Picking up where we left off...
04 February 2013
We woke up early and got packed up to head to Oahu. We returned Black Sheep to the rental company and headed into the airport. While waiting for our flight, we grabbed some postcards and filled them out to send back to family. Our flight to Oahu was short and uneventful.
When we landed, we headed to the rental company to pick up our car. We initially got a grey Mustang and took off to Schofield Barracks, the Army post on Oahu. I had to take care of some stuff for work, so we took care of that and then went to the post Information, Ticketing, and Registration. At the ITR, we picked up tickets for some of the activities we wanted to do on Oahu (at a great discount). While we were at ITR, we noticed that part of the Mustang's front bumper was hanging down and dragging on the ground. We hadn't been able to see it at the rental agency because it had been shoved up to hold it up. We then had to drive all the way back to the rental company and exchange the car. We ended up getting a black Mustang, named Black Stallion, in exchange. This kind of threw a kink in our plans for the day, so we decided to just head down to our hotel and relax on Waikiki. We grabbed some lunch at Nico's Pier 38. We thought the food was about average. It was nice eating on the pier though.
After lunch, we went and checked into our hotel, the Hale Koa. We stayed at the Hale Koa when we came to Oahu during my mid-tour leave from Iraq. It's a military-only resort right on Waikiki Beach. We love the grounds and love staying here.
After we got settled in to our room, we headed out to walk along the beach and do some window shopping. After walking around for a while, we grabbed some dinner at Eggs 'N Things. Last time we were on Oahu, we ate at their original location a couple of blocks off the beach. They've since opened a second location on the beach, so we decided to give it a try. I got macadamia nut waffles, and Grace got banana mac nut waffles. We felt that the food wasn't quite as good at the new location, but the view was pretty darn good.
After dinner, we went back to the hotel and read on our lanai and then called it a night.
05 February 2013
Today was sort of a repeat from our last trip to Oahu. We tried to hit up some of our favorite things from the last time we were here. We woke up early and headed over to Diamond Head to hike it again. It's not a super-challenging or long hike, but it's always a fun one to do. We love the views from the top, hiking through the tunnels dug through the volcanic crater, and watching the Asian tourists hiking in high heels.
After the hike, we went to the Honolulu Zoo. This was another repeat from our last trip, but we always enjoy going and seeing the zoo. After watching the animals for a while, we grabbed lunch across the street at Teddy's Bigger Burgers. This was probably my second favorite burger of the trip. I got my standard bacon cheeseburger (to maintain some objectivity in comparing burgers, I always got the same thing), and Grace got an avocado bacon burger. Both were really good burgers. We'll definitely hit up Teddy's again if we're in Hawaii. They've also opened up a location in the Seattle area, so we'll stop by next time we're in the area.
After lunch, we headed out to Halona Beach. This was the beach used in "From Here to Eternity". It's just a nice little cove with soft sand and a good swimming area. Grace didn't get in the water here since the waves were a little big for her, but I enjoyed a nice swim.
After swimming and relaxing for a while, we headed out to Makapuu Point to do another short hike. We hiked out to the point overlooking the Makapuu Lighthouse and watched whales for a while. There were a couple of whales breaching just a few hundred meters off the point, so we got some pretty awesome views.
We hiked back down to our car and started heading back to Honolulu. On the way, we decided to stop at Sandy Beach for a little bit. The shore break was pretty rough, so we didn't get in, but we enjoyed watching the local body boarders enjoying the waves. Once the sun started getting lower, we packed up and headed back to the hotel. For dinner, we grabbed some pizza from Round Table at the Hilton Hawaiian Village next door and ate on the beach while watching the sunset. The pizza wasn't great (it reminded me of Godfathers), but it was fun enjoying a dinner on the beach.
After dinner, we read some more on the lanai and called it a night.
06 February 2013
We started today off right by grabbing some breakfast from Liliha Bakery. We got a couple pastries and some of their coco puffs. Their pastries are good, but their coco puffs are the best pastry item I've ever eaten. After stuffing our faces, we took off to the windward coast to do an ATV tour at the Kualoa Ranch. It was drizzling a little, so we were really glad that we had packed our rain jackets. The Kualoa Valley is beautiful and we loved the tour. We got to see Hurley's golf course from "Lost", hide under the log from "Jurassic Park", and see a bunch of other movie sites. For me, the coolest part was just seeing a functioning cattle ranch on Oahu. It didn't seem like too bad of a place to run some cows. Grace enjoyed the tour too...except when she got her ATV stuck on a tree root. Luckily, I was able to talk her through it with my technical expertise.
