In December of 2007, my family was fortunate enough to be able to travel to Honolulu, Hawaii. We stayed in the Hilton Hotel in front of Waikiki Beach, where eventually became the place I learned how to surf. My father is a pilot so he was familiar with the place and helped my mother, brother and I have the best experience possible.
It all started by going to the locally famed burger joint named "Cheese Burger in Paradise" where I had an amazing Hawaiian Burger. The food in Hawaii was always made fresh and tasted better then anything else I have ever had. That being said, my family traveled throughout the island tasting Delicious food. The nightlife on the island is just as exciting as the daytime with all the Luaus that kept people awake. The performances of live bands and fire dancers entertained the crowd as we prepared for the feast at the end.
Although I could have spent the whole week on Waikiki beach, the other sites in Hawaii we went to see were absolutely breath taking. I was able to stand on the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor and learned about the devastating attack that brought the U.S. into World War II. The ship under my two feet made me feel the death and sadness the attack brought to Americans. I was also able to swim up at the world famous North Shore Beach where I was actually stung by a jellyfish. The place looked just like the movie "Blue Crush" however there were no twenty foot waves because it was December. I also had the opportunity to go to the Dole Factory were I was able to go in the worlds largest life-size maze. Eventually I was able to find my way around to the end taking 35 minutes, only to realize my parents gave up after five minutes and my brother was lost inside.
Everything we did in Hawaii was just all so fun and exciting, but the thing we did that I enjoyed the most was snorkeling at Hanauma Bay Beach Park. This place was located on the bottom right corner of the island and was a wildlife preserve for the exotic species of fish. Getting there was quite hard with all the hiking, but once you got into the warm, crystal clear water, it was as if you entered another world. Although it was hard to float at first, getting to watch so many fish feed on the coral reef was something else. There is no explanation for the feeling you get when you can get so close to watch all the fish swim around in their own habitat. Knowing I never had to take my head out of the water for air and risk losing the fish I studied so hard just made the experience that much better. The water was filled with so much life and happiness, it was hard to get upset about anything. My mother and I studied a school of very big colorful fish that were the size of watermelons mess around while my father and brother got to watch and eel prey on a smaller fish. The scene was unlike anything else in the world and if you listened very closely, you could hear the fish with beaks chomp away at the coral reef. No aquatic amusement park could have given me the experience I had snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. When it was time to leave Hawaii, my favorite place on the Earth, I knew that I would be going back to visit again very soon.
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