Sad Day

Today was a very sad day, it was the day we had to come home.  We had packed almost everything the night before so there wasn't much to do that morning except put the last few things in the suitcases and go.  But before we left, we stopped back by Leonard’s for some malasadas.  Really, we stopped to buy some for other people, it wasn't our fault that we ended up eating some too.  Our trip to the airport was detoured by us in order to take a drive by picture of the headquarters for the Hawaii Five 0 tv show.  We were starving and still had a few hours before our flight so we stopped at McDonalds for one last local deluxe breakfast; I'm gonna miss those.  We made it to the airport, and through security, in plenty of time.  At our layover in Maui I stumbled upon my brother.

At this point of the blog, I don’t think I need more details other than we got in at 11:25 pm and my super awesome mom picked us up from the airport.

Saturday

Since we missed out on breakfast on Tuesday, we drove back out towards the North Shore to go to Ted’s Bakery.  I had the Spam and eggs breakfast while Jeremy went with the Portuguese sausage and eggs.  Both breakfasts came with cornbread which was the most light and moist cornbread I have ever had.  Overall, I would consider the breakfast worth the trip.  I read on their website that they had a chocolate macadamia nut pie so Jeremy went in to see if they had a single slice.  He didn’t find that, but he did bring out a slice of their famous chocolate haupia cream pie.  I don’t care for coconut, but haupia is delicious and the chocolate haupia pie was even better.  My only regret was not purchasing a whole pie.  So what to do after breakfast, but go to Matsumoto’s for shave ice.  The prices were very low and the flavors were delicious.  I got the tropical which was guava, lilikoi and papaya and Jeremy got the rainbow which was strawberry, lemon and pineapple.  We both loved our respective ice.

It was with sadness that we bid farewell to the North Shore.  After a quick regroup at the condo we walked across the street to the Honolulu Zoo.  The zoo was way smaller than Point Defiance, had a pretty awesome bird exhibit, but nothing was over the top impressive.  It only took a few hours to do so we still had the evening left.  I did my most favorite thing of vacation; I spent time in the laundry room washing our clothes.

After dinner at LuLu's yet again, we went to the actual beach on Waikiki for the first time since we arrived.  We walked along the shore and a little ways out onto the rock wall.  Coming from newly found sand connoisseur, that sand was so fine and easy to rinse off and I’d give it a 10/10 for fineness and color.

Based on a suggested from our Oahu Revealed guidebook, we visited the Snow Factory.  What is snow you ask, well, we're not really sure.  It's like they took an ice cream base and shaved it into long strips and put all sorts of happy things on it.  The consistency is comparable to frozen cotton candy.  It's super light and not once did we get brain freeze.  Mine was vanilla base, macadamia nuts, condensed milk and mochi.  Jeremy's was a mango - passion fruit base with condensed milk, mochi, mango bobba and passion jelly.  Both were amazingly delicious!

Friday

Friday Morning we woke up reasonably early so we could start our trek up Diamond Head.  We not only wanted to beat the heat, but needed to beat the crowd looking for parking below.  The hike up Diamond Head wasn't easy and it did take me a bit longer than most people, but unlike others, I didn't turn around and go back, I made it to the top.  It was 1.6 miles of uneven terrain, a 225 foot tunnel where you couldn't see the daylight from the other side and 176 stairs.   The views were spectacular and Jeremy seemed to also be excited that we were in an old military bunker.

The 99 step stair case...

After an appropriate cleansing when we got back to the condo, we met with Jeremy’s friend for lunch.  We went to Jimmy Buffet’s where the food was so-so, but the air conditioning was nice.  We walked into a Lappert’s Hawaii in the Hilton Hawaii Village and got pretty delicious ice cream, then parted ways.  I seem to remember us taking a nap when we got back to the condo as we had been hiking/walking all morning.  For dinner we ventured to the Ala Moana shopping center to go to California Pizza Kitchen.  While we were waiting for our table I bought my token Bubba Gump Shrimp Company t-shirt since it was right across the from CPK.

