HAWAII!!!!

So as most of you already know I just got back from Hawaii!!! :) I was on Oahu staying at the Hale Koa right off the beach in Waikiki. I had so much fun! I started dating Alex and he flew me out there to spend some time together and to show me around where he's living. We drove around a lot, he wanted to take me hiking as well as the driving to different view points, but the hikes he wanted to take me on were overcast the whole time I was there so the view would have been clouds and rain lol.

 Up at the Pali lookout. the picture above is a view of where he's stationed out by the ocean

 Flat root tree. It was pretty cool to see

 At a botanical garden he wanted to show me that had a beautiful waterfall as well.

 First time feeling the Pacific in Hawaii lol

 At the Dole Plantation there were these really weird trees with multi colored bark. I called a lot of the trees and plants fake or Dr. Seuss plants. Alex had a great time teasing me about it

 Pearls I got from the plantation. I got the first one on sale and the second 2 I actually got for free (but I also put it on jewelry and that wasn't free)

 Alex's pineapple soft serve with pineapple chunks and my pineapple float (pineapple soft serve in pineapple juice). So delicious, but way too sweet for me.. I couldn't eat very much of it it was so sweet.

 Pineapple!!

 Another beach spot we stopped at to take pictures

 We even made it to the Laie temple! Absolutely beautiful!!

 Alex and I at the Marine Corps/Navy birthday ball.. outside in Hawaii.. It was extremely hot!! I felt really bad for everyone in uniform that were wiping their foreheads they were so hot, luckily we had a table in the covered area with fans and not out under a canopy. We had fun!

 We ended up meeting up with one of Ryley's friends and her daughter at the zoo. That orangutan was just sitting there playing in the sheet and playing with the grass.

 Big tortoises and bigger tortoises 

 They were huge!!

 Weird looking crocodile. His nose was very long and skinny.. more than normal

 The hippos thought it was feeding time, and it wasn't. They were just cleaning where they normally feed them from. They kept leaning back with their mouths open the whole time we were looking at them, which was a while before we even figured out they weren't going to be feeding them any time soon darn it.

 Ceiling at one of the entrances of the Navy Exchange in Pearl Harbor. It's all painted and the sting ray is painted on a sun roof of sorts. It was pretty cool to see!

 Rainbow while leaving the exchange

 Temple at night when we went to pick up another friend of mine to go out and eat dinner at this hole in the wall curry place. The curry was SO GOOD!!!!! After we ate and were just sitting talking she got a text from her land lord asking where she was and to hurry home because a tsunami warning was in effect.

 The lines at the gas stations were crazy long, and the sirens were very freaky sounding. I was just a little scared to death that something was going to happen besides everyone telling me they happened all the time and there was never any damage done.

 We couldn't make it back into Waikiki, they had it evacuated and wouldn't let anyone in, so we ended up going up to Tripler (the Army hospital) and waiting in the parking lot. We were there until 2 in the morning before we got the all clear to head back down. The biggest wave from the tsunami was only 3.5 feet... the surfers who didn't evacuate and were just sitting in the ocean waiting for the wave were even disappointed.

 At the Peal Harbor memorial

On the boat heading out to the USS Arizona memorial after watching a video with lots of live footage from the attack that I had never seen.. the atmosphere out there was incredibly strong, and heartbreaking

 The men who served on the USS Arizona and lived, but wanted to be buried with their shipmates and were. They cremate them and have a funeral service out at the memorial and a diver takes the urn to a drop spot in one of the hulls..

 We took a submarine tour off the beach of Waikiki

 They have these artificial reefs in the water to attract more fish and plant life in the ocean. Waikiki is a man made beach and the sand choked out all the natural reefs so this is an effort to bring it back..

 Some fish that swam really close to my window

 A sample of how thick the glass is.

 They took us down over 100ft, so everything was in shades of blue and green

 At the beginning of the luau at the Hale Koa. The guy (Cousin Jerry) climbed to the top of one of the coconut trees

 The food was amazing!!! Fried rice, fried banana, fish, pork, beef, chicken and some really good sweet potato.

 The men and women dancers were really good! I loved it it was so much fun!

 The fire dancers at the end were great too, and they were only 12 and 13. It was really impressive :)

I had so much fun in Hawaii and can't wait to go back for another visit!!