Blog: Honeymoon to Hawaii
Menu
Honeymoon to Hawaii - Sunday, October 7, 2012
Sadly, this blog entry about our Hawaii honeymoon was written a month after getting back from Hawaii. Being busy writing a ton of Yelp reviews (all linked here) has been part of why it's taken so long to finish writing this entry, but I still don't have a great excuse. I just needed to sit down and force myself to do it, which, evidently I've now done. So without further ado, I present to you our adventures in Hawaii in this super-long wall of text, which I'm sure all of you are going to read in one sitting, word for word.
After a "mere" four months of being married, Priscilla and I went on our honeymoon to Hawaii! Now I know that couples typically go on their honeymoon shortly after the wedding, but we had a few reasons for not following convention. First, with all the wedding planning we had to do, we didn't even want to start thinking about the honeymoon till much later. Second, we wanted to allow ample time for us to transition from an LDR to marriage, and for Priscilla to adjust to life in the Bay Area. Finally, we wanted to avoid the summer peak travel season in order to save some money.
Originally, we were thinking of visiting just Oahu, but somebody mentioned to us that Big Island has the only active volcanoes amongst all the islands, so we decided to visit both islands in this trip. Kona and Hilo are the two main cities on Big Island, and we decided to stay in Kona because it's less expensive. On Oahu, we stayed in Waikiki, which is pretty much the place tourists stay. We planned our trip from Friday, August 31 till Sunday, September 9. This gave us two full weekends and a holiday (Labor Day), meaning that we would need to take off only 5 days from work to have a 10-day trip.
Day 1 (Friday):
So at 7:40am on August 31, we took off on an Alaska Airlines flight bound from San Jose to Kona. We went with Alaska because they had a better fare than Hawaiian Airlines, strangely. The in-flight snacks were pretty decent: we were given drinks three times (I was introduced to pog and ordered it twice), a macadamia nut cookie, and a free Mai Tai. The flight was about five hours long, and we landed in Kona at 10am due to the 3-hour time difference.
After picking up our rental car at Enterprise, we drove to Costco and got two loaves of bread, sliced turkey, sliced salmon, and sliced cheese. It was cool to see regional items like surfboards for sale here! Some prices were extremely high compared to back at home, like a 2.5lb bag of Spinach selling for $10 that back at home sells for $4. Our first taste of Hawaiian prices.
We then checked into our hotel, Keauhou Beach Resort. Since Priscilla had told them we were on our honeymoon, we got a free upgrade to a king size bed, a better view of the ocean, and a free gift of a stone picture frame. Our room wasn't modern-looking but it was quaint. We made sandwiches, then drove quite a ways to Mountain Thunder, a coffee plantation where we got a free tour. It was cool seeing all the machinery used in coffee bean sorting, and our guide Taro was pretty knowledgeable and interesting, but it would've been cooler if we got to see some of the machines in action. We bought an expensive bag of 100% Kona coffee (supposed to be really good).
By now, I was learning why people say that Hawaii has slow drivers. Just about everywhere on Big Island, we would get stuck behind somebody going at or below the speed limit. Granted, slow drivers exist everywhere, but I think they're more apparent in places like Big Island where roads often are one lane in each direction. Drivers in Hawaii did seem to be nicer than what I'm used to, though.
Anyway, after Mountain Thunder we went to Walmart, since we decided that it would be good for me to have a pair of shorts in humid Kona. We went to the Safeway next door to get tomatoes for our sandwiches and nectarines, then returned to the hotel and had more sandwiches. We ended the evening by swimming in the hotel pool. We were the only ones there, probably because it was raining! But rain isn't really an issue when you're already in the water. ;)
Day 2 (Saturday):
After a nice, hot breakfast at the hotel, we drove two hours to Ka Lae (South Point), the southernmost point in the United States. We parked at the South Point Cliff Dive and looked around and saw people deep-sea fishing and swimming in the water below the cliffs. We took a stroll in the direction we thought would take us further south, found a rocky beach area and went out into the water. I got my shoes soaked after venturing out onto a rock and failing to dodge a wave. =( We didn't know exactly where the southernmost tip of Ka Lae was, but it turns out we were about 400 feet from it. Doh! But we can still say we've been to Ka Lae.
