Hello, TNG Photography world! Kendra and I just returned from our vacation in Oahu, Hawaii! We had both never been there before and I have to say that I’ve never seen such vivid greenery in my life. I felt like I had HD vision. It was such a fun experience! My brother lives in Oahu so we also got to spend a ton of time with him which was a lot of fun. I can see why he likes it over there. I wouldn’t mind living there a few months out of the year! 🙂
Here are a few of the things we did while we were there:
- Drank lava flows at the Marriot in Ko Olina then sat and watched waves crashing against rocks
- Snorkeled at Hanauma Bay. This was a beautiful place with a lot of big cool fish and sea turtles swimming with you. My actual highlight from this part of our trip was seeing a man secure his gigantic yellow life jacket that was almost as big as he was. I don’t know if any of you have ever swam in Hanauma Bay but it is literally 12 inches deep the majority of the time so he must not be the strongest swimmer … ok, ok, he’s gotta be the weakest swimmer on Earth but I was just trying to be nice! 🙂
- Waikiki Beach was fun (If only everyone would’ve stopped undressing me with their eyes while I was there. I felt so violated! 🙂 ) I really enjoyed swimming and making fun conversations with strangers in the ocean. Everyone’s always happy so you can talk to anyone you want and just assume they’ll be happy to chat. I do this just about everywhere I go anyway but it’s extra fun in the ocean for some reason.
- Waimea Falls. It had been raining the whole trip so the waterfall was heavier than usual so we couldn’t swim in it. We had more fun along the trail hanging from vines and taking goofy pictures of ourselves in the jungle.
- Dole Plantation. Now this is more of a gift shop, and I hate, absolutely HATE gift shops, but their big maze was pretty fun.
- Aloha Stadium. Did I mention I hate gift shops? Well this was more of an outdoor swap meet which was cool to chill at for an hour or two. I debated putting this on my list but I bought some sweet bread from a big Hawaiian dude who reminded me either of Super Mario or the Ghost of Christmas Present. He was cool. 🙂
- Frisbee Golf. I really like playing frisbee golf (frolf) and was excited to play it in Hawaii. I imagined playing it on a huge course surrounded by jungle and eventually onto a secret beach that not even locals knew about and at the end of the course there would be a big treasure chest filled with…err–treasure. We ended up driving to the University of Hawaii looking for this course but couldn’t find it. We checked online again on our phones and it read, “Maui is the only island with a permanent frolf course.” We’re in Oahu………….no frolf this trip. We had a good laugh about it then drove down to the aquarium up the street.
- Pearl Harbor. This was a lot of fun to see the Arizona Memorial and walk around the property looking at torpedoes and periscopes. I’m sure Kendra was bored as heck but I could have spent a lot more time there.
- Shark’s Cove. We got out of our car and started walking down a hill to the cove. I was carrying our video camera and suddenly found myself looking up towards the sky, confused at my new, sudden location. I had slipped and fell down the muddy hill. Embarrassed and my ego suffering a temporary blow, I turned to my wife at the top of the hill to see if she saw me fall (how could she not?). Her uncontrollable laughter confirmed that she did and she proceeded to try to take photos of the mud on my back side. I started rolling the video camera in the middle of her hysterics. When I get a chance, I might post it here. 🙂
- Botanical Gardens. We drove across the island and the gardens were locked up. What luck, right? So we drove a few blocks and played 18 holes of mini golf. It was a competitive battle that I was certain I would come out victorious (giving me ultimate bragging rights for theÂ
dayÂyear) but after a few mistakes and Kendra’s never ending consistency, she crushed me. We came back the next day and played 36 more holes in the rain. She won again… - Work. Work? Yes, I worked while on vacation. I photographed a great couple in Ko Olina and had a great time! See below for a few photos.
Ok, ok! No more! I can’t say anymore! It’ll make me want to go back! Here are just a few photos from the trip. Have a good one!
-Nate
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