hawaii, day five

tuesday started with something that i've wanted to do forever- swim with dolphins!!

it was a slightly overcast day, and having to climb into the chilly water sure didn't help, but it was so much fun and dolphins are definitely one of my favorite animals now. i guess i didn't technically get to "swim" with the dolphins per say, but i did get to dance with one, kiss it's cheeks, and kiss it on the lips... so i think i'm the true winner here.

(yes, my arm WAS that sunburnt)

we tried to cleverly step around paying for the ridiculously overpriced photos that the photographers take during the excursion, so instead we paid for kendrick to be an "observer", hoping he could snap some pics on our camera. however, sea life park is two steps ahead of us, and made sure that all bystanders were at a good enough distance from the dolphin to ensure terrible, terrible photos. so, in the end, sea life park won, and we purchased one of their photos to commemorate the experience. (although, i must admit, it's a pretty great photo) well played, sea life park, well played.

this is the beautiful view from the park.

after my dolphin adventure, we
decided to stick around a bit longer and take advantage of all that the park had to offer. we were just in time for a seal and sea lion show, which was just about one of the cutest things i've ever seen (how do you make a dog even cuter? easy, add fins on him and make him a seal lion)

kamiya met up with us afterward, and we took a short drive over to the makapu‘u point lighthouse trail, which was a gorgeous hike that lead to, you guessed it, a lighthouse.

this hike ended up being a lot longer, steeper, and harder than we anticipated, but the entire trip provided fantastic views of the ocean (infact, the entire trail wrapped around a mountain, giving you a panoramic view of the deep blue ocean at all times).

after our hike, we grabbed a quick lunch of burgers and fries, and then headed out to the chinese temple. this was hands down one of the coolest places i have ever been! the entire place was covered in fog, giving it an eerie feel. also, it was completely silent, which added to the effect.

that night, we headed out to waimea bay for a bit, and treated ourselves to some shaved ice cream. it was a jam-packed, very successful day.

hawaii, day four

we started monday out the best way we knew how.... shopping at the outlets (which included the kate spade outlet for me). kate spade outlets are basically the closest thing on earth to a gold mine, because the deals are insane. on this day, we happened to fall upon a sixty percent off the entire store sale... with an additional twenty percent off at checkout. i literally circled the store at least thirty six times, trying on every single bag in sight, until i finally landed on a darling blue backpack towards the back of the store. i'm talking buttery smooth cobalt leather with gold hardware... it was gorgeous. while it was originally four hundred dollars, it was marked down to one hundred, and then after the sale discounts came into play... it was a whopping thirty dollars. say whaaat?! thirty dollars for an all-leather kate spade back pack? even the cashier was in shock, and seeing that it was the last one in store, you know i grabbed it and ran.

(after paying, of course).

kamiya was busy helping his parents with a few projects around the house, so kendrick and i had a good chunk of this day to ourselves. we headed out to hale'iwa beach, and relaxed on the nearly empty shoreline for a solid hour (or more, who's keeping track?) 

after swimming a bit, we headed over to the darling shops and boutiques that circle around the beach. my favorite shop that we visited was this darling little number right here:

ken and i have a tradition of pick up one unique home decor item every place we travel, and we agreed this was the perfect place to pick something out. after much deliberation, we decided on a stunning piece of farm-grown coral to keep on shelf in our home. 

after strolling through a few more shops, we stopped at a cute little gelato shop for a treat. naturally, i chose the chocolate flavors, and kendrick went with a rootbeer float.

once we left hale'iwa, we quickly decided that we could definitely do more beach time.... so we headed to ka'ena point. this was my first time going to this beach, and it immediately became a new favorite. the entire beach was covered in sparkling white sand, the water was a deep blue, and tall, misty green hills lined the shore (talk about a gorgeous backdrop). also, we were the only ones there, which obviously made it even better (except for when kamiya finally joined us late-afternoon)

 that night, we went out for sushi at a super classy joint in downtown honolulu, it completed a very, very perfect day. 

hawaii, day three

continuing on with my "hawaii series"...

that morning, we attended a travel presentation that lasted only an hour and a half (thankfully). you're probably wondering why one earth we did this (especially after our traumatizing timeshare presentation in california last year), however this one was basically harmless and gave us a major discount on tickets to swim with dolphins. i'm talking like eighty percent off! so it was a done deal.

(kendrick was super proud of this artistic picture he took)

after our presentation, we headed over to the mall in downtown honolulu and did some shopping. kendrick picked up a new swim suit and I tried my best to stay away from any and all kate spade stores, because sometimes the temptation is just too much to bare.

afterwards, we met up with kamiya, hit up the dole plantation for some dole whips, and then drove over to waimea bay for some beach time.

after the beach, we went to one of my favorite places on the entire island- the point. i'm not even going to try to explain the gorgeousness of this place... just refer to the pictures below.

