In 2015, my family and I (sans Andy…no ring = no invite 😂😂) spent almost two weeks in Honolulu visiting Luke and Leslie.

It was a total blast (minus the sleeping on a pull-out couch for two weeks…after some point you really do miss an actual bed) and we did a ton of stuff. Actually, we did so much during those two weeks that I was worried about what Andy and I be able to find things to do during our visit.

Except I really shouldn’t have worried at all. Apparently on Oahu there is an endless amount of adventures to be had, no repetition necessary.

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On our first morning in Honolulu, Andy and I decided to hike Koko Head. I knew that the hike was basically a steep incline up the mountain, but I didn’t realize just how much of an incline the hike was.

It was 1,050 steps just straight up. Straight. Up.

I think in life I always go into these physical activities telling myself I can do it and I’m in decent shape. But as Andy and I began the hike, it became pretty apparent that I really am not in as great of shape as I think I am. My heart is pounding and I’m starting to breathe heavy…and we’re only on step 300…out of 1,050.

Maybe this was a foreshadowing for that half marathon I was supposed to do five days later. Yeahhh about that half marathon…

The worst part about the hike is that there really are no good places to pull off to the side and catch your breathe. I couldn’t even claim I needed to take a water break because I had one of those water backups on! My only hope was to tell Andy I wanted to stop to “take pictures.” It was a struggle out here.

The good news is that we did make it to the top and the scenery really was so spectacular that all my mental and physical struggles were worth it!

(I really am just complaining the most, it couldn’t have taken us more than 45 minutes to get to the top. In the moment it felt awful, but looking back I don’t think it actually was that awful.)

During the entire way up, Andy didn’t believe we were hiking up old railroad tracks.

“There is absolutely no way that a train could make it up this hill. Do you see the incline on this?? No train wheels could grip a train track at such a steep angle. Impossible.”

We figured out the truth when we finally got to the top and it turns out we were both right (yes Andy, this means I am technically giving you credit for being right. Of course, I still think I was more right than you, but minor details.)

During WWII the military built bunkers on the top of the mountain.

The railroad tracks were used by the military to transport supplies/personnel to the top of the mountain. But instead of a train, the military used carts and pulled the carts along the track with a steel cable and winch system (see winch mechanism in picture below).

Neat, huh?

After heading back down the stairs (which by the way really wasn’t that much easier than going up the stairs…my legs were basically jello by the bottom), Andy and I had to find a spot to watch game 7 of the Stanley Cup semi-finals. The Caps had tied the series 3-3 with Tampa Bay so if we won the game we would be going to the Stanley Cup!!

This might be the right time to point out that Luke and Leslie are not your normal millennials. They are more appropriately defined as minimalists. They live in a one bedroom apartment and they do not have a couch, a kitchen table, chairs or (of course) a TV. They sleep on an air mattress and they own one Costco table and four Costco chairs.

Think I’m exaggerating? Below is a picture of literally everything that they own (minus the folding table). I’m pretty sure I have more stuff than that in just half of my closet…

Needless to say, Andy and I knew we needed to find a bar to watch the game given the lack of TV in the apartment. We ended up going to the Whole Foods that was right around the corner from their place. The Whole Foods had just opened up weeks before our arrival and this place was luxurious. It has two floors, two different bars, multiple TVs and an excessive amount of ready-made food. Andy and I grabbed food from downstairs and brought it to the upstairs bar.

It was in this glorious Whole Foods that we watched the Caps take the win and officially move on to the Stanley Cup!! Andy and I were so pumped we might have scared the poor Hawaiians in the store with all our screaming.

CAPS! CAPS! CAPS!

The next day (Thursday), Andy and I woke up incredibly early to drive to Hanauma Bay to go snorkeling (the parking lot often fills up within the first 30 minutes of opening). After our snorkeling failure in Kauai, we decided we really needed to try this whole snorkeling thing again – especially a snorkeling trip that does not include a boat ride. 😂 😂

Hanauma Bay is gorgeous. So gorgeous. Even if you aren’t about snorkeling, I would highly recommend visiting.

