Finally, my Hawaii 2006 Trip update... :)

Saturday (12/16/06):
We arrived before noon in Oahu and got situated with our rental car and hotel room. We were thrifty and stayed at Hokele Suites Waikiki. It was too early for check-in so we had lunch at Zippy's, and then had malasadas for dessert from Leonard's Bakery. Mmm, yummy! B seems to love malasadas even more than I do :P




After settling into our hotel room and relaxing for a little bit, we decided to keep the first day low key and just walked around the International Market Place and also shopped the fancy stores along Kalakaua Avenue.

All the walking exhausted us so we relaxed for a bit at the hotel before heading out to dinner at Ono Hawaiian Foods. It's sort of a hole-in-the-wall type restaurant, but it's very well-known. Here we had very "authentic" Hawaiian food including kalua pork and laulau, pipikaula, lomi salmon, haupia, and poi. It was my first time trying poi, and my reaction was the same as any other haole: "Eew..." Poi is a ground up taro root that I think is definitely an acquired taste.

Sunday:
Sunday morning we had brunch at the Rainbow Drive-In. The food is decent and fairly cheap. A good "local place" to go.

After that, we went shopping for cheap souvenirs at the swap meet at the Aloha Stadium. We bought a bunch of stuff for some people and especially for ourselves :) Souvenirs are much cheaper here than anywhere else in Waikiki, so try not to buy souvenirs at the International Market Place or the ABC stores!

That night, B reserved a romantic dinner for us on the Oahu Navatek Royal Sunset Dinner & Cocktail Cruise. The food and drinks were great, but unfortunately we didn't get to see too much of the sunset. It was sort of cloudy that day :( The cruise was really cool because they provided lots of entertainment. A big hawaiian guy was singing and playing instruments while we ate (I'm so drawn to these guys, but not in a sexual way, LOL), and he also provided the music when a lady came out to sing for the rest of the night. There were a couple Polynesian dancers as well. It was definitely worth the steep price :)






Monday:
We grabbed breakfast at Leonard's again. B was hooked on those malasadas! Shortly after, we had to head back to the Aloha Stadium because I had to get stuff fixed for my mom. We stopped by Pearl Harbor to take some pictures, then headed to the Dole Plantation. We ate some of the pineapple yogurt and took some more pictures.








I wanted to show him a little more of North Shore so we stopped by Waimea Bay and hung out for a little. On the way back home, we stopped in Haleiwa to eat some real food. We ate at Haleiwa Joe's Seafood Grill. It was pretty good. Before leaving the town, we had to of course complete our meal by stopping by Matsumoto's Shaved Ice. I didn't get to visit this place last time I was in HI, so I made it a point to stop by this time. It was yummy!






After this long day, we headed back and rested for a little bit. B still wanted to go out and do stuff so we stopped by Ala Moana Mall, shopped a bit, and had dinner at Bubba Gump. We were so full at the end of the day.

Tuesday:
We started the day off eating breakfast at Seaside Bar and Grill, a local restaurant, for $2.99 breakfasts. After breakfast we took a boogie board into the water and then laid out on Waikiki Beach for a little while. It was near the end of our trip and we barely go to lay out at this time! It's ok though. I'm not too much of a beach person anyway. I hate tan lines :P




We spent the rest of the day at the Polynesian Cultural Center. I was looking forward to this because I didn't go to this last time I was in Hawaii. The drive there was serene. We passed by a bunch of somewhat secluded North Shore beaches. It was beautiful! The beach shores were to our right, the green mountainside on the left. Next time we're in Oahu, we'll check the beaches out. At the center, we watched shows, demonstrations, and attended a luau there. Did you know that in the Hawaiian and Samoan cultures, it's the men who cook and serve the women first? Hmm... what an appealing aspect of their beautiful culture :D There was so much to do there! We made little origami fish out of leaves, and B tried to start a fire with wood (unfortunately, unsuccessful despite the smoke, hehe). We had a great time at the luau. It was B's first luau experience and he highly enjoyed it. After the luau was the final grand finale show. It was awesome! Luckily, we reserved some decent seats :) Next time I go there, I'm going to plan better for the PCC. They have deals where you could return within the next few days!






Wednesday (12/20/06):
Sadly, our last day there. Before grabbing some food, we shopped down Kalakaua Avenue again and B picked up his mom's Christmas gift as well as mine at Coach and Gucci, respectively :X Thank you, honey, for my Christmas gift!




Before leaving, we had lunch at Sam Choy's. A friend of ours suggested it so we had to give it a try before leaving. The food was pretty good, and it left us pretty stuffed for the trip back home.




This trip didn't seem long enough. We were busy just about every moment of each day, yet we still didn't manage to do everything we wanted to. A couple things we missed were Diamond Head and China Town. Maybe next time... although we hope our next trip to Hawaii will be to Kauai!

(Possible) next trips: Japan (I haven't been back since I've left, and it's B's first time), Alaska (via cruise), NY, Europe, Australia (my choice, of course :P), Thailand...

posted by che @ 7:40 PM