Catching up in the Gas Lamp district

She was awesome, her job as a concierge at the Hotel Del Coronado scored us some sweet looks at the historic landmark as well as some free passes to activities around town. Â Greer must be really good at her job because she made us feel so welcome and comfortable during our stay.

Me and Gee

We had plans on

meeting Kelly in San Diego but since we were both flying into LAX (and Kelly renting a car) Chels decided to meet up with her and catch a ride while I flew in and caught up with Greer.

Group before Torrey Pines

Greer took us around on our second day to Torrey Pines, which she describes as a typical San Diego activity. Â It was a laid back hiking trail that started from the enormous beach and weaved up through the rocks and finished with a sweet view

overlooking the Pacific. Â We watched the sunset cartwheeling on the beach and headed out that night for some cheap and delicious Mexicali.

Cartwheels for Sunset

Most of our time here was spent sampling the local fare!  We had Mexican; Sushi; visited a warehouse full of fresh produce; enjoyed mouthwatering local craft brews; ordered an entire meal via ipad and of course sampled the most famous California fast food chain – In and Out.

"Incredible Desserts"

One of the highlights of our San Diego experience was ice skating on the beach at the Hotel Del, complements of Greer. Â The rink was set up with an ocean view, under the Christmas Lights. Â It was a great atmosphere, perfect for that time of year.

How romantic

On our last day Chels and I checked out the USS Midway.  I highly recommend this to any traveler passing through.  San Diego has a large navel base so it’s appropriate to check out the massive aircraft carrier.  The best parts was sitting in the fighter-plane cockpits and examining the air crafts up on the flight deck.  Powerful machines that make you appreciate times of peace!

Yikes

It was great seeing Greer again and catching

up with Kelly! Â Big Thanks to Gee for letting us crash and being an AMAZING host!!

I recognize this scene

Probably the most typical Hawaiian vacation involves lounging on the beaches of Waikiki watching the lazy waves roll in from the far away reef. To your left is the ever present and impressive Diamond Head, the quintessential view for the Hawaiian Islands.  What Chelsea and I discovered throughout the week was that this area is the least impressive on Oahu, even if you spend a night in one of the overpriced hotels. The whole area is geared for tourists to spend money; in fact the majority of the islands are that way, but Waikiki in particular. It didn’t take long for us to get sick of the tourist polluted atmosphere so after a few hours of sunbaking we headed for our CouchSurfers place on the eastern side of the island in Kaneohe

Waikkiki!

Our hosts Wayne and Kate were awesome and first timers to CouchSurfing. Originally from Maryland they had spent the last year living the Hawaiian lifestyle. We got along so easy and they invited us back for the weekend. It was a pleasure getting to know both of them and they took us to some great spots around the island…one being an old military railway line that you hiked straight UP!  (This was the day after Stairway to Heaven…which we will get to later…so we were SO sore already)..needless to say, it was a challenge!

Phew made it to the top!

Thankfully, W8 also knew a great place to cool off after the hike where you could jump off some small cliffs and check out the snorkeling! Super local spot..very

cool! They happened to know where Dog the Bounty Hunter lives and apparently we HAD to go by because he has a massive mosaic of himself on his gate! lol… loves himself a little too much! We had a delicious burger before checking out a lava tube, which was not altered to attract tourism (like the one on the Big Island) so that was also very cool! It led out to the ocean and some crazy-looking volcanic rocks and tide pools that reminded me a bit of Christmas Island and Wave Rock meshed together!

Looks like its belly first!

Hehe!

One sweet little spot that our CS host Kate turned us onto was the Macadamian Nut farm. Upon entry we were given free macadamian nut coffee and delicious samples of their specialty nuts. The coolest part about this place was that we got to crack a nut with a rock and eat the inside.Â

Cracking a Mac Nut!

An even sweeter spot…the LOST village!!!!

The Black Smokes coming!

We felt lucky to be in Oahu for the 70th anniversary and commencement ceremonies at Pearl Harbor. Â The event is one of the most important events in our nations history and it was definitely worth walking around checking out the sights and recognizing the sacrifices the men and women who died that day. Unfortunately, though we arrived super early, the tours were already booked out.

Submarine...crazy!

That night we found a sweet little camping spot right on  a beach in Laia. We got up early to watch the sunrise and I rented a long board and did some surfing; mostly to say that I’ve surfed waves on the North Shore of Oahu, but also to get pumped up for Pipe Masters surf Competition that day.Â

Sunrise at our camp spot!

Pipe Masters is the final competition in the Van’s Triple Crown series. It takes place on the North Shore of Oahu Nov-Dec on possibly the most epic spectator friendly wave in the world. Not because of its size but how close it breaks to shore and it’s near perfect top to bottom barrels. Of course, no one can guarantee that the waves will be good on a particular day, so there is a holding period of about 13 days for Pipe Masters. On any one of these days the competition can be “called” in the morning. Lucky for us, on the first day in the holding period the competition was on!Â

Wooo HOO!

We parked at the famous Sunset beach, planning to walk from there and right when we pulled up we could see the massive  swell. The competition is a big event, drawing in big time sponsors, hundreds of photographers and thousands of spectators. So, along with the masses we made our way towards the competition Beach.Â

The Pipe!

The waves where pushing 30 feet (15ft Hawaiian, because they measure from the back of the wave) and swallowing up and spitting out riders in the near perfect barrels. The beach was the perfect venue, sloping slightly downhill towards the water creating the perfect amphitheater for the most fan friendly surfing event of the year. Easy to say we were stoked.Â

Met the guy who made this beautiful art!