We then continued up the coast, stopped at Punalu'u Bake Shop for a malasada (tasted like a normal donut; I don't see what's so special), and then made our way to the Punalu'u Black Sand Beach, which had coarse black sand and really sharp rocks (not good for swimming). There was a turtle sunbathing on shore. It was so still that I didn't know whether it was alive until several minutes later when it moved slightly to escape the rising tide.
Lunch was at a vegetarian place called Cafe Ono near the town of Volcano. Lunch was locally-sourced and delicious. We tried to pet the goat out in the backyard, but it started headbutting us because it was hungry/cranky.
The last activity of the day was at the Volcanoes National Park, where we saw steam vents, the Kilauea crater volcano, and a tunnel that was formed by lava flowing through the ground. It was cool, but I wish we were able to get closer to the lava. Supposedly you have to take a helicopter tour if you want to see lava.
Day 3 (Sunday):
This day we took the northern route across the island. The highway on the west shore ran across black volcanic rock, on which lots of people have piled white rocks to form names and pictures. We stopped along the highway and "borrowed" some rocks from words that were illegible, and made our own heart with "A + P" inside (the first of many).
The first stop on our list was Akaka Falls, where we enjoyed some scenic views around the walkway loop. For lunch, we got chicken and fish wraps and smoothies at What's Shakin', a touristy place off the beaten path. The smoothies are the real deal, made largely with fruit grown right on the farm in back of the restaurant. This place sells double entendre soap and other funny gag gifts.
Next up was Rainbow Falls, which wasn't as much a sight as Akaka Falls, especially since the rainbow wasn't out. The last item of the day was the Pana'ewa Zoo in Hilo, a small zoo where admission was free. We went there mainly to see a live feeding of the white Bengal Tiger, Namaste. However, we found that Namaste wasn't in the best shape due to old age, being unable to stand for more than a few seconds on his hind legs. It was such a sad sight to see him struggling and limping, so we skipped the feeding and checked out the rest of the zoo. There were birds of various kinds in cages, reptiles in tanks, anteaters, and a petting zoo which was unfortunately not open that day.
Day 4 (Monday):
We took a free language culture class after breakfast at the hotel. The class helped us understand how to pronounce Hawaiian words and the meaning behind words like "aloha" and "haole". We learned how the written language was brought by missionaries; prior to that, Hawaiian was an all oral language. A consonant never directly follows a consonant, an apostrophe separates two vowels into different syllables, and a macron over a vowel draws out its length.
We went snorkeling at Kahalu'u Beach Park, where Priscilla got bitten by the state fish - the reef triggerfish, known in Hawaiian as the humuhumunukunukuapua'a (a word we had coincidentally just learned in our language class). Apparently that fish is very territorial and doesn't like humans standing in its nesting area. Priscilla was so honored to have been bitten by the state fish and couldn't stop bragging about it afterward. She was also a lot better at snorkeling than I was. I had trouble keeping water out of my snorkel tube, and my goggles constantly got fogged up.
It was then time to say aloha (goodbye) to the Big Island and aloha (hello) to Oahu. We returned to the Kona Airport, where we boarded our 45-minute Hawaiian Airlines flight to Honolulu.
The difference between Oahu and Big Island is like day and night. Big Island was very scenic and serene, while in Honolulu I felt like I was back in LA, and in Waikiki with all its high-rise hotels, I felt like I was in San Francisco. We were picked up from the airport by a shuttle driver who was really entertaining and knew a lot about the island. He told us about some of the places to see around Waikiki, how there are ABC Stores everywhere, and how only recently China has surpassed Japan to claim the largest percentage by ethnicity of tourists to Hawaii.
We checked into our hotel, the Waikiki Sand Villa. That place wasn't nearly as nice as Keauhou and they were unable to fulfill our request for a courtesy room upgrade. The room was smaller than the one we had at Keauhou, had less furniture, and the decor was drab. Well we wanted a budget hotel, and that's what we got.