We were starving after the tour, so we changed into our beach clothes and took off for Kahuku Grill. This place was AWESOME. I think it was probably our favorite meal of the trip. It's just a little roadside food stand, but the food is amazing. I continued my search for the islands' best burger by getting a bacon cheeseburger. Grace got some coconut shrimp with a sweet chili dipping sauce. This place won the best burger competition for the trip. I think what really pushed them over the competition was the fry sauce on the burger...with some fry sauce on the side for the home fries. Grace loved her shrimp, and even I thought it was great...and I don't particularly care for shrimp...and by that I mean I try not to eat it if I can avoid it. Anyway, we thought this place was great and we'll definitely be back to eat there again.
After lunch, we relaxed on the North Shore at Waimea Bay for a couple hours. We read and watched the surfers and body boarders, but the waves were a little too big for us to want to get in the water.
The rain started picking up as soon as we finished the shave ice, so we decided to head back to our hotel to read and relax. We weren't super hungry for dinner, so we just munched on some chocolate covered macadamia nuts while we read...great way to end the night.
07 February 2013
We were pretty tired this morning, so we decided to just relax on our lanai and get in some more reading. After we had read enough to work up an appetite, we went to Hank's Haute Dogs to get Grace's favorite food in the whole wide world: hot dogs. Hank's was featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives, so we were pretty excited to check it out. Grace got their "Fat Boy", a bacon-wrapped dog that was deep friend and then covered in lettuce, mayo, and tomato. I got their buffalo sausage. My dog was ok, but Grace's was pretty good. It wasn't a bad little hot dog place, but not our absolute favorite.
After we'd finished off our dogs, we rented some snorkel gear and went back to Waikiki. I had tried snorkeling on my first trip to Oahu in 2005 with some of my buddies from West Point, and I wasn't so much a fan of it. We went to Hanauma Bay, which is supposed to be a great snorkeling location, but I spent maybe a total of 15 minutes trying it out before I quit. I felt extremely claustrophobic because my view was so limited, and I didn't like getting water in my mouth too much. Grace had never tried snorkeling before, so we decided to give it a shot by testing it out in Waikiki. This is a terrible beach to snorkel if you're trying to see much in the way of fishes and such, but it's a pretty good place to learn. I enjoyed it quite a bit more this time, and Grace thought it was fun too. I think a lot of it had to do with the quality of the equipment. The first time I went, I used a crappy mask and snorkel. We rented from a better place this time, and it made a huge difference. We didn't get a chance to snorkel again on this trip, but it's something we'd like to do next time we visit the islands.
After snorkeling, we headed back to the hotel to change and get ready for dinner. We had made reservations at Duke's, which was one of our favorite restaurants last trip. Once again, Duke's did not disappoint. We got a great seat with a great view of the sunset. I ordered the prime rib, and Grace got a coconut crusted fish of some kind (I think it was mahi mahi, but I can't remember for sure). Both were really good dishes, and we'll always make an effort to visit Duke's when we visit.
After Duke's, we went to the Ala Moana Mall so Grace could do some more shopping. I think she found something she loved, but I don't remember. After shopping, we went back to the hotel and crashed for the night.
08 February 2013
We decided to hike Kaena Point today. This was a hike I'd wanted to do last time, but we ran out of time before I could get it done. This hike is along the northwestern coast of the island. It leads out to the very northwest tip of the island, and the only way to reach it is by hiking. According to Hawaiian lore, this is where departed souls jumped off the island. The area is a bird sanctuary that is fenced off to keep out mongooses and dogs and such. This is also supposed to be a great area to see whales and monk seals. While we didn't see any seals and only saw whales spouting a ways off in the distance, we did get to see a bunch of albatrosses sitting on their nests. It's a really remote area with only a few people out there, so it was really cool. The waves can also get really big here. Waves are coming in off the north coast and the leeward coast and all kind of crash together right at the point, so you get to see some pretty awesome waves crashing.
We were starving after the hike, so we grabbed some burgers from Kua Aina in Haleiwa. I got my standard, and Grace go another avocado bacon burger. Both were good burgers, but I would put them behind Kahuku Grill, Teddy's, and Duane's. They serve skinny fries here, so Grace loved those. After we finished off our burgers, we needed something sweet. We decided we needed some shave ice again. Aoki's is supposed to be the big competition for Matsumoto's in the cut-throat shave ice business on Oahu's north shore, so we decided to try it out and compare the two. Aoki's was definitely good shave ice, and it beats any sno-cone you'll ever get on the mainland. However, it wasn't as good as Matsumoto's...although it's close. Matsumoto's usually has a longer line than Aoki's, so if the line was too long at Matsumoto's, we would gladly head to Aoki's. You've got to go with Matsumoto's though, if you only ever get to try one. Anyway, that's our professional opinion of the shave ice in Haleiwa.
