Aloha!

After months of anticipation, I made it to Hawaii!!  My friend, Amy, and I had separate flights, but we found each other at the baggage claim at our final destination in Honolulu.  After 11 plus hours of flight time, I was able to breathe in the fresh Hawaiian air and take in the beautiful view of the crystal blue waters and skies and of course the green palm trees.  I was so excited to be in Hawaii.  It truly felt like I had made it to paradise.

The Gecko!

Honolulu Airport

My friend Katie picked Amy and I up at the airport.  It was so exciting to see her as she was our local tour guide.  She picked us up in her white cabriolet and as soon as we got in we knew this trip was going to be filled with adventure.  As we pulled away from the airport a little gecko jumped on the windshield and held on for dear life as we sped away to our first stop at Mai Thais.   Katie has a tradition to take all of her visitors to a local hotspot for Mai Thais.  We enjoyed a happy hour of drinks, good food, and live music.

Mai Thai

After happy hour, Katie showed us her town of Kailua.  She showed us her town center with shops and restaurants, and she showed us her beautiful beach which is two blocks from her house.  After the tour we headed back to her place where we settled in and had a glass of wine to end the night.  Although Amy and I were at first motivated to make it out to meet all of Katie's friends, we faded quickly after a long day's journey.  The best part of waking up the next day was to see the skies and rainbows.

Kailua Beach

View from Katie's house... can you see the rainbow?

Our first full day in Hawaii was one crazy adventure!  Katie took us to a trail where we would hike for about an hour to reach a waterfall.  The Maunawili Falls Trail was in a rainforest.  Since it was raining a lot, we left our valuables in the car to not get damaged.  We only hiked for about 40 minutes and barely made any headway to the waterfall because the rain had caused the trail to become incredibly muddy and slippery.  The three of us girls looked ridiculous with our shoes caked in mud.  We cut our hike short because our next stop was the Kaneohe Harbor.  Katie's friend had invited her to go out on a boat to the sand bar, and Amy and I got to go along!

Katie's friends were true locals and they showed us an awesome time.  We drank beers and sake out on the boat at the sand bar and at Coconut Island.  Coconut Island was a small island which ended up being the island where the opening credits for Gilligan's Island was shot.  We all had such a great time telling stories.

The view from Gilligan's Island

After day out on the boat, we had dinner at Champa Thai where we were able to bring our own beverages.  From dinner we headed to China Town in Waikiki.  The first night out on the town in Hawaii is one that will always be remembered.  We ended up having to run to catch the bus in Kailua to make it downtown for the evening.  We met some interesting characters on the bus.  It was so interesting that we missed our stop.  We met up with some of Katie's friends at the bar, and we ended up joining a private party at a neighboring bar called Addiction.  It was exciting to experience the Hawaii night life.  To end the night, we grabbed a cab and made it home safely.

Amy, Sarah, me, and the lovely host Katie