That night we had dinner with my friend Nessa, whom I know from an online MMO, at Old Spaghetti Factory at the Ward Center. The decor there was grand. Taking TheBus to get there was, however, not so grand, as that bus neither displayed nor announced the names of each stop. I had to ask the driver where the Ward Center was, and we ended up getting off one stop too early since the Ward Center is a very large place and has multiple stops. Taking the bus back to our hotel was much easier, as that bus announced every stop.
Day 5 (Tuesday):
I had gotten sick from traveling and not drinking enough water or getting enough fruits, so we tried taking it easier this day. Still, we had a tour that we'd already paid for to go on. Our bus tour took us around Waikiki, Punchbowl (we were let out once to see the statue of Kamehameha I), National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (we saw it all from the bus), and a couple hours at Pearl Harbor. At Pearl Harbor we toured the outdoor exhibits and visited the Arizona Memorial, a white memorial on the water next to the sunken U.S.S. Arizona, which requires a short ferry ride to get to.
After getting back to Waikiki, we had lunch at Marukame Udon, a pretty decent udon place with great prices. I got the regular niku (beef) bowl. Yum! We got some oranges and water at the ABC Store nearest to our hotel. Eating those oranges really helped me get much better by the next day.
Day 6 (Wednesday):
This is the only day we had a car rental. We got a swanky Chevrolet Impala LTZ from Budget, which had a rental office located inside the Hyatt. My dad had given us the address of his family's old house in Honolulu, so we stopped there in the morning to take some pictures. We were afraid of staying too long, as it's weird from somebody else's point of view for some random person to be taking pictures of their house. We found our way to the Dole Plantation and watched a pineapple cutting demonstration, got dole whip, and did the outdoor maze. Priscilla and I competed to see who could find all eight relics in the maze first. We were given complete maps of the maze, but I handicapped myself by not allowing myself to look at the map, save for determining each relic's approximate location. This handicap proved too much, as I ended up at the same relic four times and was unable to find them all without giving up and using the map. Needless to say, Priscilla won by quite a bit.
For lunch on our way up to North Shore, we stopped at a parking lot where shrimp trucks are parked. Priscilla got a plate of shrimp from the famous Giovanni's Shrimp Truck, while I got mine from Hono's Shrimp Truck. I liked mine better because I got more food than Priscilla for $1 less. We stopped by Matsumoto's Grocery Store for Priscilla to get shave ice; I didn't really care for it, but I did eat the ice cream at the bottom.
We stopped at Hale'iwa Beach Park to take some pictures, then at Waimea Beach to relax some more. We hadn't brought our swimwear so I was in jeans and tennis shoes. I built a sandcastle too close to the water, and the waves washed over my feet unexpectedly when the tide rose, so my shoes got soaked for a second time. Joy.
Before returning the car, we stopped by Walmart in Honolulu to get macadamia nuts to bring back to our friends and family. Unfortunately, the less expensive trays of chocolate covered macadamia nuts were sold out; we should've bought them in Kona when we had the chance, and I think they were also slightly cheaper there. We ended up getting two 3-packs of nuts in a can: Kona coffee glazed, milk chocolate, and milk chocolate toffee.
Day 7 (Thursday):
The Royal Hawaiian Center offers a bunch of free events including a ukulele lesson four times a week. We tried to make the one this morning but were late and missed a good amount of it. So instead, we just walked and waited around until the dance and singing performance put on by the Polynesian Cultural Center - a small sample of the full experience one would have at the PCC.
We had lunch at Marukame Udon for the second time, followed by swimming at Kuhio Beach, the main beach in Waikiki. Even though it was off season, the beach was still very crowded. Makes sense, since it's the only beach in town, and Waikiki is the tourist capital of Hawaii. I noticed a surfboard rental place on the beach, so on a whim I suggested that we rent surfboards. I pretty much used my surfboard as a giant boogieboard. Catching waves was pretty difficult, but a guy out on the water gave me some pointers and I caught a couple waves at the end. However, I was still using the surfboard as a giant boogieboard - no standing up for me. I was still better than Priscilla, which makes up for me being so much worse than her at snorkeling!