Once we were done with our shave ice, we stopped by Laniakea Beach to see some turtles then went to Sunset Beach and watched a stand up paddleboard competition. It was amazing watching these guys catching huge waves.
After watching for a while, we went for a short hike along the coast near Turtle Bay Resort. It was a nice area, and I'd like to hike more in that area in the future.
After Turtle Bay, we went back to Waimea Bay to relax and watch the sunset. Grace also got a coconut to try. I tried to keep her expectations low for coconut water, so she thought it was not too bad.
After the sun had gone down, we went to Opal Thai in Haleiwa for some dinner. This is another place featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. Opal and his wife and son run the little Thai restaurant with just a couple of bussers. Opal's son brings out the drinks and is a pretty funny little comedian. The place was packed and we didn't have a reservation, but Opal's wife did a great job of finding a way to fit us in. Opal doesn't allow you to order for yourself if it's your first time eating there. Instead, he asks you what you like and don't like and then prepares a meal he thinks you'll like. It's a little scary leaving your dinner selection in someone else's hands, but it was a fun experience too. Opal started us off with some lettuce wraps filled with pork and an assortment of vegetables. Knowing how spicy Thai food can be, we told him we only wanted medium spiciness. These lettuce wraps were probably some of the spiciest food I've ever eaten, so I'd hate to see what Opal considers to be spicy. They were very, very delicious though, so we didn't mind too much that we were going through about three glasses of water for every wrap we ate. After that, Opal brought us out some yellow curry and shrimp pad thai. The yellow curry was really good and even had potatoes in it (which is my favorite). The pad thai was also delicious. For dessert, we had some of their homemade cheesecake which was also amazing. Opal and his family were very friendly and welcoming. Overall, it was a great Thai place with a fun atmosphere. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and called it a night.
09 February 2013
Grace and I had visited our church's temple in Laie when were here last time for the open house. It had just been renovated, so we were able to walk through it. We had both decided we wanted to do some temple work here the next time we visited, so we planned to do a session this trip. We had a great session, and we have a really funny story to share about our experience. This blog isn't probably the best forum to tell it, so ask us about it the next time you see us if you're interested in hearing it.
After the temple, we tried to go to the Hukilau Lanai for lunch. Grace and I watched "50 First Dates" for our first date, and the Hukilau Lanai is the name of the restaurant in the movie. Although this isn't the same restaurant (the one in the movie is fake); this is the restaurant they took the name from, so we've always wanted to eat there. The Hukilau Lanai is only open until about 1200 each day (they're on island time, so they kinda close whenever they want). We had tried to visit this restaurant last time we were here, but it closed right before we got there. We struck out again this trip, so we decided to head back to the Kahuku Grill. I got my favorite again, and Grace got their Shem's Big Bad Bacon Guacamole Burger. Again, both of these were delicious. I think we would have eaten here every day if possible.
After eating, we stopped by Laie Point. There's no big attraction here, but it's a pretty cool place. It has some really cool cliffs and rock formations right on the ocean. We only stopped by, but I'd like to go back and explore around it some more. We had to get going though to visit the Polynesian Cultural Center.
Grace and I visited the PCC last trip, I visited it the trip before, and we'll probably visit it every time we go to Oahu. It's an awesome experience to visit each of the little islands and catch glimpses of their culture. The luau is also fun. We didn't have a great time at the luau our first trip, but it was fun. We think that it was just ok because we were seated across from each other at a big table with other people that we didn't know. This trip, we made sure we sat next to each other, and that made it a lot better. We also met a really nice couple from Wisconsin that sat across from us. The husband had been in the Army back in Vietnam. He is now an editor and an assistant fire chief, and the wife is a school teacher. They were a really nice couple, and we had a great time talking to them and getting to know them. We were also invited to screen a new movie that the PCC will show in their IMAX theater. It was pretty cool to be a guinea pig for them, and they gave us a free DVD of some fire-knife competitions. After we finished screening the movie, we headed over to the main event for us, the "Ha: The Breath of Life" show. This is a phenomenal show that incorporates dances from several Polynesian islands into one story. It's an amazing production put on (mostly) by students from BYU-Hawaii. The students do an outstanding job, and it's a great show. We were worried that we had built the show up in our heads too much from our last visit, but the second the show kicked off, we knew that we had remembered correctly how good it was. This is probably the biggest must-do for us on Oahu.
After the show, we enjoyed our drive back along the windward coast back to our hotel. We were tired, so we called it a night.
