Hawaii : part two, Waikiki Beach

When I imagine Hawaii I picture the serene, peaceful, quiet and empty beaches from scenes on "The Bachelor".
I'll admit that it's cheesy and embarrassing, but it's true. I thought Waikiki Beach would be one of those quiet, serene places out of a scene from the show. For some reason the fact that our hotel was located on a street in Honolulu didn't register. I thought serenity. Peace. Calm. Empty.
Here's Waikiki Beach:

The beauty is undeniable. But the quiet and serenity, well, not so much. It was busy. We were staying in Hawaii's capitol city. It felt like a big city with gorgeous scenery.


I took this picture from across the street, where there are lots of shops and restaurants. It's the craziest thing really; there are stores and then a busy four lane street and then a sidewalk and then a beach and then the ocean.
Being in a city versus a desolate beach has its advantages of course.

Morning walks to Starbucks being my favorite one of them. Once I realized how close this Starbucks was to our hotel, this became my morning routine. Either the boys and I would walk there, or just William and I or sometimes all four of us. The boys ordered the kid's hot cocoa and I got a grande iced coffee. Perfect for a warm, summer morning. Everyone talks about things being much more expensive in Hawaii and they were, but oddly at Starbucks they were about the same. {Maybe they are already so overpriced...}

I didn't take any pictures that very first evening at the beach. I was still so sleepy from the flight and envisioned myself laying on the beach and falling asleep (this did not happen), so I left the camera in our room.

The thing I can remember most from that first, sleepy-feeling evening is dinner. Patrick's company, at the time, sponsored a few different theme meals throughout the week. We decided as a way to save money we would go to all of them.  Dinner started around 6:30ish and we didn't get to the beach until 5 or 5:30, so logistically we would never make it to the dinner on time {there would be showers in the room and changing into different clothes, etc} so Patrick suggested that we just go straight from the beach to the dinner. For some crazy reason I thought that sounded good, after all the dinner was in an outdoor beach side courtyard. So here we are, four tired travelers, all in our swimsuits {albeit covered up}, covered in sticky sand and carrying a fluorescent pink inflatable raft, sand pails and shovels, walking into the company "welcome to Hawaii" dinner. Once we got there I thought I would die of embarrassment. Everyone was dressed. Ladies in sundresses and men in khakis. Casual, but dressed. But it was too late. Someone spotted us, we were already there and the food was free. So we stayed. We ate fast, thanked everyone, quickly left and I said a silent prayer that we'd never see any of them again.
These pictures are from our very first morning at Waikiki Beach. We were there and playing in the sand by 8:00 am! Our bodies were still adjusting to the time difference; they are 6 hours behind and we felt it for the first day or two. We were doing things like waking up way too early {our boys always wake early, but this was earlier than early} and eating lunch by 9:30 in the morning. At 8:00 in the morning there were just a few other people at the beach; most of them having their morning walk or jog.


William got right to work digging.


and Henry made a huge hole to sit in.
Our hotel room had two queen beds and that first morning the boys had so much fun jumping on them and jumping from one bed to the other. Until William fell off a bed and landed on his cheek on a car. He ended up having this huge scratch turned bruise on his cheek the whole week.

As the day went on, more and more people filled the beach.



Sitting this close to so many people is way outside of my comfort zone and wasn't in my vision of those quiet, deserted "Bachelor" beaches.
Enough complaining though, right? It was an absolutely gorgeous place and we had lots of fun.


I don't know how to describe shave ice except to tell you do not be deceived. This is not your average snow cone. It's a melty, icy, sweet, delicious, better-than-ice-cream (on a hot day) treat. And sometimes it comes with ice-cream on the bottom. Pure bliss. Another of my favorite treats, the icy place was just a short walk from our beach spot.


Sand surfing

Next up, our quest for that quiet beach. A drive to the North Shore.