Hawaii Part 1: Waikiki, Manoa Falls, Diamond Head, Ala Moana

When setting my new year's resolutions this year, I realized I was only three states away from having visited all fifty of the United States. I set a goal to hit the remaining three before I turned thirty in November. Originally, Hawaii was going to be the crowning jewel - a trip spanning my birthday and Jaime's. It ended up making more sense, though, to go in October when I had more time off from work.

One day in the spring, I was at work and got an email from a Hawaii newsletter I'd subscribed to, alerting me of a flash sale from United - flights to Hawaii out of Cincinnati and Salt Lake City for less than $400! I put our dates in, bracing myself for a price increase, but the price stayed the same! I called Jaime and told her we had to buy our tickets right then. We weren't planning to buy them until late summer, so it felt very spontaneous but I wasn't about to let this deal get away from me. We bought our tickets for $375 each - about $500 less than anything I'd seen before!

The bummer part of this was that we were flying out of different places so we both had to fly alone. We were able to coordinate our arrivals to within an hour, though. We checked into where we were staying then set out to find some food. My friend Rebecca had told me about these places that had sushi on a conveyor belt, so we had to check it out. The sushi was only ok, but the experience was fun! We walked along Waikiki beach for a minute, but we were both exhausted and it was already very late at home, so we went to bed pretty early that first night.

The next morning, we got up early and headed up to Manoa Falls. It was a bit misty that morning, but the greenery was out of this world. It's amazing how almost every inch was covered in green.

We were the only ones at the falls when we arrived, so we relaxed for a bit and read on our phones. I love reading the scriptures in beautiful places God created! It makes me feel closer to the Spirit.

That afternoon, we headed over to hike Diamond Head. This hike was much more crowded - it's a tourist hot spot - and more difficult. The ascent is steeper and longer, but the views are stunning! That day I logged the highest number of steps on my pedometer that I've ever done - 26,230 steps.

The trail leads up to the point of a crater, which is right on the coast. The crater extends back inland.

We stopped at a local Hawaiian restaurant to try authentic Hawaiian food. This was the first of probably three different attempts to like Hawaiian food. Here's the deal: it's gross. We thought maybe it was just the first place, but we weren't really into any of the stuff we tried. Some of it was edible, but overall it left a lot to be desired. The picture here doesn't show it, but so many of the Hawaiian places served what they called "plate lunch," which was just some kind of meat with white rice and macaroni salad. Every time. I don't know what their obsession is with macaroni salad, but it's not even one of the top five best kinds of salad.

Food victory for the day: Leonard's bakery. We got Portuguese malasadas, which are pretty much fried bread, sometimes filled with custard or jelly, and covered in sugar. Yum.

We made our way back to our room, changed, then headed to Ala Moana beach to watch the sunset before grabbing dinner at a nearby restaurant. This place is so gorgeous. Everywhere. The beaches, the ocean, the mountains, the plants. It's nuts.