coast from the top. The hike itself was fairly easy and had very pretty views; little did we know that we would see a lot more the next day. On the hike back, it started to pour, though, and we got covered in mud. We don’t have the best luck on hikes, I guess. That night we camped on the beach, and it was mine and Mark’s first time camping. We set up a bonfire and made s’mores and hot dogs. We jammed out to some music and enjoyed the waves. When it was time to sleep, though, Mark and I barely slept at all. I was paranoid the whole time, and Mark couldn’t get comfortable. It was fine because we had to be up at 4 the next morning to drive to the other side of the island for our boat tour.

We were a little late to the boat tour, but our guides were so cool, it ended up being fine. When we got on the boat, we started heading to see the Na Pali coast and saw a couple of whales, which was so amazing! Watching their tails go up and play around really set the scene for what was to come. We kept going and finally made it to Na Pali, and all I can say is Wow, it was the most beautiful mountains I had ever seen. They stretched for miles and were so interesting. Our guides told us so much about the history of the mountains and caves, and we actually got to go into one of the caves. It was an insane experience, and I would totally do this same tour again. When we were on the way back, we ran up onto a pod of dolphins, but it was about 200 “spinner” dolphins. So they were just jumping and spinning in the air. It was a once-in-a-lifetime moment I can’t get over. It was so beautiful watching them all swim around us and show off their moves. This was probably my favorite experience on the whole trip.

Maui

Maui was the last island we visited while in Hawaii. Here we rented a jeep so we could ride with the top off, and it was definitely worth it. On our first day, we went to a beach to snorkel, but the water was pretty rough, so Eddy and I decided to stay on the beach and get a tan, while Ben and Mark went into the water to look for caves. They ended up not being able to see anything because the water was so murky from how hard the waves were. While they were out there, a coast guard came up and asked if they had seen a woman who went missing right where they were swimming. They hadn’t seen her, sadly, but that tells you how rough the water was, especially with all the rocks. So they decided to come back, and Mark cut his finger, but he survived, lol. The beach for me was too windy; the sand kept getting blown all over me and into my hair, ears, and everywhere else, so not very enjoyable. I was getting sand out of my hair for 3 days after this.

Later that day, we went to see the sunset at this national park where you can drive up a mountain and be above the clouds. While on the way up, we realized that it was getting colder and colder, and we started to freeze, but we had to see the sunset. We made it up just in time to watch the colors change; it was so beautiful and totally worth freezing to death over.

On our last day, we set out to drive the road to Hana. We had no idea how windy the roads were until we got there, but the views were amazing. We made only a couple of stops because we were in a little rush. The first stop was the Garden of Eden, which was so beautiful. There were peacocks everywhere to begin with and tons of other birds you could feed. Then you could walk through the garden with the prettiest flowers and plants, and the rainbow tree, which I’d been dying to see for months. They were just as magnificent as I’d imagined. After the garden, we stopped at the end of the road to Hana and headed back, grabbing lunch wherever we could find because there’s no service on the road to Hana. We stopped at this pizza place that was so delicious, and I grabbed some banana bread from a shop nearby. The banana bread was made there with the bananas they grew, and it was the best banana bread I’d ever had. I wish I would have gotten 5 more loaves.