# COMPLETE - Trip Report - Aulani, Oahu, & the Big Island - August 2018



## gregf71

*Day 1 – Welcome to Aulani!*

At 4:00am PDT, the alarms on both my wife’s and my phones went off.  I purposely chose the built-in ukulele ring tone because I thought it was quite fitting given our travel destination today.  This amused my wife greatly.  Our bedroom door opened almost immediately, as the 12 year old, our daughter, the child we have to use a crowbar to get out of bed on the weekends, rushed in with a huge grin on her face.  It was vacation time!

Quickly showered, dressed, and somewhat fed, we finalized our luggage and carry-ons, triple-checked that everything was all set for the house and the cat sitter, and eagerly awaited the 5am arrival of my dad for our ride to the airport.  Just before the top of the hour, he pulled up, we said our goodbyes to the cat, loaded up the car, and we were off!  Amazing how little traffic there is on the San Diego freeway system at 5 in the morning on a Sunday.

As our flight was on Alaska Airlines, we were dropped off at Terminal 1 at San Diego Lindbergh Field.  Thanking my dad for the way too early lift, we made our way into the terminal and queued up to check ourselves and our luggage in.  There was a bit of a line, but not bad at all.  Checked in, baggage fees paid, and luggage riding away on the conveyor belt, we were surprised to learn that our flight was actually departing from Terminal 2, so we trekked over to the “other side” and entered the TSA line.  Again, not bad at all, but busier than I expected it to be this early in the day.

Through security, we needed food, so while my wife and daughter headed to Peet’s Coffee, I popped over to the Jack in the Box counter service.  Initially, I queued up in the line behind six people, but quickly noticed a self-service touchscreen monitor just off to the right with no one using it.  I quickly placed and paid for my order, then stepped aside with my receipt.  Within a few minutes, my number was called and I sauntered over to a nearby table area to enjoy, noting that three of the original six people who were in front of me in the original line were still waiting to place their orders with the live person.  It pays to use technology folks!

All of us now happily fed, we made our way over to our boarding gate seating area.  Grabbing three spots along a wall, we were pleasantly surprised to see that the seats had built-in plugs to charge our devices.  Unfortunately, the chairs themselves were not plugged into any power source and there didn’t seem to be any along the wall nor in the floor.  Sigh.  Such a tease!  This corner of the airport seemed to be reserved this morning for Alaska Airlines direct flights to the Islands.  While we awaited our flight to Honolulu, we heard calls overhead for flights to Maui and Kauai, including mention of seat upgrades.  “Seat upgrades,” questioned my wife, “What are those?”  First class of course, I replied, but also a few rows in the front of the main cabin with a bit more room and free drinks (adult drinks) for $99 per seat.  “Are any of those available on our flight,” she retorted.  I interpreted her question less as an inquiry and more of a request, though she would never admit that.  Seeing an Alaskan representative appear at our gate desk, I slyly maneuvered over and inquired about availability.  Sure enough, they had seats available and the next thing I know I am handing over our original tickets and the credit card.  Strutting back to my family, I handed over the new tickets to my wife.  She was most pleased.



Our flight was direct from San Diego to Honolulu, leaving at 7:30am.  Our new seats provided ample additional space; it was actually just a few more inches, but it sure felt good, and a free adult beverage for my wife and I was certainly nice.  Flight time was scheduled for 6 hours, but we must have caught a tail wind because we landed about 30 minutes early, around 10am Hawaii Time.  Off the plane, we made a quick trip to the restrooms and then down to baggage claim, where we waited for only about 10 minutes or so for two-thirds of our bags to come out.  As my wife and daughter’s bags came out first, they scooped them up and stood waiting as I scanned the conveyor belt for mine.  While doing so, I noticed that a man appeared in the corner of my eye near the exit doors, holding a sign labeled Hele Hele Shuttle.  Having booked our airport transfers with Hele Hele, as recommended via the Aulani website, I motioned to my wife, asking her to check to see if he was there for us (and possibly others).  Sure enough, he was there for us and us only.  Grabbing my bag soon afterwards, I joined up with them and we headed outside.  Making our way across the first lane of traffic, he led us to the center island area, where just off to the left he told us to wait as he called for our vehicle.  Within a few minutes, our van arrived, our bags were loaded in the back, our greeter was tipped, and we climbed aboard.  Warmly welcomed by the driver, we learned that the van was ours alone!  Cool!  Off to Aulani!

Sunday mid-morning traffic from Honolulu to Ko Olina was very mild, at least from our perspective; the driver actually commented on the unusual number of cars on the road, but to us it was nothing at all.  While making our way west, our driver asked if we were planning to explore the island at all, to wit we responded that we intended to rent a car for one day for that exact purpose.  Immediately, he reached for and handed me a tall, thin visitor guide and a pen, telling me to unfold the map in the back section.  He then proceeded to enthrall us with a list of sites that we had to see, all of which we could apparently see and enjoy in a single day.  Yeah, I had my doubts about that, looking over and smirking at my wife.  Actually, we already had a plan in place for our day of exploration (one that was ripped thoroughly on the DIS Boards I might add) and we were quite happy to stick with it; we appreciated his recommendations nonetheless.  At the very least, he reaffirmed some of our choices.

I think we pulled up and into the Aulani entrance-way about thirty minutes or so after leaving the airport, putting us there around 11am.  This arrival time turned out to be key because that is check out time and as a result the entire lobby area was a madhouse!  Exiting from the van, we were immediately greeted by a CM, asking us if we were checking in.  Upon my affirmation, she welcomed us home and placed a kukui nut lei around my neck and a floral lei upon both my wife and daughter.  Confirming with us that we checked in online ahead of time, she retrieved a packet from a nearby kiosk and escorted us into the lobby entrance (incredibly beautiful by the way) and off to a flat surface on the right.  Since we arrived so early, our room was understandably not available yet, so she showed us where the Bell Desk was, provided us with a resort map, marking important (and currently accessible to us) locations upon it, and gave us our eventual room key cards and another to the Luana Lounge.  Beyond hungry at this point, we quickly checked our bags and made our way to the Ulu Café.



Refillable mugs procured, our dining selections consisted of the daily sandwich special for me (a delectable Korean bulgogi), along with a Mickey-shaped spam masubi (also delectable), while my wife enjoyed a “decent” customized poke bowl and our daughter a BBQ kalua pork flatbread, which she loved.  We also shared slices of exquisite pineapple, a common thread for this trip.  We never had a bad bite of pineapple over the entire two weeks in the Islands.  The seating area for Ulu is very widespread, which we hadn’t realized at this moment.  Thankfully, we managed to snare a table just in front of Ulu, but let me tell you, that space was crazy busy with guests coming and going into Ulu itself, as well as accessing the drink dispensers off to the left.





Happily fed, we explored, walking around all of the pools, the lazy river, and the beach area.  We meandered through the two gift shops, making several purchases of course in Kalepa’s Store and thinking about a few items in the higher end Hale Manu.  I tell you though, I was really surprised in Hale Manu that there was no Aulani specific Tommy Bahama camp shirt.  There were two TB camp shirts there, but neither had Aulani emblazoned upon it; in fact, the one printed shirt, filled with all kinds of blue designs, had graphics with signs for Disneyland and Walt Disney World, but no Aulani (at least that I could find).  Nearby, there was a nice, blue Tori Richard shirt with Menehune strewn throughout the design, but still no indication of Aulani anywhere.  Oh well.

