Hawaii - Day 4 Last Full Day

Last day!

Wow, its been a while since I updated.. this is the last day of Hawaii! >.< Steve wants to go back next year already lol. It was his first vacation in a long time though so its understandable but I'm hoping to go back to Asia next year ^__^ ... more on that at the end of the post...

Tanned and Tired

For lunch we had katsu and curry again lol. This was really good katsu I have to admit but the curry wasn't so spicy - which is a shame.

After lunch shopping

We went to the galleria to do some shopping, didn't really buy much since we had a connecting flight we weren't allowed to buy much but we did get things like Hawaiian chocolates and cookies. Afterward we went out to do sightseeing.. which is my most HATED thing to do lol. I really hate tourist sites, I hate crowds of people but Steve really wanted to go since he said "its my first time here I want to go see these sites" so we went... lol

Nu'uanu Pali lookout

Doesn't take very long to get to this point, there weren't actually a lot of people here and we saw some random people hiking this really steep mountain.

So lush

The view

I didn't get anymore photos because of that black dress I was wearing, that I got from urban outfitters, kept wanting to fly up because its SO WINDY here. Ladies! Take note, bring a long sweater or don't wear a flowy dress to this place lol.

We also went to a memorial park? afterwards, I didn't take pictures there because I thought it would be disrespectful but then Steve was like paparazzi-ing everything lol.

Last stop

Took a tour on a submarine

Out of the sites we went to visit, I wish we got here earlier. There was an hour left before the monument closed so we didn't get to see/do a lot of things. We did manage to take a tour of a submarine and into the museum. I kind of got mad because there were some tourists lying on the floor in the museum because it was - according to them: "too hot"

After all the sightseeing we went back to the hotel to pack and get ready for dinner.

 Finally had a dinner in the Waikiki area

 Hula Grill for dinner!

 Our view

We randomly stumbled upon this place walking by and we nearly missed it because its in a hotel. We weren't really sure on where to go for dinner so we wandered around Waikiki for a bit but we were really hungry so we picked this place - which was a great idea, I really liked this place.

 Rosemary bread with olive oil and a sweet/savory sauce

I wanted to fill up on the bread LOL.

 Our drinks

Mine was the one on the right which was SO GOOD. It was basically a pina colada with strawberry syrup? and I have no idea what Steve ordered, he liked it though.

 Our starters

We got baked oysters and a caesar salad.. I wanted the hula salad but Steve forgot.. lol

 My dinner

I got the surf and turf basically, I ordered the steak but added the lobster tail. One of the better steaks I've had in a long time, the mushroom sauce was so good~!

 Steve's dinner

He got the swordfish, we've never had it before and its not as flaky as I thought it would be but it was still good.

I was so full after we went straight back to the hotel because our flight was at like 5AM or something and by the time we finished dinner it was about 10PM

 My flight outfit lol

Packed and ready to go, we weren't sure what the proper etiquette is for staying with Airbnb so we cleaned up as much as we could, not the laundry though lol but we did take the sheets off the bed and folded them so the owner could wash them right away.

At the airport

We had to fly from Honolulu to San Francisco and then we had a 3-4 hour wait till our next flight and then it got delayed by an hour... We were so exhausted, Steve napped on the chairs and I played earthbound on the netbook I brought lol.

So we actually got a really good deal again for February.. I really wanted to go to Asia next year but I guess that's not happening, not with Steve at least, but we are going to Hawaii for almost a week again. This trip was pretty exhausting, we were waking up early everyday and constantly had plans so not much downtime to sleep in. Plus we drank pretty much every night we were there which didn't help.

So Hawaii 3.0 coming in February!

Hawaii - Day 3

 Day 3!!

So we went to bed early the night before because we knew again that we were going to head to the North Shore the next day and it was supposedly like a 3 hour drive or something, plus we had to stop by Walmart and buy some snacks and extra towels so we wanted to leave as early as possible.

After we went to Walmart we drove by Yogur Story - I saw this place on instagram when I was looking through the Honolulu tag and thought that the purple pancakes looked interesting and I wanted to try them but I figured it would be too far from our place, but it turns out it was super close to Walmart, so we stopped in for breakfast.

 Ube pancake and Crab cake benedict

I got the ube pancake (which is made from Okinawan sweet potato that's what makes it purple or something) and Steve got the crab cake benedict. The crab cake benedict was pretty salty to us.. but otherwise I probably would've gotten it over the pancakes. The pancakes themselves weren't too sweet which was nice but there was something about them I didn't really like maybe I ate too much of it?

