Month: June 2021

Hawaiian Waters: Day 3

/ Emily / Leave a comment

Our third day on Oahu, we started out the morning with a leisurely breakfast at the hotel, before heading off to walk along Waikiki beach.

For the most part it was a casual stroll, some window shopping, pictures along the beach, and enjoying the morning. The sun was already bright and warm, so we stuck to the shade as much as possible.

After a little while we headed back to the hotel to check out before going back to the airport to grab a rental car. As I mentioned in my first post, rental cars were one of the factors that caused us to pick Oahu rather than other islands, as they had some availability at a more reasonable rate.

Once in our car, we took off to explore more of the island. First stop, Pearl Harbor.

Unfortunately, due to COVID restrictions, tours of the USS Arizona Memorial were full up so we were unable to actually visit that. I’m sure they were limiting numbers, and it was Memorial Day Weekend, so perhaps busier than other weeks.

There were at least other parts of the site that we could visit, the museums and other memorials. We wandered around those for a little bit, checking out exhibits and learning more about the details of what happened there. It was interesting to see the place I’d read about so many times in my history classes over the years.

After we were done at Pearl Harbor, it was just about lunch time. My brother insisted we try a Hawaiian chain restaurant called Zippy’s. Apparently he’d heard about it before and was curious. My family actually enjoys trying local chain restaurants, just out of curiosity.

At Zippy’s we enjoyed having a variety of different dishes. However, we really enjoyed getting to try malasadas, a Portuguese fried dough that’s still uncooked in the middle. I wasn’t sure if I loved the texture, but it was at least interesting to try something new.

After our meal, we took off to head to our next place we’d be staying at. We’d rented a small apartment on the water in Makaha through Vrbo.

We arrived at our new place and got settled in. After that we decided to head out and try some snorkeling in the little bay we were situated on.

Down at the beach we found a spot to settle in for the afternoon. We took turns going out with our snorkels. Just as we were getting in, my mom said she thought she saw a sea turtle. I was so excited as I’d never seen one in the wild before! Unfortunately before I could spot it, it disappeared. I was pretty disappointed.

I’m definitely not a snorkeling expert, but I’ve gotten better the more I’ve practiced as with everything. My first time trying was in Mexico when I was a teenager, and I gave up pretty easily. Since then I’d tried again in Colombia, mostly letting my father help lead me around by the wrist in shallow areas, not doing much exploring on my own.

But this time I felt prepared. I’d practiced a bit in my bathtub. As humiliating as that sounds, it did work to get me more adjusted to the feel of my mask and snorkel. I am a person who largely breathes out her nose, so it was good practice to work on not doing that and therefore not fogging up my mask.

The waves were a little stronger than I had faced in previous experiences, but I worked on just staying calm and letting them push me around a little. I was just gaining some confidence when my father started yelling my name.

Not going to lie, I definitely initially thought a shark was headed straight at me or I’d somehow gotten myself in danger.

But when I looked up I saw him waving frantically and swam over to where he was not too far away.

There, sure enough in the water was a sea turtle! Not a big one, but still right up close! I was so excited to get to see this amazing animal in person. Probably my favorite experience from the whole trip.

All in all we had a good time and enjoyed the water and some tropical fish. There were no further turtle sightings, but we felt pretty satisfied as we headed back upstairs to clean up.

Once we were done with that, we though maybe we’d go for a hike at Ka’ena Point State Park nearby. The sun was going down, so it seemed like a nice time to avoid the heat.

Unfortunately, we arrived to find the road blocked off. The park was officially closed just a few minutes before we got there. Are you sensing a pattern? Don’t worry, this is going to happen more than once on the trip! Somehow we just managed to arrive several places outside of operating hours. I’ll admit our family is used to parks that are open dawn to dusk, and as the sun wasn’t down yet it seemed a viable option. Just a good reminder to always check hours before heading somewhere. At least it was close to where we were staying.

Thankfully, on the way back we had fun stopping at Kaneana Cave, a volcanic cave right off the side of the road. It was pretty good sized, so we had fun poking all the way to the back, stopping only when it became apparent any further expedition would involve shimmying on our bellies and probably getting very dirty or possibly stuck.

Pretty cool cave! My brother is about 6’4 so shows the size as he stretches his arms out.

After we’d had our brief evening adventure, we headed to grab some dinner. As it was the holiday weekend and no one was exceptionally hungry, we opted to just grab fast food and go back to our apartment to dine on the balcony. We picked up McDonalds and were back just in time to watch the sunset.