The last major event of the day was back at the Royal Hawaiian Center, where we caught a hula lesson and learned the dance moves for a song about a rainbow. There was a large crowd participating - maybe 100 people, and only a handful of guys. I'm pretty sure all the other guys were slightly better dancers than I was.
For dinner, in addition to sandwiches, we got a steak plate from HiSteaks, a to-go steak restaurant inside of a Food Pantry near our hotel. We got the terriyaki sauce. The steak was pretty good - tender and flavorful.
Day 8 (Friday):
We made sure to get to the ukulele lesson early this time. There weren't as many people here as there were the day before, and the instructor turned out to be the same nice lady who gave the hula lesson! We learned a few chords and Priscilla got pretty good by the end of the lesson - such a natural! A lei making class was next. I thought it'd be kind of lame, but it was actually pretty interesting! It was put on by Aunty Bella's Lei Stand, the oldest lei stand still run by people of Hawaiian heritage. They use quality flowers grown right on the islands of Hawaii - the same flowers that we got to make our free leis with. People usually have to pay $20 or more for leis like the ones we made, hah!
For lunch, we had a steak plate from HiSteaks again. Priscilla was addicted to that place. This time around we tried the lemon/butter sauce, which I liked a little better than the terriyaki sauce (but both were good). We took The Bus in the afternoon to Diamond Head State Monument and walked up the road to the park. It was about a 45-minute hike to the top of the crater, where we had an amazing view of the coast and Waikiki. I'm really envious of the people who live nearby who can come here to hike regularly!
We then walked a good ways to Rainbow Drive-in for dinner. However many hundreds of calories we burned from all that hiking and walking, we probably gained right back from all the fried food at this place. We ended up throwing some away since it was just way too much fried stuff for our stomachs to handle. We got some adequate pastries from Napoleon's Bakery and then called it a night.
Day 9 (Saturday):
All of day 9 was spent at the Polynesian Cultural Center. Our booking included transportation, and our guide, Cousin Leon, was hilarious and interesting. We visited six villages in the park: Samoa, Aotearoa, Hawaii, Fiji, Tahiti, and Tonga.
The guys at the Samoa show were hilarious- climbing trees for coconuts, cracking open coconuts, making fires, and making jokes all the way. At Aotearoa, we watched a cool dance where people tossed sticks to each other, women gracefully swung poi, and we even played some games on the lawn afterwards. At the Hawaii village, we listened to traditional and modern Hawaiian songs and watched a girl dance hula to them. At Fiji, each audience member was given a hollow stick and we helped make music by banging them on the floor. At Tahiti, we watched a volunteer female audience member do the grass skirt dance, and volunteer male audience members do the chicken dance. This one volunteer happened to be from one of the Polynesian islands himself and was a really good dancer. Finally at Tonga, we listened as the guys here played these large drums. The lead drummer asked for three volunteers from the audience to help play drums, and they were hilarious. Especially this Chinese guy who didn't understand English very well but had a very entertaining stage presence. There was a canoe pageant at noon, where dancers from each village danced on a flat canoe on the river running through the PCC.
Dinner was held in one of the many dining halls. The buffet was excellent - there was plenty of Polynesian-style food, and we left really, really full. At the end of the night was the "Ha: Breath of Life" show, which features one storyline through the six different cultures that we'd seen earlier in the day. The dancers had a lot of costume changes, there was always a lot going on, and the show made good use of stage props and video screens. The choreography and execution were excellent, and the fire dancing with guys spinning flaming torches was utterly amazing. Though we wished that our visit was longer, it still took up almost the entire day.
Day 10 (Sunday):
Sunday was our flight back home, and we didn't do too much. We swam in the morning after breakfast (the pool had a cool island off to the side, creating a narrow channel between it and the edge), checked out, and got to Honolulu International a couple hours before our 2pm flight. The flight was five and a half hours long, but due to the time zone change we landed in San Jose around 10pm. We were pretty exhausted and it took me a few days to fully recuperate mentally. Like needing a vacation from vacation, people say.
