2016,
Hello everyone!
Here I am presenting to you the last summer adventure for my Chasing the Sun summer series! For Labor Day weekend, my brother and our friends took a trip to Hawaii. We planned it in February since it's my brother's birthday weekend and it was one of the best decision I've ever made. As soon as August hit I was always looking at my calendar to countdown to the day our flight would leave. The sooner August 31st came, the more excited I got. Prior to our trip, the four of us (Ranie, Melanie, Ashley, and I) purchased things we thought we'd need for the adventures we planned. We bought snorkeling gear, aqua shoes, and bathing suits (because you can never have too many). We packed our stuff and at 5 am of August 31st, we left our homes to head to LAX.
Thursday,
September 1, we woke up early and went to a McDonalds. My mom and her best
friend both recommended going there for breakfast because they had a different
menu, so we took their advice and had it for breakfast. They served spam, rice,
and egg for breakfast. I stuck with pancakes and eggs. Afterwards, we went to
the car dealership we made reservations at and retrieved our car. When it was
time to get a car, I asked the guy if they had any upgrades for a jeep. He
said, "No, but I can upgrade you to a convertible." Ranie, Melanie,
Ashley, and I looked at each other and silently all agreed we'd be renting a
convertible for the day. We were all stoked. Although the car was signed
under my name, of course we'd be taking turns driving it! We hopped in the car
and I drove us up to North Shore.
For
Friday, September 2, we originally planned to go hiking. However, after waking
up later than we expected, we got ready (ready as in put on a bathing suit and
a cover up) then headed out. We went downstairs and bought tickets for my
brother's dinner cruise, and decided we'd go snorkeling. The guy recommended we
should just stay at Waikiki beach, so that's where we went. Melanie can swim,
but she can't swim at the deep... after taking photos and messing around the
shallow waters, Ranie, Ashley, and I swam further out with our snorkeling gear
and saw fishes! It's on my bucket list (number #77) to go snorkeling and
scubadiving, so I was glad to cross half of it out (I have to scuba sometime).
Later on, we got lunch at one of the places nearby that had food trucks.
Throughout the trip, my brother asked that we try as many Shaved Ice places as
we could. He looked up one nearby and we walked until we found it. Later do we
notice that it was quite further than we expected. We got some on our first day
and had more this day. Afterwards, we walked into an ABC store and Melanie
bought a floating tube so she can head out to the deep waters with us and go
snorkeling. We walked back to the beach, inflated the tube, and got in the
water again. We went snorkeling all together and swam until sunset. That night,
my brother wanted to grab dinner at Cheesecake Factory. When we called to make
reservations, we had to be there and it was an hour wait. We called CPK and we
were able to make reservations on the phone and got ready. Once we got seated,
we immediately began talking to our waiter. One of my goals throughout the trip
was to talk to as many locals as possible. When he came to ask for what we
wanted to drink, I told him that we were visiting for the first time because it
was Ranie's 21st birthday the next day. He asked to see Ranie's ID and decided
to hook him up with a beer because it was 9pm Hawaiian local time but 12 am LA
time. I love pina coladas and he recommended me a Lava Flow (pina colada with
strawberry). I decided to give it a try and I loved it.
The following morning (September 4), I was the only one who woke up at 3 am. My cousin and I started texting on the plan for hiking. Then we find out that the trail didn't open up until 6 am. I went back to sleep. Around 5am, I woke up again, got ready, and then woke everyone else up to get ready. JR and Ashley picked us up and we got Starbucks before heading to Diamond Head. When we got to Diamond Head, we started to realize how popular the trail was. There were so many people following the trail, from the distance people looked like a trail of ants. At the top, it looked incredible. I've always loved the view after the hike. After hiking, we decided to get breakfast since it was only 8am. When we finished we decided we'd take one last swim in the ocean. Melanie, Ranie, Ashley, and I got our luggage and checked out of the hotel. We brought our stuff over to my cousins' hotel room and we went swimming. After swimming for a while, we decided to rent paddle boards. Halfway through our rent session, we decided to switch out the paddleboards for surfboards. Confession: I've never learned how to surf before, however, I deciding I might as well try, swam out with the surfboard. Once I was far enough with the other surfers, I decided to watch people before actually trying. I ended up just asking someone for advice and he and his friends started to teach me the mechanics of it all. When a wave came by, they'd tell me when to paddle and when to get up. The paddling part was easy. The getting up on the board and balancing was hard. I love learning new things so that was definitely a fun experience. However, my sunburnt got so bad at this point I couldn't even touch my own skin.
Monday,
September 5, we woke up the next morning and immediately put on our swimsuits.
