O'ahu, HI

I got a stretch of 5 days off from work so I took advantage of it haha! I asked my friend Nicole, who is on assignment in O'ahu, if I could come visit. She said yes so I booked the ticket that day haha. It was seriously perfect timing. She did have to work most of the days I was visiting but she was able to still hang out which was awesome!

-Day 1- I flew in I headed to pick up my car rental which was a fun two door white jeep! I headed over to Pearl Harbor. It was such a somber experience. Walking around the USS Arizona memorial and seeing all the names on the memorial wall was heart breaking. The tour was beautifully done and I would highly advise any traveler visiting to go and check it out. Nicole and I went to Waikiki to watch the sunset. It was an incredible sunset. As I write this I am reminiscing haha! From the beach too it was cool we could see the Kuhio beach Torchlighting and hula show. Which was an added perk. We finished the night after getting dinner at Maui Brewing Company with Nicole's friends.

-Day 2- I headed to Makapuʻu Point light house trail to meet with some family friends. It was amazing to catch up with them and have malasadas. Which by the way are delicious! After meeting up with JoJo & their kekes I headed to Lanikai beach. I had parked at Pu’uhalo then walked down to Lanikai. The ocean there was beautiful and seeing the mokes was super cool. The water was so refreshing! After that I decided to drive up the cost. On the way I had stopped to see China man's Hat from Kualoa State Park . After that I scoped out Kaiona beach. This beach was my favorite. I loved how much shade there was and how quite it was. There was maybe only 3 other families on the stretch. It was beautiful! I then headed over to white plains beach and met up with Nicole's friends who were surfing. While we were at the beach we had another beautiful sunset and saw a Hawaiian monk seal. It was spectacular. The nature out there is so incredible. It is crazy how quickly you forget. I joined the group, who were all travel nurses and a local nurse, to grab dinner at monkeypod. It was incredibly delicious!

-Day 3- North Shore day! I was accompanied by two of the girls I had met the day before, Jen & Gina. We started our day off by grabbing açaí bowls from Haleʻiwa Bowls. Hands down best açaí bowl I have ever had. I am still craving it I wish I had some more right now haha! So fresh I definitely recommend! Then we started our day of excitement! We took pics with the Haleiwa angel wings (located at Anahulu Shave Ice). Went down to Sharks Cove to snorkel which was incredible! It was super neat we saw some awesome sea critters! to name a few we saw: sea cumbers, turtle, Angel fish, parrot fish, and an octopus. It was also a neat surprise there was rocks placed that said Aloha which was a really cool photo op! Then we continued down to Waiamaia Bay. This beach was incredibly beautiful! My favorite part in hindsight was jumping of the rock haha! It took me quite sometime to do it but I did it haha! We also had an amazing encounter with another sea turtle. It is amazing to swim next to them. After that we returned our snorkeling gear and headed down to turtle bay resort for Mai tai's, dinner and sunset. Again another amazing and not disappointing sunset. Mahalo O'ahu!

-Day 4- I took my time getting up this morning. I headed out to check out the Byodo-In. It was really neat to see the beauty of the temple that was modeled after one in Japan. After that I drove down to see the baby tide pools. Picked up Nicole and got lunch at Kona Brewery. We then went to the Ho'omaluhia Botanical gardens. We went a little later in the day and didn't have as much time as we initially would have liked to explore the garden but next time Ill have to check it out! After that we went to try to go on a sunset hike but couldn't find the trail head to decided to watch the sunset from the beach.

-Day 5- My last day sadly! I got up early to watch the sunrise and to go on a hike. I ended up doing the Lanikai pillbox hike. Its pretty neat the pillboxes used to be military batteries. After that I got breakfast at Local Joes. I ordered this amazingly delicious breakfast bagel that has cream cheese, avocado, and bacon it was heavenly delicious!

I was so grateful for the time I had in O'ahu! My friend Nicole said that the Island chooses you and I feel so honored to have been given the experiences I had. I was so overjoyed and happy I didn't want to leave. If I could land a nursing assignment out there I would be on cloud 9. I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed in the meantime!