Even better was that our next CS host Wes lived right down the road from the competition.Â

Wes is a super cool thrill-seeker living on Oahu and helping shape young minds in the classroom. His girlfriend Kristyn is a Brockton native and naturally we had a lot to talk about! It was good vibes and happy days the entire time, hanging out with his skydiving neighbors and meeting all sorts of interesting people.Â

Wes sees Oahu as his playground and out of his toy box came the idea for climbing the Haiku Steps or Stairway to Heaven. The track has been closed down for some time now in part because out of shape tourists would try to climb, get stuck, and have to be rescued but also the apparent danger of falling to your death.  Â

Soooo Steeeep!

The steps were originally built to service a radio tower at the top of the mountain and it took  3,922 steps to get there. Since the steps are being guarded during the day we had to sneak around through the jungle and enter the steps at a higher point. So, Wes led us through the thick bush and we entered the trail at about step 300. Right before we started the trail we all regrouped and Wes told us that we would need to climb as fast as we could to the first platform so that the guard wouldn’t catch us. Onto the trail we went, practically running up the near vertical steps, an impossible pace and it didn’t take long before we started to wear out. Even though we could hear the guard behind us blowing his whistle we pushed on in hoping that he would give up and let us continue.  At about step 500, already down one member of our group who had turned around due to vertigo, we hear the guard yelling “STOP”. He had caught up to us in an amazing feat of athletic ability. O’well, at least we tried. Wes knew the guard because he had been caught before so he started shooting the breeze with him. Turns out he’s a super nice guy just doing his job and once he realized we weren’t some punk tourists he let us continue, stating that he respected how we snuck around him in the beginning lol.Â

YAY!!

What followed was a true test of endurance and will power, but the reward was a sense of accomplishment and spectacular views. Plus, coming down was super fun and fast. Wes gave us some gardening gloves and told us to let our hands slide down the railing letting our feet kick up in the air.

Breathtaking View!

As if climbing 4,000 steps wasn’t enough of a rush, Wes’ neighbors had told so many crazy stories about skydiving we spontaneously decided to take the fall ourselves. Kristyn decided she would join us and we even convinced Wes’ little sister to join in!

Our plan to skydive had always been New Zealand for the first jump, but since we had been getting to know the folks who ran the jumps and it was one of the cheapest places in the world to do it, we went for it. The day started off cloudy and it didn’t look like we would be able to jump, but all of a sudden the skies cleared and before we knew it we were taking off, destination 14,000 feet.Â

Just before the "No turning back" point!

The plane ride was definitely the most nerve-wrecking part of the experience! I remember noticing how the white tips in the ocean were getting smaller and smaller…and more numerous! Then my tandem guy showed me his altitude watch showing we’ll be going up to 14,000 feet and freefall until 5,000… and at that moment we were ONLY AT 6,000!!! I thought we were already SO high!

Brad was first out…I saw him standing at the door and then he just DROPPED out SOOO fast …. It was unreal! When it was my turn….I didn’t even have time to be scared…and we were falling…and then after the initial few seconds…falling turned into FLYING! It was soo beautiful! Stunning views and it wasn’t even scary! 60 seconds flew by and then the parachute was pulled and I was allowed to control our movements…twirling around in the sky! Only 5 jumps before you can do it on your own..woah I can’t imagine that!

Flying!

Too fun!

After the incredible time we had and awesome people we met, Oahu instantly sprung to the top tier of places we’ve been to on our long journey. Who knows, we may even find ourselves calling this amazing island home!

Beautiful views!

They don’t call it Big Island for nothing so we rented a car to allow for absolute mobility.  Normally this is something we wouldn’t do but the public transportation, although free, doesn’t allow large bags on board and only services a few main areas on the island.  We spent our first day exploring the far reaches of the island, starting on the west side near Kona and driving all the way up to the north west point, through the mountains and down to the east end in Hilo. 

We had been told, and read that Hilo was a slice of the preserved Hawaiian lifestyle, sheltered from mass tourism and blessed with natural beauty.  I’m not qualified to judge on the first rumor about Hilo, but the second one was spot on.  Lush rainforest and vibrant greens lacing the sheer cliffs that spit out waterfalls!

Rainbow Falls

Our couchsurfers lived 20 minutes south of Hilo in a beautiful hidden paradise with more fruit trees that you could ever imagine! George and Bobbie were incredibly gracious and inspiring and such a great experience to stay with! We had lovely meals together everyday and they offered us amazing advice on where to go and what to see!

Fairytale Garden at George and Bobbies!

We checked out a few waterfalls as typical tourists, so they didn’t quite measure up to our Maui experience…although they were massive and of course still beautiful! George has told us about some tide pools and hot springs which was cool and different to see.

Akaka Falls!

The most memorable thing of course though was the volcano! The night before, we walked down to the black beach because we heard the lava had started to flow…and we saw it!! It was exciting but we were SOOO far away. After about 15 minutes of attempting to get closer and carefully walking over old lava fields, we turned around and thought we would try our luck next time!

Old Lava

On our last day we headed for the National Park which is where both volcanoes are located.  As I’m sure is the case most days, half the Volcanoes National Park was closed down due to toxic sulfurs in the air, but we were still able to check out the MASSIVE lava tube that ran through the park. It was crazy to think the lava had carved out this tunnel through the way it flowed….very cool!

Lava Tube

We waited around until it was dark to see the glow of the lava underneath the crater…The color was like no other either of us had seen before, a neon orange glow diffused by the plumes of steam that floated out of the crater.   Apparently only 2 weeks later lava was crazy flowing down the water, creating new additions to the island!

LAVA!

Big Island is so large that you could spend weeks exploring the many great places or waiting for lava to take over.  But, since we were limited in time we did our best and feel confident that we made the most of our stay.  Thanks to George and Bobbie for making our stay there awesome!