We got coffee then drove to Kailua. There we stopped by Whole Foods for
breakfast (pastries and acaÃ/pitaya bowls). When we were all finished eating,
we went to Kailua beach and rented out kayaks. Fun fact: I was so sunburnt from the previous day my skin couldn't take
anymore heat on it so I had to wear a sweater. We kayaked form Kailua beach
to Lanikai beach. We stopped at Popoia Island/ Flat Island which was really
cool because we were able to swim around the island and small tidal pool. Once
we finished, we washed/dried up and got shaved ice right next door. (If you are
ever in Hawaii and get shaved ice try their POG flavor and Lilikoi, it's
delicious). When we all got in the car, we were still hungry and wanted some
actual fulfilling food so we went to go eat. After lunch, we drove back to
Waikiki and got ready for our fight home. We used our last few hours walking
around Ala Moana one last time before heading to the airport. Honestly, we
barely made our flight this time. We were one of the last people to board the
plane but we made it! Our plane took off at 9pm and we landed in LA around 4
am. I got home and immediately fell asleep.
This trip was definitely one for the books. I had such a fun and memorable first time experience in Hawaii and I can't wait to go back (possibly to another island). I'll be the first to admit that I definitely don't regret getting sunburnt and tan during my stay in this beautiful place. Wearing nothing but my swimsuit, swimming in the ocean, and getting excessive amount of Vitamin D is something I can live with. Shout out to my brother, Ranie, Melanie, Ashley L., JR, and Ashley B., for being great company in Hawaii. Thanks for the memories Hawaii!
If you read this entire post, thank you for reading. Thank you for taking the time to care enough, or curious enough, to read the whole thing. I also decided to vlog my trip since it was my first time. I haven't done this in a long time but it was worth it. Thanks for reading and watching!
Chasing the Sun: My Hawaiian Dream
Hello everyone!
Here I am presenting to you the last summer adventure for my Chasing the Sun summer series! For Labor Day weekend, my brother and our friends took a trip to Hawaii. We planned it in February since it's my brother's birthday weekend and it was one of the best decision I've ever made. As soon as August hit I was always looking at my calendar to countdown to the day our flight would leave. The sooner August 31st came, the more excited I got. Prior to our trip, the four of us (Ranie, Melanie, Ashley, and I) purchased things we thought we'd need for the adventures we planned. We bought snorkeling gear, aqua shoes, and bathing suits (because you can never have too many). We packed our stuff and at 5 am of August 31st, we left our homes to head to LAX.
After
checking in, going through TSA, we headed to our gate, and guess what...
Lemonade was right next to it! It was only 6am but they were serving breakfast
so we bought food. That totally made my morning. When it was time to board,
Melanie noticed that Bretman Rock was on the same flight (she and Ashley are
big fans), so that was cool to see. We boarded our plane, took off, and waited
5 long hours to start our long weekend. Every time I fly, I specifically
request a window seat because I love looking out the window. I always look at
the flight tracker just to see where the plane is on the map. When I saw that
we were only 14 minutes until touchdown, I open the window and see Hawaiian
land right beneath us. Let's just all agree, that when it comes to flying,
there's nothing that beats airplane views.
The
moment we step off the plane, humidity and heat immediately embrace us. That
was the weather all week long. We get out the airport and after trying to
decide whether or not we should take a Lyft/Uber, shuttle, or cab to our hotel,
we call a cab company. We get to our hotel around 1:30 pm, but check-in wasn't
until 3pm. However, we needed to buy tickets for a dinner cruise for the night
of my brother's birthday, so I ask one of the employees at the front desk if we
can use the computers since we couldn't check-in. However, the woman (Anna) was
able to check in us early. She gave us our key cards and we headed up to our
hotel room. We unloaded our stuff and looked around the hotel. After awhile, we
all agreed that we wanted to get food so we went back downstairs and I talked
to Anna about her favorite spots to eat. She recommended a place and our group
decided to walk there. There was a hurricane that was heading towards the Big
Island so the moment we walked out our hotel it was really windy. We ate and
then went back to our hotel room. It took us a long time to find a place to eat
and when we got back to our hotel it was already evening. We decided to spend
the night swimming in our hotel room because we knew we weren't going to do it
any other day. Soon after we finished swimming jetlag took a quick toll on all
of us. Around 9 pm, we were all pretty tired from the traveling so we grabbed a
quick dinner then called it a night.