Summary:
Hawaii was thrilling. It was a place where the pace of life seems a lot slower despite our feeling rushed to see lots of different things. I learned a lot (I think) about the culture and about the idea of ha, cherishing one's family and friends, sharing that breath while we are still able to. We'll probably visit a lot of other places before we make another trip to Hawaii, but I can't wait until next time!
After a "mere" four months of being married, Priscilla and I went on our honeymoon to Hawaii! Now I know that couples typically go on their honeymoon shortly after the wedding, but we had a few reasons for not following convention. First, with all the wedding planning we had to do, we didn't even want to start thinking about the honeymoon till much later. Second, we wanted to allow ample time for us to transition from an LDR to marriage, and for Priscilla to adjust to life in the Bay Area. Finally, we wanted to avoid the summer peak travel season in order to save some money.
Originally, we were thinking of visiting just Oahu, but somebody mentioned to us that Big Island has the only active volcanoes amongst all the islands, so we decided to visit both islands in this trip. Kona and Hilo are the two main cities on Big Island, and we decided to stay in Kona because it's less expensive. On Oahu, we stayed in Waikiki, which is pretty much the place tourists stay. We planned our trip from Friday, August 31 till Sunday, September 9. This gave us two full weekends and a holiday (Labor Day), meaning that we would need to take off only 5 days from work to have a 10-day trip.
Day 1 (Friday):
So at 7:40am on August 31, we took off on an Alaska Airlines flight bound from San Jose to Kona. We went with Alaska because they had a better fare than Hawaiian Airlines, strangely. The in-flight snacks were pretty decent: we were given drinks three times (I was introduced to pog and ordered it twice), a macadamia nut cookie, and a free Mai Tai. The flight was about five hours long, and we landed in Kona at 10am due to the 3-hour time difference.
After picking up our rental car at Enterprise, we drove to Costco and got two loaves of bread, sliced turkey, sliced salmon, and sliced cheese. It was cool to see regional items like surfboards for sale here! Some prices were extremely high compared to back at home, like a 2.5lb bag of Spinach selling for $10 that back at home sells for $4. Our first taste of Hawaiian prices.
We then checked into our hotel, Keauhou Beach Resort. Since Priscilla had told them we were on our honeymoon, we got a free upgrade to a king size bed, a better view of the ocean, and a free gift of a stone picture frame. Our room wasn't modern-looking but it was quaint. We made sandwiches, then drove quite a ways to Mountain Thunder, a coffee plantation where we got a free tour. It was cool seeing all the machinery used in coffee bean sorting, and our guide Taro was pretty knowledgeable and interesting, but it would've been cooler if we got to see some of the machines in action. We bought an expensive bag of 100% Kona coffee (supposed to be really good).
By now, I was learning why people say that Hawaii has slow drivers. Just about everywhere on Big Island, we would get stuck behind somebody going at or below the speed limit. Granted, slow drivers exist everywhere, but I think they're more apparent in places like Big Island where roads often are one lane in each direction. Drivers in Hawaii did seem to be nicer than what I'm used to, though.
Anyway, after Mountain Thunder we went to Walmart, since we decided that it would be good for me to have a pair of shorts in humid Kona. We went to the Safeway next door to get tomatoes for our sandwiches and nectarines, then returned to the hotel and had more sandwiches. We ended the evening by swimming in the hotel pool. We were the only ones there, probably because it was raining! But rain isn't really an issue when you're already in the water. ;)
Day 2 (Saturday):
After a nice, hot breakfast at the hotel, we drove two hours to Ka Lae (South Point), the southernmost point in the United States. We parked at the South Point Cliff Dive and looked around and saw people deep-sea fishing and swimming in the water below the cliffs. We took a stroll in the direction we thought would take us further south, found a rocky beach area and went out into the water. I got my shoes soaked after venturing out onto a rock and failing to dodge a wave. =( We didn't know exactly where the southernmost tip of Ka Lae was, but it turns out we were about 400 feet from it. Doh! But we can still say we've been to Ka Lae.