10 February 2013
Today was our last full day on the island and also our patriotic day. We started off by grabbing some more of those coco puffs from Liliha Bakery for breakfast. Then, we headed out to Pearl Harbor to visit the USS Arizona Memorial. This is always a sobering place to visit, but I feel like it's a necessary place to stop each time we come. After paying our respects at the Memorial, we went over to the USS Missouri. General Douglas MacArthur, along with representatives from other Allied countries, formally accepted and signed the Japanese surrender on the deck of the USS Missouri. It was pretty cool to stand in the same place that document was signed. The USS Missouri was decommissioned in 1955 but reactivated and modernized in 1984. It fought in World War II, the Korean War, and Desert Storm. The ship was then decommissioned again in 1994. It was also really interesting to walk through the ship and see how Sailors and Marines lived on ships during the early 90s.
After touring the Missouri, we headed over to the Pearl Harbor Navy Exchange to look around. I think this is the biggest exchange in any of the services (an exchange is an all-purpose store...like a Wal-Mart, only much classier), so we decided to check it out. We also grabbed some lunch while we were there in their food court.
After finishing up at Pearl Harbor, we went back to the Hale Koa to relax in the pool and hot tub. We had a good time just relaxing for a while. After that, we went for a walk through Waikiki and did some more window shopping. We grabbed dinner at Tropics Bar and Grill at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. The food was just ok, but the location is really nice. Our table was right on the beach, so we enjoyed the atmosphere. After dinner, we went to bed.
11 February 2013
We started off our day right by grabbing some breakfast from McDonald's. They serve Spam and Portuguese sausage at McDonald's in Hawaii, so I wanted to give it a shot for breakfast. I got the breakfast plate with Spam, Portuguese sausage, eggs, and rice. It wasn't too bad. The Portuguese sausage wasn't super great, but the Spam, eggs, and rice were a pretty good breakfast. After that, we were going to hike the Kuliouou Ridge Trail, but the sky was overcast and looking like it was going to rain. We knew the views wouldn't be very good from the top, so we decided not to do it this trip. Instead, we went to Lanikai Beach and relaxed for a little bit. That beach has the finest sand I've ever seen. It was more like flour than sand. It was a really nice beach, but we only spent about 30 minutes there before the rain pushed us out.
We headed north up the windward coast and stopped by Sunset Beach to grab lunch at Ted's Bakery. I got a pulled pork sandwich that was pretty good. Grace chose a grilled cheese sandwich that was pretty good too. Most importantly, we got some of their chocolate haupia pie. This pie is absolutely amazing. Rain was stilling spitting on us, so we decided to just keep driving to Haleiwa to grab some shave ice. We stopped by Matsumoto's again and took our shave ice to Haleiwa Beach Park to eat them. We hit a little patch of sunshine, so it was fun sitting at the beach eating them. The rain started to come down again, so we went back to Waikiki where it was drier to spend the afternoon. We spent the afternoon just swimming at Waikiki and walking along the beach and shops. We watched the last sunset of our trip and then tried to grab some dinner before our flights. Unfortunately, the wait was too long at each of the places we wanted to eat. Instead, we packed up and left for the airport. We ended up eating at some Mexican place in the airport that wasn't very good.
We boarded our flight right around 11:00 pm with the temperature at 72 degrees. We immediately fell asleep and didn't wake up until we landed the next morning in Denver at 12 degrees. It was a pretty big shock for us, and not a great welcome home.
This was another great trip for us, and definitely gave us something to look forward to during the deployment. We loved relaxing with each other and just being able to spend time together again. We even learned some new things:
And thus concludes Grace and Abe's most recent adventure to Hawaii.
04 February 2013
We woke up early and got packed up to head to Oahu. We returned Black Sheep to the rental company and headed into the airport. While waiting for our flight, we grabbed some postcards and filled them out to send back to family. Our flight to Oahu was short and uneventful.
When we landed, we headed to the rental company to pick up our car. We initially got a grey Mustang and took off to Schofield Barracks, the Army post on Oahu. I had to take care of some stuff for work, so we took care of that and then went to the post Information, Ticketing, and Registration. At the ITR, we picked up tickets for some of the activities we wanted to do on Oahu (at a great discount). While we were at ITR, we noticed that part of the Mustang's front bumper was hanging down and dragging on the ground. We hadn't been able to see it at the rental agency because it had been shoved up to hold it up. We then had to drive all the way back to the rental company and exchange the car. We ended up getting a black Mustang, named Black Stallion, in exchange. This kind of threw a kink in our plans for the day, so we decided to just head down to our hotel and relax on Waikiki. We grabbed some lunch at Nico's Pier 38. We thought the food was about average. It was nice eating on the pier though.