On
the way to North Shore, we didn't really have any plans on where we were going
or which places we'd be visiting so we looked at a map and then just pointed to
a random place. We first stopped at a random beach by Haleiwa. The water was
calm and nice so we took the time to take pictures. We grabbed lunch at Giovanni's
Shrimp Truck, then kept on driving. We ended up at Pupukea. We looked around
for a while then got back in the car. Next, we went to Waimea Bay, made a pit
stop for a restroom break and saw peacocks and chickens walking around
everywhere. We stopped at Sunset Beach and Kawela Bay. The more north we got,
the harder the waves were. Due to the hurricane, the waves were a lot harder
than we expected. After making one more stop around Laie, we decided to just
spend the rest of the afternoon at Lanikai Beach. (I have to admit, prior to
our trip, all our family and friends recommended that we go to Lanikai beach
because it's their favorite. After going there for myself, I'll give in and say
it's definitely one of my favorites too). At 15 years old, I decided that I no
longer wanted to swim in the ocean along the SoCal coast. But I couldn’t hold
back from getting in the Hawaiian waters. It felt so good to swim in the ocean
again, especially because I grew up spending my summers swimming (in pools and
in the ocean). Once the sun began to set, we decided to go back to Waikiki.
After struggling to look for parking and deciding if we should rent the car for
another day, we decided to return it since we wanted to stay in Waikiki the
following day. After showering did I notice that my body got sunburned from
riding with the top down the whole day.
 |
| Lanikai Beach, HI |
For
Friday, September 2, we originally planned to go hiking. However, after waking
up later than we expected, we got ready (ready as in put on a bathing suit and
a cover up) then headed out. We went downstairs and bought tickets for my
brother's dinner cruise, and decided we'd go snorkeling. The guy recommended we
should just stay at Waikiki beach, so that's where we went. Melanie can swim,
but she can't swim at the deep... after taking photos and messing around the
shallow waters, Ranie, Ashley, and I swam further out with our snorkeling gear
and saw fishes! It's on my bucket list (number #77) to go snorkeling and
scubadiving, so I was glad to cross half of it out (I have to scuba sometime).
Later on, we got lunch at one of the places nearby that had food trucks.
Throughout the trip, my brother asked that we try as many Shaved Ice places as
we could. He looked up one nearby and we walked until we found it. Later do we
notice that it was quite further than we expected. We got some on our first day
and had more this day. Afterwards, we walked into an ABC store and Melanie
bought a floating tube so she can head out to the deep waters with us and go
snorkeling. We walked back to the beach, inflated the tube, and got in the
water again. We went snorkeling all together and swam until sunset. That night,
my brother wanted to grab dinner at Cheesecake Factory. When we called to make
reservations, we had to be there and it was an hour wait. We called CPK and we
were able to make reservations on the phone and got ready. Once we got seated,
we immediately began talking to our waiter. One of my goals throughout the trip
was to talk to as many locals as possible. When he came to ask for what we
wanted to drink, I told him that we were visiting for the first time because it
was Ranie's 21st birthday the next day. He asked to see Ranie's ID and decided
to hook him up with a beer because it was 9pm Hawaiian local time but 12 am LA
time. I love pina coladas and he recommended me a Lava Flow (pina colada with
strawberry). I decided to give it a try and I loved it. |
| Waikiki Beach, HI |
September
3, it was my brother's birthday! He wanted to go to the Aloha Stadium for the
marketplace and swap meet, so we went. We took the bus, got lost, and on the
way, it began to drizzle. When we got there, we didn't realize how big the
place was until we looked at the time and it took us almost 3 hours to walk
around the entire place. Afterwards, we headed back and grabbed a late lunch at
a poke place that our waiter from CPK recommended. On the way back, my cousin,
JR B. and, his wife Ashley B., messaged me about meeting up since they just
landed. We told them where we were having lunch and they met up with us. They
offered to give us a ride back to our hotel and we didn't deny after commuting
locally and we saw they had a Jeep! We had lunch pretty late and we didn't
realize that we'd be having dinner soon because the sunset dinner cruise we got
tickets for was at 5:30 pm - 8pm but we had to board the ship by 5pm. We went
to our hotel, got ready and took Lyft to the dock. Once we got to the dock we
got in line to board. We were greeted by dancers and servers then led to our
table. Our server gave us a round of Mai Tais and we took sail. The dinner
itself was delicious (who doesn't like unlimited crab). After dinner we were
free to look around the ship and take pictures. When the performers began the
show, we returned to our table and our server gave us Macadamia ice cream. The
cruise was 3 hours long and it went by pretty fast. Afterwards, we took a Lyft
back to our hotel and packed our luggage since we were set to leave the next
day.
