Alright, I wont lie to you. I KNEW I had a lot of pictures for this day. There is also so much to tell about this day. So sorry, this is going to be without a doubt the longest post of this trip. After today they should start getting significantly shorter. Maybe. We'll see.
Day 4 was wild and crazy to say the least. The morning started off much different than other mornings, and MUCH different than my mornings at home. Are you ready for this??? I actually went RUNNING! I know, I know, it's crazy. The mornings had just been so beautiful so far, and really I don't know what came over me, but running sounded like just the ticket. And it actually was! I did not run very far at all, but it was such a fun experience to run right by the ocean in absolutely perfect weather. It just so happened that I ran with my swimming suit on underneath my clothes, so after I was done, I headed straight down to the lagoon for a nice swim :) Paradise!
After my run, I enjoyed breakfast on the balcony with Brig (Let's count how many pictures I have of him reading... I think we're already at like 5).
I was so excited for this day, because we were headed to the North Shore! I've heard such great things about the North Shore, and I was so excited to experience another (more naturally tropical) side of the island.
The drive there wasn't too bad, except there was a bridge out and we had to backtrack and take a detour (more on that later... a lot more). This picture was just interesting to me because these are like pine trees! In Hawaii! I was pretty fascinated by that. I thought they were pretty cool looking.
Pretty little neighborhoods.
And then.... We were there! We found this nice little beach to spend the day on, and had a great time! It was exactly what I think about when I think about Hawaii.
The beach wasn't very crowded, which was really nice. Further down, there were people learning how to surf which was kind of funny to watch :)
One particular time that my in-laws were here, apparently they saw and swam with TONS of sea turtles! We were only lucky enough to see one, but it was pretty cool. As we left, we drove by another beach where there were more, but we didn't have time to stop.
We ate some lunch :)
Then we took some pictures. This series of pictures pretty much sums up my life:
After looking at this picture, "Please smile!"
"Ugh! Why can't you just smile?!"
"FOR THE LOVE, PLEEEEAAASEEEE JUST SMILE!!!!!!"
"Thank you" :)
We spent a good portion of time swimming :) Brig and Becki definitely swam the most. I am not built to last long out in the water, even though I love it. I guess that's what happens when you never get swimming lessons and end up teaching yourself.
Fun and little known fact about Brig: When he was little he was an amazing swimmer! He was on a swim team and often took first place in his age group at his meets. Apparently his coaches thought he was good enough to be a collegiate swimmer one day, and were super bummed when he quit. He just didn't love it. (BTW, this is something I had to learn from his family, not him. He does NOT like to talk about himself). That's one of the things that I admire about my husband. He sure doesn't waste time doing things he doesn't want to do. It's also kind of frustrating ;)
I had to put this picture in here because it was funny. I take a TON of pictures, and I don't really like to be in them. Brig was sweet/mean enough to grab my camera and come down to the beach to try and take one of me. Only the problem was, I hadn't changed the settings, so this is what happened :) It was a nice thought though :)
I decided I wanted more pictures :) By this point in the day it had become a little overcast, but it was still warm and beautiful.
You can kind of see the sunburn here, although it's a little washed out. Silly boy :)
Ok... this is going to make me cry. Part way through the day, some people came to the beach with their dogs (pictured above). We saw them running around and it made me a little bit sad, thinking about Snoop and Sammy (If you'll remember, we had just had to let Sammy go mere days before leaving on our trip, and we also had lost Snoop earlier in the year). The dog's owners went out to surf and the dogs just waited patiently and played around on the shore. I didn't think much of it because they were kind of far away. I was sitting down by the water just looking out at the ocean when all of a sudden, here come the dogs, running right toward me! They came over and sat down right by me and didn't move. Just sat there by me while I pet them. This is going to sound really lame, but it was such a special and emotional thing for me. I got teary eyed as I pet them and I just really kind of felt like they were there to bring me some comfort. It was especially interesting, because one of the dogs was smaller and more slender, and she was SO lovey (just like Sammy). She's the one sitting right by me, and you can see her paw in my lap. She kept pawing at me when I would stop petting her (just like Sammy used to do). The other dog was bigger and more clumsy (like Snoop), and when the owners came within site, he ran and jumped right into the ocean and swam out to them (just like Snoop would have), while the smaller one just ran along the shore (like Sammy would have). I will never know for sure, but I don't think that whole experience was coincidence. Regardless of what it was, I was very grateful for it :)
I called up to Brig to come down and take some pictures. Unfortunately as you can see, the camera settings weren't changed again, haha. I was pretty sad when I looked at the pictures after the dogs left, but at the same time, they're kind of fun and maybe it just adds to the excitement of it all :)
Such beautiful dogs. I wont ever forget this :)
Toward the end of our stay at the beach, we headed down to explore a little.