We then walked back out into the exterior space, making out way over to Aunty’s Beach House to complete our daughter’s registration and get her wristband.  Now, I’ll be honest, she’s 12; too old for the kiddy activities and too young for the teen.  The truth is, she just humored us in getting her band and signing up.  She looked around and immediately knew that Aunty’s wasn’t for her.  Still, we completed the registration with the possibility of her participating in one of the evening tween hours (7:30pm to 8:30pm each night), but during our five night stay, she never used it; instead, she had a blast with us.  Ohana means family you know.

Left with seemingly nothing else to do (our swim gear was packed and checked with Bell Services), we decided to check out the Luana Lounge.  Upon entering, we were immediately struck with how crowded it was.  It was a decent sized space, but with so many people (remember it was Sunday and not long after check out time) it was uncomfortable and honestly not a place that we wanted to be, so we left.  Returning to the main lobby, we grabbed some open seats and just chilled, people watching, soaking in the ambiance, and reviewing the paperwork the CM handed us earlier.  I noticed in the Daily Iwa that there were two stargazing events that night, so I headed over to the Pau Hana Room to see about availability and got us signed up for the 9pm session.  Now around 2pm, I returned to my family after another quick little stroll around Kalepa’s Store and our daughter asked me to check my phone to see if they texted.  Having never felt my phone vibrate, I assumed it was a fool’s errand, but there it was!  One message waiting!  Could it be!  Yes!!!

Our room was ready!  Number 544.  But where was it exactly?  Which tower?  The message didn’t say, so we headed off towards the Ewa Tower.  Eventually running into a CM, we asked and guess what?  We guessed wrong.  We were in the Waianae Tower.  So, we turned around and marched across the way, finding the elevators and heading up to the fifth floor.  Now, I will mention here that we booked a standard room with an Island Gardens view.  When I attempted to complete the online checkin the week prior, I ran into issues with the website, so I ended up calling the resort to complete it.  While talking to the CM, when it came to a room request, I simply asked for something with a nice view.  I also added that it was our first time at Aulani and our daughter’s first time to the Islands.  I hoped for something nice, but was blown away by what we got!

As we walked towards our room through the corridors, I quickly realized that the even numbered rooms were on the inside of the resort.  Was it possible?  Did they give us an upgrade?  I dare not speak a word of what I was thinking as we approached.  Our daughter excitedly demanded that she be allowed to insert the key card, which we happily obliged.  We opened the door and I immediately looked straight out into the space, through the glass doors leading to the balcony.  I could see the other tower!  I COULD SEE THE OTHER TOWER!  Keeping my cool, I walked over to the balcony door, slid it open and stepped outside.  The view was sublime.  Yeah, we could see the ocean; a little bit of it off to the right, but still WE COULD SEE THE OCEAN!!!!  I called the ladies over to check it out.  “What do you think?  Not bad, eh?”  We all hugged.  We were here and this was our view:


We scheduled an early (4:45pm) dinner at Makahiki tonight since our stomachs were still essentially three hours ahead.  Arriving a few minutes early, the space in front of and around the greeting desk was rather disorderly with excited guests of all ages rushing around and CMs trying to manage them.  Finally, one of the CMs admirably took control and got everyone in line, putting together a stantion area near the base of the stairs leading up to the main (second) level of the resort.  Group by group, we were granted exit from the stantion area, across the front of the stairs, and into a second queue for pictures with Donald Duck!  The mantra here is patience folks.  You are on vacation, right?  So, take it easy, yeah?  I say this because we frequently found ourselves behind large groups, especially during photo opportunities.  Yes, they took the standard full group shots, but they also wanted several individual shots with a variety of singles and pairs.  It was totally fine, but it did take some time.  Eventually, it was our turn to meet the Duck and snap our pics.



Escorted to our table after a quick introduction to the buffet options, we found ourselves seated in the exterior section of the restaurant, which was perfect because it was cooler out there and offered a wonderful soft breeze at that time.  A couple adult beverages and a specialty drink ordered, we hit the buffet for round 1.  The offerings were excellent, especially the more Japanese focused items.  I very much enjoyed the sushi section, while my wife loved that night’s fish entrée.  Of course my daughter and I hit the prime rib carvery station, which was very tasty, but I always wish they cut thicker slices; I suppose I could ask them to, but I never think to at the time.  The desserts were plentiful and wonderful too.  Overall, it was a very nice dining experience.  But then, you don’t come here just for the food:



Being a character meal, our table was visited by Stitch and Chip and Dale.  “Uncle” also walked around the tables playing his ukulele, singing songs and leading the younger kiddos in parades (yeah, our kiddo preferred to observe rather than march…no surprise there).

Well fed and back up in our room, being that it was still so early and the stargazing event wasn’t for several hours, we changed into our swim suits and went down for our first of many visits to the lazy river.  But first, we had to get our daily swim wristband!

After about an hour or so of playing and lounging in the lazy river, we returned to the room to freshen up.  A word about that tub and shower.  Unless you have long legs, the tub requires the use of a small trampoline or rope to climb in.  While wonderfully tall for bathing and soaking, getting into that darn thing required a certain level of yoga flexibility.  Secondly, the overhead shower head!  Oh my god, that thing was so wonderful!  You know what they say, once you go ceiling mounted, you never go back.  Sadly, we did go back (home) eventually and now I weep quietly, fondly remembering our Aulani shower each time I take my morning shower.  OK, I am being overly dramatic, but it was a fabulous shower!

Just before 9pm, we reported to the Pau Hana Room for the stargazing event.  Since I didn’t have our room number at the time I signed up, I made the point of checking in and getting the payment squared away.  Yeah, this was one of the Premium experiences that came with an extra charge.  Admittedly, it was a tad pricey, but in the end we loved it and felt that it was well worth it.

Once everyone was checked in, the entire group was escorted outside to a designated space between the fire pit and the infinity pool.  There, we found our instructor with two telescopes set up, as well as a good number of seats along the entire perimeter of the space.  Once settled, he introduced himself, talked about the equipment he brought, and detailed what we were about to see.  For lack of a better word, it was stellar!  Saturn (we could see the rings!), Mars, Jupiter, and different types of star clusters were made visible between the two scopes as we took turns looking through each for about an hour or so.

Finally back in our room, we shut down after a very long day.  While my wife and daughter chilled inside the room, I grabbed a seat on the balcony, soaking in the sounds of the entertainment from the Oleo Room.  Honestly, it couldn’t get much better than this.

More to come!  Six nights at Aulani, one day exploring some of Oahu, and then a week on the Big Island just before Hurricane Lane.  Care to come along for the ride?!


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## gregf71

*Day 2 – Aulani & Monkeypod Kitchen*

As mentioned at the end of the Day 1 saga, our vacation was essentially planned in two parts: Aulani & the Big Island.  For the most part, the Aulani portion was intended to be more relaxed, more chill, and lots of swimming in the pools, lazy river, and lagoon!  The Big Island was where we planned more of the exciting activities.

Day 2 started with breakfast at Ama Ama.  Kind of hard to beat this view, huh?



The experience was practically perfect in every way.  I ordered the amazingly delicious loco moco with an over-hard fried egg:



My wife, on the other hand, ordered the famous buttermilk pancakes with macadamia nut-vanilla sauce (sorry, not sure why the image keeps importing upside down):



And our daughter adored her cereal-crusted French toast with a side of Portuguese sausage:



Following breakfast, we meandered a bit to allow for proper digestion and then it was time to get wet!!!!











We spent all day long hopping between the lazy river and the two pools.  Our daughter absolutely fell in love with the infinity pool, as did we all.

When we did step out of the water for a bit, lunch was had at Off the Hook, where we split a kalua pork quesadilla, kalua pork tacos, and some furikake French fries with wasabi kewpie mayonnaise.  All of it was fabulous!

