Hawaii – Fall Break 2013
5 nights on Oahu and 4 nights on Maui with my 11 year old child and my senior parents.
Friday, Day 1: We
fly non-stop on United, Denver to Honolulu – 7+ hours. We check into our hotel and walk around the
beach a bit before heading to the International Market Place for shopping and
dinner. We start our adventure on Oahu, staying at the Outrigger
Waikiki on the Beach hotel. Our room was
a “partial ocean view” on the Diamond Head side of the building and we could
see the ocean and also see the city lights at night. The location is great and we enjoy walking
right across the street to the ABC store and the International Market Place. My daughter loves shopping for trinkets there
and we eat here a few times. I say it’s
kind of like eating at the “dollar a scoop” place near our house, only it’s $7
a scoop. The location is also perfect
for walking along the beach. We are
situated right between two historic hotels, the Moana Surfrider and the Royal
Hawaiian – we take a stroll through them both one evening. The Outrigger has a medium sized pool and a
hot tub. My only complaint would be that
the pool closes at 8pm and the hot tub even earlier on weekends because they
expand the bar area into it. Other than that,
the pool area was great – warm enough for us and never crowded. The beach access is also super and makes
strolling along the beach or going for a swim quite simple. We found a neat sandbar that let us walk way
out into the ocean and still only be in waist deep water. This hotel is kind of odd in that it’s
sandwiched narrowly in here and doesn’t feel like a big resort. The location is really the draw. It’s the heart of Waikiki and there are
people out and about at all hours. I’m
dismayed to hear the International Market Place has been bought and will be
“redeveloped” with Saks Fifth Avenue as its anchor store. There’s already enough high-end shopping up
and down the street so it’s nice to have this low end shopping nearby. It reminded me of shopping in Thailand or Mexico
and we all enjoyed it.
Saturday, Day 2: We tour the North Shore area today. We drive through the beautiful mountains
behind Honolulu. Now, I live near some
of the most beautiful mountains in the world, but these were a sight to behold
– very different than the Rockies. All
green and lush, they look like giant slices of stone. We enjoy the view and the wild chickens at
the Nu’uanu Pali Lookout. We stop at
various beaches and see the Chinaman’s Hat Island where they have a sign up
warning about sharks in the area due to a whale carcass. We stop at La’ie point to see the arch and
enjoy watching people jump off the cliff into the ocean. Like the locals, we have lunch at Giovanni’s
Shrimp truck and the shrimp is good but the real find is the roasted corn from
the stand behind the truck.
Delicious! We’ll stop here again
just for the corn on another day. The
kid also gets a coconut. The coconut
water is still bland, even though it’s twice as much ($5 in Hawaii compared to
$2 in Denver) and the inside is like gelatin!
She’s thrilled with her island treat – a young coconut. We head for the Waimea Falls Park and hike
back to the waterfall. They have life
jackets for all to wear and this makes it very easy to plunge into the cool
water. It’s about 75 degrees so
tolerable and we are able to sit in the waterfall. One of the highlights of our trip! It’s nearing sunset so we head to Waimea beach
and watch more jumping and diving off the cliffs. The waves here are larger and we were not at
all tempted to join in the jumping.
Dinner is at Ted’s Bakery and then we drive back to the hotel after a
long day.
Sunday, Day 3: The
day is spent at Pearl Harbor. We opt for
the audio tour and this keeps us all moving at a good pace and lets us learn as
much as we can without having to stand and read it all. I had forgotten how much of the population in
the 1940’s was Japanese, but looking at a map it should be no surprise how much
Asian influence and heritage there is on Hawaii. Oahu is full of Japanese tourists and some of
the stores even accept payment in Yen.
With Japan at the top of my travel wish list, it’s exciting to hear all
the Japanese being spoken. We tour the
USS Arizona Memorial (I had secured tickets in advance online) and then
everyone but Grandma decides to tour the Battleship Missouri. My mom and child also do the “pick a pearl”
booth and both are thrilled with their picks – a white pearl for Grandma and a
black pearl that looks violet for the kid.