We then continued up the coast, stopped at Punalu'u Bake Shop for a malasada (tasted like a normal donut; I don't see what's so special), and then made our way to the Punalu'u Black Sand Beach, which had coarse black sand and really sharp rocks (not good for swimming). There was a turtle sunbathing on shore. It was so still that I didn't know whether it was alive until several minutes later when it moved slightly to escape the rising tide.
Lunch was at a vegetarian place called Cafe Ono near the town of Volcano. Lunch was locally-sourced and delicious. We tried to pet the goat out in the backyard, but it started headbutting us because it was hungry/cranky.
The last activity of the day was at the Volcanoes National Park, where we saw steam vents, the Kilauea crater volcano, and a tunnel that was formed by lava flowing through the ground. It was cool, but I wish we were able to get closer to the lava. Supposedly you have to take a helicopter tour if you want to see lava.
Day 3 (Sunday):
This day we took the northern route across the island. The highway on the west shore ran across black volcanic rock, on which lots of people have piled white rocks to form names and pictures. We stopped along the highway and "borrowed" some rocks from words that were illegible, and made our own heart with "A + P" inside (the first of many).
The first stop on our list was Akaka Falls, where we enjoyed some scenic views around the walkway loop. For lunch, we got chicken and fish wraps and smoothies at What's Shakin', a touristy place off the beaten path. The smoothies are the real deal, made largely with fruit grown right on the farm in back of the restaurant. This place sells double entendre soap and other funny gag gifts.
Next up was Rainbow Falls, which wasn't as much a sight as Akaka Falls, especially since the rainbow wasn't out. The last item of the day was the Pana'ewa Zoo in Hilo, a small zoo where admission was free. We went there mainly to see a live feeding of the white Bengal Tiger, Namaste. However, we found that Namaste wasn't in the best shape due to old age, being unable to stand for more than a few seconds on his hind legs. It was such a sad sight to see him struggling and limping, so we skipped the feeding and checked out the rest of the zoo. There were birds of various kinds in cages, reptiles in tanks, anteaters, and a petting zoo which was unfortunately not open that day.
Day 4 (Monday):
We took a free language culture class after breakfast at the hotel. The class helped us understand how to pronounce Hawaiian words and the meaning behind words like "aloha" and "haole". We learned how the written language was brought by missionaries; prior to that, Hawaiian was an all oral language. A consonant never directly follows a consonant, an apostrophe separates two vowels into different syllables, and a macron over a vowel draws out its length.
We went snorkeling at Kahalu'u Beach Park, where Priscilla got bitten by the state fish - the reef triggerfish, known in Hawaiian as the humuhumunukunukuapua'a (a word we had coincidentally just learned in our language class). Apparently that fish is very territorial and doesn't like humans standing in its nesting area. Priscilla was so honored to have been bitten by the state fish and couldn't stop bragging about it afterward. She was also a lot better at snorkeling than I was. I had trouble keeping water out of my snorkel tube, and my goggles constantly got fogged up.
It was then time to say aloha (goodbye) to the Big Island and aloha (hello) to Oahu. We returned to the Kona Airport, where we boarded our 45-minute Hawaiian Airlines flight to Honolulu.
The difference between Oahu and Big Island is like day and night. Big Island was very scenic and serene, while in Honolulu I felt like I was back in LA, and in Waikiki with all its high-rise hotels, I felt like I was in San Francisco. We were picked up from the airport by a shuttle driver who was really entertaining and knew a lot about the island. He told us about some of the places to see around Waikiki, how there are ABC Stores everywhere, and how only recently China has surpassed Japan to claim the largest percentage by ethnicity of tourists to Hawaii.
We checked into our hotel, the Waikiki Sand Villa. That place wasn't nearly as nice as Keauhou and they were unable to fulfill our request for a courtesy room upgrade. The room was smaller than the one we had at Keauhou, had less furniture, and the decor was drab. Well we wanted a budget hotel, and that's what we got.
That night we had dinner with my friend Nessa, whom I know from an online MMO, at Old Spaghetti Factory at the Ward Center. The decor there was grand. Taking TheBus to get there was, however, not so grand, as that bus neither displayed nor announced the names of each stop. I had to ask the driver where the Ward Center was, and we ended up getting off one stop too early since the Ward Center is a very large place and has multiple stops. Taking the bus back to our hotel was much easier, as that bus announced every stop.
