Our Hawaiian 4th of July celebration

When Petey and I first learned that we would be spending the summer in Hawaii {back in December}, we both thought of how fun spending the 4th of July on the island would be! Our 4th of July festivities did not disappoint! Petey had a whopping FOUR days off of work, FOUR! He had Thursday-Sunday off and boy did we keep ourselves busy!

On the 4th we decided to spend the day in Honolulu. Traffic was crazy and there were people everywhere!! We first wanted to go to the zoo, but parking was a huge issue. We drove around for 30 minutes trying to find somewhere {anywhere} to park with no luck. We ended up driving to the Ala Moana Center and parked there. The Ala Moana Center was in charge of the firework show that night, so parking there early in the day ended up working out better for us since Honolulu got busier the later it got in the day. We ended up have to take the bus to the zoo since we parked so far away. 

I LOVE going to zoo's, so I was pretty excited! At first we were a little disappointed in the zoo because there we quite a few animals off exhibit, there was construction, and it was so hot that a lot of the animals were asleep. The day did get better though! We saw rhinos, zebras, giraffes, lemurs, hippos, flamingos, turtles, tortoises, spider monkies, ostrich's, lions, tigers, many tropical birds, chimpanzee's, and much more. The chimp's were a little scary to watch because they kept getting into fights. In their enclosure there are 5 males and 3 females. The male chimps kept running around and jumping off things during their fights. It was crazy! I was overall impressed with the zoo. Not the best one I've ever been to, but we were happy and entertained! Here are some pictures we took.

After our zoo adventure we wanted to escape the crowds of people and the heat. We decided to go watch a movie to cool down. We went and saw The Lone Ranger. We both liked the movie and the air conditioned theater was AMAZING, the only downside was that our movie tickets cost $30.50!!! That is insane! After the movie we went back to Ala Moana Center, got some food, and waited for the fireworks to being. We watched the fireworks form the top story of a parking garage. The fireworks lasted about 20 minutes. Petey and I were satisfied! 

The next day we went and explored the North Shore. We didn't pack swimming gear, we just went to walk around. We went and explored Hale'iwa and all of the art galleries and touristy shops. We enjoyed some lunch before I made Petey go take pictures with me in a cute sunflower field we found :) 

We then continued on our North Shore journey and explored Hale'iwa Beach Park and Laniakea Beach. Our goal for the day was to see some sea turtles and we were very successful! Just at Hale'iwa Beach Park we probably saw 15+ sea turtles. We walked along the beach to a little bay area where the sea turtles were so close to shore! It was incredible to see! After Hale'iwa we traveled to Laniakea Beach which we had read online is a place where sea turtles like to come on the beach to sleep. When we arrived there were two very sleepy sea turtles lying out. There were some volunteers at this beach making sure people didn't get too close to the sea turtles because they are endangered. I wish more people realized that! At Hale'iwa there were little kids petting the turtles and wouldn't leave them alone. I wanted to say something...but I didn't. Haha.

We continued our adventure along the North Shore by just driving around. It really is so beautiful!! Petey was also very happy because he was able to eat from Giovann's famous shrimp truck. He kept asking me if I wanted any...but I was good. I ate some world famous McDonald's instead haha. We drove around some more before heading home. 

On Saturday we went back to the North Shore and we were prepared to swim this time! We went back to Hale'iwa Beach Park and did some snorkeling. We didn't see as much fish as we did at Hanauma Bay, but we were able to swim with the sea turtles which is what we wanted! We probably saw even more turtles this day. They were literally everywhere. The weird thing is that hardly anyone spends time at this beach. I'm not sure if people just don't care about seeing turtles or if people just don't know? Either way we're glad we stumbled upon this turtle mecca! We had fun snorkeling but the weather was overcast and windy which made us kind of cold.

After snorkeling at Hale'iwa we went to check out Shark's Cove. It was our plan to go snorkeling there too, but by this point the rain was coming and we didn't want to get wet. I wish the weather would've been better! We will definitely be back to snorkel at Shark's Cove though. It's really cool! We drove kept driving and ended up stopping in Kualoa and Kailua. Those are probably my favorite towns on the island because of how green and lush the area is. It's truly magical.

We then made a pit stop in Lanikai so I could get a picture of my favorite beach house. 

Seriously, how cute is this?!?!?!!!

The last thing we did on this epic day was drove to another Pali lookout {there a

 few different angle's we've been to before.}

On Sunday we had a pretty chill day. We spent some time at Ewa Beach, but we didn't do much else. It was relaxing.

 This past Monday we got a free dinner at our favorite restaurant, Le Nonne!! It is kind of funny because there are only 2 Le Nonne's in the world, one in Logan, Utah and the other one just opened up in Kapolei, Hawaii. Petey saw the sign for a Le Nonne a few weeks ago while we were driving and decided to do some research to see if they were indeed the same restaurant. We did some investigating and found out that they are both run by the same Chef. Petey ended up emailing Chef Pier to tell him that we love their restaurant and that we can't wait for their Hawaii one to open up. Pier wrote us back and told Petey and I how much that email had meant to him and his wife and that they'd be opening their Hawaii location in about two weeks. Petey and I got another email this past weekend from Chef Pier asking if Petey and I would like to attend Le Nonne's complimentary 'dry run' dinner for friends and family before they open to the public the next day. Petey and I were so excited!!!!!!! 

Dinner was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!! For the appetizer we could to choose from A) 2 different garden salads, B) bruschetta, or C) a salmon crepe. I got the bruschetta and Petey got the salmon crepe.Petey was in heaven!!!  For our second course we could chose from A) Spaghetti with clam and mussels B) bowtie pasta with salmon or C) gnocci with shrimp. Petey got the bowtie salmon pasta and I got the gnocci with shrimp. For our third course we could chose from A) chicken marsala B) chicken with chili's or C) white fish.  I got the chicken marsala and Petey got the white fish. I love love loved my chicken! For dessert we could chose from A) creme brulee B) tiramisu or C) chocolate mousse cake. We were both so full that we decided to just share a creme brulee. It was one of the best dinners of our lives and it was FREE!!!!!!! Chef Pier and his wife Stephanie both talked to us numerous times telling us how they were so glad that we could make it and how much that email meant to them. Who knew one little email would end up getting us an amazing free meal?! It was awesome and we will be back with friends and family!

On a side note: My parents fly into Hawaii on Wednesday and we are excited!!!!! It's going to be so fun having them here! Love them!!! This blog post was WAY longer than it needed to be, sorry peeps! Until next time...