The Aloha State

Finally, after years of saying I would go, I made it to hawaii. On our way there and back, we did stop over for 2 days in los angeles just to break things up.

thurs | fri | sat | sun | mon | tues | wed

day 3: thursday, february 24
We arrived in honolulu and headed over to waikiki and our hotel, the royal hawaiian hotel, which is known as the pink palace of the pacific. This is just a great place to stay, with a big lobby, shops, a fairly wide stretch of beach, and the famous mai tai bar (scroll over the mai tai at left for the recipe), where they supposedly invented the drink. We checked out the beach and sampled the mai tais (see my around town pics). For dinner we walked over to the hula grill, which is upstairs in the outrigger hotel next to our hotel. I had a very nice shrimp scampi and a lava flow (a pina colada with strawberry sauce on the inside of the glass).

day 4: friday, february 25
Our first stop was breakfast at leonard's bakery, home of the malasada (here's a review with pictures). This is the portuguese variation of fried dough, served fresh and hot. I tried the original (sugar) and the coconut filled, and they were delicious! The line was too long over at the uss arizona memorial, so we shifted our plans and headed over to diamond head. We made the short drive up the "inactive" volcano, but didn't hike to the summit. The views up here are outstanding. Then we headed into downtown to see some of old hawaii, including the iolani palace grounds. Hawaii was once a monarchy before becoming a us territory and state (see my historic buildings pics). We had dinner at tiki's grill & bar, which is a mostly outdoor restaurant on the second floor of the aston waikiki beach hotel. I went for the mahi mahi and a longboard lager from the kona brewing company.

day 5: saturday, february 26
Today we had to get to pearl harbor, rain or shine. We showed up at 7:00 AM and were about tenth in line for the uss arizona memorial, which opens at 8:00. There's a 20 minute movie followed by a short boat ride over to the memorial (see my pearl harbor pics). Then we headed north to the dole plantation and learned everything you ever wanted to know about pineapples. From there we continued north for lunch at haleiwa joe's and then some matsumoto's shave ice. It was just a short drive from there to the famed pipeline, home of some of the best surfing in the world (see my north shore pics). We continued around the east side of oahu and back to honolulu. That night we were pretty tired, but managed to stop in for a dinner snack at duke's canoe club, next door to our hotel. This time I tried something different: a chicken and tenderloin steak combo.

back to top

day 6: sunday, february 27
Sunday was moving day as we headed over to the big island, but first we stopped in for mass at the cathedral of our lady of peace near chinatown. Our one hour flight landed at kona airport, which is completely outdoors, including the waiting areas and baggage claim (with a roof). We drove down to the royal kona hotel in kailua-kona, on the western coast of the big island. We took it slow tonight, checking out a small shopping area across the street from our hotel, where we had dinner, ice cream, and shot some pool!

day 7: monday, february 28
After breakfast at the hotel, we headed south out of town and continued driving until we reach south point (see my big island pics). This desolate place is the southernmost point in the united states (besting key west, which can now only lay claim to the 48 contiguous states' southernmost point). After a pizza lunch at some roadside deli, we drove east past volcanoes national park to the home of mauna loa macadamia nuts . They have a self-guided factory tour (you look through the factory windows and watch TV monitors which describe what's going on in the factory). But the greatest part was the free samples of macadamia nuts in the gift shop, including some varieties not available on the mainland (such as kona flavored).

Then we doubled back to volcanoes national park. This was a spectacular place. We took a quick drive around kalauea caldera, made the short walk through thurston lava tube (which is the hollowed out remains of a centuries old lava flow), and then drove down crater rim drive toward the lava flow as nightfall approached (see my volcanoes pics). The red glow on the darkened hillside was the lava! After parking the car at the end of the road, I didn't hike very far, staying on a paved path, getting probably only within 2 miles of the lava. They had a safety movie at the ranger station, recommending long pants, gloves, plenty of water, and a flashlight. I had none of these! I actually used my cell phone light to walk back (going farther would have meant hiking over extremely rough terrain). We had dinner at the volcano house, which is a hotel in the park, and then made the long drive back to our hotel.

back to top

day 8: tuesday, march 1
Today we took it easy, checking out the nearby kahaluu beach (which was a bit rocky and not what I expected) and hanging out at the hotel pool. I had a hawaiian pizza at the hotel and later we had dinner next door at huggo's on the rocks, a casual outdoor restaurant (next to their more upscale restaurant) sitting at a table on the sand and listening to live aloha music.

day 9: wednesday, march 2
A trip to the big island wouldn't be complete without making a stop for some kona coffee. This is my favorite coffee, and it's always very expensive back on the mainland. There were many different local growers and roasters on the island. Perhaps the best store we found was the kona coffee and tea company. This was an excellent retail outlet with a roaster right by the front door and generous free samples. Also, they sold kona in one pound bags (unlike most other brands we saw, which were 7 oz. bags).

After stocking up on the joe, we took a quick drive north to the cowboy town of waimea, kept going through the kohala mountains to hawi, and then headed south along the kohala coast. We discovered perhaps the best beach on the big island, hapuna beach. Then it was off to the airport and back to honolulu.

After the obligatory souvenir stop at hilo hattie, it was time for dinner. I had missed the hawaiian icon don ho and his show at the waikiki beachcomber hotel, and this was our last evening in hawaii, so I thought we would give don ho's island grill a try. It's located in the upscale aloha tower marketplace. We arrived at 9:05 PM to find that they had already stopped serving! Unbelievable. So we went next door to the crowded gordon biersch brewery restaurant, which was a pretty good place for both food and brew.

The next morning we flew back to los angeles and the mainland.

back to top