Cheers! Madame Pele drinks. Rum, coconut and vanilla ice cream, pineapple, & strawberry purée.

I just got here and I’ve already been Lei’d 😏

‘Gooder than gooder’

🧘🏼‍♀️

No...I didnt bring white spray paint on this trip

Enjoying breakfast on Mel’s lanai (porch) that overlooks a coi pond. The sound of the birds, the breeze, and the stream are so relaxing.

Pearl Harbor Memorial

USS Missouri

Sunset at Hickam Air Force Base 😍

🤙🏼

DAB!?

Just me contemplating going AWOL & never leaving

Night cappers 🥂

Skated under random planes we found outside the aviation museum on Ford Island

Big A$$ Buoy ⛴

You got 2 bags this trip. Bring essentials. Roller blades?! ☑️

Breakfast on the lanai. Chocolate chip ego waffles with PB and a smoothie 🤌🏼

Cheesin so hard my cheeks hurt

Inside the Buddhist temple lighting incense. We had to take our shoes off to enter.

Ommmmmmmm.

Giant Koi fish and a black swan

The biggest leaves i’ve ever seen

Love the clouds hanging over the mountains

Overlook at the Ho’omaluhia botanical garden

Byodo-In Temple

Ringing the gong!

Valentine’s Day! Breakfast on the lanai 🥰

Pyramid Rock Beach on the Marine Corps Base. Famous spot for surfing & they train with their amphibious vehicles here.

Nowhere else I’d rather be

Beach Yoga

Hawaiian cook book find for dinner. Turkey burritos

As the day went on, the waves got rougher! Fins were required for all swimmers. It was awesome watching people surf in real life!

Daily breakfast on the lanai is officially a thing 👌🏼

Kailua Beach...one of the top rated beaches in the world! I see why.

Klipper Golf Course on the Marine Corps Base in Kaneohe

Posing was about all I was good at. Whiffed 90% of the time 😝

Covid-free golf cart technology 💁🏼‍♀️

Maui Brewing Co for dinner. I had cheesy mac, garlic fries, & a root beer float

Kailua Beach was very calm compared to Pyramid Rock Beach! I could actually get in to swim without thinking I was going to die.

Kailua beach again :)

Faced our fears today and swam with sharks with out a cage! It was the coolest experience I’ve had so far in my 26 years of life! Pics and videos to come.

Heading out to swim with the sharks! About to pee my pants.

Paniolo Açaí Bowl from Hale’iwa Bowls in North Shore

Mel’s bowl. Fun fact: when we got to the beach her whole entire bowl fell in the sand. She still ate some.

Our lunch view! And my cold pressed watermelon basil juice 🤤

Nela’s burger

Purple taro bun! Popular in Hawaii

Swam at Waimea Bay Beach after swimming with the sharks. The waves were huge and we had to wear fins to stay out longer than 5 min. When we went under water we could hear whales all around! Mel wiped out pretty bad when a huge wave crashed on her.

Snorkeled at Sharks Cove. It was so rough we had to stay in the shallow part of the cove because the deeper part had huge waves that would’ve sent us into the rocky coral.

Manu Kai sunset booze cruise in Honolulu! Unlimited Mai Tais 🤤

The drinks were delicious!

Diamondback with a rainbow over it. This is the big crater I got an aerial picture of when I flew into HI. It used to be a volcano.

The sunset was breathtaking.

So grateful for Mel!

Right before disembarking in Honolulu.

What the beach we came back to looked like after the sunset cruise. This is Waikiki Beach.

At Rumfire, I ran into my friend Alan from high school and his fiance. It’s a small world!

We ordered way too much food at Rumfire. So delicious and worth it!

S’mores and cookie dough cheesecake slices from the Cheesecake Factory in Honolulu.

Our hotel was right in downtown Honolulu. Walking distance to everything and we were on the 30th floor with a great view!

About to hop in shark infested waters...willingly. But also with a little motivational pep talk from the boat captain who has swam with them for 20 years.

Galapagos Sharks. These 3 hung around us the entire time and others came and left. If you look closely you can see the 3rd just above the one on the left. They were all 6-8 ft long.

Occasionally they’d swim directly at us and we had to make direct eye contact with them to assert dominance and make them change directions.

A little dive down with the sharks! Listen closely and you can hear the whales!

This guy was coming right at me! 😅

Thankfully he turned.

It was surprisingly so peaceful under there. The whales were so loud!

Snorkel Smiles

🤙🏼 Hawaiian gang signs

Surfing lessons today in Honolulu on Waikiki beach! This is my first paddle out.

“Paddle harder” -Jason

“I’m paddling as hard as I can!” -me

🤙🏼 My instructor Jason was a cool dude!

If you can’t tell, I was having a blast!

Came back and enjoyed the pool and hot tub in Mels neighborhood while she slept. She works night shift!

