I took some time this past summer to join my friends on a trip to Oahu, the only island in Hawaii I have visited so far. This is the place where I took my first ever surf lesson (and also where I got my first ever injury by coral), where I went snorkeling for the first time, and where I discovered that there was somewhere that the weather could be more wild than Portland. The first photo is taken from one of the premier bodysurfing beaches in Hawaii. We seemed to be the only ones there that were hanging around for the view. A couple of us wandered out to the water and quickly learned why they don’t recommend beginners go anywhere near that beach. Luckily, I have completed one third of a lifegaurding class so I was properly equipped to handle the waves.
Not pictured here is one of the more terrifying and beautiful hikes that I have ever been on in my life. Our group decided at the beginning of our trip that we were going to try to go on a couple more serious hikes while we were there. We found a ten mile trail on Alltrails and after reading many of its glowing reviews, decided that we most likely would not survive it. Now I’m going to skip a lot of the middle of the story and get to the part where we ended up 4 miles into this hike and told ourselves we couldn’t turn back. If you are at all familiar with the very famous and very illegal Stairway to Heaven, our hike was the much less famous and much more legal back way of getting to the top of those stairs. One thing I most certainly only need to do once.
Photo 1: Makapuu Beach
Photo 2: Koko Head Trail
Photo 3: Lanikai Beach
Photo 4: Waikiki