My child loves those pearl
places and now has a white, blue and black pearl from them. We head back to the hotel for our dinner at
Dukes -- our most expensive meal of the trip.
My child and I split the moonfish with a caper sauce – it’s
delicious!
Monday, Day 4:
Today we climb Diamond Head and drive up the Windward Coast. Diamond Head crater provides great views but
the climb up is a bit of work. It’s also
hot. HOT! We have to practically drag Grandma along but
convince her it will be worth the walk.
Near the top we see ambulance and fire and rescue trucks drive up. As I walk down I see them hauling some old
man off the hill side, probably heat exhaustion. Did I mention how HOT it was on Oahu?! We enjoy one of several shaved ice treats
after the hike and then drive up the eastern windward side, admiring the
wealthy homes and beaches. Another drive
back to Honolulu through those velvety green mountains and we are back for
dinner on the beach at Duke’s Barefoot bar.
More shopping at the International Market Place concludes this evening.
Tuesday, Day 5: I
eat pineapple pancakes at the Hula Grill in the hotel – they are even more
delicious than they sound. Today we are
headed to the Polynesian Culture Center after we stop for some of that roasted
corn on the North Shore. The Polynesian
Culture Center is like Disney Epcot meets the Renaissance Festival, only with
less food and shopping. We only have
time to see the shows in 3 areas, Samoa, Tahiti and Tonga, and we really enjoy
all of them. We enjoy all the dancing at
the canoe parade while we eat more shaved ice.
Even the locals that work here are talking about how HOT it is and how
there is no wind. The news talks about
the lack of trade winds. We are
melting. We enjoy a ride in a little
outrider canoe – I sit in the back near the driver so I don’t have to row.
Yay! Feeding the ducks here is a
highlight and we do a bit of shopping while we wait for the Luau. We all find the food to be quite acceptable
for buffet food and we even try the poi (gross). We attend the “Ha, Breath of Life” show and
really appreciate all the dancing from the different Polynesian cultures. The show is fantastic, on par with a Broadway
show. At one point I counted over 50
dancers on the stage and they are talented.
I appreciate seeing more than just the Hula as I find it a bit of a
bore. The frantic dancing of Tahiti and
the drums of Tonga are very exciting.
The show ends with fire dancers.
This was a great way to spend a day in Hawaii and I could have easily
spent more time here.
Wednesday, Day 6: We
walked down Waikiki to swim at the part of the beach that is walled in so that
we didn’t have to dodge surfers. After a
bit of beach and pool time we hop islands to Maui! Here we are staying at the Aston Maui
Kaanapali Villas that I booked through Aston.
These are time share condos and ours was huge! We were in the Aloha building, 201. It was a
garden view 1 bedroom and it was beautiful.
It was really nice having the kitchen and the living room so we could
spread out and even watch TV. The grounds
here were meticulously maintained with beautiful plants and flowers. The pool
had waterfalls and a great hot tub that were both open until 10 pm and never
crowded. The pool was warmer than the
ocean. The beach was just a short walk
from the pool and was perfect – no rocks or coral or seaweed -- just blue
water. It did drop off deep fairly
sudden but I had inflatable pool noodles with us so we just bobbed around. About a 10 minute walk down the beach was
coral good for snorkeling. This was a great,
great condo location on a wonderful beach.
The whole resort felt very quiet and welcoming and on the smaller
side. We all loved this resort just
north of Black Rock.
Thursday, Day 7 and Halloween: The first part of the day is spent at the
beach and pool swimming and relaxing. In
the afternoon we head into Lahaina for their huge celebration. They block off the street and have a huge kid
parade in the afternoon. Still no trade
winds and stifling heat. More shaved
ice! The kid dresses as a black cat, I’m
a cheetah and the grandparents wear orange pumpkin shirts. Many people comment on the kid’s costume and
ask to take her photo which thrills her.
