Thursday Travel Throwback: Hawaii

Hello, hello!

Welcome to Part 2 of my Thursday Travel Throwback series. Last week I featured my time in Sicily, and this week I’m talking about… Hawaii!

During my Marine’s first deployment, I met him for a week in Waikiki. It was 8 months after our civil ceremony and 6 months before our big wedding shindig, so we consider our Hawaii vacation to have been our honeymoon.

Naturally, we spent a lot of time lounging on the beach relaxing…

We also did some touring around the island to some cool spots, including Hanuama Bay…

…and this gorgeous lookout point: 

I love that photo so much, I had it blown up into a canvas picture that is now hanging in my kitchen!

In Hawaii, I was pretty much obsessed with getting flowers arrangements made to wear in my hair. They were so much fun!

At the time I planned this trip, I wasn’t all that familiar with Hawaii and just picked Honolulu because I knew it was a popular spot. Knowing what I know now about Hawaii and having talked to a lot of people who are knowledgable about the area, if I went back to Hawaii, I would definitely go to one of the less touristy islands. For instance, Waikiki’s nearby food options were mostly chain restaurants – not very impressive – so I was happy to try out an eatery one night called Taormina, simply because it’s named after the town I studied abroad in in Italy.

Being that we were in Hawaii, going to a luau was on the top of our list. One night we went to Germaine’s Luau. Being a vegetarian, I obviously wasn’t into the whole pig roast ceremony, but loved seeing the show right on the beach.

We took this picture home from the luau:

[I loved that dress – Too bad Harley ate half of it in .5 seconds as a puppy and it wasn’t salvageable!]

Another highlight of the trip was visiting Pearl Harbor:

If you visit Waikiki, I definitely recommend making the trip to Pearl Harbor. Though it was sad, I thought it was really interesting. I even got to meet a Pearl Harbor vet, who was the sweetest elderly man ever. There aren’t many vets of Pearl Harbor left in this world, and it was definitely a cool memory to get to chat with one and learn about some of his story.

One of my favorite parts of my trip to Hawaii was hanging out at our hotel’s rooftop bar (can’t even remember the name.. and there’s a reason for that) with my new hubby, listening to this great singer/guitar player, enjoying the weather and a drink or two, and just savoring our time together. It was the only week I spent with Adam for the first half of 2010, and it was so much fun to be able to see each other during the deployment.

Have you ever been to Hawaii? If so, what was your experience? If not, is it high on your bucket list?