Although the main attraction is snorkeling, it is also great for relaxing on the beach.

You can rent snorkeling gear right on the beach (goggles, mask and flippers) and then into the water you go!

I wish we had an underwater camera because the fish were just amazing. They had so many different types of fish and they were everywhere! It was really like swimming in an aquarium. The best fish we saw was a rainbow fish. No quite sure if that is its actual name, but it looked like this:

Just. So. Pretty. There really are no words for how incredibly cool Hanauma Bay is.

After Hanauma Bay, Andy and I went to Pearl Harbor. I have been looking forward to going to Pearl Harbor ever since Andy and I decided we would be taking a trip to Honolulu. I didn’t get a chance to go last time we were in Honolulu because tickets were already sold out by the time we made the decision to take the trip.

Life Advice: You can buy tickets sixty days in advance for visiting Pearl Harbor. Buy your tickets sixty days in advance. Seriously, these tickets sell out like 58 days in advance.

Unfortunately, in May 2018, the National Park Services suspended access to the USS Arizona memorial due to structural issues causing safety concerns. I was pretty disappointed that we wouldn’t be able to actually go on the memorial, but luckily the visitor center/museums were still open.

Visiting the site of the Pearl Harbor attack was such a profound experience. It’s one thing to learn about the devastating attack, it’s another to visit the site and really experience the attack.

Andy and I paid for the self-narrated tour which walked us through all the exhibits and the grounds.

What we learned about the actual attack:

Japan had to cross 4,000 miles of open sea undetected to be able to drops their bombs from the planes. Japan sent 183 plans in the first round. Then they followed up with a second wave of 167 planes. They crossed the ocean with the planes on a ship and then when they got close enough they gave the go ahead for all the planes to head to Pearl Harbor and attack.

Just before 8 AM on December 7, 1941 the first Japanese planes arrived at Pearl Harbor and began dropping bombs. At 8:10 AM the USS Arizona was hit. More than 1,500 men served on the USS Arizona. 1,177 men on the USS Arizona died.

The USS Oklahoma was also hit. The USS Oklahoma flipped over on its side and 429 men died.

At 8:50 AM, the second waves of planes struck. At the end of the two hour attack, every battleship stationed at Pearl Harbor had been significantly damaged and over 300 planes were destroyed. 2,403 soldiers and civilians had died and many more were injured.

What we learned about the US defense of Pearl Harbor:

For a variety of reason, the US was not prepared for the attack. Due to this, they didn’t really have much of a defense of Pearl Harbor. Only 29 Japanese airplanes were shot down (out of the over 300 airplanes they had).

One thing that I thought was really interesting was why it was so easy for the Japanese to destroy all the American airplanes. Apparently the US military was incredibly concerned about sabotage from those that lived in Hawaii and had Japanese descent. So they made all the pilots park the airplanes wing to wing so it would be easy to guard the planes. Unfortunately, this also made it quite easy for bombers to destroy all the planes since they were right next to each other.

(Side note: In general, Japanese Americans were treated horribly. The museum explains how in October 1942, Japanese Americans were sent to Mississippi to essentially be used as dog bait. The US Army was trying to train dogs to recognize the “distinctive Japanese scent” – aka they were repeatedly attacked by dogs with little to no protection. Classy America…very classy.)

Things we learned about the USS Arizona Memorial:

Although we weren’t able to actually go on the memorial, we did take a brief boat tour around the memorial.

The memorial is beautiful in its simpleness.

The sagging part in the middle of the monument signifies the initial defeat of the attack, but the uplifting at the end shows the eventual success. The memorial is supposed to signify serenity, not sadness.

The tree of life, evident on the far right of the memorial, signifies renewal and peace.

Another interesting part of the museum is that it is built on top of where the sunken USS Arizona still remains.

About 500,000 gallons of fuel oil remain on the USS Arizona in it’s dozens of tanks. About two quarts of oil seeps out each day from the USS Arizona.

