Life Bucket List #3: Visit all 50 states of America--Check
Uhh...wow. I can't even say how awesome this trip was. Everyone keeps asking me what Hawaii was like and all I can say is It's exactly as wonderful as you might imagine it to be.
It's an exotic clash of modern structures and wild, untamed mountain forests and as many colors of blue as there are beaches. I got to combine my sightseeing with helping an Army-wife friend fix up her house for her husband's return from his tour in Afghanistan so I didn't feel like a useless tourist the entire time (though I did shamelessly have my picture taken in front of every major landmark we came across, even the car). HA.
Highlights were tasting fresh pineapple at the Dole Plantation, the Samoan dude at the Polynesian Cultural Center (you rule, sir...very, very funny), Pearl Harbor (the atmosphere is so unbelievably monumental), pigging out on coconut shrimp too many times at the shrimp trucks in the historic town of Hale'iwa and the East Coast (I will long for another sight of you til the day I die).
