HAWAII

For years Paul and I have been wanting to take a vacation after graduation, so when Paul found an awesome deal on round trip tickets to Hawaii we jumped at the opportunity. We went to Oahu for five days and were busy, busy, busy the whole time and got to do everything we had set out to do. Actually, what we really wanted was just to spend time together, relax, and celebrate Paul finishing dental school- everything else was just the icing on top.

We arrived Sunday afternoon and found ourselves on the second floor of our hotel in a room with two beds. I guess that's what you get when you book on Priceline. Paul asked if they had any rooms with just one bed and they moved us into a suite on the 10th floor for the same price. Sweet! For dinner we went over to Paul's BYU roommate's (Nate) house. His wife Miho made an AMAZING meal. It was so good, probably the best food we had while we were in Hawaii. We had chicken katsu, fried spring rolls, purple sweet potatoes, salad, and haupia (coconut custard) pie.


MONDAY:
Breakfast at Boots and Kimos-- (I think Paul had Spam every day we were in Hawaii. I got the pancakes with macadamia nut sauce. Num num num.)
Hiked Diamond Head. Here's the view from the top looking onto Waikiki. One of my very favorite things about Hawaii is the color of the water- it's turquiose and teal and clear and so beautiful!
We had dinner again with Nate and his family, this time at a local joint call Rainbow. I think Paul had more Spam, this time with gravy??? We got some malasadas (deep-fried-while-you-wait donuts filled with custard) for dessert. Nata and Miho's daughter, Yumi, is so adorable. She's two months older than Parker and knows sign language, English, and Japanese. We're still waiting on Parker to say anything more than nigh-nigh or wow. For the first picture I said, "Smile Yumi!" My bad, I should've said it in Japanese. For the second picture I said, "Nico, Nico!" Excellent head tilt!

TUESDAY:
We went to the Dole pineapple plantation, went stand-up paddleboarding (where we saw sea turtles and wild peacocks), pretended to be a surfer getting barreled at Waimea Bay, walked the temple grounds, and went to the Polynesian Cultural Center where we got VIP treatment thanks to Paul's uncle who works at the PCC. Speaking of VIPs, Grant Hill was getting the same treatment just a few feet from us!




WEDNESDAY:
Went to the swap meet and had coconut juice straight from the coconut!

Went snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. We swam with beautifully-colored fish and big turtles.
THURSDAY:
Had breakfast at the Hula Grill, which is right on the ocean. It was sprinkling when we got to the restaurant and we could see a rainbow over the water as we ate.

Went hiking at Maunawili Falls. It was awesome walking through the lush rainforest. When we got to the waterfall, there was a swimming hole you could jump into from the falls. I opted to watch while Paul took the plunge.
Went snorkling at Lanikai beach. The sand there was so soft it felt like we were walking on powdered sugar.

There weren't many waves while we were there, but Paul was determined to go surfing. He rented a long board and caught a few waves as the sun went down and before we had to head to the airport for our red eye flight back to LA.

Here's a movie that Paul made...

Hawaii Movie from John Fjeldsted on Vimeo.

To sum up, we loved our trip!!!

Parker wasn't invited to our vacation, but he had one of his own with Grandpa John and Grandma Trudy. Paul and I were glad to have just-the-two-of-us time, but we were so excited to see Parker again after six days of being away and he was so happy to see us too when we picked him up.