Hawaii

Boy, oh boy. My favorite place I've visited so far.

I recently went to Hawaii in December and it's all I've been able to think about in this cold, dreary weather.

My family and I went to Hawaii to meet my little cousin "halfway", who was coming in from Australia. It was the first time we've seen her in about a year and a half! I was in the middle of having one of those "crappy" months. Hawaii was the perfect retreat... and I had the perfect company.

Waikiki Beach

We stayed in Oahu for 3 days at a hotel, and Kauai for the next 7 at a breath-taking house we rented out. In Oahu, we stayed on the "most popular beach in the world", Waikiki Beach. It was beautiful... White sandy shores with no weeds or coral... and aqua colored water. We even had our own personal lagoon. During our stay, we shopped, became beach bums, watched a luau, and visited Pearl Harbor. It was absolutely amazing standing over the USS Arizona Memorial. I learned a lot just by visiting Pearl Harbor.

300 Foot Waterfall

Ahhhh. On to Kauai. We stayed in a four bedroom house with it's own pool. Stunning house with a warp around deck. Here we took it easy by the pool and visited Poipu Beach daily. Poipu is known for it's snorkeling. You can literally be knee deep in water, stick your face down there and see fish of every color of the rainbow. We spent hours upon hours snorkeling and watching beached seals. We also took an 8 mile, 4 hour hike through the mountains to the 300 ft. waterfall in the opening scenes of Jurassic Park. I've never been so scared in my life. Crazy drop offs, climbing rocks, treacherous paths. In hindsight, I'm so happy I did it... but I would never do it again.

Beach on Kauai

Over the course of the trip, I slowly began to unwind and my stress was lost. It was exactly what I needed. I'm so thankful for my job... I was able to pay for the trip myself instead of burdening my parents with that. Since we had such an amazing time and my cousin is still living in Australia.. My family proposed that we make this a yearly thing. I think I'll be completely okay with that. :)