Our final full day in Hawaii was another busy one.

We began with another lovely breakfast on the balcony of our rental. More sea turtles and rays were spotted playing in the waters.

After we finished up breakfast, we headed back inland to head to Hawaii’s Plantation Village, a former sugar cane plantation, now converted into a museum to help preserve the history of the plantations.

We caught the first tour of the day, heading out with our guide, a man who was actually born in the area and had relatives who worked on the plantation. He showed us around the plantation to buildings that had been built to show what typical living quarters of the day might have looked like. The museum wanted to display the variety of different cultures that were represented in the plantation life, so they had houses meant to represent the Japanese, Koreans, Portuguese, Okinawans, Puerto Ricans, Chinese, and so on.

We spent a couple of hours letting our guide show us from house to house, explaining more about the history of the place as well as the melting pot of cultures that formed on the grounds.

After the tour was finished, we decided to go get some food. Feeling in the mood for something a little different, we decided to try a Mexican food place called Cholo’s.

I ordered a piña colada (one of my favorite cocktails) and my mother and brother both had martinis, though my brothers was a tropical one.

For food we had a variety, but I decided some chicken fajitas sounded nice. One of the favorites we tried though were the spinach enchiladas that were very tasty.

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After we finished eating, I changed into my suit and we headed off to try to find another snorkeling location. We enjoyed driving around the north shore, seeing the famous waves and the beauty of the ocean.

We looked around a bit and then tried stopping at Kawela Bay Beach Park, but another group was leaving with snorkeling gear and said the water was too choppy to see much. We took a quick look, and had to agree. Not the best for seeing ocean wildlife.

So we headed over to Turtle Bay, which was quite busy in comparison but did seem to have better conditions for snorkeling.

We snorkeled for a little while, though it was a little more choppy than I preferred, but I still saw a couple of interesting fish and such. Sadly no turtles in spite of the name of the beach!

After a time we washed up and headed back towards our apartment. We enjoyed driving along the shore all the way back around to Honolulu and then off towards our place.

By the time we arrived at our vacation rental, I wanted to see if conditions were good enough on our beach to snorkel. Sadly, the last couple mornings it had been too choppy, so we hadn’t had a chance to go again.

I ran to the beach and plunged into the water, but sadly it was again too choppy and also getting close enough to sunset that it was just impossible to really see. Apparently I wouldn’t be doing anymore snorkeling.

Back up at the apartment, we readied ourselves for dinner, deciding again to do a homecooked meal instead of going out. We had some pasta and vegetables, and sat on the deck to watch the sunset.

After dinner, it was time to head down and take another dip in the pool. We had the place to ourselves, which was lovely. Worn out from a busy day, we had a goodnight’s sleep, ready to say goodbye to Hawaii the next day.

I’ll finish off by talking just briefly about the next morning, since most of the day was spent traveling I don’t want to dedicate a whole post to it.

We had our usual balcony breakfast before deciding to go climb Mauna Lahilahi, a small rocky outcrop close to our place.

I didn’t get all the way to the top, as it was pretty steep. However, we did get some pictures to enjoy the view!

Once we were finished climbing, we headed back to pack up and then head to the airport. And with that it was goodbye Hawaii and back to normal life!

It was definitely a really fun trip, especially after a year of holing up in my apartment. For the moment, I have no immediate travel plans until more of the world opens up again since many of my destinations in mind are in other countries, but hopefully in the near future I’ll have more to share with all of you here!

Our fourth day on Oahu was one of the busiest. We decided to see several different things on the eastern side of the island, since we were staying on the west.

We started off with breakfast on the balcony of our place. Gorgeous views of the ocean to enjoy as we sipped coffee and had fruit and Costco muffins. To our delight, we also were able to see several rays and sea turtles swimming along the shore. Apparently it was a favorite spot of theirs in the early morning. No clear photos of the rays or turtles sadly, but you can at least get an idea of the view.

After breakfast we took off to head to Nu’uanu Pali Lookout to enjoy some beautiful views. Definitely worth the stop to enjoy seeing so much of the natural beauty that Oahu has to offer. The mountains, the lush green, the water, and so forth. We stayed there only a couple of minutes before heading on our way to our next destination.

