HAWAII

Hawaii was absolutely the most amazingly beautiful place that I have ever seen. I remember thinking before I got there if it would really live up to the pictures and if a place could really be that beautiful. I leave with the overwhelming answer of yes!!! In fact, the pictures don’t even do it justice – it is just that beautiful. As I looked at Hawaii, I couldn’t help but feel that God had created this beautiful place for us to enjoy and I am so glad that I got to experience it.
We woke up at 5:45 am to watch the sunrise as we entered the port. The beautiful purples, oranges, and pinks in the sky were amazing. It was unlike anything I have ever seen. Also, the view of land for the first time in a week was quite amazing, too. Not to mention the fact that this land was the most beautiful place ever! We pulled into the port at Honolulu, Oahu and began to wait to go through immigration. We had to go through immigration because we had come from Mexico. While we were waiting, Christen and I ate breakfast. I was too excited to eat and only had a yogurt. I went through the immigration line around 7:30 or 7:45 am. The guy looked at me and my passport to make sure that I was the person in the picture. He said, “welcome to Hawaii”, stamped my passport and I exited the room. Just because I was done with the immigration process did not mean, however, that we could get off of the ship. We had to wait for the ship to clear, which means that everyone has been cleared by immigration. Unfortunately, this was a pretty lengthy process.
I got off of the ship around 9:15 or 9:30 am. From the port, we set out for Hanauma Bay, which is a little cove on the southeastern side of Oahu. I have bought a Go Oahu card, which is essentially a discount card for everything on Oahu, but the company for snorkeling used by the company was completely booked. I took a taxi with three other people to Hanauma Bay. It was about 42 dollars, but split four ways it wasn’t bad. The taxi ride itself was beautiful. We passed by Diamond Head and many other beautiful landscapes. When we arrived at Hanauma Bay, I was truly surprised at how clear the water was. From all the way up on the top of the hill, we could see the beautiful color of the water. We bought tickets to the park, which is a wildlife refuge. Before we could go in the water we had to watch a video about protecting the wildlife in the bay. Then, we hiked down to the water. I say hike because it was quite a long and rather steep incline down to the beach. We rented equipment, put things in a locker and got in the ocean as quickly as possible. The water was surprisingly cool. I was rather shocked at the cool temperature of the water. I thought that because it was Hawaii that the water would be really warm. It was refreshing, though, after I got over the chill bumps when I entered the water. The fish were beautiful and there were lots of them. They had the deepest, most vibrant colors. There was one that was my favorite, it had pink and green and blue streaks all over it. I also saw a sea turtle. The sea turtle was really neat and it just swam there next to me, unafraid and unbothered by my staring. I stayed there for several minutes amazed at this large and beautiful creature. I also got to take an underwater camera, so I will have these pictures developed eventually and share them. We stayed at Hanauma Bay for a couple of hours and then left for Waikiki. We caught a bus, which I had to sprint up to in order to get it to stop because it was already leaving. It was very nice that the bus driver stopped, even though she was not a very nice lady. We got to Waikiki and walked around for what seemed like forever before finding a place to eat. After eating, a surfboard company dropped a rental off for me at the beach. I paddled out and just sat enjoying the view. As I paddled out, I stared down at the reef and was actually afraid of hitting it with my board, even though it was several feet beneath me. The water was so clear that I couldn’t tell how deep it really was because I could see all the way to the bottom. If there wasn’t a more perfect ending to the day, I sat on the beach and watched the most beautiful sunset that I have ever seen. It was just like the pictures. The palm trees, surfboards on the beach, and beautiful beach set the scene for the vibrant colors that painted the sky. As the sun set, there was a group preparing for a public hula show. We watched for a little while and then caught a cab back to where the port was. We mailed some letters and postcards, grabbed some food and ran for the ship because we didn’t want to be late. We had to be back to the ship (on the ship) by 9 pm. If we were even minutes late, we would be penalized with dock time in the next port, which means that we would have to wait an extended period of time before being able to leave.
This day was absolutely amazing. I wish that we could have spent a bit more time in Hawaii. It was beautiful and I loved it! It truly seemed like much more than one day because of all of the things I got to fit into the short period of time that we were there. I definitely want to go back there one day.
To be quite honest, I have never really considered Hawaii all that different of a culture. We had to have a cultural pre-port meeting on the ship where they discuss aspects of the culture of the port that we are about to dock at and I wondered why, until I went. There were a few students that were from Hawaii and they basically ran the meeting. One of the boys did a native dance and a girl did a hula. They were such beautiful dances. While they were dancing, you could see the passion for their home on their faces. As they spoke, I began to understand the unique culture of Hawaii. I began to appreciate this other culture. I also have learned a lot about Hawaii’s past and how America took it over just over a hundred years ago. America overturned their queen and took it over because they thought it was a good idea. This sad story is true and I began to understand how brutal imperialism was. I began to understand this impact on the Hawaiian people. It has never seemed real to me. The students’ passion made it real, their eyes told the story of their culture.