This seems like an environmental disaster to me, but apparently it would be worse to try and remove the USS Arizona because they don’t know how to remove the battleship without causing further oil damage. The oil situation is being constantly monitored (or so we are told), so hopefully the environment isn’t being too damaged.

Of course, there is a TON more information that you can get from visiting Pearl Harbor so make sure to go if you’re ever in Oahu!

You would think that with me and Andy being from Northern Virginia we would have thought about traffic, but I guess with the whole being on vacation thing it didn’t cross our mind. So when we left Pearl Harbor at 5 PM we looked at the GPS and immediately realized we would not be heading back to Luke’s place right away…the whole highway was completely red.

We decided instead to drive down the picturesque H3 and take a pit stop at the Nu‘uanu Pali Lookout before heading back to Honolulu.

Why is everything in Hawaii just so beautiful?

The Nu‘uanu Pali Lookout is up a very steep road and it overlooks the northeast coast of the island.

It is also incredibly windy. I was wearing a dress which was really just a poor life decision.

After all our adventures, traffic had died down and we were able to head back to Luke and Leslie’s place.

The following day (Friday) all four of us took a lovely trip to Lanai.

On Saturday, our last full day on the island, we wanted to do something that Luke and Leslie had never done before. After throwing around some ideas, we decided that we would go to Goat Island.

Goat Island is off the North Shore of Oahu. It’s not that far from the beach so it’s possible to swim/walk over during low tide. We did some research and learned that low tide on the North Shore was around noon which was perfect since that meant we could cross in the middle of the day.

Wooo! Goat Island here we come!

Except Goat Island was not the Greatest Of All Time. Rather, it was the Worst Of All Time.

Goat Island, I hereby rename you as Woat Island.

(Leslie decided to stay home from this adventure…it’s like she knew that this was a terrible idea. Next time I’m following her lead haha)

Upon arrival to the spot on the beach where we needed to swim across to get to Woat Island, we realized that something wasn’t right. The water did not look like low tide at all. It was well into your chest level and the water was rough. Real rough. I mean there was no way to go across without fighting the tide the whole way.

The other thing is that you 100% absolutely need water shoes. There were reefs all across the bottom and they were dangerously painful.

I took one look at the situation and was like yeahhhh I’m going to sit this one out. I have a race tomorrow, so not trying to get myself injured. Instead of I stood at the edge of the water, getting my toes wet.

Luke had water shoes so he decided that he would make an effort to head out to the island. Andy, wearing his flip flops, decided he would try as well. About ten feet in Andy realized his flip flops were not going to stay on so his feet were getting seriously cut up. He decided to save his feet and turned back. Luke came back as well – he didn’t want to try and head to the island by himself.

As they were heading back to shore a wave came up and hit me, getting me about ankle deep in water. Once the wave retreated, I immediately felt a stabbing pain.

Yes dedicated readers, your valiant blogger who decided to stay out of the water somehow got stung by a jellyfish.

A JELLYFISH! ON MY ANKLE! THE DAY BEFORE I AM SUPPOSED TO RUN A HALF MARATHON!!!!

At this point I was not very pleased (let’s be real – I was mad and was not a happy camper at all). Luke and Andy did not believe me (they didn’t think it was possible for me to have gotten stung since I wasn’t even in the water) and I was in pain. Rawr.

Andy volunteered to pee on me to help with the sting, but thankfully Luke told us the whole peeing on a jellyfish sting is urban legend (really, he’s such a good husband isn’t he? 🙂 ).

Thankfully, Google and Mama Fiorio confirmed that vinegar is the way to go.

The vinegar really did help and the stabbing pain did subside not too long after.

But still.

Oh Woat Island, thou art quite aptly named.

Needless to say, we decided to cut our losses and head back to Honolulu. (Side note: when we got back to the car we looked at our phones and realized there are two shores on North Shore….one with low tide at noon and one with high tide at noon. I’ll let you figure out what side we were on.)