Later in the day, we needed a treat, so what else would we get:



I cannot tell you how many mouse ears we saw fall off people’s shave ice as they tried to get pictures.  Take them quickly, folks!  I consider ourselves lucky that we got this shot!  Oh, and do yourself a favor if you get one of these beauties...add the condensed milk on top...extra sweetness and a creamy texture that goes elegantly with the shaved ice crystals.

Dinner tonight was planned at Monkeypod Kitchen, across the way in the Ko Olina Center.  We headed over around 4pm to walk around and check out what all was over there.  This particular late afternoon, it was really hot.  The direct sunlight beat down on us as we walked over and around.  We quickly checked out the shops on the left side of the center, spending a little time in a particularly nice shop with Hawaiian made items in it.  Crossing over to the other side, we spent a good amount of time in the ABC Store as there is so much to take in there, ultimately buying a few small things.

Eventually, our reservation time arrived and we checked in at Monkeypod Kitchen.  Initially, the hostess attempted to seat us on the exterior patio, at an uncovered table.  Um, no.  Did I mention how hot it was?!  Declining that table, she brought us back inside and sat us at a table on the first floor along the window.  This one was better, but unfortunately, the sun was beaming directly into my face and there were no blinds to bring down.  I figured that I could deal with it by simply wearing my sunglasses, but a server noticed my uncomfortable situation and offered us another nearby table, one out of the direct path of the sunlight.  It was much better.

Service was great and the food was tasty.  I had the Big Island Cheese Burger, my wife the Fresh Island Fish Sandwich, and our daughter the Proletariat pizza sans olives.  It was all good, not great, but good.  You may have noticed that so far I have not mentioned price and value when speaking of meals thus far.  There is a reason for that.  It’s all too darn expensive!  We knew that going in and figured that it was just part of the experience we would just accept.  We wanted quality and for the most part we got that.  Could we have dined less expensively?  Sure, but within reason we chose not to let that be our guide this trip.  And that’s all I am going to say about that.

Back at Aulani, we decided to have a little dessert at Ulu before returning to the pools and lazy river for the remainder of the evening and eventually calling it a night.  Two words...Lilikoi Cheesecake!


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## gregf71

*Day 3 – Upper Verandah & Ka Wa’a Luau*

For today, we had reserved the Ama Ama upper veranda with plans of enjoying the beautiful lagoon.



We checked in at Rainbow Reef at 8am, officially paid for the reservation, and were then escorted to the space with a handful of towels.  The private location came with two casabellas, covered two-seat loungers that sat between Ama Ama to the rear and the lower veranda just in front.



Unbeknownst to us at the time, it also sat right next to an active construction zone for the next door wedding pavilion.  Still, the view was awesome.

Breakfast was take out from Ulu.  While I lounged in a casabella, my wife and daughter popped over to grab a few things, namely pineapple coconut yogurt, some fresh cut fruit, and an amazing pastry called a Caramel Pillow (we think...something like that).  Once they returned it was my turn and I came back with my own Caramel Pillow and a scrambled egg and Portuguese sausage flatbread.  A word on ordering hot items at Ulu...these items are purchased by grabbing a colored ticket from a basket in front of the service counter.  Take the ticket to the cashier and pay for it, whereby your order is automatically forwarded to the back kitchen for manufacturing.  As instructed, grab a seat outside and wait for a CM to come out calling your name with your hot items in hand.  Yes, depending on how busy the restaurant is, it can take a little while for your hot food to come out.  Now, back to what I ordered...the Caramel Pillow was warm, fresh, and so incredibly good!  The breakfast flatbread not so much.  I was rather disappointed by it honestly.  The scrambled eggs were bland and small and frequently fell off of the piece of dough as I tried to lift it up to bite.  Plus, it was really too much for one person...better for two or three to share.  Truth be told, I wish I had grabbed two more Caramel Pillows instead.  They also had malasadas that morning, but my wife and I both felt that they were too small and too expensive.

Back to the veranda...as it turned out, we ended up in this area all by ourselves.  A woman arrived and set herself up in the lower veranda around 9am, while my wife and daughter were enjoying the water and I was lounging in a casabella.  Within a few minutes, reacting to the sometimes loud and raucous construction sounds to our left, she turned to look at me and said, “Can you believe this?!”  I just shrugged and said, “Yeah, it’s a bit annoying at times.”  Well, apparently she decided that it was not something that she and her family wanted to deal with, so she paged her attendant and off they went, never to be seen by us again that day.  We think that she may have moved over to one of the poolside cabanas because we walked by the Executive Ama Ama Lanai later that afternoon and it was definitely not her group there.

So, yeah, the construction noise was irritating when we were trying to relax on the veranda.  We enjoyed a nice break from the noise, and the occasional profanity from the construction workers (which our daughter got a good chuckle over), during their lunch break.  I asked our food and drink attendant if earplugs were available, but she apologized that they were not.

Escaping out into the lagoon was our best option and it was sublime.  While my wife had a fabulous time swimming and diving down under the water, our daughter loved playing in the sand by the water’s edge.  I, on the other hand, simply enjoyed swimming out with one of the free boogie boards we borrowed from Makiki Joe’s, turning back and admiring this view:



Lunch was enjoyed in our casabellas.  We ordered from the same bar menu offered the day before at Off the Hook.  This time we decided to share the salt and pepper calamari sticks and chicken tenders with a side of fruit.  The calamari sticks and their coconut-curry dip were the hit of the meal by far!  So ono!

Since we had tickets to the luau tonight, we packed up and left the veranda around 3:30pm, heading up to our room to shower and get dressed for the dinner show.  I volunteered to return the two boogie boards to Makiki Joe’s while the ladies went ahead.  Walking back on my own, I decided to stop by the front desk to comment about our experience with the nearby construction.  The CM listened thoughtfully and took some notes as I spoke.  I didn’t ask for anything because we still enjoyed the day for the most part, but I did feel that it would have been appropriate for them to notify us about the construction noise ahead of time, especially given that I received two emails and a phone call the week and the day prior to our reservation affirming our plans.  She apologized for the inconveniences and told me that a manager would be following up with me.  I thanked her for her time and headed upstairs.

At 5pm, we headed downstairs to checkin for our VIP luau experience.  The enhanced tickets granted us early access to the area and the pre-show activities, as well as better souvenir leis, closer seating, priority access to the buffet, and all the drinks we cared to enjoy, including adult beverages (for my wife and I of course).  We very much liked the leis; while mine was a mixture of kukui nuts and small snail shells, my wife and daughter both received leis made entirely out of the beautiful yellow snail shells:



Entering the space, we quickly checked in and received our red Ka Wa’a wristbands.  After a picture with two show cast members and receipt of our first pre-prepared drinks (go to the bar if you want better drinks), we were shown to our table and seats:



A wonderful quartet of musicians played and sang beautiful Hawaiian tunes while up on the main stage.  It was a perfect accompaniment as we walked around and participated in some of the activities.  We strummed ukuleles, made decorative cards using stamps, and my daughter and wife got beautiful wrist flowers and temporary tattoos:



A short pre-show, as opposed to the quartet, began after a while with dancers and special guests, Moana, Mickey, and Minnie; this was it for the Disney character involvement in the luau.  Once completed, it was time to eat!  The process was managed flawlessly.  Tables were informed in an orderly manner when the guests could make their way back to the buffet tables, duplicated in two sides of the rear lawn (it was actually turf grass).  The food was outstanding!  Seriously, it was outstanding!!  The selections were many and the quality was all excellent.  My personal favorite was the whole roasted pig with adjacent bao buns and hoisin sauce.  I went back two more times for this stuff!