Day 5 (Tuesday):
I had gotten sick from traveling and not drinking enough water or getting enough fruits, so we tried taking it easier this day. Still, we had a tour that we'd already paid for to go on. Our bus tour took us around Waikiki, Punchbowl (we were let out once to see the statue of Kamehameha I), National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (we saw it all from the bus), and a couple hours at Pearl Harbor. At Pearl Harbor we toured the outdoor exhibits and visited the Arizona Memorial, a white memorial on the water next to the sunken U.S.S. Arizona, which requires a short ferry ride to get to.
After getting back to Waikiki, we had lunch at Marukame Udon, a pretty decent udon place with great prices. I got the regular niku (beef) bowl. Yum! We got some oranges and water at the ABC Store nearest to our hotel. Eating those oranges really helped me get much better by the next day.
Day 6 (Wednesday):
This is the only day we had a car rental. We got a swanky Chevrolet Impala LTZ from Budget, which had a rental office located inside the Hyatt. My dad had given us the address of his family's old house in Honolulu, so we stopped there in the morning to take some pictures. We were afraid of staying too long, as it's weird from somebody else's point of view for some random person to be taking pictures of their house. We found our way to the Dole Plantation and watched a pineapple cutting demonstration, got dole whip, and did the outdoor maze. Priscilla and I competed to see who could find all eight relics in the maze first. We were given complete maps of the maze, but I handicapped myself by not allowing myself to look at the map, save for determining each relic's approximate location. This handicap proved too much, as I ended up at the same relic four times and was unable to find them all without giving up and using the map. Needless to say, Priscilla won by quite a bit.
For lunch on our way up to North Shore, we stopped at a parking lot where shrimp trucks are parked. Priscilla got a plate of shrimp from the famous Giovanni's Shrimp Truck, while I got mine from Hono's Shrimp Truck. I liked mine better because I got more food than Priscilla for $1 less. We stopped by Matsumoto's Grocery Store for Priscilla to get shave ice; I didn't really care for it, but I did eat the ice cream at the bottom.
We stopped at Hale'iwa Beach Park to take some pictures, then at Waimea Beach to relax some more. We hadn't brought our swimwear so I was in jeans and tennis shoes. I built a sandcastle too close to the water, and the waves washed over my feet unexpectedly when the tide rose, so my shoes got soaked for a second time. Joy.
Before returning the car, we stopped by Walmart in Honolulu to get macadamia nuts to bring back to our friends and family. Unfortunately, the less expensive trays of chocolate covered macadamia nuts were sold out; we should've bought them in Kona when we had the chance, and I think they were also slightly cheaper there. We ended up getting two 3-packs of nuts in a can: Kona coffee glazed, milk chocolate, and milk chocolate toffee.
Day 7 (Thursday):
The Royal Hawaiian Center offers a bunch of free events including a ukulele lesson four times a week. We tried to make the one this morning but were late and missed a good amount of it. So instead, we just walked and waited around until the dance and singing performance put on by the Polynesian Cultural Center - a small sample of the full experience one would have at the PCC.
We had lunch at Marukame Udon for the second time, followed by swimming at Kuhio Beach, the main beach in Waikiki. Even though it was off season, the beach was still very crowded. Makes sense, since it's the only beach in town, and Waikiki is the tourist capital of Hawaii. I noticed a surfboard rental place on the beach, so on a whim I suggested that we rent surfboards. I pretty much used my surfboard as a giant boogieboard. Catching waves was pretty difficult, but a guy out on the water gave me some pointers and I caught a couple waves at the end. However, I was still using the surfboard as a giant boogieboard - no standing up for me. I was still better than Priscilla, which makes up for me being so much worse than her at snorkeling!
The last major event of the day was back at the Royal Hawaiian Center, where we caught a hula lesson and learned the dance moves for a song about a rainbow. There was a large crowd participating - maybe 100 people, and only a handful of guys. I'm pretty sure all the other guys were slightly better dancers than I was.