 Waimea Beach

Definitely the nicest beach I've ever been to, I previously thought that Hanauma bay was the nicest beach I've been to but this was just... I mean look at it!

Snorkeling wise - not much to see its literally just water and sand. If I knew how to swim I would've been in the water longer.  The waves at this beach were so strong, Steve and I went into the water to see how cold it was and we were like WTF because these waves were like crashing all over us lol and its shallow when you take your first 2-3 steps in but then it suddenly drops and gets deep.

If you can't swim bring your own life jacket because there doesn't seem to be a rental place nearby, I was glad that I bought that snorkel set with the life jacket.

 Not many people when we got there

Had we left without going to Walmart and having breakfast we would've gotten a parking spot so if you plan on going, leave really early. There's a random lot like across the street but you have to pay like $10 or something. There's a shower and bathroom facilities at this beach which was nice and also a lifeguard but there didn't seem to be any food stands or anything so bring your own food.

 Endless sands

If you've ever been to Vancouver and been to the beaches you'll know how shitty our beaches here are. There are tons of rocks and sticks everywhere, I'm paranoid that I'll step on broken glass or needles when I go there but here.. its so clean lol

I forgot to mention that there are no lockers that we saw when we were here so I was pretty paranoid about leaving our stuff unattended but it was fine but be vigilant.

 In Waimea Valley

So when we were parking, we were curious about what was along the path, we asked the guy who was in charge of the parking about it and he said there was like a small hiking trail that led to a waterfall or something so we decided to go in.

If you're totally into nature then its a nice park but otherwise its kind of a boring walk lol. Did I mention I hate tourist sites? Not many tourists were here but I think it was like $30 for both me and Steve to go in, which was a rip off, there wasn't really much to see but Steve seemed pretty happy about it.

 Waimea falls

So we didn't know that you could go swimming at these falls but wearing a life jacket is mandatory if you want to go into the water. But the water looked dirty so we were like ... no lol.

Ashley told us that at these falls they filmed Lost (I think I gave up after season 2 lol) and that they made it look super huge when it was actually really tiny lol.

I think the total amount of time spent at this park was like an hour? Walking from the parking lot to the falls and back. Yeah... don't want to do that walk again lol. We got back to the car and when we drove back we stopped by the Dole plantation.

 Near the train

So we only got to ride the stupid train and there's also like a pineapple maze but we didn't get to go lol. We did explore the gift shop and the mini garden they have.

Pineapple express and a random pineapple growing!

This thing was so boring! LOL that's because I have no interest in how pineapples grow and the random stuff that dole grows lol. Steve enjoyed it - he even bought the soundtrack that the train plays lol.

A shitload of koi

After we got off the train there was a group of people around the pond so we wanted to see what was happening. Then bam! we were like WTF? there were so many koi! I felt bad that they had to fight for food T_T

Foood

Our first proper meal of the day. I got the BBQ pork quesadilla and Steve got the BBQ pork sandwich (the sandwich tasted better lol) The lineup for food took FOREVER, we didn't get a chance to get the ice cream which looked mighty tasty because we were too full from the food.

There's a lot of meat in there

I ate almost half before I gave up, it was pretty good though and it wasn't too expensive.

After we ate we went to the shop and bought some dried fruits and candies to bring home to our friends/family, which I regret. I bought a bag of dried coconut for my dad because I know he likes coconut and my fucking asshole mom gave it away because she's an asshole - I said that's the last time I fucking buy anything for them when I go on vacation if she's going to give away shit I buy for my dad.

Anyway.. we drove back afterwards and headed back to the hotel to drop off our stuff and shower. I know I took a nap before we went to dinner and Steve sucks at putting sunscreen on people I kept getting burnt on the places where he applied the sunscreen -__-'

Go Sampler at Doraku Sushi

Ok so most of the places we went to I found on Yelp, this place was.. a disappointment. But I'll get to that in a minute. We wanted to drink again so we got this sake flight because I never really had good sake before and I can't really drink that much anyway so it was mostly for Steve lol.

What we had from left to right

The sake was ok, the very last one was so dry and bitter I hated it but the middle one was my favourite and there was also one that was really like soju.

Toro Sashimi and Tuna Poke

So why the disappointment?

The price - the food itself was good don't get me wrong but for the price you pay it is overly expensive (especially because they are small plates). The sashimi you see above cost $16 for 4 pieces.. the quality was good but I can go to a sushi place in Vancouver and if I paid $16 for toro sushi for similar quality I could get way more - maybe there's a low supply? Not sure but definitely not worth the money.

