Hawaii 2015

All photos are linked to their full sized pictures. Just click on them to “zoom in”. Alternatively, here are the photos without the story, but in chronological order.

Jaime and Carmelo wanted their own little personal, romantic, and fun vacation. Since Oahu was a good time in 2014, they wanted to repeat it, but just with each other!

July 14th, 2015
Carmelo got a quick run in before the day and vacation started. He pre-registered to run a 5K out in Hawaii.

We got to the airport early enough to not feel rushed. We took our sweet time!

It was very nice to just not feel rushed. We sat, ate, and bought some waters to take with us on the plane.

We boarded and settled in for a long-ass flight

Our car rental was a much quicker and nicer experience than last year where we waited for an hour for a car. Alamo all the way, never going to use that shitty Thrifty out in Oahu ever again.

Peep the awesome rainbow that greeted us in Hawaii! We got our car just in time to catch rush hour traffic.

Our hotel check in at the Aqua Pacific Monarch, the same place we stayed at last year, was pretty smooth, we got all set up and got a room way up high enough to have a great view of the city and ocean. Well, not that great of a view of the ocean. We were ready to head out and eat… but first, a selfie!

Loco Mocos for dinner! Good golly, I love these! So bad and so good! I got double the eggs on mine since Jaime doesn’t like eggs. MMMMmmmmm!!!!

After dinner, we walked on the beach and took these photos by the sidewalk.

Afterwards, we went to go get some groceries at the Food Pantry to stock our fridge for the week. Hawaii did away with plastic bags (nice!) so we carried paper bags full of groceries home.

July 15th, 2015
Carmelo ran close to 4 miles, just to see if he could. It was cloudy so there was GPS problems. The starting point should have been the same as the end point.

and he took a few pictures

Jaime just happened to be downstairs when Carmelo got back from his run, so they had a Musubi Breakfast.

After a little bit, we dressed and went to the Aloha Stadium swap meet and market place for a bunch of shopping

Afterwards, still looking for souvenirs, the GPS led us to a Costco in the hood! I swear I think most people around here pretend to not look where they are going so they don’t have to get out of your way.

After a short stop at the hotel, we walked down to Waikiki beach for swimming and… wait for it… Turtle watching! Two turtles were in the area and one totally swam up to us! The water had some shitty visibility so I wonder if the turtles were lost!

After all that excitement, we went back to the hotel, changed, and went out for some Marukame Udon dinner.

July 16th, 2015
Woke up late… We were so tired from yesterday’s activities! For breakfast, we just ate leftovers from the night before. We started to get ready to go about 12:30/1:00 PM on an hour long drive to Ko Olina/Ewa. The area looks like a cross between San Francisco’s nice areas and Scottsdale Arizona. Not even kidding! The purpose of our trip today was two-fold. To spend time at the lagoons and snorkel there and to pick up Carmelo’s Nite-Run registration packet. On the way we got fun coffee/tea and macaroons!

Swam at the lagoons, tried to snorkel, couldn’t see much though. The water was too silty and not much was visible. Jaime saw another turtle but we couldn’t see it under water.

Carmelo did Yoga at the beach, lol, no kidding!

The lagoons are very pretty, here are some more pictures of it!

Once we decided to leave, we drove on the freeway just a little bit and just missed seeing a cow getting shot and killed on the freeway http://khon2.com/2015/07/16/police-shoot-kill-cow-on-farrington-highway-near-ko-olina/!! Traffic was really backed up as we went and picked up the Nite Run Packet… and cool t-shirt!

While waiting for traffic to die down, we ate at Outback.

By the way, our car is so small. Carmelo can reach the trunk while driving.

July 17th, 2015
Surprise, surprise, Carmelo went for another run. Mid run selfie!

Afterwards, Jaime made some kick-ass breakfast of Portuguese sausage and eggs with a croissant.

Our goal today was pretty much to go to the Royal Hawaiian and take pictures of this HUGE Monkey Pod tree (‘Ohai Lau Nui) with lanterns hanging off of it. Here are a few of the pictures.

Just around the corner, there was a few more photo opportunities.

We went on over to the U.S. Army Museum after that, just to look around and get some history.

Get to the choppah!

July 18th, 2015
We tried to relax most of the day and not do too much. Carmelo was conserving his energy for tonight. We laid out on the beach and floated for a good couple of hours. Around 3:30 PM we went to Ewa (pronounced evah) for the nite run.

It was really pretty there and after posting this picture to Facebook…

we were prompted by good friends, Emily & Raquel, to contact Andrew who lives there. We didn’t know he moved out to this beautiful area. Last year he lived by Ft. Shafter.
He was out in the Honolulu and drove out fairly quickly to come see us.