After lunch, we went and checked into our hotel, the Hale Koa. We stayed at the Hale Koa when we came to Oahu during my mid-tour leave from Iraq. It's a military-only resort right on Waikiki Beach. We love the grounds and love staying here.
After we got settled in to our room, we headed out to walk along the beach and do some window shopping. After walking around for a while, we grabbed some dinner at Eggs 'N Things. Last time we were on Oahu, we ate at their original location a couple of blocks off the beach. They've since opened a second location on the beach, so we decided to give it a try. I got macadamia nut waffles, and Grace got banana mac nut waffles. We felt that the food wasn't quite as good at the new location, but the view was pretty darn good.
The view from our table at Eggs 'N Things
Luckily I didn't get in the photo with Grace, so there was no spooning or forking
After dinner, we went back to the hotel and read on our lanai and then called it a night.
05 February 2013
Today was sort of a repeat from our last trip to Oahu. We tried to hit up some of our favorite things from the last time we were here. We woke up early and headed over to Diamond Head to hike it again. It's not a super-challenging or long hike, but it's always a fun one to do. We love the views from the top, hiking through the tunnels dug through the volcanic crater, and watching the Asian tourists hiking in high heels.
The view from the top of Diamond Head
Heading back down the trail
After the hike, we went to the Honolulu Zoo. This was another repeat from our last trip, but we always enjoy going and seeing the zoo. After watching the animals for a while, we grabbed lunch across the street at Teddy's Bigger Burgers. This was probably my second favorite burger of the trip. I got my standard bacon cheeseburger (to maintain some objectivity in comparing burgers, I always got the same thing), and Grace got an avocado bacon burger. Both were really good burgers. We'll definitely hit up Teddy's again if we're in Hawaii. They've also opened up a location in the Seattle area, so we'll stop by next time we're in the area.
After lunch, we headed out to Halona Beach. This was the beach used in "From Here to Eternity". It's just a nice little cove with soft sand and a good swimming area. Grace didn't get in the water here since the waves were a little big for her, but I enjoyed a nice swim.
After swimming and relaxing for a while, we headed out to Makapuu Point to do another short hike. We hiked out to the point overlooking the Makapuu Lighthouse and watched whales for a while. There were a couple of whales breaching just a few hundred meters off the point, so we got some pretty awesome views.
Makapuu Lighthouse
View of the windward side of Oahu from Makapuu Point
We hiked back down to our car and started heading back to Honolulu. On the way, we decided to stop at Sandy Beach for a little bit. The shore break was pretty rough, so we didn't get in, but we enjoyed watching the local body boarders enjoying the waves. Once the sun started getting lower, we packed up and headed back to the hotel. For dinner, we grabbed some pizza from Round Table at the Hilton Hawaiian Village next door and ate on the beach while watching the sunset. The pizza wasn't great (it reminded me of Godfathers), but it was fun enjoying a dinner on the beach.
Sandy Beach
Sunset from our picnic table
After dinner, we read some more on the lanai and called it a night.
06 February 2013
We started today off right by grabbing some breakfast from Liliha Bakery. We got a couple pastries and some of their coco puffs. Their pastries are good, but their coco puffs are the best pastry item I've ever eaten. After stuffing our faces, we took off to the windward coast to do an ATV tour at the Kualoa Ranch. It was drizzling a little, so we were really glad that we had packed our rain jackets. The Kualoa Valley is beautiful and we loved the tour. We got to see Hurley's golf course from "Lost", hide under the log from "Jurassic Park", and see a bunch of other movie sites. For me, the coolest part was just seeing a functioning cattle ranch on Oahu. It didn't seem like too bad of a place to run some cows. Grace enjoyed the tour too...except when she got her ATV stuck on a tree root. Luckily, I was able to talk her through it with my technical expertise.
Kualoa Ranch
The start of the tour
Godzilla stopped by to visit (but we didn't see him)
Standing on Hurley's golf Course
Seeing the cows
No dinosaurs today, so we didn't have to duck under the log
We were starving after the tour, so we changed into our beach clothes and took off for Kahuku Grill. This place was AWESOME. I think it was probably our favorite meal of the trip. It's just a little roadside food stand, but the food is amazing. I continued my search for the islands' best burger by getting a bacon cheeseburger. Grace got some coconut shrimp with a sweet chili dipping sauce. This place won the best burger competition for the trip. I think what really pushed them over the competition was the fry sauce on the burger...with some fry sauce on the side for the home fries. Grace loved her shrimp, and even I thought it was great...and I don't particularly care for shrimp...and by that I mean I try not to eat it if I can avoid it. Anyway, we thought this place was great and we'll definitely be back to eat there again.