My favorite costume was a girl dressed as a Barbie in a pink Mattel
box. I’m not sure how she could even
breathe in there in the heat. We eat at
the Old Pioneer Inn in town, having a salad with the best raspberry
vinaigrette, and then walk around at night a bit to check out the elaborate
adult costumes. It was a fun and
different way to spend Halloween.
Friday, Day 8: We
drive up the western side of the island a bit to see the landscape and
beaches. The highlight was stopping at
Makalua-puna Point to see the unique lava shapes known as “Dragon’s Teeth”. This was so fascinating looking, you could
just see the lava, bubbles and channels of it that then formed these spikes
that look like giant teeth. It was like
walking on the shoreline of another planet.
We also walk a trail described in the Maui Revealed book to see the
remains of a Malibu Grand Prix car. Have
no idea how it got there! We end the day
with another highlight of our Maui vacation – a sunset cruise. I booked Paragon
Sailing in advance because it’s a smaller catamaran that docks at Lahaina – no
wading through the water to board. There
were only about 15 people on board so plenty of room for all of us. The best part is that they sail and they sail
fast. As luck would have it those trade
winds we’d been missing showed up this afternoon – perfect timing! The captain said they had not been able to
simply sail for weeks due to the lack of winds so they were excited to go
fast. My child was eager to sit in the
splash zone and made fast friends with the couples sitting there. By the end of the ride her lips were blue and
she was soaked, but she had a blast. We
were delighted with colorful rainbows and a beautiful sunset. This has been a perfect Maui day.
Saturday, Day 9:
This long day is spent driving the Road to Hana. I make everyone get up
early and we hit the road about 7:30.
They are not kidding when they talk about how winding this road is. We make several stops to see the various
beaches and waterfalls. Many of the
little one way bridges are over 100 years old and they are a sight to see. We are charmed by little weasel like creatures
as we eat our lunch in a park. One of
the most breathtaking sights on this drive is the volcanic black sand
beach. I’ve been to a black sand beach
in the Caribbean, but it was nowhere near this black. This is simply gorgeous! We reach our final destination, the Seven
Sacred Pools area, where they don’t seem to allow any swimming these days, and
then turn around to head back – 65+ miles of windy, slow road called the Hana
Highway that seems to only have room for one lane much of the time. The child is somewhat bored today because
there is no cell phone reception and no radio stations. Oh, the tragedy! We have dinner at Aloha Mixed Plate – more
local food. They eat a lot of rice
here.
Sunday, Day 10: We
have a full day to kill before our red eye flight home. We start it with a snorkel session just up
the beach from our resort. Just a few
days ago there was another shark attack off Maui so I consider it no small
victory that I was able to get my child into the water at all. She just wears her goggles, no snorkel, but
we both have pool noodles so we are able to float out quite a distance over the
coral and see all kinds of fish. We are
hoping to see a turtle, but no luck for us even though others around us spy
them. We see a scuba lesson going on
below us which clues us in to just how deep the water is here. The highlight of this morning is that as we
are out bobbing around in the water a pod of spinner dolphins swims back and
forth just a ways out from us. We can
see their fins and the splashing as they leap and play. We even see one jump up and spin around. It was so cool. After we check out of the resort we drive
into central Maui to the Iao Valley State Park and see the Iao Needle. This is a lovely park, easy to get to and
requires little hiking to see. We
capture one last gorgeous sunset from a southern beach before dinner at the
resort and then a late flight home.
Those overnight flights are brutal, but flying home from Hawaii doesn’t
offer any other options. There’s a bit
of excitement with our flight being delayed or cancelled so we hop onto an
earlier flight so we can make our connection in Phoenix. We arrive home around 1pm the next day.
We had 10 fun filled days on Oahu and Maui, driving all around each island and hitting the tourist highlights. My family is not interested in water sports so we didn’t book many tours or do many adventurous activities, we mostly drove around, tried the local food, soaked up the atmosphere, walked around looking at the scenery and swam at the beach and pool. Everyone really enjoyed their time on the islands. I enjoy each island for different reasons and think we had a nice mix of both the quiet isolation of Maui and the frantic tourist area of Oahu. Mahalo!
More photos here:
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