It was good to see him!

After chatting a little bit, he left and I got my gear for the run. I also put my costume on. It was a “wear a costume” night run.

Right before the start of the run, Sunshine and her boyfriend Brandon, came to see us!

The run was fun, but the humidity was killer!

July 19th, 2015
We lazed away the morning inside and not doing a whole heck of a lot. About noonish, Sunshine and Brandon picked us up and we went to go buy some Siopao except over here they call them Manapua. Same-same!

We then went to the Raging Crab for a big old feast! A large bag of main entree (ours was Dungeness crab, then other bits of crab, muscles, oysters, corn, sausage, and shrimp. With a side of rice!

After we ate, we said our good-byes and then Jaime and Carmelo decided to check out the Honolulu Pulse to see if any photos from the Nite Run were posted and they were!

There was a Ukulele festival at the park nearby so we decided to check it out.

Jake Shimabukuro was there. He’s native to Honolulu and has been on Ted Talks.

Here is the performance he gave at the Ukulele Festival

Willie K was there as well!

At the end of the night, we went grocery shopping again.

July 20th, 2015
Carmelo woke up early, went for a run, was all energized and after a bit of a cool down, both Carmelo and Jaime went to Hanauma Bay for some awesome snorkeling!

We even fed some birds!

Tried the panorama feature, had to do something silly!

After a long day of checking out fish, snorkeling, and having a nice and healthy lunch we took off and went sightseeing.

The island below is often seen on postcards, it is really pretty from far, but when you get up close to it, it’s like yuck, and wtf is going on with that?

July 21st, 2015
Carmelo started the day with a run to the Honolulu Zoo

Then after breakfast, went exploring the Kaniakapupu (hee hee! I’m so childish) waterfall and ruins…

Nuuanu Pali Lookout

Zippy’s for dinner

Puu Ualakaa State Park and View from the top of Round Top Drive

July 22nd, 2015
Ho`omaluhia Botanical Gardens were beautiful, and this is totally the largest botanical garden we’ve ever been to. It’s so huge you have to drive through it! It’s also a great way for them to preserve some beauty of Hawaii by just planting a few extra things, putting up signs, and now the whole thing is a preserve.

Byodo-In Temple

Lanikai Beach

When we got back to the hotel, Sunshine posted that there is a Comicon out here in Hawaii THIS WEEKEND!!

July 23rd, 2015
Carmelo went for his run this morning, super energized!

Our plan today was to hike up to the top of Manoa falls, but when we got there, found that the lot was full with too many cars and buses and thought that with the trail packed with people, it wouldn’t even be a fun hike.

We decided to go to the Makapu’u lighthouse and check out the views from there.

Warning travelers! There is no restroom at the top, so if you hydrate on your way up… Be prepared to hold it!

June 24th, 2015
We woke up late and went to Comic Con Honolulu! Wow… It was nothing compared to Phoenix’s Comic Con…

After a quick walk about through the comic convention, we decided to leave. We went back to the hotel for a few hours of relaxation and recovery from walking a lot and then decided to go back out. There was a concert in the Kapiolani park that we listened to but did not visit as we walk over to take pictures from behind the aquarium of the sunset.

Before we went back to the hotel for the night, we stopped by some fancy pants place for sushi.

July 25th, 2015
Carmelo ran and visited Queen Kapi’Olani

We spent the day at North shore, first, visiting turtles on Turtle Beach

Then snorkeling at Shark’s Cove

Getting close enough to touch

Then ending the day at Sunset Beach, watching the sunset and the waves on a near empty beach.

July 26th, 2015
Not much happening today as we wind down on our vacation. We had lunch with Nestor at a restaurant called Thelma’s. The service sucked ass but the food was tasty and yummy!

After lunch, the waves were huge over in Waikiki, so we decided to hit the beach for several hours. At least until we were tired of getting salt water in our mouths, up our noses, and in our eyes.

After our swim and a break of resting on the beach, we went to Jamba Juice

Then sat at the beach, watched the sunset and went back to the hotel.

We then saw fireworks from our room!

July 27th, 2015
Carmelo went on a long ass run, recreating his first run in Oahu. It’s his last run for Oahu for this year!

Most of the day was spent lazing around, content with our vacation, and packing to go back to Phoenix.

The only trip they made was to get more Jamba Juice.

July 28th, 2015
Sadly, we finished packing and headed to the airport.

Again, the best of all photos without having to read the whole story, can be seen here.