40 Years in the Making
A four-day epic vacation on Oahu to celebrate my 40th birthday
Ten years ago, I was recovering from my crazy 30th birthday party, which consisted of countless drinks at Seattle’s Kushi Bar — the last one being a shot of 151 that did me in for the night. It was the worst hangover of my life and I spent the entire day curled up on the couch watching TV, developing a new and somehow proud appreciation for CSI: Miami and Horatio Caine, specifically. Regardless of how terrible I felt physically, being 30 years old didn’t really feel much different from my 20s. I was still doing marketing in the automotive industry, I wasn’t making a great salary, I was trying to balance that out with my photography side business, and most of my friends were car-related in some fashion. I definitely didn’t have any idea what my professional or even artistic potential was at the time; I was just going with the flow with promises of success through my current employer and just trying to be around cars as much as possible.
Fast-forward to October 10, 2019.
I’m hopping into my cousin Wence’s Subaru Forester at 6 am to head to the airport for a quasi-surprise, 4-day birthday vacation to Hawaii. I knew Wence had something planned, I knew we were going to Hawaii, and I had an idea of a few people who were going, but other than that, I told him that I didn’t want to know anything more. I’ve spent the past year already planning my mom’s big 80th birthday celebration, so more planning for my own birthday was the last thing I wanted to do. Plus, I just wanted to be surprised and not have to worry about anything. That was my overall attitude 10 years ago of course, but things were different now. In the decade that passed, I became a very different person. Certain friendships and relationships were (rightfully) broken, new ones were forged and strengthened, my career developed leaps and bounds, and I have a much more worldly and dare I say, wise view of life as a whole. I’ve grown up a lot and realized what’s truly important to me, and a good portion of that was either in the car with me at this moment heading to the airport or would be meeting me in Hawaii once we landed.
Flying in from Seattle was about half of our group: Wence, Jo, their toddler Harper, Jeremy (who would be celebrating his birthday too, on the 13th), his cousin Jack, Collin, Kyle, Robert, TeeJay, and yours truly. After traveling to Germany and China twice in the past year and a half, a six-hour flight seemed pretty easy, but I was anxious to get off the plane into the warm weather.
October in Seattle is pretty wet and dreary, so the waff of hot, humid air stepping onto the jet bridge in Honolulu was a welcome sensation.
We walked what seemed like a mile to the baggage claim, then caught the Alamo bus to the rental car facility. I stepped off the bus there and was instantly greeted by Lee and Theresa from LA, both of whom were a complete surprise. We waited for about an hour for Alex and Nicole to arrive from Dallas, and after a quick stop at Costco for food and drinks to last us the weekend, we finally headed out toward our rental house.
Just past Waimea Bay on Oahu’s North Shore, we took a right at the Foodland and drove up a twisty touge-style road. With Initial D music just starting to hit its stride in my head, we took a left and then turned down a long grass driveway to reveal our rental property in Pupukea. There was one main house with a huge deck and main common room that overlooked Waimea Bay, and a separate cabin in the shade. The long driveway kept us secluded from our neighbors, and overall the house and cabin could potentially sleep about 25 people.
As much as my words can describe it, nothing can describe the view from the house better than these photos:
Soon, the last of our group arrived: Dean, Jessie, Raymond, and Stephanie from Vancouver, and Juyeon all the way from Seoul. The group of friends and family, the place we were staying, the ridiculously fantastic view — it’s still overwhelming just thinking back about it. Wence and the crew really outdid themselves with this, and we still had three full days to enjoy in this paradise!
Ironically enough, we didn’t get much sleep that night. Besides the fact that it was unseasonably hot and humid, even for Oahu standards, nearly all of us woke up around 5 am because our fans and air conditioners stopped working. I opened my eyes I saw flashes of light from the sky coming through the window. A thunderstorm was right on top of us and took out the power, and since it was way too hot to try to go to sleep again, I grabbed my camera and tripod to try to get some lightning photos. Despite a couple hours of trying, I only managed to get just this one:
It was quite the epic start to an already epic vacation. Friday the 11th would be one of our beach days and the main joint birthday celebration. We started out at Banzai Pipeline and managed to take a group photo before leaving:
We then traveled up to Sunset Beach, but once it started raining we headed up to Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck for a late lunch, then back to the house to prepare for the big party. Wence would end up grilling his patented ribeye steaks and our friends Erik and Jeb, who live on Oahu, also dropped by to join the festivities.
We even had a fun time cutting our cakes from Ted’s Bakery:
After a night of stuffing our faces with awesome food and playing drinking games into the night, we awoke late the next day for more beach and surf. This time, we drove to Waimea Bay Beach Park and spent the majority of the afternoon there. TeeJay jumped off a cliff into the water, Kyle, Collin, and Jack did some snorkeling and made friends with fishes and crabs, and I just relaxed in the waves, floating on my back and staring up at the clear blue sky. Jack’s friends from the island also met up with us and managed to sneak into our group photo:
After a late lunch at Fatboy’s and some shave ice from Aoki’s, we all went out for one last nice dinner at Lei Lei’s Bar and Grill at Turtle Bay Resort. Juyeon and Collin had to leave the next day, so it was our last chance for group photos:
We awoke the next day to sunshowers, giving us this gorgeous full rainbow:
Sunday was our last full day on the island, so after meeting with my cousin Liezl, her husband Dan, and their two kids, we set off for the Pearl Harbor tour. I was the only one in the group who had done the tour before, so my photo-taking was very limited. We then headed for Waikiki Beach, but we all got separated due to the notoriously terrible parking. Fortunately, our smaller group found a nice quiet spot where I was able to take my last sunset photos:
I even managed to capture some sunset surfing:
And finally, I was able to catch some attitude from Harper!
The next day flying back home was uneventful, other than the sadness as we pulled away from the rental property for the last time. Now back in Seattle a full week later, I’m still feeling withdrawal. We’ve continued to post in our group chat about how we miss Hawaii, which is what partially inspired me to write this whole thing in the first place.
I don’t want these memories to fade, and given how crappy the weather has been here already in the past week, I’m ready for more sun and surf.
Words can’t express how thankful I am for each and every one of you who joined me on this epic vacation. Thank you for being a part of my birthday celebration and showing the love. You really don’t know how much it really means to me, especially given how crazy things have been lately. This was absolutely the vacation that I needed and therapeutic in countless ways. I know that not everyone who wanted to go could make it, so I absolutely thank you too for being there in spirit.
10 years ago, I wasn’t sure what was really important to me, but now I know that it’s really those that you love and that love you back in return.
Sharing these experiences and being there for each other is irreplaceable. Thank you all for the best 40th birthday that I could’ve ever imagined. Let’s do this again, sooner rather than later!