As for the show itself…magical.  It was simply spectacular.  My family and I have twice sat through the luau at the Polynesian Resort at Walt Disney World and that one, if I’m honest, pales in comparison to Aulani’s.  Great performers, wonderful music, good pace and length, and a perfect storyline tying it all together.  Oh, and of course it had the fire dancers at the end!  You got to have that and they were fantastic!  Overall, this was a splendid experience.


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## heaven2dc

Joining in!  This by far as been the best most detailed Aulani TR I've read in awhile!  Love all the details you included which really helps others in knowing what to expect (and maybe not expect) at Aulani.  The view from the lagoon looking back at the resort was amazing!  Can't wait to read more!


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## gregf71

heaven2dc said:


> Joining in!  This by far as been the best most detailed Aulani TR I've read in awhile!  Love all the details you included which really helps others in knowing what to expect (and maybe not expect) at Aulani.  The view from the lagoon looking back at the resort was amazing!  Can't wait to read more!



Mahalo!  It was an amazing trip and I have lots to share!  You liked the picture of the resort from the lagoon...just wait until you see the sunset images on our last night!


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## alohamom

Wonderful so far, cant wait for more!!!



gregf71 said:


> Two words...Lilikoi Cheesecake!



Oh man, that Lilikoi Cheesecake is sooo amazing. My daughter and I LOVE it!

The photo of you and your family at the luau is so nice, what a great remembrance of your trip.


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## Kitzka

Thank you so much for the detailed trip report. I can’t wait to read more!!


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## eagle29

Great report so far!!  I will be there for 5 nights next April and love the details...keep in coming!!!


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## wishiwasindisneyjen

Absolutely loving your report, can't wait for more.


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## Dizney73

Can't wait to read more! Loving your report!


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## gregf71

*Day 4 – Driving Around Oahu (this is a long one)*

The plan for the day…explore Oahu!  Many months prior, I reserved a rental car from the Alamo location at Aulani through Costco Travel.  The nice thing was that there was no pre-payment or credit card hold necessary to do so, allowing me to monitor the pricing as our trip neared and cancel and reset if the price dropped (I’ve done this with previous trips elsewhere with much success).  In this instance, the price stayed the same the entire time, so no tweaking was ever necessary.

Also many months prior, I posted on these very DIS Boards a post detailing our thoughts about what to see and do this day, asking for opinions of our initial plan.  The response was pretty brutal.  We were nuts!  Fools they said!  OK, no one actually called us names, but overall the sentiment was that we would be victims of awful, horrible traffic in and around Honolulu, that we were spreading ourselves too thin and couldn’t possibly see and enjoy everything that we were thinking about.  As a recap, here is exactly what we were thinking at the time:

Getting up early and picking up the rental car from the onsite Alamo at 7am-ish
Liliha Bakery for breakfast
Byodo-In Temple
Dole Plantation (yeah, it's a cheesy tourist trap, but it's fun!)
Up to Haleiwa for a small lunch and shave ice at Matsumoto's (ok, the shave ice is the real lunch)
Laniakea (Turtle) Beach
Drive back down south for dinner at La Mariana Sailing Club (need my tiki bar/restaurant fix)
Swing by Leonard's for malasadas for dessert...and few extra for breakfast back at the resort the next morning
Gas up to car at the Kapolei Costco and then return to Aulani
And here is ultimately what we did:

Get up early and pick up the rental car from the onsite Alamo at 7am-ish
Quick stop at Nisshodo Candy Store in Honolulu for some sweet treats
Liliha Bakery for breakfast
Byodo-In Temple
Dole Plantation (yeah, it’s a cheesy tourist trap, but it’s fun!)
Up to Haleiwa for lunch from a shrimp truck and then shave ice at Matsumoto’s (nope, the shave ice was not the real lunch…the shrimp was AMAZING…more on that…)
Laniakea (Turtle) Beach
Drive back down south for a drink and snack at La Mariana Sailing Club (need by tiki bar/restaurant fix)
Swing by Leonard’s *food truck in Waipahu *for malasadas (they never made it to breakfast the next morning)
Gas up the car at the Kapolei Costco and then return to Aulani
How did we do?  Perfect!  In fact, we got back early!

I got up and out of the room first so that I could be at the Alamo service desk, located on the back side of the Ewa tower, main floor, out by the convention area, when they opened.  I arrived just before 7am and there was only one person waiting ahead of me.  The Alamo staff member arrived soon afterwards and opened the outer doors, welcoming us both.  Quickly taking care of the woman in front of me, he called me up and got us all taken care of, directing me to the nearby elevator to take down to the rental car level.  Since my wife and daughter had not yet arrived, I had to wait for a few minutes, but once they showed up we hustled by the half a dozen or so smokers that suddenly appeared (one of their hideaways since they cannot smoke inside Aulani proper) and jumped into the elevator.  As we stepped out, we saw our car pulled out and waiting for us with an attendant ready to get us on our way.  Finishing up the paperwork, we confirmed that we could return it to the Aulani valet upon our return and we were off!

OK, let’s discuss the first warning that we received from the DIS Boards members…morning traffic into and around Honolulu!  “It will be horrible!”  “You will just sit there and waste precious time!”  “Slower than a snail moving through glue!”  OK, I made that last one up, but you get the gist.  Folks, it was truly nothing.  Now, keep in mind, we live in San Diego.  Rush hour traffic in the morning and afternoon here truly stinks.  It is not up to the levels of Los Angeles area commuter traffic (which we have experienced on a few occasions) yet, but San Diego is constantly growing and it is getting worse.  The traffic that we encountered driving from Ko Olina into Honolulu this morning was pleasant.  Yes, there were many other cars on the roads and highways, but comparatively it was easily manageable and frankly quite amusing for us as we had been told that it was going to be so horrific.  I guess it really depends on what you are used to or maybe we were just lucky, who knows?

Our first stop of the day was Nisshodo Candy Store.  Located west of Honolulu in the eastern part of the Kalihi Palama area, it proved to be a bit of a challenge to locate, as it is nestled behind a strip mall on Dillingham Boulevard.  In fact, when you drive behind the front-facing businesses, those operating in the back look to be using space partitioned within massive, plain-front industrial buildings.  We found Nisshodo and entered to this beautiful display:



Being quite the fans of Japanese sweets, we immediately started drooling (a common occurrence throughout the day we found) as we perused their colorful offerings.  Mochi and manju, rice-flour pastries filled with sweet bean, of several different flavors, as well as their famous Chichi Dango, melt in your mouth sweet rice-flour candies, begged us to buy, buy, buy!  It was so hard to choose, but in the end we got a box of Chichi Dango and second box of six (two each) mochi of various types; these didn’t last the day.

Next, breakfast at the famous Liliha Bakery!  5 minutes away!  This is why you plan ahead folks!  Two quick right turns, a left, and then one more left into the parking lot!  Behold the goodness:



Liliha’s claim to fame are their puffs and, boy, did they live up to the hype!  This particular Liliha location (there are two; this one is on Nimitz) included a sizeable coffee shop with the bakery section in front.  We decided to take our goodies to go, as my wife and I both ordered a pair of puffs and our daughter a couple more savory items.  Climbing back into our car, we proceeded to dig in.  My Coco and Chocolate Cream puffs were divine, while my wife loved her Coco and Green Tea puffs.  They were crunchy, flaky, and oozed with goodness as their fillings poured out a little at time with each bite.  Our daughter, unusually quiet in the back seat, devoured her “pizza” pastry, saying that it was the best she had ever had.  I apologize that I didn’t take any pictures of these things.  They were just gone too darn fast!