Kahuku Grill
After lunch, we relaxed on the North Shore at Waimea Bay for a couple hours. We read and watched the surfers and body boarders, but the waves were a little too big for us to want to get in the water.
Our sweet-tooths (sweet-teeth?) kicked up after sitting at the beach for a while, so we headed into Haleiwa to get some shave ice. Matsumoto's is supposed to be the king of shave ice on Oahu and we loved it last time we were here, so we decided to hit it up again. Once again, Matsumoto's didn't disappoint. I don't remember which flavors we got, but they were delicious whatever they were. Grace also tried some sweetened and condensed milk on top of hers. She thought it was pretty good, but I thought it was a little too sweet. We both love the ice cream in the bottom of the shave ice though.
Grace and her shave ice
The rain started picking up as soon as we finished the shave ice, so we decided to head back to our hotel to read and relax. We weren't super hungry for dinner, so we just munched on some chocolate covered macadamia nuts while we read...great way to end the night.
Our view while we read
07 February 2013
We were pretty tired this morning, so we decided to just relax on our lanai and get in some more reading. After we had read enough to work up an appetite, we went to Hank's Haute Dogs to get Grace's favorite food in the whole wide world: hot dogs. Hank's was featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives, so we were pretty excited to check it out. Grace got their "Fat Boy", a bacon-wrapped dog that was deep friend and then covered in lettuce, mayo, and tomato. I got their buffalo sausage. My dog was ok, but Grace's was pretty good. It wasn't a bad little hot dog place, but not our absolute favorite.
After we'd finished off our dogs, we rented some snorkel gear and went back to Waikiki. I had tried snorkeling on my first trip to Oahu in 2005 with some of my buddies from West Point, and I wasn't so much a fan of it. We went to Hanauma Bay, which is supposed to be a great snorkeling location, but I spent maybe a total of 15 minutes trying it out before I quit. I felt extremely claustrophobic because my view was so limited, and I didn't like getting water in my mouth too much. Grace had never tried snorkeling before, so we decided to give it a shot by testing it out in Waikiki. This is a terrible beach to snorkel if you're trying to see much in the way of fishes and such, but it's a pretty good place to learn. I enjoyed it quite a bit more this time, and Grace thought it was fun too. I think a lot of it had to do with the quality of the equipment. The first time I went, I used a crappy mask and snorkel. We rented from a better place this time, and it made a huge difference. We didn't get a chance to snorkel again on this trip, but it's something we'd like to do next time we visit the islands.
Grace looks so cool
After snorkeling, we headed back to the hotel to change and get ready for dinner. We had made reservations at Duke's, which was one of our favorite restaurants last trip. Once again, Duke's did not disappoint. We got a great seat with a great view of the sunset. I ordered the prime rib, and Grace got a coconut crusted fish of some kind (I think it was mahi mahi, but I can't remember for sure). Both were really good dishes, and we'll always make an effort to visit Duke's when we visit.
Sunset at Duke's
After Duke's, we went to the Ala Moana Mall so Grace could do some more shopping. I think she found something she loved, but I don't remember. After shopping, we went back to the hotel and crashed for the night.
08 February 2013
We decided to hike Kaena Point today. This was a hike I'd wanted to do last time, but we ran out of time before I could get it done. This hike is along the northwestern coast of the island. It leads out to the very northwest tip of the island, and the only way to reach it is by hiking. According to Hawaiian lore, this is where departed souls jumped off the island. The area is a bird sanctuary that is fenced off to keep out mongooses and dogs and such. This is also supposed to be a great area to see whales and monk seals. While we didn't see any seals and only saw whales spouting a ways off in the distance, we did get to see a bunch of albatrosses sitting on their nests. It's a really remote area with only a few people out there, so it was really cool. The waves can also get really big here. Waves are coming in off the north coast and the leeward coast and all kind of crash together right at the point, so you get to see some pretty awesome waves crashing.
Watching the waves before we start our hike
Albus the Albatross
At Kaena Point (the waves were even bigger than they look)
Looking back at the island
We were starving after the hike, so we grabbed some burgers from Kua Aina in Haleiwa. I got my standard, and Grace go another avocado bacon burger. Both were good burgers, but I would put them behind Kahuku Grill, Teddy's, and Duane's. They serve skinny fries here, so Grace loved those. After we finished off our burgers, we needed something sweet. We decided we needed some shave ice again. Aoki's is supposed to be the big competition for Matsumoto's in the cut-throat shave ice business on Oahu's north shore, so we decided to try it out and compare the two. Aoki's was definitely good shave ice, and it beats any sno-cone you'll ever get on the mainland. However, it wasn't as good as Matsumoto's...although it's close. Matsumoto's usually has a longer line than Aoki's, so if the line was too long at Matsumoto's, we would gladly head to Aoki's. You've got to go with Matsumoto's though, if you only ever get to try one. Anyway, that's our professional opinion of the shave ice in Haleiwa.
