The Last of Hawai'i

Wednesday was another busy day for us in Hawai'i. We woke up super early to get to their swap meet that opens at 6:00am, we got there right at 6:00. The swap meet wraps around Aloha Stadium with 2 rows (sometimes 3) of vendors...it's huge! We walked the entire thing and I found a really cute hobo-style bag and jewelry. We went on a bus-tour around the Honolulu and Waikiki areas and then we went on a nature tour. The above photo I took of the beautiful scenery at the beginning of our hike. You are looking at part of the rain forest, hence the lush greenness of it all. We hiked for a couple of hours and learned about some of the plants and wildlife in the area and came upon this waterfall. It was about 30 feet tall and about 4 feet wide at the widest point.
The hike was rigorous at points and I was glad to see the shuttle when we were done! We drove back to Waikiki and to our hotel where we hoped to be able to rest for a bit, but of course we couldn't! We cleaned ourselves up and headed back to the beach area for dinner and a magic show. Here's a picture of us before the show...
The show was over by around 10:00pm (that's 1:00am SD time!) and we decided, since it was our last night in Hawai'i that we would walk along the beach again and collect seashells. Well, about an hour and a half later of searching, we decided to call it a night. We found some teeny tiny shells and bits of broken ones, but nothing to gawk at.

Thursday was our day to leave and we only had until 10:30 to do last minute sight-seeing, exploring. I decided it was about time to try to surf! Yes, I said surf. You would think living in San Diego my entire life that I would have tried this already, but nope. So, why not try it for the first time on the beautiful island of Oahu and on the beach of Waikiki? For those of you who don't believe me, you'll have to take my word for it because there's no way you're seeing the photo! But, here's a picture of my surf instructor that taught me how...