Fed and very happy, we then hit the road to the Byodo-In Temple, northeast of Honolulu.  The drive was so nice, as we left the city and town area, and entered almost immediately into vistas of green mountains, even driving through a long tunnel cut through the base of one (I love tunnels!).  So taken by the beautiful scenery, we were stunned by how seemingly quickly we arrived at the temple location.  Located in the back of the Valley of the Temples Memorial Park, Byodo-In Temple is a non-practicing Buddhist temple that welcomes people of all faiths to worship, meditate, or simply appreciate its beauty.  Parking is available near the temple area and there is small entrance fee per person, cash only.

Two words…beautiful serenity.

Since it was still fairly early in the morning, there were only a handful of people here visiting.  While there was space in the parking lot for tour buses, there was not a single one here yet.  As a result, it was a very calm, quiet, and peaceful visit.  Walking across a bridge, you see the main building in the distance.  Off to the left is the Bon-sho, the sacred bell, which is customarily rung before one enters the temple.  Ringing the bell purifies the mind of evil spirits and temptation, as well as bringing happiness, blessings, and long life.  We each took a turn.  The tone was so pleasant, deep, and soothing.

Before entering the temple itself, we walked up a small hill up to the left to the Meditation Pavilion.  We paused to look back down on the area and then I started feeling things on my leg, little things, particularly of the mosquito variety.  Looking around, I noticed a couple other folks slapping down at their legs.  Along the path leading up to the pavilion was a small river, leading to the larger pond in front of the temple.  Honestly, I didn’t see anything on my leg, but I pulled out a bug repellent wipe from our backpack and covered exposed areas.  This was honestly the first time on Oahu that I had this need.  Mosquitos were never an issue over at Aulani.

Walking towards the main temple, we noticed the requirement to remove ones shoes before entering.  We did so, leaving them with others on the floor, and then passed into the large room with the Amida Buddha.



There was an older gentleman seated near it quietly enthralling two tourists with some stories about the temple, as well as a table just off to the right where visitors could light and leave incense.  We respectfully admired the statue for a few minutes, then retrieved our shoes and walked around the front of the building, over to the gift shop and restrooms.  My wife and daughter found a few things to their liking in the shop and we also bought some food for the koi in the ponds.  As we meandered along the pathway back towards the bridge and parking lot, we fed the fish and kept a keen eye out for droppings from any of the many feral cats that called this place home.



Back in the car, we made our way down out of the mountains and headed northwest to the Dole Plantation.  Fairly busy by the time we arrived, the paved sections of the parking lot was full, but we managed to nab a spot at the beginning of the dirt section down by the Pineapple Garden Maze.  Honestly, we spent most of our time here in the main building shops.  Aside from the all of the Dole Plantation fruit, candies, and merchandise, we were pleasantly surprised to find a nice variety of independent retailers selling their wares around the edges of the space.  We ended up buying some treats to bring back to friends and co-workers, as well as a couple nice gifts for our moms, and a couple souvenirs for ourselves.  And of course, I just had to hit the Dole food and drink area to get a Dole Whip Float in a collectible plastic pineapple mug!

Stepping outside the rear of the store, we paused for a few pictures (this being one below), checked out the pineapple varietals garden, and the koi pond.  We gave a little thought to riding the train, but the queue was 45 minutes long and we were happy with the views we could get from where we were.



Satisfied with our pineapple quality time, we headed north towards the famed North Shore, stopping in the town of Haleiwa.  It was lunch time and the Big Wave Shrimp Truck was our target.  Perhaps not quite as famous as Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck in the area, we chose Big Wave because of many positive social media reviews, as well as a segment on an old episode of Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives.  Pulling into the unpaved space adjacent to the truck, we managed to find a spot back behind it, where we saw several other food trucks parked.  We arrived at the perfect time, able to walk right up and place our order before another family and group of about ten Army soldiers arrived to get their lunch.



We settled down at a picnic table in front of the truck and were quickly called to claim our two plates:



Knowing that we had shave ice plans next, we decided to get two plate lunches to share, the garlic shrimp and the short ribs.  Both came with rice and pineapple slices.  Friends, there are no words to properly describe how good these things were…all of it!  It was an absolute pleasure peeling the shells off of each succulent shrimp because I knew that my fingers (and the front of my shirt unfortunately) would be covered with the garlic buttery goodness.  The short ribs were perfectly cooked, just chewy enough, but not too much, and full of savory flavor.  And the pineapple!  Oh my, that pineapple!  Sweet perfection!

Finishing lunch, my wife noticed a shop right across the street that sold soaps.  As she had been dying to take a nice soak in the tub in our room at Aulani, this was the perfect opportunity to grab a bath bomb or two.  I wish I remembered the name of the place, but it was fabulous.  More than just bath bombs, they had amazingly scented soaps with sponges inside them; of course we ended up with a few of these as well.  Circling back to Aulani and their shops…with such nice showers and tubs in their guest rooms, we were really surprised that they didn’t sell nicer bath products (likewise in the shops across the way) on property.

A five minute drive up the road and we found ourselves getting lucky with a quick parking spot in the lot behind Matsumoto’s Shave Ice.  This place is a landmark.  While personally not my favorite shave ice during our entire trip (we will get to that later), it certainly put the one at Aulani to shame.  When we arrived, there was nearly no line, which again proved to be very lucky, as a tour bus arrived soon after we stepped outside with our selections; these are my wife’s and daughter’s:



We grabbed a seat on a bench outside and thoroughly enjoyed.  Finishing mine first, I went back into the adjoining gift shop and picked up something that has been on my souvenir bucket list for many, many years…a tie-dye t-shirt.  What better place to get such a multi-chromatic piece of clothing that at a shave ice place?!  Its bright colors perfectly reflect those of the rainbow that one can get on their wonderful products.  I was so happy!

Ready to remove ourselves from the suddenly over-crowded seating area (thanks tour bus, grrr), we jumped back into the car and again headed north up to Laniakea Beach.  Now, if I were to say that we hit any actual traffic during this day, this would be it.  The northeast heading 83, called a highway, is a two lane road and the closer we got to Laniakea Beach, the more bumper to bumper things got.  Parking is where you can find it along the side of the road.  For lack of a better term, it’s just plain nuts.  Thankfully, people are coming and going here, so we were able to find a spot pretty quickly on the right side.

Crossing the street was a bit of a challenge; you need to be very careful and watch both ways as there was no crosswalk that we could see.  Thankfully, folks are nice and stopped for us.  Climbing down to the beach through some trees, we arrived at this beautiful location.



Known also as “Turtle” Beach, this place is widely known as a place to see sea turtles both on the sand and in the water.  It certainly lived up to its name, though in limited quantity.  This fellow decided to take a little nap on the beach:



And while we walked down the beach towards the west, we noticed two or three turtles in the surf.

After about fifteen minutes or so of soaking in the sites, we returned to our car, had a little adventure pulling out and turning around, and then started the oh so long (I am being sarcastic) trek to La Mariana in Honolulu.

You see, me, I love tiki culture.  I know that it’s not true Hawaii, that it is kitsch, but I like it.  I love tiki drinks and I love to collect tiki mugs.  During our trip to the Islands, I really hoped to find something tiki related and while planning our trip I was surprised how few tiki places there were in the Islands, but thinking about it more and more, it really isn’t that surprising.  On Oahu, the place to go for tiki is La Mariana Sailing Club.  Fairly well hidden, it was slightly challenging to find, but we eventually succeeded.

