HAWAII2013: DAY 2

DAY 2: 06/06/13 Tide-pooling and the destruction of CJ's iPhone

Woke up early so that we could go tide-pooling with Nicool and Jason...

CJ picked them up some muffins the day before so he was the muffin man!

We were spouting quotes from Shrek (aka "Do you know the muffin man" lyrics)

rollin' with the homies

On our way to the Makapu'u tide pools, along the mountain you see these HUGE homes.

My guess is they are multi-million dollar homes. 

We arrived to the parking lot and were trying to figure out where the trailhead was.

LOVE how the sun is trying so hard to peek through the clouds!

Quick photo op while we are looking around for the trail head...

Nicool and I ended up looking the other direction and saw itty bitty people walking up the mountain...
There was a separate area for parking so we decided to move the car since there were spots still open.

On the trail... finally!

The four of us! 

Side note: Our first time tide-pooling was with Nicool & Jason and we had a BLAST!

Along the trail there were holes, dips and cracks that you had to watch out for and they were circled with spray paint to aid people not to fall... 

This dip was particularly funny because if you can see it, it says dip baby dip.

We all ended up saying that a bunch while trekking up this mountain. It was hilarious!

ALSO, I introduced Nicool and Jason to the famous Jenna Marbles "What Are This?" video.

Couples pic on a pit stop on the mountain!

Funny pose is a MUST when you're doing a timer'ed photo

The ocean was so beautifully blue... I couldn't stand how beautiful it was!

One of our favorite married couples!

There was a drop off a little ways behind him so I was a little scared!

As we continued up the mountain we were trying to figure out whether we missed the trail for the tide pools. At this point we were preetty high up & we couldn't imagine that the trail for the tide pools would be along the side of the mountain... Right?

We decided to turn back because close to the bottom of the mountain there were trails that led off to the side of the mountain to the ocean.

Separate trail leading us to the ocean

There was a choice of 2 trails, but there was a local woman on the trail that suggested the one we chose...

View from the trail!

At the end, it led right up to this rocky area where the ocean hits. If anyone wants to have a hike/picnic date in Hawaii, this place is perfect!

Watch our video at the pools here!

Throwing up my first SHAKA of the trip!

Do you see that little piece of wood that looks like it's floating in the water? 

Well, it wasn't in the water and it was for people to jump INTO the water! CJ wanted to sooo bad.

Blue skies start to join us!

We asked the local woman where exactly the trail is for the tide-pools because this clearly wasn't it. 

So she told us we had to go back up the mountain because it was near the top.

She said, "The trail is a little treacherous, but the tide-pools are beautiful"

Bacccccck up the mountain we go!

Cool little rock formation that we found along the way.

 

He said that he could've gone to the top but it wasn't as easy as getting to this point and he didn't want to fall and break something before our wedding day. Such a smart man.

Nicool has been my friend for 10+ years... We met the summer before freshman year and have remained great friends since!!

Back to going up the mountain (By the way, this was purely up hill...)

See!

On our way up higher than the point we stopped before, we started to see this sign ahead...

We got excited because we knew this was it!

YES!! trailhead FOUND!

There isn't really an official "trail" for the hike down to the pools so you have to know where the trail begins

*Started from the bottom now we're here!* -- Jason kept saying that and it was awesome

Our older men trying to catch up with us! haha JK

Now time to go down this rocky mountain to the pools...

Quick stop for this cool pic of handsome!

uhhyeahhhhh, treacherous

I don't know if you can tell really but we started at THE VERY TOP of the mountain in this pic.

Don't ask me why I'm booty dancing all up on nicool. haha! CJ laughs everytime he sees this pic...

BTW, he took it & he could've angled it in a way where my butt wasn't there. 

The descent was rocky, but we did it!

WE ARRIVED FINALLY!!!!

There is a blow hole at the tide pools too, but I guess people have gotten seriously hurt from it.

The drowning and death of CJ's iPhone 5:

On my way back in, I decided I was gonna sit out a little and take pics. I was going to bring all our stuff up higher to where we left the backpack & towels. It was my shorts, then nicool's clothes on top.

While I picked up the clothing that was sitting on the rock, I tried to take caution because I know nicool & jason had their phone somewhere in their clothes... Well, CJ's iPhone suddenly slips out from under the clothes and falls directly into the water. I - being the apple lover that I am - obviously scream bloody murder and quickly jump in the grab it... It was too late. Poor iPhone didn't stand a chance.

So, Audrey sat out the rest of the time to try and dry CJ's iPhone.

Nicool being such a good friend and sitting with woe is Audrey.

RIP iPhone 5

After the boys enjoyed some time in the pools we decided to leave and make our ascent. On the way up you see arrows spray painted on rocks telling you where to go up... That helped a lot.

After the tide-pools, Nicool and Jason dropped CJ and I off at our hotel so we can leave to get our marriage license. Marriage license, AHH!!!!

These workers were trying to capture a stray cat that climbed this wall and was now stuck at the top.

We parked across the street in the City Hall parking lot

Approaching the building where we will be issued our license to be married!

Of course we had to get a pic in the office with our pink marriage license.

It was pretty euphoric knowing that not too long from this moment we would be man & wife!

After we stopped by a grocery store so we can pick up some rice to dump CJ's phone in.

Even though I killed his phone, he is still always a gentleman.

Afterwards we decided to meet up with my family (some of which just arrived) to have lunch at Helena's Hawaiian Food

Awesome plumeria tree on the drive to Helena's

Paras family waiting to be seated!

CJ's first time trying authentic Hawaiian food:

Kalua pork, short ribs, lomi lomi salmon, and poi.

So yummmmmy and delicious!

mom-sicle trying the poi... yeahhh, CJ wasn't too fond of it either.

Read our yelp review of Helena's Hawaiian food here

CJ's beastly parking skills at the hotel

Pretty darn close! 

CJ borrowed a boogie board from one of the workers at our hotel and he had to give it back later this evening so he and Yee decided to go to the beach and have some boogie boarding fun...

I decided to stay back and hang with the fams.

Got a better picture, no more "Ternational rket place"

Tobasco sauce chocolates... 

I took pic this thinking, "I'm gonna send this pic to CJ! .... oh, he can't see it."

Found my new Hawaiian friend bestie

We all wanted to try Duke's restaurant out so my sister and I went in to put our names in for a table...

It was a long wait, but probably cause there was 13 of us.

The Olson clan joined us for dinner since uncle kevin's troop couldn't make it.

Ojisan bought me a beautiful yellow plumeria lei!

Me, my cousin Lauryn, & sisser

Pontillas family!

Jacki, Katie, and I

The girls with their drinks

and again, more drinks! (Jason started everyone on the HLS hype)

My Olson parents!

My (at this point) soon-to-be mom-in-law and my mom-sicle!

Katie with her delicious looking meal!

So, the staff brought the table two Hula pie's in celebration for my wedding!

How nice, a pre-wedding dinner without my groom. The workers probably thought we were making it up!

SOOO delicious! It had oreo crust!

Us girls attacked the hula pie!

You can see our review of Duke's Waikiki here

After dinner, we decided to make our way back to the hotel through the market place.

HAD to take a pic with my bestie! Though he kinda creeped me out, he gave me a crown!!

The 3 oldest Paras kids!

Uncle Eric is so hilarious!

OK, so funny story... On Day 1, when my mom-sicle, sisser and I were shopping in the International Market Place, we went into a store and on the way out, my mom was talking to this dog by the door.

My sister said she was like, "Bye little guy!"

...Yeahhh, the dog was a fake dog toy...

Gotta love my mom.

Her with her "little guy"

Day 1: click here