🏄🏼‍♀️ do I look like the emoji yet?

Osprey flying over Pyramid Rock Beach

I had a picnic lunch at Pyramid Rock Beach. I somehow avoided the storm!

Awesome view driving home from the beach. I love when the clouds cover the mountain tops!

Bodyweight workout and yoga on the lanai tonight.

To get to pyramid rock beach you have to drive across an active runway!

This plane took off right before I crossed the runway!

Breakfast on the lanai as usual. Busy day ahead of us!

Kualoa Ranch! The infamous Jurassic Valley where they filmed a lot of the Jurassic Park Movies and countless other movies! (Jumanji, George of the Jungle, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Kong, 50 First Dates, Windtalkers, etc)

We took an ATV tour of the ranch!

It was hard to reach the pedals!

Rooftop dinner at the Queen Kapiolani Hotel’s restaurant “Deck”. The view of Diamondback behind us.

“Touch me not” drink and the “Waikiki Vice”

Prickly pear syrup, cucumber juice, coconut water, machta ice cube, & rum

Calamari fritti, burger sliders, shoelace fries

Sausage flatbread

Ménage: Sake mojito, coconut water soda, basil, mint, shiso cordial, citric acid, & 2 GIANT ice cubes!

Loved the lighting! String lights, twisted lights on the railings, tiki torches, and mason jar lanterns.

The pool on the Deck

Irish Car Bombs at Murphy’s Bar & Grill in Honolulu, HI

Jagerbomb at Murphy’s

Another pic from the Jurassic Valley ATV tour

The Deck’s Drink menu 🤤

Shy grass!!! So, so cool! I’ve seen it on YouTube but finally in real life too.

Breakfast on the lanai 🥰 I’m gonna miss this start to every morning!

I love these huge leaves!

Hiking the Maunawili Falls Trail. There was a big waterfall at the end and we jumped off the cliff in! The total hike took about 3 hours.

Surf N Salsa Braised Beef Burrito. Ahhh so good!!

Literally the BEST food truck! The wait was 40 minutes to get food and it was $20 for a burrito, rice, & beans...but it was so worth it! 🤤 Better than Chipotle and Qdoba.

The famous shaved ice from Matsumoto! So delicious. There was ice cream in the bottom, condensed milk and interesting mochi balls on top!

Horseback riding at Happy Trails in Haleiwa. We had the two slow and stubborn males that stayed in the back the whole time and kept eating all the plants instead of walking with all the other horses.

The trail overlooked Sharks Cove and Waimea Bay Beach which is where we snorkeled and swam.

That was by far the muddiest hike I have ever been on! There was so much sliding and almost falling.

Strawberry Hula drink from Koko Head Cafe in North Shore

Greek pork fried dumplings

Mel and I decided to split one sweet and one savory entree. Top: Koko Moco (a popular dish in HI) It’s a beef patty over rice with a fried egg on it and some gravy. Bottom: Conflake French Toast with vanilla ice cream, maple syrup, and billionaires bacon

Orange and chocolate cinnamon roll!

Top of the hike!

💪🏼

Cool tree roots!

The beautiful view at the top of our hike! Once we were up there we walked along the ridge line on a narrow, goat-like trail. In some spots if you took a step right or left you’d fall off the side of the mountain. We spider crawled across those extremely narrow spots! 😅

BYOR! Build Your Own Ramen! This was the biggest ramen bowl I’ve ever seen! We filled a bowl with all the meats and veggies and then they cooked it with a soup base and noodles 🤤

So happy we spotted a sea turtle! This is at Electric Beach.

Chillin next to Buddha

🤙🏼

So, so pretty!

These big pipes push out warm water and attract all sorts of sea life. I was trying to dive down in front of it and get pushed by the water. I barely got hit by it.

Cracked a cold one at the top. We brought more but decided due to the narrowness of the trail, one would be plenty 😅

You can see how narrow the trail is in this video! 🥵

Mexican breakfast on the lanai

Mel and I got matching tattoos! It says “a hui hou” which is Hawaiian for “until we meet again”

I got to meet up with Uncle Mike and his wife Lindsey for dinner. We ate at Gen Korean BBQ where you cook raw meats right at your table. And then we went to their house and I got to meet his kiddos! They’re 8, 12, & 14! Time goes by so, so fast. The last time I saw Mike was at West Point. I was about 11 years old and he was 24. It was such a nice reunion!

Bittersweet...last breakfast on the lanai!

View on the way into the Marine Corps Base

Semper Fit gym I used a couple times while here. Not too bad, but weird hours and super strict dress code 🙄

Views driving were almost always like this! Just surrounded by beautiful mountains and greenery everywhere you turn.

Mac n Cheese from La Tour Cafe

Macaroons are pretty popular here in HI. These were soooo delicious!

Chocolate

Blueberry Cheesecake

Strawberry

Great food! Kind of a spin off of Panera Bread.