Before reaching the entrance to the bar and restaurant area, we stopped in their small gift shop.  I could hear the tiki gods singing (sort of like angels) as I perused the various mugs they had for sale.  Prices ranged from $30 up to $150, the latter being two custom mugs in the form of the Kakamora, remember the coconut pirates from Moana.  Oh my, my tiki and Disney worlds were crashing together?!  But, $150 was too rich for me.  The really sweet staff member told us about the various mugs they had available and their quantity.  Eventually, I made my selection and it turned out that it was one of the ones currently being offered in the restaurant.  Why was that important?  If I bought it in the restaurant, I could get a drink in it for $5!  Sold!  So, we made our way into this wonderful tropical oasis.

Being that it was a weekday afternoon, it was virtually empty.  We were greeted and seated immediately and after quickly reviewing the menu options, I hopped up and walked around snapping pictures.  I ended up ordering my go to rum concoction, a Zombie.  The ladies ordered a couple non-alcoholic beverages and missing home (just a little) we got some chips and salsa.  As chips and salsa go, it was quite good.  The chips were hot and freshly made and the salsa was decent enough.  But, my Zombie!  Wow!  There were some powerful spirits swimming around in that mug let me tell you.  I mean, I am not a small fellow, and we had lunch, shave ice, plus now the chips and salsa, but half way through that drink I looked at the my wife and said, “You are driving.”  In fact, I couldn’t even finish the darn thing.  When our server took the mug away to clean it out and wrap it up, she noticed that there was some goodness left within and asked me if I wanted to finish it.  I just couldn’t, even though it tasted so good.






So, how best to counteract a super-buzz from a super tiki drink in Hawaii?  Why fresh malasadas of course!  Jumping back in the car, we hit the H1 westbound, making our way to a mall parking lot in Waipahu.  Back by the Lowe’s Home Improvement sat three or four food trucks and one of them was from the famed Leonard’s bakery!






Again, we scored with the small number of customers, walked right up to the order window, placed our order, and awaited the goodness…this goodness:






My gosh these were good!  Wait, not good, great!  Hot, soft, mildly crunchy on the outside and almost gooey in the middle.  We ordered three coated with sugar and cinnamon and three coated with Li Hing Mui (dried plum) powder.  Amazing!  Three of these beauties didn’t make it back to the car, the other three were devoured as we got gas at the fairly nearby Costco.

The rental car now all gassed up, we returned to Aulani after a wonderful full day.  We pulled up front, returned the vehicle to the valet (make sure that you tell them it is an Alamo rental return!), and headed back up to our room.  So, now what?  It was only the early evening.  Well, my wife very much wanted to try out one of her new bath bombs.  Our daughter wanted to swim.  And me, I just wanted to chill out.

Inevitably, we ended up all heading down to the pool area as the sun was setting.  Wanting some semblance of a dinner, I grabbed a table by Off the Hook, while my wife popped into Ulu to grab a caprese salad, and our daughter plunged into the pool.  During our previous two Off the Hook experiences, I had been eying the Harris Ranch Angus Burger and tonight I would finally give it a try (sans the tomato of course because raw tomatoes are yucky); to be good though, I swapped the fries for a green salad.  My wife eventually joined me with her salad, which she liked very much, and I could not have been happier with my burger.

As my wife returned to our room to enjoy the tub, I moseyed over to the pool lounge chairs and set up shop while our little fish swam and hit the slides.  I promised my wife at least 45 minutes of peace before we would return to the room, so what better place than this to lean back and relax.  After several minutes, my phone started vibrating with an 808 number.  Since it was local, I answered and found myself speaking to an Aulani manager about our earlier issues with the upper veranda and construction noise.  We chatted for several minutes, my goal being to communicate my opinion that better communication from their end would have been nice for their customers, not just me, but going forward as well.  I never asked for anything, but in the end the manager thanked me for my time, apologized for the inconveniences we experienced (isn’t “inconveniences” the code word for problems in the hospitality industry?), and offered me a $100 room credit.  I thanked her sincerely for the credit, which was a very nice gesture on her part, and we ended the call.  As the promised 45 minutes came to an end, and I was getting tired, I summoned our daughter from the pool and we made our way up to the room, where my wife was happily relaxing in a post-bath glow.  It has been a good day.


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## gregf71

*Day 5 – Our Final Full Day at Aulani*

Originally, the plan for this morning was to have extra malasadas from Leonard’s for breakfast.  Well, they didn’t make it past the Costco gas fill-up the day before (which I wisely assumed might happen), so just in case I booked one more breakfast at Ama Ama for 9am.  Seated once again with a wonderful view of the beach and lagoon, we debated about repeating our earlier orders or trying something different.  We chose the latter and lived to somewhat regret it.

While our daughter tried the Classic Flavors “Gift of Bread” with cinnamon rolls, apple danish, and apple muffins, along with a side of pineapple, both my wife and I went with the two-eggs any style with Aulani Potatoes and Portuguese sausage.  First the good, the bread service, pineapple, and the sausage were all great!  The Aulani Potatoes were nothing special, chunked and fried with onions and peppers; standard stuff really.  But the worst, the absolute worst, were the scrambled eggs that we both ordered.  Very similar to what I experienced on my breakfast flatbread from Ulu days before, these eggs were flat, small, and ever so bland.  I generally have a rule when traveling to resorts or hitting buffets…avoid the scrambled eggs.  They tend to be made with an egg mixture, not fresh eggs, and the results are always the same, flavorless and flat.  I decided to take a chance here at Ama Ama because it is their prime dining location; they had to do them good, right?!  Wrong.  Both my wife and I were disappointed with our scrambled eggs.  We ate them to get the protein, but we were not happy.  As the meal ended, I told them to go ahead up to the room to change for swimming while I paid the bill.  When our server came to claim the check and our room card, he asked how everything was and I told him honestly that everything was good except for the eggs.  He apologized and stated that they were cooked with butter.  Huh, I thought to myself.  I cook scrambled eggs with butter every time and that has no bearing on their fluffiness, and as far as flavor it usually enhances it.  Weird.  Anyway, he kindly offered to comp the sliced pineapple that our daughter ordered, which I appreciatively accepted.

OK, time to hit the water again!  While my wife returned to the lagoon, our daughter and I moved between the two pools and the lazy river.  And it was in the infinity pool that she pointed out something that I had not noticed during our previous swims…there are wall-mounted speakers here that play sounds of marine animals under the water.  We must have spent an hour swimming back and forth, from speaker to speaker, dunking our heads under the water to hear and identify the noises.  It turned out to be a fun little game!






(Taken from under the water looking up at the tower)



By around noon-ish, my wife had rejoined us in the pools and it was time for me to head up to the room to shower and change for my appointment with DVC.  Positioned throughout the resort, DVC representatives are there to coax you into visiting their model rooms and sit down to listen to their presentation.  One day earlier in the week, while I was up in the main lobby taking some pictures, one of them struck up a conversation with me.  Over the next few days, we frequently walked by this person and she would greet us, politely asking if we wanted to check out what DVC had to offer.  We would amiably chat, but always chose to go about our business.  That changed when during one little quick chat, she offered me a $100 room credit.  All I had to do was sit, listen, and chat; no strings attached.  After discussing it with my wife, I agreed to do it and set up the appointment for this afternoon.  Truth is, we have always been somewhat interested in the program, even sitting through a group session during our Disney cruise to Alaska in 2013, so we figured why not get the current numbers…especially if we’d get a nice room credit out of it.     

Cleaned up nicely, I arrived at their suite on the second floor of our tower.  I checked in and was quickly ushered into a meeting room with a very nice man, named Dennan.  We had a very nice conversation and an informative session that lasted about an hour or so.  There was no high pressure tactics, just a friendly sharing of information.  I left with documents of the cost breakdown and then found my wife and daughter sitting down for lunch at a table out near Ulu.

