I recently returned from an amazing vacation to the island of O'ahu in Hawai'i. Commonly referred to as the "main" island, O'ahu holds Honolulu and Pearl Harbor.

There were so many things to do and see in Hawaii! My roommate and I stayed with our friend who lives as a teacher and, lucky for us, has an apartment right on the beach. In fact, we spent every evening watching the sun set over the pacific ocean from the apartment balcony.

The landscape was, of course, beautiful. There were volcanic mountains all across the island, and they often surrounded some of the most amazing beaches in the world. We went hiking up one of the volcanic mountains which was pretty intense - there were a few vertical climbs on our trip to the top! We also spent a lot of time on the beach swimming, snorkeling, and tanning in the sun.

All the beaches we went to had different wildlife. The beach by my friend's apartment had tiny sand crabs digging little holes in the sand and while snorkeling we saw many of Hawaii's native fish: humu­humu­nuku­nuku­āpuaʻa.

We also went to Hanauma Bay, which is a popular tourist destination for snorkeling. It's basically a coral reef that comes right up to the shore, so in some places I was floating in the salty water with barely a foot between myself and a world of plants, rocks, and marine life.

We spent one wild night in Waikiki, another popular tourist area that's popular for both its beaches and its nightlife. There are a ton of bars, clubs, and restaurants to go to and when we walked back to our hotel at 4:00 in the morning there were still a bunch of people out on the street.