Hawaii in Instagrams!

Well, (sadly) I am finally back in Michigan. Okay, just kidding, I am glad to be home sort of, hah! But Hawaii is so beautiful! Here is my attempt at sharing paradise with you, through a lot of selfies and Instagram filters. I've got more photos to come, but here is an overview!

I had never changed planes before (spoiled), and I literally had to run to my connection in LA and still almost missed it, so I was pretty stoked when my luggage made it to Hawaii along with me. I arrived in the afternoon, so we grabbed dinner by the beach, yumm... Then I passed out real early because there is a 6 hour time difference. ;) My first day, we shopped for bedding and food, and then we CLIMBED A MOUNTAIN. Okay, this was kind of a weak mountain. It was really just a paved uphile, mile-long path. But it ended with beautiful views! The pics above are me at the top of the mountain and my buddy Jake and I walking down the mountain. The next night we listened to a local reggae artist at an Irish pub (what) and drank some whiskey. I took a selfie beforehand because I felt real cute. Ya know what I mean? Pahaha...

I had never been snorkeling before, and Jake is in the Coast Guard. So homeboy can swim, and loves to snorkel. We went snorkeling in Hanauma Bay, which is beautiful, but I looked like a floundering fool trying to snorkel while battling the waves. BUT LOOK HOW PRETTY! (That's the first pic here.) I mostly laid on the beach, toes in the sand, trying to soak up some sun and stop being the palest person on the whole island. At one point, we stopped at a scenic overlook along the highway, the Pali Lookout, but it was raining so we didn't stay long. Also, I discovered how delicious macadamia nuts are -- YUMMM... One grocery store had an entire aisle and a half devoted to solely macadamia nuts... I am addicted.

Our second hike was through the JUNGLE. We hiked out to Maunawill Falls, which seems to be more of a local-secret kind of a hike than the others. The trail was pretty muddy and took a good amount of concentration to ensure that you weren't going to lose your footing or twist your ankle. It was about a mile and a half out to the falls, up and down hill, over the stream a few times, jumping across rocks, and avoiding slippery tree roots, and culminated in a beautiful waterfall and swimming hole. There was a sausage fest of military dudes at the swimming hole when we got there, all trying to out do each other in terms of epic jumps... You could climb up to almost 60 feet above the water and jump off a cliff or swing off a vine into the water (whaaaat, crazies...) We got a lot of bug bites and really muddy shoes...but neither of us slipped once!

Jake had to work the last few days I was on the island, so he put me up in a military hotel, the Hale Koa, in downtown Waikiki. The second and third photos are views from my hotel room balcony, and the fourth is a banyan tree in the hotel's courtyard (such cool trees, seriously).

We went to the hotel's luau one night and ate DELICIOUS food, oh my gosh. I'm not even that into pork, but I looooove kalua pork. Good grief, so tasty. When Jake was at work, I drank a lot of mai tais and Malibu by the pool, trying desperately to be less pale. But I also used 70 SPF because I burn and am terrified of skin cancer. I still burnt my shins, oops... When he got off work we chased the sunset up to the North Shore (where I took this palm tree photo), but it was really cloudy, so it wasn't the BEST sunset I've ever seen...

Jake has been revisiting the emo music we used to jam to in high school, so he dragged me to a Circa Survive concert one night, where I got beer spilled down my legs and my toes crushed by enthused moshing teenagers, hah. I took one last photo of downtown Waikiki from my balcony before checking out of the hotel, and we climbed one more mountain before I went to the airport. Look at those baby cacti! This mountain was a bit scarier, but soooo pretty and definitely my favorite. It was really dry and gravely, so I slipped on the way down and scraped up my legs. I'm pretty tough though, if I do say so myself, so I totally laughed off my bruised bottom and bleeding calves, hah. ;) The last photo is another photo of the plant life at the top of the mountain, with the town below in the background.

There's more photos to come -- with less narration!! What have you been up to these past few weeks? I'd love to hear about it!

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