Definitely not the fanciest dinner, but the view was amazing! After we polished off our food, my dad, my brother, and I decided to go snoop along the ocean in the dark and see what we might find out and about. We figured it would make for a good way to end the day, and then we could finish off with a swim in the pool before heading to bed.

I actually am a huge fan of night walks, especially to search out wildlife. When I was a little girl, and I went camping, I always loved going down to the water at night and shining a flashlight out to see if we saw any eyes in the darkness. I did a night jungle walk in Costa Rica, and it is to this day one of my favorite travel memories.

This walk was not too exciting, though we did see several ghost crabs along the shore before they’d disappear into the waves, as well as some needlefish that would catch the glint of the flashlight. Definitely a fun little adventure to end our day.

After swimming in the pool for a bit, we headed back upstairs to get some sleep for another busy day ahead. Stay tuned, the next two days were dedicated to seeing as much of the island as possible, so there are plenty more adventures to share.

Exploring Honolulu: Day 2

/ Emily / Leave a comment

The second day in Honolulu was filled with even more adventures.

To begin with, we woke early and grabbed breakfast at the hotel. From there, we took an Uber out to Diamond Head State Monument.

We started up the trail in the midmorning. The sun was already up and it was pretty warm, though there were splashes of shade on some parts of the hike.

Up at the top we admired the beautiful views, though some of the lookouts were quite crowded.

After getting some photos we headed back down. We took a break at the bottom, grabbing a pineapple smoothie to cool off and getting a view of some of the mongoose that live in the area.

Once we’d cooled down a bit, we headed back to the hotel by Uber. We swam a bit in the pool, and I enjoyed spotting a lizard that was hanging out by the water.

Once we’d cooled off and cleaned up a bit, we took off to find some lunch. That afternoon, we were scheduled to go to the Bishop Museum at 2 PM. It had sounded like more than enough time to grab some lunch. However, by the time we were leaving the hotel it was already after noon, and then we managed to hit terrible traffic on the interstate in our Uber thanks to an accident.

By the time we got to the area of the Bishop Museum, and a place we’d scoped out for lunch, we were looking at less than an hour. When we asked about the wait time, they said about forty minutes. We asked about another place and they pointed to another one across the street. However, they were also very busy. Feeling a bit nervous about getting to our appointment on time, we decided to look for something fast in the area.

We ended up at a really grubby and unpretentious place with a window for ordering and some outdoor tables in the parking lot. It appeared to serve food at a reasonably fast pace, mostly to go, so we figured it was probably worth a shot. I was definitely a bit nervous, but I ordered a bento box, hoping one of the things in it might be ok.

The food was out a couple of minutes later, nothing fancy but hot and surprisingly tasty! I think almost everyone liked what they ordered. My bento box had some teriyaki beef, spam, fried fish, chicken katsu, and rice. Everything tasted delicious, and we were done pretty quickly.

Done with our food, we headed off to the Bishop Museum to learn more about Hawaiian and Polynesian culture. We made it just in time for our two o’clock reservation. They were actually just finishing up with a cultural festival that had been happening, so we caught the last of that before heading into the old building with most of the exhibits.

They had a wide variety of different artifacts. As I haven’t yet gotten to any other Polynesian Islands, it was some of my first experience with some of this history. I really enjoyed the wide variety the museum had to offer, as well as just the beauty of the old building it was held in.

After seeing the regular museum exhibits, we went to check out a temporary one in another building. It had a bunch of different displays made by street artists. It was fun because there were sections that truly looked like graffitied streets, and then sections that were beautiful murals and interesting different images. It made for a wonderful contrast in what some people might think of when they hear “street art” as opposed to the real talent that some of these creative people have.

After finishing up with that particular exhibit, we decided it might be nice to spend the afternoon at the Foster Botanical Garden. So, we walked in that direction. I was pretty exhausted, so my thoughts were I’d probably just find a shady spot to sit for a little bit. We were planning on having dinner not too far from there, so with a few hours to kill, it sounded like a good option. We enjoyed beautiful flowers along the walk there.

Unfortunately, when we arrived at the garden, we found out they closed at four o’clock and we were too late. We were a bit surprised, but unfortunately none of us had thought to check the hours as most things tend to be open until at least six.

Feeling worn out and overheated, we opted to go walk around China Town and hopefully find a place to get some drinks to wait until dinner time.

