Road Travels: Hawaii 2017

Hello everyone! I thought it would be really fun to write another Road Travels for my trip to Hawaii. I recently got back after a week in paradise and couldn't believe how fast the week went by. We stayed about two blocks from the beach at the Hilton Garden Inn in Waikiki. They were fantastic and the service was exquisite. I would stay there again in a heartbeat because it is in close proximity to everything.

The hotel had a mini fridge, a microwave, and a kettle. So we bought groceries and it just so happens that the grocery store was next to our hotel! Basically we had most of our meals planned and we ate in restaurants maybe every other night. It was such a money saver and we got to eat normally, which was fantastic because our bodies didn't feel bad the whole trip!

We started our adventure on May 1st at 3:30 am New Brunswick time. We made it to the airport and we just slept the entire flight as it was leaving at 5:55 am.

Here's me not sleeping as we landed in Montreal. We were in Montreal for a few hours and then we headed for Vancouver where things became much more fun.

No seriously, we got to Vancouver at about 11am, which is 3pm in NB and we thought "We can handle a six hour layover". It would have been fine, except we ended up waiting an extra 6-7 hours. At one point they had to close the terminal and we had to go back into Canada and then back through security to the international terminal, in the lineup, we met Jordan Rodgers the guy who won Jojo's season of The Bachelorette.

By the time we left for Vancouver, it was 12:30am so about 4:30am at home so we've been traveling for 25 hours at this point. When we made it to Hawaii, we had to go through customs and it was 3am there time. We got to the hotel at 5am (noon home time). So by the time we had gotten into bed, we had been traveling for 37.5 hours ish. Which is a work week for a better comparison.

May 2nd: Okay after our four hour sleep, so about 9am, we went to the grocery store, which was right next to our hotel. We got groceries, we found a sun umbrella and we hit the beach. Or rather, grassy patch at the beach. We didn't actually return to this beach because it was too busy.

Later that night, we went to the Cheesecake Factory. I am very passionate about the Cheesecake Factory. We went to bed at like 7pm.

May 3rd:

So on this day, we went for a hike! We were also awake at 5am. So we took the public bus and made our way to Diamond Head which is a volcanic tuff cone and old army base. It was absolutely stunning from the bottom to the top. It's a rather easy hike with a trail and the hike was rather busy, but really nice!

May 4:

On this day, we went for an adventure around the island of Oahu. What a beautiful island! It's just covered in stories and lush green tropical forests.

Our first stop was this lookout where they filmed 50 first dates and Pirates of the Caribbean.

Then we stopped at a macadamia nut farm, which was so quaint and made really good candy covered nuts and they gave us free coffee.

Then we stopped at the spot where they filmed Jurassic Park, super cool, since I love those movies. The pointed rock in the water is called China mans hat.

Then we had lunch at Tsue's Farm. Guys the Shrimp (Prawns) were amazing!!! I had the garlic kind and although I had to remove the shell myself, it was a wonderful treat.

After lunch, we went snorkelling with the turtles. WHICH YOU CAN'T TOUCH BECAUSE IT'S ILLEGAL IN HAWAII AND THE TOURIST WHO DIDN'T KNOW THAT SCARED THE TURTLE AWAY AND I DIDN'T GET A PICTURE BECAUSE THEY SCARED THE POOR TURTLE WHO JUST WANTED TO DIGEST HIS FOOD. Okay, rant over.

Then we went for a Dole Whip. Which is pineapple soft serve sorbet and completely amazing. I got a dole whip float in the souvenir cup because I love pineapple and this is what I had been waiting for the whole day.

May 5th:

Honestly, we had a very quiet day and there wasn't much we did except for sleep, read by the pool and go to the beach where we read some more.

May 6th:

We learnt about Hawaiian royalty and it was amazing to learn about the culture of Hawaii.

Then we went to the beach and we did a little souvenir shopping. We also had diner at Duke's with our airport friend Nadia who is just incredible and such a wonderful person.

May 7th:

On the last full day, we went to the beach in the morning and then to the pool in the afternoon. Didn't really take any pictures because we were relaxing. So here is a picture of the fruit infused water we had every afternoon because it was amazing!

May 8th:

Our last day in Hawaii. We were supposed to check out at 11am, but the hotel let us checkout at 2pm instead, so we went to the beach!

Then we went back to the hotel started to pack up and then we left our bags at the hotel because we had so much time to kill. That's where the International Market Place comes in. Like what a great high end shopping mall! I will never be able to afford what's in the mall, but its a great place to sit on rocking chairs and use the free wifi. We had amazing croissants that I will never forget about.

We ended up going into the M.A.C and I really need to give the workers a shout-out because they were so nice, showed me how to use my new eyeshadow and even removed it (for the flight) and gave us water. Holy moly, I've never had such good customer service. They were amazing. I'm not sure who was working May 8th near 3pm, but thank you for being so kind!

Then we went to happy hour because what else does one do in Hawaii before leaving for a flight at 11pm.

We tried Pineapple beer, it was amazing, but something in the beer made our tummy's really full and we couldn't even eat our pizza, but we did have nachos and took the pizza to go, so it's all good, don't worry!

Then we got a cab and they brought us to the airport, he was such a nice driver and further explained what it was like living on the island as a local, which was such interesting insight.

May 9th:

We had really smooth flights back home. Nothing was delayed, nothing was overly anxious about the 16 hour travel back. I watched Rogue One and The Founder on the plane. Very easy trip back home.

I had such an amazing trip and it was just so incredible.

Thanks for reading,

Samantha