This past winter break I had the chance to go on my dream vacation along with my family. Having spent sixteen days across three of Hawaii’s islands, I can definitely say that I’m planning on retiring there one day. From visiting bustling cities to remote beaches and beautiful sunrises, I got to see things I might never see again for a long long time. Here’s a quick recap of how it all went down:

Our journey first started off as we flew to Honolulu which is on the southern tip of the island of Oahu. Our flight was roughly 9 hours long which isn’t the worst if you really think about how far Hawaii actually is from the mainland USA. Nevertheless, we spent the first six days of our vacation in Honolulu and driving across the island while we visited its remote beaches. What was great about that whole experience though was that my parents had rented a convertible Mustang and a Jeep Wrangler on the two days we went driving around the island which really allowed us to get into the tropical vibe as we followed the coast of Oahu and watched the Sun set each night. One of the isolated beaches we drove to actually had a sea turtle just lying there in the sun and was the first sea turtle I got to see while in Hawaii. I got to see another two more on the Big Island of Hawaii later on in my trip as well. On another note though, the city life was also great, but the food options were definitely lacking in my opinion. Since my family is vegetarian, it was very difficult to find a place that was critically acclaimed in Honolulu, didn’t have all meat options, and still had seating available for us. A funny dining experience we had was when we went to this rooftop nightclub-type Mexican restaurant and we ordered these really bland dishes that were nothing like the spice level you would come to expect from Mexican food. And so my mom had gone and asked our waiter for some “hotter” salsa like the typical Indian mother, but we were all taken aback as we watched our waiter take our salsa, warm it up in the microwave behind us, and then give it right back. After that whole experience, I’d definitely say that you don’t want to go to Honolulu just for the food, especially if you’re vegetarian. Regardless of that ordeal, however, on the last day before flying out to the island of Kauai, my sister and I got the chance to learn how to paddleboard while on the extremely crowded beaches along Honolulu. I thought that was a good way to end my experience of the city as I’m realizing now that we honestly didn’t do as much in Oahu compared to the other two islands we visited.

The flight from Oahu to Kauai was roughly thirty minutes which is honestly the shortest flight I’ve ever been on in my life. The state of Hawaii, unfortunately, requires you to travel by plane when going to different islands even though they could definitely be easily traveled via boat. We stayed over in Lihue which is on the east coast of the island but is constantly struck by hurricanes so the town honestly hasn’t developed much. What I really liked about Kauai though was that there was no hustle and bustle with the city and most of the people there were very down to earth. I remember on several nights my family would just have fresh fruit for dinner after having gone to the local farmers’ market in the morning and sitting on the beach and eating while the sun began to set. We had giant papayas, star fruit, lychees, rambutans, pineapples, bananas, coconuts, fresh honey, and chocolate, and macadamia nuts, and rawly refined coffee all of which were locally grown by farmers on the island of Kauai. My family also visited the Dole Plantation at some point on our trip, but I honestly don’t remember what island that was on. I feel like it might’ve been Kauai just because that’s where I remember primarily all of our nature-related adventures occurring. There, my family got to have pineapple and coconut ice cream and bought two full-grown pineapples which we ended up bringing back home. Something we learned was that apparently, you can take as many pineapples home from Hawaii as long as they fit in your luggage bags. That’s good to know for my next visit to Hawaii I guess. We also went on a lot of hikes while in Kauai and visited some family friends who actually own a vacation home there. With them, we went to a sacred South Indian temple that was on the island and visited a rudraksha forest. If you didn’t know already, rudraksha are very holy in Hindu and Buddhist cultures and are technically a type of seed. You might commonly see them used as beads and strung into necklaces or bracelets that are then worn by religious monks and deities. I just thought it was very cool to see a part of the culture I’ve grown up around be in Hawaii of all places. Then to add to the religious exploration I went through on my trip, my family also visited this absolutely beautiful Buddhist temple that was highlighted by the mountain peaks sitting just behind it and ponds of koi fish that lay just in front. I most definitely found my inner peace while I was in Kauai and I think that it actually might’ve been my favorite of the three islands I visited. But after spending another five days there, my family flew on over to the Big Island of Hawaii which was roughly an hour’s flight away.

In my opinion, going to the Big Island was the least fun at the start just because at that point in the trip we had felt like we had already seen everything and were mentally preparing for having to return to Chicago weather in the next five days. Also, that was around the same time that I had to finish up my college applications as well in order to get past the January deadline schools. I can attest that it was definitely not very fun when my family was out at the farmers market and strolling through the town of Hilo while I was stuck up in our hotel struggling to fill out the Coalition App. However, the highlight of the entire trip ended up being just the day before we were about to come back to Chicago. The Big Island had been where we had spent the majority of our time going on various hikes and visiting the mountains of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea as we were checking out each national park. Funnily enough, a week before we got to the Big Island, the volcanic eruptions that had started a month before had stopped on Mauna Loa. But on the last night we were at the Big Island, we randomly happened to see on CNN that the Kilauea crater had begun to erupt. No joke, at like eleven in the night we ended up abruptly driving an hour back over to Kilauea which we had just been at that same morning. That was definitely the highlight of my entire vacation since I had the opportunity to see literal magma flying up into the air as it erupted from the earth below us. I honestly don’t think that I’ll ever have the chance to see something like that ever again and was a once in a lifetime experience.

All in all, my vacation to Hawaii was definitely the best vacation I’ve ever been on. I’m glad I got to experience that with my family right before I’m heading off to college and then hopefully medical school one day. I don’t think I would’ve gotten another opportunity like the one we had just this past winter break. I still have the dream of learning to surf and free dive and jet ski in Hawaii, but I guess I’ll get to those goals when I visit Hawaii again in the future. After all, I still have yet to see the natural beauty of Maui.