The Boyd's: Babymoon to Hawaii: Oahu Part I

Steve and I decided to take a last minute trip to Hawaii to go and visit his brother Craig and his wife Cerissa. We we're looking into destinations for our "babymoon" (aka the last "big" trip before the baby comes) and everything looked like it was going to be pretty pricey. We wanted to go somewhere we've both never been and somewhere tropical so we decided on Hawaii. We had a small budget because our life will be changing soon with this baby coming and we don't know where we'll be in a few months. This looked like it was going to be the perfect trip because we have family on the island which would help us achieve the low cost of finding somewhere to stay, help us not have to rent a car, not have to eat out everyday, etc. We were originally looking into going around March/April but I didn't want to be a "beached whale" on the beach and we found a last minute deal going out of Portland for the first part of February. Everything literally fell into place perfectly as Steve's brother Craig had a 4 day weekend the week we came.

Steve's brother has been in the Marine Corps since July of 2012. Him and his wife got married in March of 2013 and got "stationed" in Hawaii on the island of Oahu (they are so lucky and it seems like their living a permanent honeymoon). As most of you know, I have a sister-in-law that is due the exact same day as I am and this is the sister-in-law we went to see. It was so much fun to get to know both of them so much better since we really haven't seen much of them since they were engaged. Steve and his brother haven't really seen much of each other for the past 6 years. Their missions overlapped so they didn't see each other for 3 years, then while we were in Rexburg Craig joined the Marines and was at training in Twenty Nine Palms, CA, then Craig and Cerissa got married in March 2013 and moved to Hawaii. Let me just say it was a great reunion for the both of them and they had so much fun spending time together boogie boarding in the ocean!

Now onto the details of the trip:
We left for Portland Saturday morning as our flights were leaving Sunday AM. This was the worst weekend to travel as the Portland area as well as the Boise area were getting slammed with snow! Portland hardly ever gets snow and this was the worst snow/ice storm that they have had in 4-5 years. All of the news stations were saying to stay off the roads and stay home. We would in any other circumstance, but we had to make our flights out of Portland. We left at 9 am or so and didn't get to the Portland area until 5 pm. This should have only been a 6 hour drive but took us 9 hours! The roads were horrible and I'm surprised we didn't get in any accidents or land up in a ditch. We were 5 minutes away from the place we were staying at that night and someone rolled down their window and told us we had a flat tire. This was not the best news we got as we have been driving all day and just wanted to be set somewhere and relaxing. Steve put on a spare and we just figured we would fix it once we got back from our trip. We stayed with my old roommates (Rebekah Brems) parents in Tigard, OR (30 min out of Portland) for the night and her dad took us to the airport Sunday morning. We thought for sure our flight was going to be delayed or cancelled but miraculously it was on-time.

Day 1: Arriving on Oahu
Our flight landed around 3:00 pm on Sunday and Craig and Cerissa picked us up from the airport. When we got off the plane I felt the humidity right away and could tell my hair would probably be up the remainder of the trip haha. We took the first day chill as it was Sunday and they took us to a nearby Marine Base beach called Officer's Beach. Base beaches are the best because they aren't crowded and they have some really good waves. Only those who live on the Marine Base can access these beaches (perk to being in the Marines).

Here is beautiful Officer's Beach! Right Picture: Craig and Steve boogie boarding

Day 2: Lanikai Beach
One of the things we wanted to do most while in Hawaii was spend time at the beach. All of the best beaches are on the same side of the island that Craig and Cerissa live on so it was nice to only have to drive 10-15 minutes for a good beach. Lanikai Beach is one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever been to and for those of you who have been to Hawaii you have probably heard about it or been there. There aren't many waves at this beach so you can stand in the water knee deep and not get knocked over by the waves. We literally spent all day at this beach and we almost managed to not get burnt....1/2 of my leg got burnt and left a pretty good red patch. It was the most perfect day!

Day #3: Judd Trail, Pali Lookout, Ft. Hase Beach

Craig had to work again today so Cerissa dropped Steve and I off at the head of Judd Trail (outside of Honolulu). They've done the hike together before and thought it would be fun to do on a nice hot day. The hike is mostly covered and felt like we were in the jungle so it wasn't a bad way to spend part of our day. The hike took us about 1 hour 15 minutes to finish and it was overall a very good hike. The first part of the hike we were in bamboo shoots, then we were in a jungle next to small waterfalls and creeks, then we were in a forest surrounded by tall trees. It was very cool and probably one of the coolest hikes we've been on. It rained a couple of days before so parts of the trail were very muddy. We even had to cross a creek starting the trail and ending the trail and that was a little scary but we survived haha.

Steve in the middle of super tall trees on our hike.

The creek we had to cross.

Literally felt like we were in the jungle.

Steve and I

It was kinda fun to walk through this part of the trail.

After our hike on Judd Trail Cerissa took us to see Pali Lookout which overlooks Kailua and Kaneohe. It was a great place to overlook the Marine Base as well as look at all the beautiful scenery around you.

Beautiful panoramic shot

The rest of the day we spent at Fort Hase Beach. It is another Marine Base beach and isn't very easy to swim at because of the volcanic rock it has along the shore. It was fun to just sit along the shore and let the waves come up on us.

Steve sitting on the ledge getting wet

Ft. Hase Beach

Day 4: Makapu'u Hike, Kalamas Beach, Officer's Beach

Cerissa took us on this hike called Makapu'u Point Lighthouse Trail. It was a nice 2 mile round-trip hike in which we gained about 500 ft. in elevation. It was very hot as we were fully exposed to the sun throughout the whole trail. This trail is popular for whale watching about 3/4ths up the trial. There is a lookout over the ocean where you can just sit and look for whales. We noticed a lot of action the longer we stayed around and watched. We saw a few big splashes and the rest was just parts of the whale coming up out of the water to breathe.

You can barely see it in this picture but there is a whale you can see in the distance with his fin or tail just above the water.

Lookout at the top of the trail

Lookout to watch whales

Makapu'u Lighthouse

After our hike we were very hungry and craving some traditional Hawaiian Food. We went to a place called Ono Steaks and Shrimp in Waimanalo. We got some coconut shrimp and fish tacos. After eating we waited for Craig to get off work and we headed over to Kalama Beach to do some boogie boarding. The waves ended up not being very big so we moved over to Officer's Beach for better waves.