Best Wednesday Ever

Today was one of the days I had been most looking forward to.  We got to go on a guided tour of LOST filming locations!  We did the afternoon tour so we did breakfast at the condo, lunch at Lulu’s (have I mentioned I love their guacamole?!?!) and were ready to go by that afternoon.  We went through KOS Hummer Tours (yes we rode around in a hummer) and our guide was awesome.  We stopped at a few places such as Locke’s dad’s house, the spot where Jacob’s house was, the pier and a few other places before we went to Kauloa Ranch; the mecca of filming locations.  While on the ranch, we saw the golf course, the bomb tower, where Hurley’s joyride took place, Richard’s house…I suppose I’ll stop with Lost references and mention the other things.  We saw a dinosaur footprint from Godzilla, the field where the dinosaurs were running Jurassic Park, where Adam Sandler was trying to stop Drew Barrymore in 50 First Dates and where a few scenes of Hawaii Five-0.  Want me to name the best thing I saw on the tour?  I saw the submarine that was “used” to transport people to the island!  Jeremy is still laughing at me because I saw it and started doing a happy dance when I saw it and told him to come with me.

**There will be a whole separate post with just pictures from Lost so be patient.

Little Puffs of Heaven

Per the recommendation of my coworker, we went to Leonard’s Bakery to try malasadas.  Best.  Recommendation.  Ever.  Malasadas are Portuguese doughnuts that are like little puffs of heaven.  I can’t even begin to describe how delicious they were.  Seriously, go to Hawaii and buy them, it’s worth the trip.  We still had some time to kill before we traveled round the island again so we went to Punchbowl National Cemetery to look up a few names from Jeremy’s family.  Not only was it astounding to think that people were buried inside of a crater, but there were walls of names of soldiers who died and haven’t been found yet.

That afternoon we trekked to the Polynesian Cultural Center.  We first went to the village of Samoa and learned quite a few things about coconuts.  The presenter was hilarious yet informative.  I tried my hand at making fire from two pieces of wood and got a reasonable smoke going.  I feel that in a situation that lacked man made fire making abilities, I could do it old school.  We also went “fishing” with a stick, a string and a bent wire.  We weren't successful, but we only had three chances to try to catch a fish.  After all of the village festivities were over, we made our way to the luau.  Nothing was remarkable about the food (except I tried poke for the second time and still liked it) and the emcee was like a cheesy lounge entertainer.  After we had stuffed our face, we made our way to the gift shop to indulge my needs.  Seriously, we had like an hour to kill before the show, what else would you expect from me?  Anyway, the show (basically a story through dance) was pretty cool, my favorite part was the fire dancing because I like fire and dancing.  I think out of everything I did at the PCC, the show was my favorite part.

Just Your Average Tuesday

Tuesday was a delightful little day.  We started out by driving 13 miles in the wrong direction for a turnaround thanks to the Waze app which meant we missed the breakfast we planned on having while we were at the North Shore.  A+ for me packing a PB&J for lunch that way we actually had something to eat.  What were we doing on the North Shore you ask; you know, just hanging out in the middle of the ocean in a metal cage, surrounded by sharks, the usual Tuesday.  First and foremost, the surf was incredibly choppy and 3 people provided nature’s chum on the trip (not Jeremy or myself).  Being in the water just holding onto the cage, you got thrown around a bit.  There were quite a few sharks swimming all around the cage, none came up to nudge the cage which I had hoped for (sorry mom, it’s true though).  Jeremy, who isn't big on the whole being in water thing, actually was in the cage with me which was awesome.  Forgot to plan ahead though and the mustache was creating an issue with sealing the mask…on him, not me; I have no mustache.

While the boats aren't allowed to specifically chum for the sharks, the sharks do attribute food to boats.  When boats originally went out there to fish/crab, they’d throw leftover bait and too small of catch overboard prompting the sharks to come eat.  Over time, the sharks learned that the vibration of the boats typically meant food.  I’m a little concerned looking back that they expected food and we showed up in a cage…  Food or not, it was not a shark petting expedition as the tour guides explained, but it was a great time for the once in a lifetime photo op. (I count 6 in this picture)

After the shark-capades I led Jeremy to what he thought was a random beach, Mokule’ia Beach.  Why was this beach so important for me to go visit?  Insert LOST reference now – that’s where the pilot episode of Lost was filmed (plane crash obviously).  I totally geeked out taking a million pictures and may have left with a little trinket of sand.  On the drive back from where we came, we passed by Camp Erdman, where the houses that “the other’s” lived in.  We didn't stop, but I snapped a series of pictures passing by.

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful, we took a nap, ate some late lunch at Tiki’s (reasonable food, delightful view) and frankly, I don’t remember if we did anything else.