Did we buy?  Nah, but it certainly gave us something to discuss as a family.  Ultimately, we agreed that if we decide to join the program, buying into a property in Disney World makes more sense for us, with Aulani being a somewhat close second.  It very well might happen someday.

Being lunch time, I popped into Ulu and grabbed two more of the Mickey Spam Masubi.  The ladies, since we were actually seated in the nearby adult bar area, ordered a couple things from the server, who turned out to be the same awesome attendant we had during our upper veranda day!  Back into the water for some final dips and then we returned to the room to get ready for dinner at Ama Ama.

We arrived at Ama Ama just before our 5pm reservation.  A family of four was trying to adjust their reservation time, which isn’t of any interest here, but what I did note and will mention was that the CM made a point of reminding the father of the restaurant’s dress code.  Regarding the code, the policy is clearly posted, but we observed it to be somewhat loosely enforced.

Our table was off in the southern section of the restaurant, down towards the verandas.  I much preferred where we sat for our two breakfast meals, but the view was still very nice from here.  Our daughter, reviewing the menu, was feeling very uneasy, fearing that there was nothing on it that she would enjoy.  She wondered if she could order from the kids menu, but with that being limited to a max age of 9 and her being 12, I didn’t think that they would let her.  Maybe they would, but we never asked.  I pointed her to the steaks.  She loves steak, but when she saw the prices, she fell victim to sticker shock.  She felt bad paying that much for her dinner, but we reminded her that we were on vacation and this was our last dinner at Aulani, so she should enjoy herself.

In the end, she ordered a center cut filet, as did I, with a side of truffle mac and cheese and creamed corn.  Similar to high end steakhouses, the sides are ordered separately from the entrée.  My wife ordered that day’s “fish auction”, opah (no, it’s not a Greek fish), with the server recommended lomilomi tomato ogo butter enhancement.

How was the meal?  It was so good that I forgot to take pictures!  The filets were so tender that you could have cut them with not a butter knife, but a knife made of butter!  I joke, but they were insanely tender and flavorful.  The cream corn, which I love, but my family hates, so I never get it at home, was fabulous…and all mine!  The mac and cheese was good, not quite creamy enough for our liking, but still tasty.  With the truffle oil, it proved to be a tad too different for our daughter’s palate, but she had several bites nonetheless.  The fish, pure perfection, according to my wife.  So, are you wondering if it was worth the price?  Absolutely, whole-heartedly, yes!

Dinner over and the sun near setting, I asked the ladies if we could walk out the point to watch the sunset.  Believe it or not, this was our fifth night at Aulani and we had yet to watch a sunset.  “The Point”, as I called it, is a short walk out to the left of the beach and lagoon as you face them.  There is some open grass and several palm trees, along with a few large rocks to stand or sit upon.  We arrived about 30 minutes before scheduled sunset (according to Accuweather on my phone) and just soaked it all in.  Here are a couple pictures as 7pm approached:





I’ve always liked taking sunset pictures with something blocking the sun and creating an aura of sorts.  OK, folks are you ready?  My best and most favorite picture of our entire trip…behold:



I may print this one and frame it.  

With darkness finally arriving, it was now time to return to our room to pack for our departure from Aulani and our shift to the Big Island.  One final visit to the gift shops just in case and of course we grabbed a few more things.  In fact, I should mention, each morning we noticed that they put out a sort of sale rack of Alex & Ani bracelets.  My wife had been eyeing one of them over the length of our visit and asked about it from the CM in the area that night.  Sure enough, they had them off the floor in the back, so she retrieved it for my wife and we ended up getting it.  Apparently, they don’t leave it out all day, so know to ask if you are interested.


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## North of Mouse

A great Aulani trip report - the best, most interesting that I've ever followed from vacations there! Thanks, and glad y'all had a fabulous time!!  You definitely kept me waiting for more - you will have such good memories for life!


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## gregf71

*Day 6 – Mahalo Aulani, Aloha Kona!*

We decided to end our Aulani visit the same way we started it…with a character meal at Makahiki!  As our Hele Hele shuttle was not scheduled to pick us up for the airport until 11am, we figured that a 7:45am reservation suited us just fine.

Similar to the other night, arriving groups were organized in a stanchion zone prior to getting the opportunity to take a pre-meal picture or pictures.  Two differences today, the character of honor was now Mickey Mouse and the he was outside on the patio instead of inside.  Just our luck, we had another larger group in front of us, which was fine, but it took a little longer as they wanted several secondary pictures.  Eventually, it was our turn:



Once seated (almost got the same exact table as dinner), we took turns hitting the buffet.  Yes, I avoided the scrambled eggs!  Fool me once, fool me twice…not going down that path a third time!  Instead, I visited the omelet station and while there they did use a pre-fabricated egg mixture, ultimately it came out tasty and somewhat fluffy…though all the bacon and onions didn’t hurt!  The overall selections were breakfast buffet staples, but my favorite were these little beauties:



Red velvet Mickey waffles!

With Mickey greeting guests up front, within the seating area we enjoyed visits from Minnie and Pluto.  Where we had “Uncle” serenading us during the dinner, at breakfast we had “Aunty.”  Having our room situated just above Makahiki the entire week, I can’t tell you how much I was done with Aunty’s Aloha song.  Nice tune, but when you hear it every day, I mean EV-ER-Y day, one does get a tad bit sick of it.



Oh, did I forget to mention the wonderful POG juice?!  Oh, and did I forget to mention how cool their Mickey emblazoned chopsticks are?!  I had to take a pair home as a souvenir:



Our final Aulani meal consumed, we went to complete our daily trip ritual…claiming that day’s swim wristband.  Collecting them over the length of our stay became a sort of rite of passage.  We were certainly not planning to swim that day, but we just had to have that day’s different color band to complete our sets:



I wore these the entire time we were on the Big Island.

Last thing to do was turn in our daughter’s Aunty’s Beach House wristband.  Initially, she said that she would keep it as a souvenir ($13 or so charged to our room account if we chose to retain it), but having never spent a second there, she chose to return it.

Heading back to the room, we stopped quickly by the front desk to get a final printout of our charges and credits.  I forgot to mention that the previous evening I made a point to stop by to count our various Disney Gift Cards and Disney Visa Rewards points against our room charges.  They took away a nice chunk having been saving them up for about a year, but we still did some good damage to the credit card.

Around 10:45am, we said goodbye to our wonderful room and made the sad, slow trek out to the airport shuttle pickup area.  One Hele Hele shuttle bus sat awaiting its passengers, of which we were three according to the driver.  Fantastic, I thought, as we loaded our luggage into the back section and climbed in.  However, unlike our arrival, this bus was not to be ours alone.  In fact, we were awaiting two other families.  The first family arrived soon afterwards and then we waited…and waited…and waited…and waited.  Apparently, as we came to learn, the third family was waiting for the Bell Desk to claim and bring down their luggage.  The driver kindly affirmed our departure times and assured us that we would make it without issue.  Eventually, the third family and their luggage arrived and boarded.  We were off!  Mahalo Aulani, it was a very special visit and we will return.

We arrived at the Honolulu airport during what I like to call the “crazy” hour.  The place was crazy busy and the staff had their hands full trying to direct all of the would-be passengers in the right direction.  We were flying on Hawaiian Airlines to Kona.  After asking three different people, we found our way to a ticketing check-in station, then the luggage check-in station, and finally the outside line leading to the TSA security check.  It could have been worse and we made it through into the terminal with plenty of time to hit the restroom and grab some beverages (and a sweet pineapple cup) from Starbucks before waiting for our flight.

