Not much to talk about Hawaii this time around. Joy and I spent most of our time actually on Waikiki Beach (for the first time) just laying out playing in the surf and floating on a inflatable raft out in the middle of nowhere. I actually was able to actually turn a few shades darker with the amount sun i was able to get. A few new things that actually occurred on this trip was that we actually got to see two turtles out in the water, the first at hanauma bay, and the second right out in waikiki beach, and i got a little heat exhaustion on the last full day we were there.
We sure did go through our laundry list of places to eat and ended up eating at (i’ll update with links to my yelp account as i write them):
*Update i added my past reviews, and Joy’s reviews to the list (no point double posting reviews)
- Blue Water Shrimp & Seafood Co.
- Ramen Nakamura
- McDonald’s
- Rainbow Drive-Inn
- Tokkuri-Tei
- Yogurt Land
- Food Galaxy Restaurant & Coffee Shop
- ABC Store Spam Musubi
- Waiola Shave Ice
- Leonard’s
- Teddys Bigger Burgers
- Hula Grill
- Wailana Coffee House
- Marukai
- Beach Bar
- Fatty’s Chinese Fast Food
- Duke’s
Some of the tips that i can share that i learned from this trip are the following.
Its really fun to have a flotation device out in the water of Waikiki because there are so many rocks and coral in the sand so its very easy to step on them just making your way out into the ocean, and better yet if you don’t want to buy one, just wait till night fall and walk along the beach and you’ll find a few that some tourist didn’t want to take back with them and that goes with straw mats too, but those usually ended up in the trash. I’m waiting for the old Hawaiian man to shed a tear.
Buy your alcohol in bulk and store in your hotel’s room fridge. My favorite is malibu rum with real pineapple juice, or papaya juice and champagne. Just have a glass before you leave and use the empty plastic bottle to walk around with on the street. Also check in one of the tourist maps for a 50% off coupon for a mai tai at the Beach Bar, and remember its 1 per person.
Hanauma bay is a cheap destination that you’re able to get to without renting a car. The Bus travels twice an hour to hanuama bay during the weekends and only once on weekdays and never on tuesdays. The ride is $2.50 each way because the transfer ticket only lasts for two hours unless you’re lucky. It takes about 40 minutes to get the bus there but i think if you catch the first bus it typically will fly by empty bus stops and get you there quicker. Make sure someone gets in line for entrance tickets fast because they group the intro movie by times so make haste and get a showtime as soon as possible. There isn’t terribly a lot of shade on the sand so bring a umbrella or a tent to keep the kiddies out of the sun.
Take a stroll down Kapahulu to get away from the tourist and get some real hawaiian life. They’ve got a few great places to get some grinds, and sugar fixes, but remember that amazingly there aren’t any bus lines to get you back to waikiki or an ABC store to buy another $.99 1.5L bottle of water.
