It's All Relative

Oahu in pictures

4 days in Hawaii is a lot like eating one Mn'M. It's just not enough.

We had a great time. Really, every second of it. Weather was beautiful, our condo was perfect and Rachel and Arm's wedding day could not have gone better.

Friday was the shark dive and let me tell you, that was probably the coolest thing I've ever done. Yes, it was terrifying stepping down into that metal cage, and it took some guts to actually put my head in the water and look around, but it was unreal. These sharks were huge and their beady eyes looked straight through you. A lot of them had old fish hooks stuck in their mouths which was kind of sad, and after a while you forget they're sharks and just want to reach out and touch them. By the end of the dive, you realize they really aren't vicious maneaters,  just curious docile fish with a lot of sharp teeth. The scariest part was actually knowing you were 3 miles off shore and looking straight down into the depths of the ocean. You feel so small and so vulnerable, even with a cage protecting you. Anyways, I highly recommend doing this is you're ever in Oahu. It was awesome.

Saturday was Rachel and Arm's wedding day and let me just say that if I ever get married, I might seriously consider doing what these two did. It was such a relaxed, unstressful day, you couldn't help but enjoy it. After Rachel and Arm were sealed, we all took some photos, walked around the temple grounds and then headed back to our condo to relax and play some 2-hand touch on the golf course fairway behind our place. It was awesome. Later that night, we all met up at this amazing restaurant on the beach at the Turtle Bay Resort. During dinner, I was so completely happy and content sitting there with all my friends, I wanted to cry. It was seriously a perfect day.

Sunday, Rachel and Arm flew to Kauai for their honeymoon and the rest of us got up and hiked up to Maunawili Falls. The trail ended up being so muddy, we decided to lose our shoes and do it barefoot, which was actually really fun and a lot more safe (our shoes were worthless in the slippery mud). We got up to the falls and jumped off into the lagoon below, which was awesome. There were some locals jumping off the way high points, doing backflips and stuff. Insane. Joe suggested we hike further up, behind the falls to these natural rock water slides he knew about, so that's what we did...or at least we tried. The hike was more of a trek through the Hawaiian jungle. Seriously, I felt like I was on Lost, trying to find the Hatch or something. We were crossing broken bridges, climbing up rock walls and wading through ankle deep motes, all the while hacking through prickly jungle vines. It was hardcore. However, things got a little too dicey and we had to turn back. We never found the water slides, but we all felt pretty legit after trekking through the jungle, in our bare feet. We all got some pretty cool war wounds, but no serious injuries occurred despite a couple bad falls.

After Maunawili, we headed to Sunset Beach to check out the surfers who were riding some crazy big waves. Apparently it was the first big swell of the season, so there were a lot of people out there. It was really cool watching all them while the sun went down.

Sunday night, we headed back over to Waikiki (me and Joe were leaving Monday), walked around downtown and had some dinner at Cheesecake Factory. We were all so exhausted from the day so dinner made for some pretty funny and incoherent conversation.

I don't really get why people vacation in Waikiki. After spending all our time on the north shore, we were all baffled as to why anyone would pay that much money to go to Hawaii and spend all their time in Waikiki. It's tragic, really. Monday morning, we ate some breakfast and then me and Joe flew home while the rest of the group stayed one more night. I was seriously depressed about having to leave. It was such a great trip.

I'm really thankful I was able to go and spend some good times with my friends and be a part of Rachel and Arm's wedding. I'm so happy for them and really can't wait to see what life has in store for them. They are two of the most genuine and good people I know, they deserve all the best.

If you'd like to see all the photos we took, you can see them here.