Based on the reviews I didn't think this place was a izakaya style restaurant, I wouldn't have picked this place if that were the case.

Surf and Turf roll

One of the best rolls I've had in a long time, great combination. Frankly I would've just got a bunch of rolls had I known that this place was going to be so expensive.

Miso butterfish and our bill

That was the best fish I've had in a long time but it's such a tiny portion for almost $15. Anyway as you can see, we spent like $80 on 4 small dishes and sake.. we were not full AT ALL and if we ordered more food it would've cost like $250-$300 to get us both full. So we decided to go back to the Korean restaurant which was like down the street LOL.

Pork this time

So we got the Pork combo which was like $40 or something, which was super filling we couldn't finish. We were like "we wish we came here first" the whole time. 

My outfit

Semi-red from all the drinking but yeah we were really disappointed about Doraku Sushi... Now we know not to go there again if we go back to Honolulu.

Otherwise Day 4 is our official last day in Hawaii because in day 5 we have to go home T_T

Hawaii - Day 2

 Good Morning Day 2!

Basically I planned the whole trip because Steve didn't want to plan anything till the last day... For day 2 we went to Hanauma Bay for some snorkeling. We had to wake up early to make sure we got a parking spot ($1 parking fee at the park) so we skipped breakfast T_T

 Our rental car

The GPS I used on my phone brought us to the wrong park.. the real park was like 15-20 minutes away from where we were.

 Hanauma Bay

Its such a beautiful place to be, I just wish there were less people lol

 Cool water

The last time I came here there seemed to be less rocks.. lol. I tried to swim without a life vest but.. it didn't work out, Steve was like "seriously?" yes, seriously I was never taught how to swim.

For survival!

I was probably the only adult that had one of these on LOL but I don't care!

Remember that underwater case I got?

Yeah it didn't work too well, I remember reading the reviews on amazon and people saying that they could use their touchscreen phones underwater, yeah its not true lol. Water protection was great but otherwise its just like a waterproof bag, and you could imagine how paranoid I was putting my phone in there.

Moved to the left side

We went to the right side at first but we decided to go to the other side to see if there was anything better to see in the water, but it was the same, a bit deeper.

Note: Bring your own food! Last time I came here with Ashley we brought chicken mcnuggets lol but the food place they have at the top is so expensive $5 for a small thing of french fries and $10 for a tiny cheeseburger -___-' not worth it.

Took the top off

Steve was so excited to take the top off of this Jeep, it was a nice ride but I really didn't want to get more tan LOL and plus I hate wind.

We went back to the hotel to drop off our stuff and to take a nice shower.

Curry House Coco Ichibanya

Craving some Japanese curry and some katsu O..O

Its a small restaurant, had probably like 10 seats or less so we got our food to go and ate at the food court nearby. This place is cash only too and they have Japanese drinks (I got the melon soda ^_^)

Chicken Cheese and Tako ball

Best katsu I've had in a LONG time. The chicken was so crispy and so juicy. I wish the curry was a bit spicier but otherwise it was so good! Really filling and was like $10

Steve got the Tako ball one, it was alright lol, he wished he got the pork one or something since he does eat a lot.

After we ate, we just wandered around the Ala Moana mall and then we headed back to the hotel for a nap.

OH! I forgot to mention, When we were walking around the Waikiki area I wanted to find the Nature Republic but it wasn't there, I thought they closed it and we came across it at the Ala Moana mall! Boy was I happy lol.

Kyung's Seafood

Alright! So we went to Kyung's Seafood for dinner for day 2 for some sashimi and more Korean food. Seriously, all the places we went to had like Korean food lol. Steve drank again of course but we shared a bottle of soju and Hite beer together - which got me drunk so fast lol.

We ordered the small sashimi plate which was $30 US (we wish we got the medium), Seafood pancake, fish cake soup and steamed dumplings (I wanted the fried one but Steve wouldn't let me get it -__-')

Dumplings and Fishcake soup

We did order a lot for 2 people. The dumplings were ok, I wish we got the fried one lol. The soup was good though not very heavy and pretty comforting - they give you a huge bowl of it.

Our seafood pancake

Hands down, the best seafood pancake I've had. Steve even said that he's never had one like this, not even in Korea. Its so thick and crispy and full of veggies and seafood T_T SO GOOD!

Look at that inside!

We walked to Mcdonalds afterwards for an ice cream to sober up before we drove back to the hotel. We had to sleep early because we were heading to the North Shore the day after and we were pretty exhausted from being in the sun earlier.

See you in day 3!