Next on the list was the Byodo-In Temple, a replica of an actual ancient temple in Japan that was built in Hawaii in the 60’s. As I have unfortunately not been able to get to Asia yet in my travels, it sounded like a great experience to be able to visit.

It took a little while to get there, as the temple is located right be a cemetery, and with Memorial Day, things were busy. However, soon enough we were parking to head to the temple.

The place was beautiful. A peaceful natural landscape, complete with the tranquil reflection of the temple. We wandered through, enjoying the sites and snapping pictures.

After we felt we’d seen all the temple had to offer, we decided to head to a waterfall hike not too far away. The falls were the Likeke Falls, and the trail was right off of the Pali Golf Course, which is no longer in use. Thankfully that meant plenty of parking.

The walk wasn’t too long, though it was quite humid in the forest. We enjoyed the various sites, a water tower covered in graffiti, mongoose hiding in the foliage, and vines and roots forming patterns through the forest.

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The falls themselves were pretty crowded, so we didn’t hang out long. It definitely wasn’t the biggest or most impressive waterfall I’ve seen in my travels, but it was pretty and people were clearly enjoying cooling off a bit in the water.

After we’d seen the falls, we headed back down the trail to and towards the coast to find some lunch. We ended up at a place called Kalapawai Cafe and Deli. The place mostly had sandwiches and other simple lunch food, but it ended up being really tasty and definitely hit the spot after a busy morning!

We had some good food, and then we headed off to go snorkeling. We had decided to try Hanauma Bay, part of a nature park well known for being a good place to see ocean wildlife.

Unfortunately, as we turned to go into the parking lot, we were startled to find they were closed! Turns out the park is not open on Mondays. Only open part of the week actually. Again, I can’t be sure if that’s a regular thing or just part of COVID times, but it did put a bit of a damper in our plans.

Thankfully, while driving we’d noticed some other beaches that appeared to be pretty still, therefore good at least for being able to see well in the water.

We headed back towards some of those beaches, stopping at the Halona Blowhole pullout to have a look. Unfortunately the tide wasn’t high enough to have the blow hole actually working, but it was still a really pretty area and we spotted some sea turtles down in the waves as well!

After our quick stop at the blowhole, we headed a little further down to Kaopo Cove Beach Park. The place was actually not too crowded, in spite of the holiday. Many of the other beaches we’d seen on our drive seemed pretty swamped.

At the beach, we headed out into the water to take a look. As we’d seen from our drive, the waves weren’t too strong, and therefore we were able to see really well and not be too battered around.

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Unlike our previous day snorkeling, we didn’t see any sea turtles sadly! But there were lots of pretty tropical fish, a saddled snake eel, lots of urchins, and some sea cucumbers (see the one underwater photo above). We had purchased some underwater bags for phones to try to take some pictures while snorkeling, but unfortunately I found it difficult to see the screen in the water, so most of my photos did not turn out well. But, at the very least it was a fun experience even if I wasn’t able to document with pictures.

After a few hours enjoying the beach, we packed up and headed back towards our place for the evening.

We stopped along the way to see if a restaurant was open on the holiday weekend, and if so if they took reservations or had room. The place was called Beach House by 604, Unfortunately, they failed to answer their phone, so we went to actually see about it. Weirdly enough, the restaurant was on a military base, so without a military ID we had to park outside and walk in. My brother graciously offered to go check on availability.

Unfortunately, the restaurant wasn’t taking reservations and was extremely crowded. Any wait would be probably more than an hour. Feeling hungry, and uncomfortable with salt drying on my skin and sand all over, I asked to please just head back to our place and find somewhere else for dinner. I really needed to wash the salt off my body.

Thankfully, it was agreed we could head back and do another meal on our balcony instead. I washed off and my dad went to grab some frozen pizzas and salad ingredients.

After getting cleaned up and having something to drink, I felt a lot better. After a little bit my father returned with pizzas and salad ingredients. Unfortunately, the oven at our rental place was a bit uncooperative, so it took longer to get pizzas cooked than we’d anticipated. However, eventually they were ready and we were able to again sit on our balcony and enjoy the sunset over a meal.

As with the evening before, we finished things off by a walk on the beach in the dark. We again saw some of the needlefish, which were pretty fun. After that we cooled off in the pool before heading up to get a good night’s sleep. We had one more full day on the island, and were determined to enjoy it to the max!