Aaaaaalooooha!
We just came back from Hawaii and we already miss it. Frankly, we didn’t want to leave the island after spending less than 6 full days exploring its beauty.
In the morning of our second day on Oahu, we drove ourselves to a botanical garden. About 15 minutes away from the busy Honolulu, this place felt like another world.
After the garden, we visited Pali Overlook, where the breathtaking views were mixed with very strong, rather entertaining winds.
The next day we drove to the Kualoa Ranch and took the “Movie Tour”. Apparently, quiet a few Hollywood flicks were filmed on the grounds of this ranch: “Jurassic Park”, “50 First Dates”, “You, Me, and Dupree”, “Godzilla”, “Pearl Harbor”, TV series “Lost”, and some others I do not recollect at the moment.
After the ranch, we went in search of Turtles. I had to see one if it killed me! I had grand dreams of seeing a few crawling around the beach with me lying down in front of one to take close up pictures. Dreams don’t always come true when and where you expect them to, though, so I had to settle for seeing a few from a distance, swimming around in the ocean. 
Day 4, Nicole’s birthday! We started our day with a Submarine ride – 100 feet below sea level. Frankly, the experience is a bit overrated, but the view from the ferry was beautiful!
Famished from our underwater travels, we went in search of food. After a bit of wandering, we found ourselves at an authentic Japanese hall-in-the-wall restaurant. We had our first encounter with Ta Ko Yaki. We loved it!
After a filling lunch, we went back to our hotel room to open Nicole’s birthday present, and get dressed for the Germain’s Luau trip we booked for later.
This wasn’t as corny as we feared it might be, and we really enjoyed it. In the first picture below, the two guys pulled a whole pig out of the ground where it spend many hours cooking amidst hot stones and ash. It was delicious.
Then there was dancing… and lots of it! This guys was showing all the girls on stage how it’s done. His tattoo was awesome.
The day before we left, we only had one major thing left to do – see a waterfall. Manoa Falls were recommended and the experience did not disappoint, despite the little water coming down from the waterfall at the time. A local told us that the flow varies day to day, and depends a lot on (duh) how much it rains that day. It took an hour of hiking to get there, about as long to get back. The scenery, the smells, and the sounds of the tropical forrest made the time fly by.
We ended the day with a trip to the Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve. We missed the sun, but it didn’t stop us from enjoying this gorgeous beach.
Ahhh Hawaii … we miss you so.
