Day Two: 3/6/15

Every trip to Hawaii always starts with waking up way too early because of the 2 or 3-hour time difference.

We all me up at the beach to watch the sun rise and we got some photos of the grandparents and their kiddies.

A trip to Hawaii also wouldn’t be complete without a good ol’ Local Platter at McDonald’s.  I love how you can get fresh pineapple with your breakfast.

After breakfast, we headed up to North Shore and had lunch at Giovanni’s.  I just LOVE the fried garlic on top of the rice.Jes got the spicy shrimp and it looked REALLY spicy.  Although it was super tasty, I think he was also longing for mine.

One cool thing we saw at the shrimp truck spot were a bunch of hens and their chicks running around.  KK has been singing a song in Spanish called “Los Pollitos” (little chicks) and now she was able to see them up close!  They were so cute.

The most logical stop after having garlic shrimp is Matsumoto Shave Ice!!  Duh!  Surprisingly, Brother had never gone before!!

Anyway, it turns out they had a big renovation and instead of a crowded, dark, hole-in-the-wall shop, it is now a happy-fresh place that has plenty of ventilation and a brand-new parking lot in the back.

The funnest part of the trip was watching the two kids go to town on their special treat.  It was a big messy fiasco once it started melting and dripping but they had a blast.

Brother and I enjoyed the fried apple pies that we picked up from McDonald’s on the way over.  Why is Hawaii the only place that still fries their pies?!  It was as tasty as I had remembered.  KK also had a taste and said, “I love it!”

Our last stop was Laniakea Beach and saw “Olive” snoozing on the beach.  KK kept yelling “It’s Crush!” and I just let her.  Why crush such an innocent spirit?

The rest of the day was spent at the pool.  It was a little too windy for all of us so we moved over to the beach.

It was really funny watching KK eating her ice cream cone with her hands covered in sand.  Both ice cream and sand were everywhere and she simply didn’t care.  When she was done and there was ice cream all over her hands, she just went into the sand to “wash” her hands and then started digging again.  Being a kid in Hawaii has to be the best thing ever.  This kid has no idea how lucky she is to have been there four times already before her 3rd birthday.

While Brother and Joy had their anniversary dinner at Azure, Jes and I went to Arancino for my uni spaghetti.  Once again, KK was sleeping in the stroller tucked under the table.

We’ve been back for almost a week now and I miss being in Hawaii already.  I’m thinking I have to plan our next trip now so that I have something to look forward to.  KK is also missing Hawaii and sometimes asks “are we going to Hawaii today?”  Makes me sad to say, “no, maybe later.”

Anyway, here’s a recap of our first day…

Day One: 3/5/15

We decided to take BART to the airport, which meant getting up at the butt-crack of dawn and heading out before the sun came up.  Luckily everyone was exited enough to be wide awake at 5 am and we were out the door in time to make it to the BART station for the 6:40 am train.  I’m also lucky that our kid loves to ride public transportation and was well-behaved on all our transfers and on the actual trains too.

At the airport, the lady allowed us to go through the priority check-in line, which was super short and fast.  They didn’t even check our milk!  That gave us lots of time for breakfast and a bloody mary for Jes.  He asked for the celery on the side for KK.

Our flight was a pretty typical flight to Hawaii.  It lasted a little over 5 hours and KK was a champ.  I attribute it mostly to the fact that we deprived her of Finding Nemo and Chip and Dale cartoons for the past month.

She watched Finding Nemo twice through and even took a 1.5-hour-long nap.

They served a light breakfast of fruit and cheese, which was good but I’m so glad we ate at the airport.  Meanwhile, Jes stuck to a one-drink-per-hour policy that we had agreed on beforehand and got 4 out of 5 drinks on the house!  The flight attendant totally hooked him up!

We arrived a little after noon with minimal turbulence.

At the airport, we were all smiles and it was so nice to see my family waiting for us at baggage claim.  They had arrived around the same time. It took a little while to pick up our rental cars but there was still plenty of sunshine left in the day.

Our first stop is always Ramen Nakamura.  We were all starving by then.  Somehow we managed to get seats for all 8 of us.

It was a fantastic first meal and even Alice got into it!

At the hotel, we were pleasantly surprised with our “City View” room.  It had a partial view of the ocean from the lanai!

After washing up, KK REALLY wanted to go play in the sand.  Jes was napping so we went down to get Bubbies mochi ice cream from the general store downstairs and then headed to the sand!  The weather was so nice and the water was actually pretty warm.

My dad and brother also joined us and we played until the sun went down.

You really gotta love Hawaiian sunsets!!

For dinner, everyone went separate ways.  KK passed out in the stroller as we walked to dinner, so Jes and I had a quiet dinner at Tonkatsu Ginza Bairin.  It’s a small place but the host was nice enough to find a spot for us to eat and tuck KK away under the bar.    I had a tasty katsu don with a soft egg that oozed all over the rice.  Deeeelicious!