Happy Monday everyone! This weekend I decide I want longer mornings, weekends, dinners with friends and vacations. So, this week on IYGAGAD (Guess what? I finally did work on that acronym, but that update will come later) it’s Hawaiian (HawaRyan—yes, I’m still calling it that) Vacation Week. A whole week where I live vicariously through my photos, and hopefully you will too!

This vacation was a dream. Ryan and I kept gushing over how lucky we were to have the opportunity to see all we did. Each day on our way to the next adventure I told Ryan, “It’s so beautiful it doesn’t even make sense. I can’t believe you live here!” I think he eventually just started ignoring me, but guys, the mountains are green, green! And there were so many trees and vines and so much water and other beautiful things that just don’t thrive in the desert.

But because we did as much as we possibly could and took pictures of it all, I was overwhelmed with everything I wanted to share. Thus, HawaRyan Vacation Week. Today I’ve got a full photo recap on all the things we did—our Oahu adventures. But don’t worry, I left out the photos of us yelling at televised photo ball games, sleeping through every movie we tried to watch (thanks for those pictures, roommates) and watching American Horror Story.

USS Arizona Memorial – An Oahu must at Pearl Harbor. Very humbling, beautiful and educational.

     

Lanikai Pillbox Trail – This was my favorite hike—see and explore coastline, mountains and military bunkers. It seems most people do an out and back from the Kaelepulu Drive trail head, but we accidentally started on a slightly overgrown trail entrance on Kamahele Street and were so happy we did. It was a little bit longer, more challenging and allowed us to hike along the entire ridge line. Incredible.

     

     

Hanauma Bay Snorkeling – The best snorkeling on the island, apparently. We only snorkeled one other place and this was the obvious superior. The huge coral reefs offer a lot to explore, tons of colorful fish, some eels and plenty of sea turtles—we saw three!

     

     

     

Diamond Head – An easy and somewhat crowded hike that starts in the center of a crater and brings you up to the outer edge overlooking the crater and Waikiki Beach.

     

The North Shore – Admittedly more of an area, even the drive up here was fun (every drive was jaw-dropping gorgeous, but still). We snorkeled in Kuilima Cove, drank margaritas on the beach at the Turtle Bay Resort (yes, the one from Forgetting Sarah Marshall), watched a surf competition at the Banzai Pipeline and walked around downtown Haleiwa for some shopping.

    

Makapu’u Point Lighthouse Trail – Second favorite hike from the trip. This easy hike and should-be-short* hike has coastal views so shocking it’s almost scary. You can even splash in tide poles and blow holes down by the water if it’s not too rough.

*I say should-be-short because Ryan and I took a path to go see some more military bunkers and then we kind of got off-trail and it took us a minute to find our way back, oops.

    

    

     

Manoa Falls Trail – A hike through the rainforest where scenes from LOST were shot with a rewarding, tall waterfall at the end and a side trail through a bamboo forest.

     

     

Lanikai Beach – In walking distance from Ryan’s place, we spent a couple afternoon lounging in the sand and playing in the waves here. (That ridge line in the background is the Lanikai Pillbox Hike we did.)

     

Keep a look out for our Oahu Bites and a recipe I picked up while there. Happy HawaRyan Week!