Day 5 was our last day--so sad! We got up early and drove to Hanauma Bay, which is a very popular place for snorkeling. (Side note: Tyler's dad served his mission in Hawaii, and Hanauma Bay was part of his area!) I will admit I was kind of nervous about it, but not Tyler. He was very excited. I'm afraid of large open water and sharks, as well as pretty much any animal alive...so it's a good thing Tyler is more brave than I am. I thought I was doing pretty well, though, until we had to watch the video. If you go snorkeling at Hanauma Bay, you have to watch a video that tells you not to touch the animals or step on the coral. Then the narrator says, "And be cautious--not all sea life is friendly." And then it shows this big scary eel jump out and try to bite the camera with huge sharp teeth! That's when the hyperventilating started.
Oh well, I held it together and decided to try anyway. We swam out a little way over the reef and found some pretty fish. I was admittedly freaking out, but Tyler stayed close and made me feel better. My inner tube also made me feel better. After a while, I felt like I had seen all the fish I needed to, and I was satisfied. So I went back towards the shore and relaxed in my inner tube, while Tyler venture further out on his boogie board. He ended up getting out pretty far and finding WAY more fish. He also found a big sea turtle that swam around with him for a long time! He was so excited about it, and I was glad he got to do that. (I was also glad that I didn't get to!)
Once we'd had our fill of snorkeling, we headed on a scenic drive all over the east side of Oahu. Sarah made a list of all the places she wanted to take us that we didn't have time for, and she told us to drive around and see them before we left. On our way to our first stop we passed a place called the Lanai Lookout and Tyler suddenly shouted, "Wait! Stop the car! Go back!" It turns out that the Lanai Lookout is another famous filming location for "Lost."
Just beyond the lookout was our first stop--Sandy Beach Park. It's a pretty little beach right next to the Halona Blow Hole. And just like it's name, it is full of soft brown sand.
We thought that Sarah told us to go swim at Sandy Beach, but apparently that is not what she said. She told us to just look at it. Apparently Sandy's is a beach that only locals with lots of experience go to, because it is the most dangerous beach in Oahu. It has the highest number of neck and shoulder injuries every year in the world, and people have actually died there! Tyler and I didn't know this beforehand, though, so when we got there and saw all of the "danger" signs and the massive waves, we were a little confused. Why would Sarah tell us to swim here? Does she want us to drown?
We looked around, and there was not a single haole in sight. The waves we so big and strong that we decided we would just stand at the edge of the water and let it wash over our feet. But even that almost knocked us over sometimes! We must have looked visually terrified or something, because this nice Hawaiian man came up to us and asked if we were thinking of going in. He looked pretty worried about it. We told him that no, we were definitely not going to try to go in, and he looked SO relieved. That's when he told us all about how dangerous the beach is, and that we were very smart not to try to swim there. He said, "You know that feeling that you get, when you just feel scared and you don't think you should do it? Well that is the island telling you that you shouldn't do it, man. You should always, always listen to that." Good advice, but Tyler and I had to try very hard not to laugh because it sounded funny the way he said it. Needless to say, our stay at Sandy Beach was brief.
After Sandy's, we drove along the coast toward our next stop, Kailua Beach, and on the way found another "Lost" site. (Big surprise, I know!) Rabbit Island is used as "the island" in a few scenes from the show. Though, if you watch the show, it is clearly enhanced with computer animation.
We made it to Kailua and were slightly underwhelmed by the beach, probably just because it was overcast and windy. Sarah had said that is was one of the prettiest beaches, but the clouds just made everything look kind of grey. Too bad. We still enjoyed a Hawaiian Shave Ice on the beach, though, so it was fun. Then we drove around looking for the other "prettiest beach," according to Sarah: Lanikai. But for some reason we couldn't find it to save our lives. So after a while we gave up and headed back to Honolulu to check out of our hotel.
Once we were checked out, we drove to Pearl Harbor. Unfortunately it was so windy that they cancelled all boats out to the Arizona Memorial, which we're told is the coolest part. But it was fine. We still enjoyed the film they show and the artifacts they have, and we sat on a bench looking over the harbor and ate malasadas for lunch. Malasadas are a round ball of Portuguese bread dough that is fried like a doughnut and covered with sugar. It can also have cinnamon on it or be filled with any kind of fillings. We tried regular ones and cinnamon ones, and I had one filled with custard while Tyler had one filled with coconut cream. They were soooo yummy, and probably incredibly unhealthy. I guess hundreds of years ago the Portuguese immigrants brought them to Hawaii, and now it's just evolved into a very Hawaiian thing. But anyway, back to Pearl Harbor. It was a lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
Since the harbor didn't take as long as we thought, we had some extra time, so we decided to take another scenic drive, this time up the Pali. We enjoyed our last minutes of soaking in Oahu, and we also found a few last "Lost" places. Like Richard's tree.
And the building Locke gets pushed out of.
Before dinner, we had a minute to take one more stroll on Waikiki Beach. We were amazed how crowded it was, because the only time we'd seen it was at 7am when it was totally deserted.
The shortest brown building in the middle was our first hotel--the Aqua Waikiki Beachside.
Our last meal on the island was at a Japanese place called Tanaka of Tokyo. It's a lot like Benihana's, but it's only in Hawaii and it's a lot fancier. It was so yummy. Afterwards, we enjoyed our last stroll through the palm trees and tiki torches, went to Sarah's apartment to say goodbye, turned in our rental car, and started the long flight home.
We flew all night long, with a quick stop in Seattle before we made it back to Salt Lake. We were exhausted and sad to leave such a fun vacation, but we were happy to be back home with Ashton. We missed him! And, of course, we brought him some presents to make up for our absence. We got him a Hawaii t-shirt and his own stretchy lei.
But the part he liked the best was the bucket of beach tools we brought him. He wouldn't even smile for a picture. All he wanted was to open them and play.
What a wonderful vacation! Thank you to Aunt Laura and to Becky and Carlton for watching Ashton so that we could go. And thank you to Sarah for showing us the best parts of Oahu. We loved it!