The following morning (September 4), I was the only one who woke up at 3 am. My cousin and I started texting on the plan for hiking. Then we find out that the trail didn't open up until 6 am. I went back to sleep. Around 5am, I woke up again, got ready, and then woke everyone else up to get ready. JR and Ashley picked us up and we got Starbucks before heading to Diamond Head. When we got to Diamond Head, we started to realize how popular the trail was. There were so many people following the trail, from the distance people looked like a trail of ants. At the top, it looked incredible. I've always loved the view after the hike. After hiking, we decided to get breakfast since it was only 8am. When we finished we decided we'd take one last swim in the ocean. Melanie, Ranie, Ashley, and I got our luggage and checked out of the hotel. We brought our stuff over to my cousins' hotel room and we went swimming. After swimming for a while, we decided to rent paddle boards. Halfway through our rent session, we decided to switch out the paddleboards for surfboards. Confession: I've never learned how to surf before, however, I deciding I might as well try, swam out with the surfboard. Once I was far enough with the other surfers, I decided to watch people before actually trying. I ended up just asking someone for advice and he and his friends started to teach me the mechanics of it all. When a wave came by, they'd tell me when to paddle and when to get up. The paddling part was easy. The getting up on the board and balancing was hard. I love learning new things so that was definitely a fun experience. However, my sunburnt got so bad at this point I couldn't even touch my own skin.
 |
| Waikiki Beach, HI |
After
gathering our belongings and returning the surfboards, we went back up to the
rooms to shower and get ready for our flight (which was at 2:45pm). When all of
us were ready, my cousin decided we'd have lunch together for our last Hawaiian
meal. I being worried not making the flight kept reminding my cousin about the
time. His response was, "Don't worry. You'll make it." We finished
lunch around 2pm. We loaded our luggage in the jeep at 2:20pm. By 2:30pm, he
and Ranie decided we wouldn't be making our flight so JR drove us to a shaved
ice shop instead of the airport. WE MISSED OUR FLIGHT! I've never missed a flight
before, so that was definitely another first for me. Once we got to the shaved
ice shop, Melanie and I were calling Delta to explain to them our situation and
how we can rebook our flights. Short story: I was able to talk to a woman
named, Wendy, who waived our fee and got us out off paying the fee to change
our flights. Oh, and we ended up exchanging our flights for the next day,
September 5 instead. Whooo!!
 |
| Waimea Bay, HI |
Truth
be told: my cousin, JR, and brother, Ranie, wanted us to stay until Monday,
September 5, and it happened. When we got back to the hotel, we decided to make
most of the time we have left so we switched out of regular clothes and into
our swimsuits. We headed up to North Shore and drove to Waimea Bay. At Waimea
Bay beach park, Ashley B., Ranie, and I went cliff diving. The hard part was
washing up since there were no lights. After loading up, we headed to the
closest Zippys for dinner. Once we got back to the hotel room, we all pretty
much crashed from exhaustion.
Monday,
September 5, we woke up the next morning and immediately put on our swimsuits.
We got coffee then drove to Kailua. There we stopped by Whole Foods for
breakfast (pastries and acaÃ/pitaya bowls). When we were all finished eating,
we went to Kailua beach and rented out kayaks. Fun fact: I was so sunburnt from the previous day my skin couldn't take
anymore heat on it so I had to wear a sweater. We kayaked form Kailua beach
to Lanikai beach. We stopped at Popoia Island/ Flat Island which was really
cool because we were able to swim around the island and small tidal pool. Once
we finished, we washed/dried up and got shaved ice right next door. (If you are
ever in Hawaii and get shaved ice try their POG flavor and Lilikoi, it's
delicious). When we all got in the car, we were still hungry and wanted some
actual fulfilling food so we went to go eat. After lunch, we drove back to
Waikiki and got ready for our fight home. We used our last few hours walking
around Ala Moana one last time before heading to the airport. Honestly, we
barely made our flight this time. We were one of the last people to board the
plane but we made it! Our plane took off at 9pm and we landed in LA around 4
am. I got home and immediately fell asleep.This trip was definitely one for the books. I had such a fun and memorable first time experience in Hawaii and I can't wait to go back (possibly to another island). I'll be the first to admit that I definitely don't regret getting sunburnt and tan during my stay in this beautiful place. Wearing nothing but my swimsuit, swimming in the ocean, and getting excessive amount of Vitamin D is something I can live with. Shout out to my brother, Ranie, Melanie, Ashley L., JR, and Ashley B., for being great company in Hawaii. Thanks for the memories Hawaii!
If you read this entire post, thank you for reading. Thank you for taking the time to care enough, or curious enough, to read the whole thing. I also decided to vlog my trip since it was my first time. I haven't done this in a long time but it was worth it. Thanks for reading and watching!
Go watch it here: HAWAII VLOG
“Why
do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the
place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there
see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the
same as never leaving.” ― Terry Pratchett
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