For dinner, in addition to sandwiches, we got a steak plate from HiSteaks, a to-go steak restaurant inside of a Food Pantry near our hotel. We got the terriyaki sauce. The steak was pretty good - tender and flavorful.
Day 8 (Friday):
We made sure to get to the ukulele lesson early this time. There weren't as many people here as there were the day before, and the instructor turned out to be the same nice lady who gave the hula lesson! We learned a few chords and Priscilla got pretty good by the end of the lesson - such a natural! A lei making class was next. I thought it'd be kind of lame, but it was actually pretty interesting! It was put on by Aunty Bella's Lei Stand, the oldest lei stand still run by people of Hawaiian heritage. They use quality flowers grown right on the islands of Hawaii - the same flowers that we got to make our free leis with. People usually have to pay $20 or more for leis like the ones we made, hah!
For lunch, we had a steak plate from HiSteaks again. Priscilla was addicted to that place. This time around we tried the lemon/butter sauce, which I liked a little better than the terriyaki sauce (but both were good). We took The Bus in the afternoon to Diamond Head State Monument and walked up the road to the park. It was about a 45-minute hike to the top of the crater, where we had an amazing view of the coast and Waikiki. I'm really envious of the people who live nearby who can come here to hike regularly!
We then walked a good ways to Rainbow Drive-in for dinner. However many hundreds of calories we burned from all that hiking and walking, we probably gained right back from all the fried food at this place. We ended up throwing some away since it was just way too much fried stuff for our stomachs to handle. We got some adequate pastries from Napoleon's Bakery and then called it a night.
Day 9 (Saturday):
All of day 9 was spent at the Polynesian Cultural Center. Our booking included transportation, and our guide, Cousin Leon, was hilarious and interesting. We visited six villages in the park: Samoa, Aotearoa, Hawaii, Fiji, Tahiti, and Tonga.
The guys at the Samoa show were hilarious- climbing trees for coconuts, cracking open coconuts, making fires, and making jokes all the way. At Aotearoa, we watched a cool dance where people tossed sticks to each other, women gracefully swung poi, and we even played some games on the lawn afterwards. At the Hawaii village, we listened to traditional and modern Hawaiian songs and watched a girl dance hula to them. At Fiji, each audience member was given a hollow stick and we helped make music by banging them on the floor. At Tahiti, we watched a volunteer female audience member do the grass skirt dance, and volunteer male audience members do the chicken dance. This one volunteer happened to be from one of the Polynesian islands himself and was a really good dancer. Finally at Tonga, we listened as the guys here played these large drums. The lead drummer asked for three volunteers from the audience to help play drums, and they were hilarious. Especially this Chinese guy who didn't understand English very well but had a very entertaining stage presence. There was a canoe pageant at noon, where dancers from each village danced on a flat canoe on the river running through the PCC.
Dinner was held in one of the many dining halls. The buffet was excellent - there was plenty of Polynesian-style food, and we left really, really full. At the end of the night was the "Ha: Breath of Life" show, which features one storyline through the six different cultures that we'd seen earlier in the day. The dancers had a lot of costume changes, there was always a lot going on, and the show made good use of stage props and video screens. The choreography and execution were excellent, and the fire dancing with guys spinning flaming torches was utterly amazing. Though we wished that our visit was longer, it still took up almost the entire day.
Day 10 (Sunday):
Sunday was our flight back home, and we didn't do too much. We swam in the morning after breakfast (the pool had a cool island off to the side, creating a narrow channel between it and the edge), checked out, and got to Honolulu International a couple hours before our 2pm flight. The flight was five and a half hours long, but due to the time zone change we landed in San Jose around 10pm. We were pretty exhausted and it took me a few days to fully recuperate mentally. Like needing a vacation from vacation, people say.
Summary:
Hawaii was thrilling. It was a place where the pace of life seems a lot slower despite our feeling rushed to see lots of different things. I learned a lot (I think) about the culture and about the idea of ha, cherishing one's family and friends, sharing that breath while we are still able to. We'll probably visit a lot of other places before we make another trip to Hawaii, but I can't wait until next time!