We saw some fun buildings along the way, but once we arrived in the actual heart of China Town, we were surprised to see that a lot of businesses were boarded up. The streets were pretty quiet. Definitely nothing like China Towns that I had seen in other cities.

Thankfully, we found a bar that was open, though all of us were so thirsty no one wanted alcohol. It felt a bit strange to get sodas there, but they were pretty much empty so we didn’t feel too bad taking up the space. Everyone refreshed with their drinks for a while before we headed out to find dinner.

We started by trying to hit up The Pig and the Lady, which is supposed to be pretty amazing. Unfortunately they were reserved a month out at the time, and didn’t take walk-ins. So we were out of luck there.

We headed down to a nearby place called The Livestock Tavern. It was just a little before six, but with the holiday weekend we were still a little worried we might not get a table.

Thankfully, on getting there, the staff graciously said they could give us a table as long as we were out before 7:30 for the next guests who had a reservation. This worked just fine for us, so we went ahead and took the table.

We ordered a couple of different dishes to share. A plate of wild game corndogs with interesting dipping sauces, a lobster dip (somehow I didn’t get a picture), two salads, and duck breast.

Everything was delicious, and we enjoyed it very much. We asked our server on the way out if there were any shops actually open in the area, somewhere fun to walk around. He recommended heading down to the Aloha Tower.

Unfortunately, like with China Town it was pretty much dead. In fact it looked like most businesses had been taken over by Hawaii Pacific University offices.

Still, it was at least fun to see the tower, which used to welcome visitors to the port.

We took an Uber back to the hotel and rested for a bit. Then it was suggested, maybe we could go out along Waikiki Beach and look for drinks or dessert at a restaurant along there.

I was exhausted, but I didn’t want to be left out so I went along. Definitely a mistake. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned on my blog before that I suffer from an anxiety disorder. It sounds kind of funny that a girl who’s brave enough to travel the world over on her own, can have panic attacks about random seemingly harmless things. But it’s true. I do. And unfortunately, between the fatigue and jet lag I was already in a vulnerable place.

On top of that, the beach and the restaurants we visited were crowded. Now, I’ve never liked crowds much before now, but after a year of pretty much being agoraphobic and staying in my house to avoid getting sick, it was too much. I found myself panicking and had to get out of there.

I went to sit on the beach while others had drinks. I thankfully managed to calm down, but it took a while, and even then I knew I just needed to get back to the hotel and get some sleep.

Needless to say, I’m still adjusting to being back in busy places. It will probably take some time. Definitely am thankful I got to go on this amazing trip, but it sure was a shock to the system after so long in isolation. I’m hoping by the next time I go traveling, I’ll be more adjusted and can enjoy everything new places have to offer.

Stay tuned for the next couple days. More adventures around the island of Oahu to come!

Off to Oahu

/ Emily / Leave a comment

Well, after a year off from traveling, the world is finally starting to open back up. And thanks to that I have something to blog about again. Even if it was a more minor trip than some of my past ones.

As I took a teaching position this last year, I had the good fortune of finally having a summer off! Which meant as soon as school was out, it sounded like fun to go somewhere. If you’ve read my past posts you’ll know my family and I are fairly close and still sometimes travel together. So when they suggested a quick trip once school was done, I had to agree.

So why Oahu? A couple of reasons:

  1. Limited time- The family knew we had obligations in early June and only had a couple of days. Meaning best choices were ones in the US or close by.
  2. COVID Restrictions- likewise many countries still weren’t opened up. Even some states we thought about visiting really were asking for no unessential travel.
  3. Something different- We’ve visited quite a few places in the US so were looking for something more unique. My brother and I both had not been to Hawaii before, my mom had stopped by as a very young child in route to the Philippines when her dad was stationed there with the navy, and my dad had been a couple of times but was willing to go back.
  4. Rental cars- At the moment rental cars are facing shortages. Oahu was one of the only islands that actually had cars that weren’t listed at a totally unreasonable rate.

And so, with those factors we settled on Oahu for our vacation, and with that decision made we set off on our destination.

Well, sort of. There are still COVID restrictions on travel in Hawaii (or there were when we went). Meaning we all had to be tested less than 72 hours before flying out. My poor parents and brother accidentally tested just a few hours too early (72 hours before the LAST leg of the journey), and had to do it twice! But I was lucky and only had to do one test which was pretty easy. Just a quick drive through visit to Walgreens and my results were in an hour later. Negative thank goodness!

Alright, let’s actually get to the travel part.

