The Sunsets...ahhh The Sunsets

This post is going to be dedicated to the odds and ends of our Oahu adventure. First off lets talk about people.  I am always one to people watch, whether it be an average everyday person or a  celebrity siting, I want to watch them. While we didn't see any celebrities per say, we did see an Olympian, Bryan Clay.

 He won a gold medal in the decathlon in the 2008 Olympics and I actually remember watching him on tv. However, I couldn't remember his name so I decided it wouldn't be the best idea to go up to him and say, "hey it's...you...." so I just watched him from afar. Well that sounded creepy. But yes, Jon and I did notice we were mere feet from an Olympian.

 

And oh yeah, I took a picture with our President. He was just chillin in an ABC store, he looked a little thin though...

So on to the non-Presidents/Olympians, the guy that worked behind the desk at our hotel totally had the strange factor turned up on high. First off, we get in to the hotel at 9 o'clockat night (midnight California time)  so we just wanted to get to our room. However Mr. So and So behind the counter decided to talk to us for about 40 minutes. Did he tell about the room features? NO Did he tell us about the surrounding area? NO. He decided give us a stroll down memory lane and tell us about the time he got sent to boarding school because he broke a yard stick over his classmates back. He then told us how he snuck out of said boarding school-and it didn't end there! Odd just odd.

Even though our hotel had quite a character working there, they also had awesome decor. The whole theme of the hotel was "under the sea". There were large pictures of neon coral and beautiful fish (many of which we saw while snorkeling). Here I am kissing a big fishy outside of our hotel room.

Another odd occurrence presented itself as Jon and I sat at a beach side bar. We were just hanging out when this little kid, no parents in sight, walked up to us and just hung out by our sides. I told Jon to take a sly picture because the peeps on the blog would want a picture of this.

And then there were the tourists at the pool that we had to explain what the salt water hot tub was. We seriously sat there for about ten  minutes trying to help these people understand that a salt water hot tub was just that, a hot tub with salt water.

Aaaanyway...

Jon and I did a lot of other touristy things that did not involve the beach or our hotel pool. We are the type of travelers that want to see it all. One of my favorite activities was just walking up and down the streets when they turned on the tiki torches and white lights on the trees, it was just so magical.

And then we stood in the smallish crowd to take a picture with this surfer guy. (Note to self: find out who this surfer dude is)

We then drove to Pearl Harbor to visit the USS Arizona monument which was very chilling.

Especially since the oil is still seeping out of the sunken battle ship.

On the lighter side of things, we went to watch a luau. Well Jon watched the luau, I participated in it!

And then, just when Jon thought that things could not get any better, he found the restaurant of his dreams, the Yard House. The Yard House has 133 beers on tap.

This place almost helped him forget the fact that I was a pretty crummy co-pilot. But come on, these are some pretty difficult street names to pronounce.

Many times Jon would say, "ok where do I turn next?" and I would do my best to pronounce the street name, meanwhile we would pass said street just as I squeaked out the final syllable. oh well.

The most consistently awesome part of the trip were the sunsets. I mean just look at 'em.

Ooh ooh and before I forget, I bought this awesome print in an art gallery. This masterpiece is by Heather Brown. I fell in love with her use of colors and shapes and I knew I just had to bring one home. 

And those are the cliff notes of our Hawaiian vacation.  There were so many moments that will stick out in our minds from this trip but as they say "I guess you just had to be there". 

Have you ever been to Hawaii? What is one of your favorite vacation memories?

*Images of Bryan Clay and Heather Brown's artwork courtesy of google images.