On our way back, we started calling around to various places to see if we could schedule Luke and Andy for a last minute surfing lesson. Andy really wanted to try surfing and Luke hadn’t done it either since he moved to Hawaii. We found a place that was within walking distance from the apartment – the day was already looking up!

The lesson was six people with two instructors. They spent about 20 minutes doing the ground lesson. I had way too much fun stalking them and taking pictures.

Then they finally went into the water!

I wish that we had been close enough to take pictures of them catching waves, but they paddled out pretty far away from the shore so we couldn’t get the camera to zoom that much.

Andy and Luke both came back exhausted. Apparently, surfing is a serious shoulder workout. But they both said they enjoyed it – Saturday success!

The next morning (Sunday) was RACE DAY! I was 100% dreading the race. After my awful performance in Seattle, I was not looking forward to doing another race just a mere three weeks later. This all seemed like a recipe for disaster.

The race started at the Kapiolani Regional Park at 5:30 AM.

Yes.

5:30 AM.

Do you know what time you need to wake up at to be at a race and ready to run by 5:30 AM?!?!

Too early. Much much too early.

When Andy dropped me off around 5 AM, it was still pitch black outside. As we all got ready to line up for the race, I noticed something a bit unusual. At the very front line of the race, there were dozens of military men and women getting ready to run…in their full gear and rucksacks!!

Nothing to make you feel bad about your life then running slower than someone carrying an excessive amount of weight on their back or holding an American flag the whole race. Although a bit personally demoralizing, it was overall inspiring to run alongside the men and women protecting our freedom. Most of them had other solider or people they were running for, which they showed by carrying pictures on the back of their bag.

The only good thing about starting the race when it was dark is that it meant we got to run through the sunrise (although to be clear, I still would have rather slept in than see the sunset 🙂 )

In general, the race was pretty hilly which shouldn’t come as a surprise since it is Hawaii. I did think that the race organizers did a good job of choosing a route that wasn’t as bad as it could have been. There were at least some flat-ish parts 🙂

After my epic failure in Seattle, I decided to take the whole race slow and steady – I didn’t want to out-do myself too early on. It wasn’t my best race, but completion is always the goal here! My final time was 2:33:36 which is a 11:44 mile pace.

Meanwhile, as I am struggling to put one foot in front of another, Andy hiked Diamond Head and got to watch the sunrise with even more superb views.

I can understand why Andy no longer wants to do these races with me 🙂

The rest of the day we hung out with Luke and Leslie before Andy and I got on a flight to head back home. It was great to spend time visiting Luke & Leslie as well as knocking out a race in another state. Of course, I need to take a moment to highlight some of the benefits of having a brother and sister-in-law that live in Honolulu:

1.Free Lodging: This is very crucial…do you know how expensive hotels are in Honolulu?? But what was even better than the cost-savings is benefit #2…

2. Don’t have to stay in Waikiki: As anyone who has been to Oahu knows, every single hotel is located in Waikiki which makes Waikiki tourist central. Every shop and restaurant are even more expensive because you’re surrounded by tourists. Luke and Leslie, on the other hand, lived about five minutes outside of downtown Honolulu.

There were so many local places with cheap food that you could walk to.

Andy and I become obsessed with a hole in the wall breakfast diner called Harry’s. Harry’s was run by an Asian woman and her husband – they did everything themselves very quickly and cheaply. The food was fantastic (but those pancakes!!) and it was such a great start to our days in Honolulu.

3. Free Use of Car: Luke and Leslie were nice enough to let us use their car during the days in which they were working. This was super great because most of the stuff we wanted to do around the island required a vehicle.

4. Family Cooking: For anyone who knew Luke growing up, it is essential that I mention this…Luke helped Leslie cook us dinner! And it was yummy! Andy and I were lucky enough to get treated to Luke and Leslie fried rice and we gave it a big two thumbs ups.

Sometimes I forget my brother is actually an adult and not the child I grew up with at home 🙂 Look at you Luke, all grown up! I’m so proud! 😂😂

 

Our trip to Hawaii was a success (thanks Luke and Leslie) and we made it home without any issues. Officially 20% of the way done with my goal!