Once we were done with our shave ice, we stopped by Laniakea Beach to see some turtles then went to Sunset Beach and watched a stand up paddleboard competition. It was amazing watching these guys catching huge waves.
The people watching the competition
The people competing in the competition
After watching for a while, we went for a short hike along the coast near Turtle Bay Resort. It was a nice area, and I'd like to hike more in that area in the future.
After Turtle Bay, we went back to Waimea Bay to relax and watch the sunset. Grace also got a coconut to try. I tried to keep her expectations low for coconut water, so she thought it was not too bad.
Grace drinking her coconut water
Sunset at Waimea Bay
After the sun had gone down, we went to Opal Thai in Haleiwa for some dinner. This is another place featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. Opal and his wife and son run the little Thai restaurant with just a couple of bussers. Opal's son brings out the drinks and is a pretty funny little comedian. The place was packed and we didn't have a reservation, but Opal's wife did a great job of finding a way to fit us in. Opal doesn't allow you to order for yourself if it's your first time eating there. Instead, he asks you what you like and don't like and then prepares a meal he thinks you'll like. It's a little scary leaving your dinner selection in someone else's hands, but it was a fun experience too. Opal started us off with some lettuce wraps filled with pork and an assortment of vegetables. Knowing how spicy Thai food can be, we told him we only wanted medium spiciness. These lettuce wraps were probably some of the spiciest food I've ever eaten, so I'd hate to see what Opal considers to be spicy. They were very, very delicious though, so we didn't mind too much that we were going through about three glasses of water for every wrap we ate. After that, Opal brought us out some yellow curry and shrimp pad thai. The yellow curry was really good and even had potatoes in it (which is my favorite). The pad thai was also delicious. For dessert, we had some of their homemade cheesecake which was also amazing. Opal and his family were very friendly and welcoming. Overall, it was a great Thai place with a fun atmosphere. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and called it a night.
09 February 2013
Grace and I had visited our church's temple in Laie when were here last time for the open house. It had just been renovated, so we were able to walk through it. We had both decided we wanted to do some temple work here the next time we visited, so we planned to do a session this trip. We had a great session, and we have a really funny story to share about our experience. This blog isn't probably the best forum to tell it, so ask us about it the next time you see us if you're interested in hearing it.
After the temple, we tried to go to the Hukilau Lanai for lunch. Grace and I watched "50 First Dates" for our first date, and the Hukilau Lanai is the name of the restaurant in the movie. Although this isn't the same restaurant (the one in the movie is fake); this is the restaurant they took the name from, so we've always wanted to eat there. The Hukilau Lanai is only open until about 1200 each day (they're on island time, so they kinda close whenever they want). We had tried to visit this restaurant last time we were here, but it closed right before we got there. We struck out again this trip, so we decided to head back to the Kahuku Grill. I got my favorite again, and Grace got their Shem's Big Bad Bacon Guacamole Burger. Again, both of these were delicious. I think we would have eaten here every day if possible.
After eating, we stopped by Laie Point. There's no big attraction here, but it's a pretty cool place. It has some really cool cliffs and rock formations right on the ocean. We only stopped by, but I'd like to go back and explore around it some more. We had to get going though to visit the Polynesian Cultural Center.
Grace and I visited the PCC last trip, I visited it the trip before, and we'll probably visit it every time we go to Oahu. It's an awesome experience to visit each of the little islands and catch glimpses of their culture. The luau is also fun. We didn't have a great time at the luau our first trip, but it was fun. We think that it was just ok because we were seated across from each other at a big table with other people that we didn't know. This trip, we made sure we sat next to each other, and that made it a lot better. We also met a really nice couple from Wisconsin that sat across from us. The husband had been in the Army back in Vietnam. He is now an editor and an assistant fire chief, and the wife is a school teacher. They were a really nice couple, and we had a great time talking to them and getting to know them. We were also invited to screen a new movie that the PCC will show in their IMAX theater. It was pretty cool to be a guinea pig for them, and they gave us a free DVD of some fire-knife competitions. After we finished screening the movie, we headed over to the main event for us, the "Ha: The Breath of Life" show. This is a phenomenal show that incorporates dances from several Polynesian islands into one story. It's an amazing production put on (mostly) by students from BYU-Hawaii. The students do an outstanding job, and it's a great show. We were worried that we had built the show up in our heads too much from our last visit, but the second the show kicked off, we knew that we had remembered correctly how good it was. This is probably the biggest must-do for us on Oahu.
