PCA World Tour: Destiny Fulfilled

WARNING:

This is a lengthy post...about dudes

Background Story. Ever since us friends got together and started doing road trips, Hawaii was always the big trip we were going to go on. It almost came to fruition during the winter semester of 2004 at BYU. We had gathered together for our PCA (Playahz Club Alliance) meeting and talked about how, and when we could go, and how much we would pay. It was decided we would pay no more than $500 each for air fare and hotel. I was assigned to find the tickets and accomodations, and one day while searching on Expedia I found airfare and 6 nights of accomodations at a pretty nice hotel for under $400. I hesitated to buy it, because it was all going on my credit card, so I made sure this was what we wanted to do. And that's where I blew it. When I checked again 10mins later, Expedia said there was a mistake and the price was actually $799. (Which still sounds like a great deal these days huh!!?) Suffice it to say, we went to San Diego instead, and a trip to Hawaii dissipated like a fart in the wind.....

UNTIL JULY 10th, 2008 WHEN ADAM (El Presidente) RICH and RUSSELL (Hollywood) WOODWARD CAME TO VISIT

Day 1 - Thursday, July 10th
The dudes land at about 2:30pm local time and they're ready to rock. We take them home, give them some pupus (appetizers) and head for a walk to the beach. After a bit of walking, we hit up dinner at Shokudo, a Japanese Bar & Grill. We eat, sushi, eel and noodles. Then we get some stuff for banana splits at the grocery store, and go home. The time difference soon gets the best of the fellas, and they crash early.

Day 2 - Friday, July 11th

One word sums up this day. Surfing. We head to Waikiki where our friends the Keo's help all of us catch some waves. Well, everyone except Heather and Ashlyn. So sad. Adam and Russ did pretty good for their first day, and I didn't even complain too much about having to paddle.

After two hours in the water, they exit burnt (even after blocking up) and hungry.

We eat at Duke's restaurant, and then head home. The guys crash, again. And that pretty much sums up the day. They woke up to eat dinner, and then fell asleep for the rest of the night after a bit of TV. Nice. I think Ashlyn stayed up longer than all of us this night.

Day 3 - Saturday, July 12th

We began the day like any good PCA trip begins -- MarioKart. Heather wins the first few races putting us to shame, but soon, I take over and school everybody the rest of the way. Adam did win the last race of Bowser's castle though. I was still overall champ. After a pancake breakfast we head to the Pali lookout, and then to Lanikai beach.

The next 5 hours we people watch, play football, and take lots of pictures. The water is ridiculously warm, almost to the point of being non-refreshing, but still nice. Russ gets burnt again too. Also, when we were done, to our surprise we got a parking ticket for parking in the wrong direction on this dinky two way residential road. Sheesh. Dinner is in the slow cooker when we get back, we watch some TV, eat some more banana split, and whatta ya know, the fellas visit dream land again before 11pm.

Day 4 - Sunday, July 13th

It is the Sabbath, so we plan to hit up Pearl Harbor before going to church at 11am. Heather decides to hang back with Ashlyn. One problem though, when we get there it's a two hour wait, and we forgot to bring water and sunscreen. So we picked some up, did the tour, missed most of church, but did read a story about the submarine USS Tang. Oh yeah!

Then guess what happened... yup, a five hour nap for the dudes. Silly guys. But, in their defense, we were go-go-go on this trip, plus they were a little burnt and kinda sick. We'll let it slide. We did walk Waikiki beach that night, and then ate more banana split, and called it a night.

Day 5- Monday, July 14th

Today was our north shore tour. But before we head out, we get some spam musubi for the fellas. They love spam. We also pick up some malasadas. Then it's off to Shark's cove for some snorkeling.

After snorkeling we hit up Waimea bay where kids were doing crazy jumps off the big rock. We never participated. We didn't stay long because we had to go to the next beach, Laniakea, so we can check out some turtles.

But we couldn't stay there long either, since we needed to get to Matsumoto's for shave ice before they close at 6pm. We barely made it. After, we witness a gorgeous sunset, and then the picture posing gears begin to turn. Oh dear. We finally head back to town, pick up some thai food and it's bed time before you know it.

That one's for the ladies who read our blog....

Day 6 - Tuesday, July 15th

Today was my last full day with the dudes, I have to go back to work soon. We head back up the east side of the island and make our first stop at the Macadamia Nut outlet. We sample all the flavors, including wasabi... yikes, that one was interesting. Then we go to Kualoa ranch. We do the ocean voyage, see some more turtles, and take a ride on a jungle expedition and see some beautiful sights. We were close to Laie so we also hit up temple beach, and visit the Hawaii LDS Temple too. That's where Ashlyn decides to pose. Mexican food for dinner, and an early bed time for all.

Day 7 - Wednesday, July 16th

Jason & Heather head back to work, the dudes spend the entire day up at the Polynesian Cultural Center. All they could talk about was the food and the Tahitian hip shakers. Nice. Oh yeah, and Adam bought a 4 foot tiki statue. Russ bought a smaller one. Great souveys!

Day 8 - Thursday, July 17th

In the morning we go catch the waves one last time at Waikiki. The surfing wasn't as good without the Keo's telling us where to go, but we still had a blast. I had to go to work in the afternoon but they spent the rest of the afternoon in Waikiki. We met for one last dinner together, sushi at a sushi bar. It was pretty fun and very tasty. Then we had to say goodbye, Ashlyn was very sad again, but still talks about her Uncles Adam and Russell to this day.

Good times were had, it was just unfortunate that the rest of the PCA couldn't be there. Lots of eating, lots of sleeping, but we played hard and the weather was gorgeous (even with the few clouds in the sky). Next up, a couple Japanese girls who will stay with us for a week while they learn english at the University of Hawaii next week. But don't worry folks, we're getting coin for this next set of visitors!

_____________

Not gonna lie, kind of got tired of posting and uploading pictures, but if YOU are crazy enough, and need more PCA to fulfill your life, HERE are 25% of the pictures we took, meaning there's still 250 pictures to look at, unfortunately they're not in chronological order either.