Prior to leaving for Hawaii, Stacey, the wife of the CO for my husband's squadron, sent me an email with a list of fun things to do while on vacation. One of these things was the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet. We'd been told it was an excellent place to find souvenirs, so on Wednesday morning, we got up early to head out there. The Aloha Swap Meet is hundreds of vendors that circle the entire University of Hawaii football stadium. They sell everything from Hawaiian shirts, to shaved ice, pickled mango (which Lindsey swears is really good, but I'm still not a believer), fresh coconut, shell jewelry, and everything else you can imagine! We were warned that we really only needed to see about a quarter of the booths because after while, they all start repeating themselves. However, there was one thing my friend Lindsey and I were really interested in. They had these really cute dresses called "Wonder Skirts" that can be worn about 20 different ways. They sold them at booths everywhere and we decided we had to have one. We looked at every single booth that sold them and of course, we couldn't make up our minds. So we walked around the entire stadium and ended up back at the first booth we saw! I still haven't figured out how to tie mine yet, but I'm working on it!
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| The clouds seemed to be pouring down the mountains. |
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| Green everywhere! |
The next day was our last full day in Hawaii. We decided to go hike the Manoa Falls Trail that Lindsey and Pat had told us about. It's an easy 1.5 mile trail that runs through a rainforest and ends at the Manoa Waterfalls. The drive alone was pretty breathtaking. As we got closer to the mountain, the clouds rolled in and covered the top of the mountain and began their descent down the side. When we arrived, it had actually began sprinkling, but not enough to worry about. While parking the car, we noticed that the man who was taking money was also selling bug spray wipes. We assumed we'd be fine and passed on them. Big Mistake. We headed into the tropical forest and began our ascent. One of the things I mentioned that I loved about Hawaii is how green it is and how many different types of trees they have. This trail was no exception. I can't even begin to describe all the different trees that covered this forest and seemed to black out the sky above. At one point there was even a small bamboo forest. However, the one downside to being in a rainforest is all the bugs. About halfway up, my legs started itching. When we got to the top I realized that I had tons of mosquito bites all over my legs. It was then that I wished I had taken that man up on his offer to buy some bug spray wipes.
At the top of the trail was a gorgeous 150-foot waterfall that flows year-round. We stopped for a few minutes to take pictures and admire the view, and then headed back down. Due to the rain, the trail was pretty muddy. It wasn't so bad on the way up, but heading back down was pretty slippery. This was my first hike ever, so I took it pretty carefully. My husband was laughing at me and told me to "Be nimble like a cat!" I reminded him that I wasn't a cat, I was a hippo! He laughed and said, "Well trounce away!" We made it back down safely, though a little muddier than when we set out, and extremely glad that we had gotten to see this beautiful place.
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| My newly retired running shoes |
That night, we all got together for one last dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory. Afterwards, the husband and I joined Pat and Lindsey for some big kid fun at Dave & Busters. I have always loved Chuck E Cheeses and had never actually been to Dave & Busters before. I LOVED it! We played all sorts of games for a couple of hours, skee ball, racing games, basketball, poker, and Deal or No Deal. I could have played for hours, but I had to be up at 5:30 the next morning, so we had to head back fairly early. We got a ton of tickets and ended up trading them in for a cute little teddy bear. It was a great night but sadly we then had to say goodbye.
I'm so truly thankful that I had the opportunity to travel out to Hawaii and get a chance to see some really good friends again that I've missed dearly! I'm already trying to plan another trip out there and really hope they get a chance to visit here sometime soon as well!
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