Grace is excited the pig is coming out of the ground for the luau
My traditional picture with the Easter Island head
Grace doesn't take the tradition as seriously as I do
After the show, we enjoyed our drive back along the windward coast back to our hotel. We were tired, so we called it a night.
10 February 2013
Today was our last full day on the island and also our patriotic day. We started off by grabbing some more of those coco puffs from Liliha Bakery for breakfast. Then, we headed out to Pearl Harbor to visit the USS Arizona Memorial. This is always a sobering place to visit, but I feel like it's a necessary place to stop each time we come. After paying our respects at the Memorial, we went over to the USS Missouri. General Douglas MacArthur, along with representatives from other Allied countries, formally accepted and signed the Japanese surrender on the deck of the USS Missouri. It was pretty cool to stand in the same place that document was signed. The USS Missouri was decommissioned in 1955 but reactivated and modernized in 1984. It fought in World War II, the Korean War, and Desert Storm. The ship was then decommissioned again in 1994. It was also really interesting to walk through the ship and see how Sailors and Marines lived on ships during the early 90s.
After touring the Missouri, we headed over to the Pearl Harbor Navy Exchange to look around. I think this is the biggest exchange in any of the services (an exchange is an all-purpose store...like a Wal-Mart, only much classier), so we decided to check it out. We also grabbed some lunch while we were there in their food court.
After finishing up at Pearl Harbor, we went back to the Hale Koa to relax in the pool and hot tub. We had a good time just relaxing for a while. After that, we went for a walk through Waikiki and did some more window shopping. We grabbed dinner at Tropics Bar and Grill at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. The food was just ok, but the location is really nice. Our table was right on the beach, so we enjoyed the atmosphere. After dinner, we went to bed.
11 February 2013
We started off our day right by grabbing some breakfast from McDonald's. They serve Spam and Portuguese sausage at McDonald's in Hawaii, so I wanted to give it a shot for breakfast. I got the breakfast plate with Spam, Portuguese sausage, eggs, and rice. It wasn't too bad. The Portuguese sausage wasn't super great, but the Spam, eggs, and rice were a pretty good breakfast. After that, we were going to hike the Kuliouou Ridge Trail, but the sky was overcast and looking like it was going to rain. We knew the views wouldn't be very good from the top, so we decided not to do it this trip. Instead, we went to Lanikai Beach and relaxed for a little bit. That beach has the finest sand I've ever seen. It was more like flour than sand. It was a really nice beach, but we only spent about 30 minutes there before the rain pushed us out.
We headed north up the windward coast and stopped by Sunset Beach to grab lunch at Ted's Bakery. I got a pulled pork sandwich that was pretty good. Grace chose a grilled cheese sandwich that was pretty good too. Most importantly, we got some of their chocolate haupia pie. This pie is absolutely amazing. Rain was stilling spitting on us, so we decided to just keep driving to Haleiwa to grab some shave ice. We stopped by Matsumoto's again and took our shave ice to Haleiwa Beach Park to eat them. We hit a little patch of sunshine, so it was fun sitting at the beach eating them. The rain started to come down again, so we went back to Waikiki where it was drier to spend the afternoon. We spent the afternoon just swimming at Waikiki and walking along the beach and shops. We watched the last sunset of our trip and then tried to grab some dinner before our flights. Unfortunately, the wait was too long at each of the places we wanted to eat. Instead, we packed up and left for the airport. We ended up eating at some Mexican place in the airport that wasn't very good.
Saying good-bye to Diamond Head
Our last sunset
We boarded our flight right around 11:00 pm with the temperature at 72 degrees. We immediately fell asleep and didn't wake up until we landed the next morning in Denver at 12 degrees. It was a pretty big shock for us, and not a great welcome home.
This was another great trip for us, and definitely gave us something to look forward to during the deployment. We loved relaxing with each other and just being able to spend time together again. We even learned some new things:
And thus concludes Grace and Abe's most recent adventure to Hawaii.
I love reading about your trip and the food and the hikes and seeing the pictures. I also love that you have some traditions for each visit - patriotic day, temple, PCC.
ReplyDeleteThis makes me really want to go back to Hawaii.
I love the Hawaiian style commandments - no talk stink about nobody is good advice.
Thanks for writing and documenting this for us, sweetheart! You did such a good job. I can't wait to go on more Hawaiian adventures with you. I love you lots and lots.
ReplyDeleteThis was fun to read. I think it made me break the tenth commandment though.
ReplyDeleteI'm a little late catching up on your blog, but your trip looked like it was so much fun! So glad you were able to enjoy some time together in such a beautiful place. Keep posting :)
ReplyDelete