 

(still tying to convince aaron to make this his tinder profile pic)

 (reason #52383 i'm not a fashion blogger)

after taking thousands and thousands of pictures at the point, we headed over to the famous giovannis shrimp truck for some garlic trip.

...it was definitely as good as we imagined it would be.

hawaii, day two

we woke up bright and early the next morning (like six am, which is technically ten am in utah time, so not bad at all). after a delicious breakfast at a place called "paradise", we headed out to the swap meet.

the swap meet is basically rows and rows of stands surrounding the stadium, all filled to the brim with cool things for decent deals. it's the best place to get souvenirs or gifts to bring home to family and friends. i ended up picking up a cute backpack (which ended up being super convenient throughout the trip), some odds and ends for my parents, and a baseball cap that said "hawaii" across the front. on our way out, kendrick grabbed a bag of freshly cut pineapple chunks sprinkled with li hing mui , which was obviously as good as it sounds.

next, we headed over to the international market place, which is a newly renovated outdoor mall in downtown honolulu. we must have timed our trip perfectly, because we were actually there for their opening week, and the whole entire place was decked out with hawaiian dancers and a great music.

the highlight of our shopping trip was definitely kendrick finding a shinola store. shinola makes his dream watch, and he's basically obsessed with anything and everything that the brands put out. we spent a good amount of time in the story, until kendrick decided on a few things that he wanted to  take home. he ended up grabbing a navy blue hardcover notebook (that they engraved his initials on with gold ink), and a pretty sweet deck of cards.

(me looking like the ultimate tourist in my palm print romper, new backpack, and spiffy camera)

for lunch, i was craving a hamburger, so kendrick found a hole-in-the-wall restaurant called "burgers and things" only minutes away. i kid you not when i say this place was a hole-on-the-wall. like, it was kind of underneath an overpass and almost looked like it was in a rundown apartment complex. the inside of the place was't much better, as there was only one "u" shaped table that surrounded the area where the food was prepped. however, needless to say, that meal ended up being the best one that we had the entire trip (the boys are still talking about those hamburgers to this day, and kamiya even gets a little emotional when he thinks about it)

we decided to spend the rest of the day at our favorite beach, waimea bay. sadly, the water wasn't as crystal clear as it was last time we were there due to all of the rain the island had the week before. however, i'll take slightly un-clear water over cold rainy days anyday!

confession: i had actually purchased a selfie stick for this trip (ashamed, so ashamed), because i absolutely hate asking strangers to take pictures, and nobody likes the iphone facing camera. however, a couple days before the trip, i purchased a mirror-less dslr camera, and one of the nifty features was the screen that couple be flipped up into selfie mode (picture above was taken using it).  because of this, that selfie stick didn't get pulled out once. i'm just not ready to lose my dignity quite yet... 

(and not to mention the new camera takes bomb photos)

 a picture of the sky on our way home from the beach #nofilter

hawaii, day one

aloha!

and just like that, our ten day hawaiian paradise is over. however, now's the fun part- recapping all of the amazing things we got to do and see (because there was a lot, a lot!) i'll be doing one post for each day... mainly because there will be so many pictures in each one. #pictureoverload

for starters, i have to rewind back to about three days before we left. i'm pretty sure someone out there was trying to keep us from going because i was hit with a super awful and painful uti (we were actually in the temple when it hit, and we had to rush out mid-session and get to the instacare because of the pain). then the next day, kendrick was hit with the flu... which then transferred over to me. we were both literally throwing up and practically in a coma the day before we left (it's safe to say that at that point, neither of us cared if we even went!) we slept at my parents that night (so that they could get us to the airport in the morning), and my dad and a neighbor gave us both a blessing. needless to say, we woke up at four am the next morning, both feeling happy, healthy, and ready to go!

all security lines and flights went smoothly, and we were in hawaii by two pm. it was so surreal being back there again! i don't know what it is about that place, but something is just different. like, even the air just smells and feels different and everywhere you turn is completely picturesque. it truly is paradise.

we picked up our rental car, freshened up a bit at the kamiya's house (aaron's nice family that would be taking us in for the next week and a half), and then headed out for some dinner with brandon, aaron, and a friend of theirs. we ended up getting sushi and taking it over to this place called "china walls", which was this huge rock that overlooked the ocean. the waves were super high and would crash up against the rocks edge, and some people even jumped in for a swim (i'm to big of a scardy cat and can only imagine my body getting tossed around by the waves and getting slammed into the rock wall... no thank you). we ended up staying for an hour or so, enjoying the scenery and the beautiful sunset.

 it was a perfect first night to the perfect trip.