Ohhh my hard drive is FULL of colorful images this week! When Luisanna invited Justin and I to come visit her, I knew it would be a while before the two of us could go together, and the next person that came to mind was my friend Meredith. It’s a good thing this chick is always down for an adventure. I knew I couldn’t possibly miss out on the opportunity to visit sweet Lu and see her home in Hawaii and after we found those $540 roundtrip plane tickets, we knew we couldn’t turn the chance to see Oahu down! I had spoken the morning of March 7th at a meetup in Fredericksburg and knew I had to make it to the Philadelphia airport by 4:30 that afternoon. Traffic was by far the WORST I had ever experienced in Northern Virginia. I mean, I knew it would probably take me an hour and a half to drive the 25 miles or so back home before we could leave for the airport… but the highway was literally shut down. ALL four lanes!!! Thank goodness for Google maps and some quick improvising that let me zig zag on side roads back up home. It took me two and a half hours to get back to my house, but we were able to leave for Philly only 45 minutes behind schedule and we walked up to our gate AS the plane was boarding. Ten minutes later and we would have missed our flight. Phew!! Thankfully we were off to Portland for an overnight stay, and the next morning, we were seeing THIS!
We had arrived in Hawaii!! We snapped this pic as soon as we got to Luisanna’s house. She had greeted us at the airport with real laes and they were so pretty and smelled SO good!
We got cleaned up and headed downtown for the evening… well, until about 6:30pm, when we decided we were too tired to go any further… ;)
That sign says Honolulu!!! It was so crazy seeing this place in person!
Waikiki was what I imagine DC would be like if it were on an island. It actually reminded me a little bit of Virginia Beach or Wildwood with all its resorts towering above. But the palm trees and turquoise waters let us know we weren’t on the mainland anymore!
The first place we ate in Hawaii was Duke’s! I got chicken and rice (a pretty classic Hawaiian meal) and of course, this delicious beverage!
Every turn of the corner, Waikiki got more and more beautiful…
Then there was this wall of surfboards, which basically screamed, “take photos in front of us, Megan!”
We love you, Luisanna!!!
When we were downtown, I learned that my friend from Bible study at George Mason was in Oahu and IN Waikiki that very moment just blocks away! So of course, we had to meet up and take a photo together! Recognize Sarah from my latest mentoring session blog post? :)
The first thing my friend Cory told me when I landed was to check out the plants. I thought it was a weird thing to say… until I SAW the plants. Every tree is so cool!
The next day, we decided to conquer the Lanikai Pillbox Trail… which I don’t believe is a formal trail at all… I basically felt like I was climbing up the side of a mountain on my hands and knees. But that’s probably because it’s Hawaii and I’m out of shape and I hadn’t been in the sun in basically a year. Haha. But the view? It was SO worth the sweat and sunburn.
The texture of this grass here is so gorgeous.
I think this is where the “pillboxes” name comes from… there were a few of these little huts along the way. And I could have sat up here all day and soaked up the sunshine and took in the view…
The color of the water, the blue sky, the green grass, the palm trees overhead, the ocean breeze blowing in from over the sea… Hawaii’s magic had pulled us in within just 24 hours of being there. And it was only the beginning… Part II coming soon!
Huge thanks to Meredith Sledge for sharing her own photos she captured on this trip with me! This post is a mix of both of our images!