Our first day had a lot of bumps in the road. And I mean just getting out the door to go to the airport.

Our flight was scheduled to leave very early from our home town, so I’d slept at my parent’s place to avoid having to drive over at 4 in the morning. We’ve done this in the past for travel and usually just called an Uber to take us to the airport to avoid the exorbitant parking rates.

But when my brother pulled up the Uber app he was startled to see that no cars were available.

Keeping calm, he quickly dialed a cab company. And was informed that no one was available. He called a second, but they were too busy talking to someone else in the office to let him know how long a wait it would be for a taxi. We were all glancing at the clock, knowing we had only a few minutes to make a decision before it would be too late. And so with a sigh, we decided to drive to the airport and just deal with parking rates.

At the airport itself, we all tried to relax and laugh it off. However, going through security, my dad, my brother, and myself all got through the first checkpoint with no problems. But when my mother presented her ID and ticket, she was held back. As I moved further through the security line, I kept looking back at her and watching as she became more and more uneasy with every minute she was held back. Stuck in line, I had no way to go back and reassure her, so I resorted to shouting at her to “take deep breaths”.

Through the rest of security, my dad and I waited impatiently. My brother joined us a few minutes later, and we all stared back, hoping they’d finally let her through.

Thankfully, a few minutes later my poor mother appeared, still looking shaken. Apparently there was something wrong with her ticket, and the TSA had initially told her to go get it fixed again before coming through security. But thankfully one of the other agents decided it was alright and let her through.

Turns out, my dad had put HIS birthday on the ticket instead of my moms. So when looking at her driver’s license the dates didn’t match. Whoops. Problems with booking four tickets at the same time.

Thankfully, at the gate it didn’t cause any further problems. We boarded the plane and settled in for a short ride to Seattle.

Our layover was just about the perfect length, long enough to grab some breakfast without feeling rushed, but not so long as to get antsy waiting.

From there was the flight to Hawaii. And good news, I was able to sit at the window and enjoy some of the views as we landed on the island.

After landing, we enjoyed the beauty of Hawaii from the airport while we stood in line to have our COVID tests checked. There’s a beautiful open air pavilion in the center of the airport with trees and greenery, and birds flying through.

After getting the okay on our COVID tests, we caught an Uber to head into the city to our hotel.

We stayed at the Aqua Oasis, close to the beach, but not right on it. All in all we had a great experience there, and didn’t feel we were missing anything not being oceanfront.

After leaving our bags, we went to grab some lunch. Our Uber driver had mentioned a dim sum place he liked in the Royal Hawaiian Plaza (a shopping center in downtown).

It was a bit of a wait, but we decided to go ahead and do it. We walked around the other shops for a bit before heading back to get our table. Once there we ordered a variety of different dishes, and enjoyed almost all of them.

After a delicious lunch we headed down to Waikiki beach and enjoyed the beautiful water, the views of Diamond Head, and the other beauties the island had to offer. We took some photos. I especially enjoyed the ones I got of my mom being surprised by a wave.

After our fun in the water, we headed back to check into our hotel rooms. We relaxed a bit, and I enjoyed the views from our balcony before settling back to relax in the air conditioning.

Views from the balcony

After some relaxing time, we took an Uber over to a restaurant called Moku Kitchen in a shopping complex called SALT. The area had lots of cute shops and restaurants and a fun artsy type scene. Again we ran into a pretty long wait, though that was okay since there were plenty of things to look at while we waited, and some people watching to enjoy.

Art near our restaurant for the evening.

Finally they told us our table was ready. Funnily enough, rather than having us go sit and order, they wanted us to go to the bar and place our order before taking our seats. It put a little pressure on us to decide quickly. I went ahead and chose the Hawaiian pizza with kalua pork, pineapple, and jalapenos. And yes I know some people think pineapple on pizza is an abomination, but I’m one of those who LOVES it. Especially good fresh delicious pineapple rather than canned.

Other dishes ordered at our table were the fish tacos, the Saimin, fish and chips, and a Mai Tai. All in all we found the food delicious.

After a delicious meal, we walked back to the hotel. It was almost three miles, but it was fun to see more of the city at night. I especially enjoyed seeing some of the Black Crowned Night Herons out by the canals.

At last we arrived back at the hotel, and settled in to get some sleep. After a four hour time change, an early wake up, and a lot of walking, we were definitely ready for some rest.

Stay tuned for more about the trip to Hawaii in the next couple blog posts! It’s such a pleasure to be back on here writing about travel again after a year off.