And then we were on our way! I was sad to leave the beautiful beach, but we were headed back to another beautiful beach, so I supposed that was alright with me :)
On our way back we stopped in Haleiwa on a quest for shrimp! We found what we were looking for... the shrimp trucks! Particularly, the famous Giovanni's!
I'm not a huge shrimp person (don't love the texture), but it was pretty tasty, and I will try anything for the experience of it!
Cute in-laws :)
On the way back we saw the Dole plantation. Pretty cool.
And then this happened. Ok, remember when I talked about the bridge that was out? And how we had to take another highway to get to where we were going? Well... here is where the story gets even better. I'm not even sure that I can type this without getting seriously upset all over again, but I'm going to try.
Lets start at the beginning: On our way up to the North Shore, as I mentioned before, we came upon a bridge that was closed. We had previously seen no signs that it was going to be closed, so we were pretty frustrated. When we got there, there was a detour sign, so we decided to follow that. Well, the detour led nowhere. I checked my map on my phone and lo and behold, there was NO OTHER WAY over the river in the direction that the detour told us to go. We were all super bugged. So like I said before, we turned around and backtracked a ways until we could get on another highway that goes a little further off course. Ok, so that was frustrating, but fine. I was over it.
Here is where it gets even better. On our way back to the resort, Brig was driving. We were coming upon the turn to the highway that we needed to take, but for some reason, we blew right past it. Just an accident, I wasn't too upset. The problem was that there was a HUGE line of cars waiting to turn onto that road (because of the bridge), so we needed to turn around and get in the line. Well... (and here is where I start to fume) we didn't turn around. So we get back to the bridge, where there is a cop making sure that no one tries to cross, and we have to turn left, or turn around and get in line. And again, by the bridge there is another detour sign pointing to the left. Now, I had a bad feeling. I KNEW that there WAS no detour, and that we ABSOLUTELY NEEDED to turn around, but I was outnumbered. And I didn't feel like I could put up a fuss about it, you know how that is. So, we continued driving down past the even more HUGE line of cars, down down down down, til, what do you know?! The road came to a dead end. So not only did we have to turn around, but we were at the VERY END OF THE LONGEST LINE OF CARS I HAVE EVER SEEN! Honestly, I was fuming. I am really not an "I told you so" kind of person, but in this case I am. So mad. But, the majority of the fault lies with the Hawaiian government. The signs were wrong, and there were NO other police officers directing traffic ANYWHERE! So while we're in this huge line of cars, tons of other people are coming in from all the little side streets, making the line even longer! This is being optimistic here, but we MAYBE moved 75 yards in an hour and half (That's 3/4 of a football field, just to put it in perspective). I wanted to scream. We got numbers for state agencies, made phone calls, tried to be nice, ended up cussing some people out, and got absolutely no help. This was my one beef about Hawaii. It really was ridiculous.
But wait... the story gets even better. After that first hour and a half, we (everyone BUT me) decided that drastic measures needed to be taken. And we knew that there was only one person in the car capable of such drastic measures. So Brig switched seats. I knew what was about to happen. And I just couldn't watch. I should probably not be super specific here in admitting what happened next, in case the Hawaiian State Police are still looking for us, but just know that there was A LOT of honking. As there should have been. The ridiculousness of it was hilarious to everyone except me (I have real, legitimate road rage). I literally covered my face the ENTIRE time. I have not been that mad, well, I think ever. I'm sure you can imagine the scene in your mind. I can assure you that it was about 100 times worse than what you're imagining :)
Here I am after it was all over. Even though what we did was NOT something that I would EVER consider doing, I do have to admit that it is a pretty funny memory looking back. Before you think that my husband and in-laws are crazy, please realize, that this had to be done. It really did. Had we not done what we did, we would probably still be waiting in that line of cars, 5 months later. No joke. I really was grateful that we were able to salvage our vacation :)
Calming down :)
Back to the resort, FINALLY!
Some relaxing time at the lagoon was just what I needed. And we were just in time for the sunset.
It certainly did not disappoint. I needed this.
To say the least, day 4 was wild and crazy. Fun times, and good memories mixed in with a few horrible nightmares. Must be a family vacation ;)
