Hawaii 2010 Day 2 ~ The Day of Beaches

Our second day in Hawaii was simply amazing! I believe at the end of the day as we were walking to the elevator Chad said to me "If we left right now, this would still be the best vacation I have ever been on!".

We woke up super early, around 5:30am (which is 10:30am at home though!) and went and sat on the lanai. It was still dark and we could just barely see the waves on the ocean. It was amazing! Once the sun was up enough, I was finally able to get a decent picture to send to the kids! We called the kids and told them good morning! Then we left to walk around Waikiki. Somehow, we had managed to forget our toothpaste, so that was #1 on the list! Unfortunately, the ABC Stores don't open until 7am. So we walked on the beach for a while until 7, went and bought some toothpaste, sunscreen (this is important to remember!) and sunglasses for Chad. It turns out that driving a convertible with the top down is hard without sunglasses!

After we shopped, we headed back to the hotel for breakfast. Booking a room with the breakfast included was one of the best things we could have done! We had 3 choices to eat at for breakfast with our voucher, The Hula Grill , Seattle Coffee , or Duke's all in the hotel. This morning we chose Duke's and we were so glad we did! They had an amazing buffet with eggs, pancakes, french toast, waffles, an omlette station, biscuits and gravy, cereal, bagels, sausage, bacon, fruit, you name it. It was awesome! For the average person the cost is $14.95. We got juice or tea too. For some reason, I decided that tomato juice sounded good and it was so good! I had tomato juice almost every morning we were there!

After breakfast, we packed our beach bag, called Gwen, and headed to the base to pick her up. Since we didn't have a pass to get on base yet, she met us at the bus stop just outside! She hopped in the back and we headed to the NEX to get Chad a snorkle set. While we were there, Chad found an underwater camera bag so that we can take pictures underwater! Then it was off to Kailua!

I love Kailua. It is just beautiful! I think it is one of Geneva's favorite beaches too! As normal, the parking lot was full, but it was Saturday so understandable! We parked across the street and walked over. It was a beautiful day, as they all are in Hawaii! We swam and talked for a while until we decided we were hungry! So we changed clothes and headed into town for some lunch. Gwen thought that we would like Teddy's Big Burgers so we tried there first but they were busy and there was no place to sit! We headed next door to Maui Tacos and they had a free table. It was pretty tasty!

After lunch, we thought we would see if Geneva could get us onto the Marine base with a beautiful beach with a lot of waves. Turns out, she could get us on, we just had to get a visitors pass! The base is called Kaneohe Bay, or just K Bay. In order to get to the beach, you have to drive across the flightline. It was neat! We made it to the beach, but there was a Rimpac party going on, so it was packed and there was no place to park! We stopped a few minutes to take some pictures, but then decided to find one of the other beaches on base.

The next beach was a lot calmer than the last one we were at, but it was beautiful! We didn't swim at this beach, but instead took pictures and had rock skipping contests. Well, Gwen and Chad did anyway. I don't remember who the winner was, but they both had at least 4 or 5 skips, pretty good for the ocean! After we got back to Gwen's house we realized we had picutres of the Black Pearl from Pirates of the Caribean. It is docked and filming at K-Bay!

As we left the beach, we were headed back towards the flightline when the gate came down and the guard came out of his little "hut" to guard the gate. A plane was taking off! It was so neat to see! I really wanted to take a picture, but I wasn't sure the guy with the gun would agree, so I didn't!

We headed back to the hotel to hang out for a little bit and go to the International Market Place. It is a neat place kind of, but nothing too spectacular. It is really the same stuff you can get at the swap meet, or almost any shop! We did go ahead and get Jagua tattoos. It is kind of like Henna, but supposed to last longer! Chad even got one!

While our tattoos dried, we decided to walk over to Cheesecake Factory for dinner. There was about a 45 minute wait, but that wasn't too bad! Finally we were seated and had a yummy dinner! We decided to get a piece of cheesecake to go, Red Velvet. It was so delicious!!!

We decided to take Gwen home since it was almost 9 and we wanted to be able to drop her off at the back gate. The back gate closes at 9. Unfortunately, we got there around 9:03 and it was locked up and dark so we had to go to the main gate and get a visitor's pass. It was nice to have the pass though, that meant we could get on base without Geneva or Ralf.

Chad and I came back to the hotel and went to sleep, tomorrow would be a big day, the SWAP MEET!