The flight was short and sweet; basically up and down.  If you have ever flown from San Diego to Las Vegas, it was pretty much like that.  Claiming our luggage, we grabbed the Hertz rental car shuttle and headed out to their lot.  After a little uncomfortable chatting about possibly charging my wife as a second driver (they didn’t) and them trying to upcharge us to a 4x4 (that guy at the Aulani Alamo was so much nicer), we tetris’d (is that a word?  You know what I mean) our luggage into the trunk and made our way to Costco.

Loading up on a few provisions for some daily breakfasts, snacks, and a case of water, I was stoked to see that they sold apple bananas!  If you have never had an apple banana, then you are missing out!  They are so sweet and delicious!

Our eventual destination was the Wyndham Mauna Loa Village, located in the southern area of Kailua-Kona.  My dad and his wife gave us 7 nights here as part of their timeshare.  It’s a little dated, but proved to be a very nice place to stay.  We essentially had our own two level space, with the bedrooms on the 1st floor and the 2nd consisting of a full kitchen and a living area.  Two patios outside the two bedrooms and a veranda on the upper level. 

We spent the next few hours settling in and unpacking.  Dinner tonight was at a place called Jackie Rey’s Ohana Grill.  We had a wonderful meal there.  Great service and wonderful food.  Do Guava BBQ Glazed Baby Back Ribs sound good to you?  They did to me and they were amazing!  My wife ordered that day's fresh fish special and our daughter had their burger.  Both dishes pleased them highly.  Dessert too was a real treat.  Our daughter wanted the gelato, sourced from the epic Big Island gelateria Gypsea Gelato (more on them later), but she couldn't decide between the more savory Kona coffee chocolate or the sweet guava and lilikoi, so our waiter very nicely brought her some of both.  While liking both very much, to her genius, she quickly discovered that the blending of the two together created a taste that greatly surpassed them on their own.  Imagine the best chocolate en-robed piece of fruit you have ever had, smashed and blended together and then chilled!  My wife and I...we had this...



It was their take on a brownie a la mode, made of macadamia nut and coconut.  The brownie was warm, soft, and ooey-gooey, serving a perfect contrast to the cold creaminess of the ice cream and chocolate sauce drizzle.  Our respective spoons sparred several times as we cleaned this plate!

So, now I leave it to you dear readers.  Shall I continue documenting our Hawaiian adventure for you here?  These boards are for Disney-centric postings, of which this has been, but now we are definitely out of the Disney zone.  We had five more days of adventure before Hurricane Lane cut our trip a little short.  Do you want more?


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## ErinF

gregf71 said:


> So, now I leave it to you dear readers. Shall I continue documenting our Hawaiian adventure for you here? These boards are for Disney-centric postings, of which this has been, but now we are definitely out of the Disney zone. We had five more days of adventure before Hurricane Lane cut our trip a little short. Do you want more?



Absolutely finish the report with your whole trip!  I have loved reading your travel saga the past couple days.  I must say you have a very detailed and engaging writing style, so it's been a great read!  I think many people plan Aulani as part of a bigger Hawaiian vacation, so it's helpful (and fun) to hear about the rest of the trip.  I know our family is planning our vacation for June 2019, with 3 nights at Aulani, 4 nights on Kauai, and 5 nights on Maui.  Sadly we won't hit the Big Island this trip, but I'm still interested to hear your adventures.


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## alohamom

WE WANT MORE, WE WANT MORE, WE WANT MORE  (please)


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## Dizney73

Yes!  Of course, you need to finish!


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## Wayland10

Please finish! I would love to do a trip like this!


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## Flossbolna

I am currently planning a trip to Hawaii and trying to decide which island to include besides Oahu. So, Inwouldmlove to read more about your adventures.


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## scrappydew

Absolutely more!  What are you thinking?!


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## gregf71

Ok then!!!  I will get to work.  I'm glad that you are enjoying our tale.  Keep an eye out for updates later this week; I added a little bit more to the end of Day 6.  Enjoy the holiday everyone!


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## AussieDisneyfans

Really enjoying your trip report and yes, you must continue with the rest of your adventures.


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## gregf71

*Day 7 – Atlantis Submarine, Shave Ice, Grindz, the Place of Refuge, & Donkey Balls (yes, your read that right)*

And we are back!

Our first full day on the Big Island!  Up early, we feasted on provisions acquired the previous day at Costco and then set off.  We chose to drive up to Kona via the more scenic coastal route, on Alii Drive, which admittedly took a few minutes longer, but it was more coastal and definitely more beautiful versus the inland road.  The first item on today’s agenda was an Atlantis Submarine ride!

Parking at the Courtyard by Marriott King Kamehameha Kona Beach Hotel, we made our way into the main building and luckily entered right across from Atlantis’ service desk (they could improve signage).  Checking in and getting our parking ticket validated (reduced the parking fee to $2.00 for 4 hours), we meandered around the resort for a bit, killing some time.  We checked out the little beach and the nearby marina, as well as the attached ABC Store, finding a few chachkies to bring home with us.

A few minutes before our appointed embarkation time, we returned to the Atlantis desk and met up with all of the other fine folks who would be sailing with us this morning.  It was a decent sized group, perhaps 50 or so, not quite a full-subs worth we discovered later.  Eventually a rep came out, called us together, and escorted us out to the marina area.  Upon receiving word that our first (and third) mode of transportation had arrived and securely docked, we walked down to an awaiting boat, which would ultimately be taking us to and from the submarine.  However, before we could board this vessel, the Atlantis staff told us some silly story about needing pictures of each of us for emergency response (and washed up bodies) purposes, requiring each person or party to take a photograph, conveniently behind an Atlantis Submarine sign.  Gee, would they possibly print and try to sell us these photos later if we all survived?  Hmmm…

All boarded on the boat (and digitally photographed for our safety), we set out.  The ride out to deeper water, where the submarine was anchored, was wonderful.  Fairly speedy, we bounded upon the water, being provided very nice views of the island area now behind us and inhaling the wonderful ocean air.  After a quick safety briefing and an offer to buy a commemorative foldout with identifying images of the local fish for $1.00 (which we bought), we arrived and docked with the sub, and were then invited to enter in descending group size from one of two ends.  Being a group of three, we were one of the last groups on, in fact as it turned out we ended up being the last group on our side of the sub, granting us a little extra space.

All boarded on the sub, the hatches were secured and the adventure began!  Guess what?!  We sank!  Gasp!  Sorry, wrong words…we did a controlled submersion.  These people were pros after all.  We felt completely safe at all times.  The underwater tour began in nearby coral reefs, which offered a good number of fish, not a lot, but enough to keep us interested.  Keep in mind, we were in open water, not an aquarium, so there is no guarantee of what fish you will see and how many.  What struck me the most was that the reef wasn’t colorful.  Looking through the large portholes (each of which thankfully had wonderful vents just above blowing cool air down on your face), everything was sort of greyish blue.  Unfortunately, I cannot recall if they explained that as naturally occurring for this area or type of coral, as a result of external causes, or simply due to the lighting within the subs themselves and the tint of the porthole glass.  Regardless of the cause, it was not vibrant at all to the eye or the camera.

In addition to the reefs, we also visited two ship wrecks.  Both modern day (20th century) vessels, one was a re-purposed WWII troop lander and the second a private sail boat.  The cruise’s narrator, who sat up behind the driver, pointing out and identifying things throughout and providing informative details and stories, enthralled us with the tales of these two vessels.  The sail boat’s story was much more humorous.  Referred to now as The Naked Lady, it was meant to be the means for a retired couple to sail the world.  While anchored in the Kona harbor, a fire broke out with the wife onboard alone, eventually causing a gas tank to explode, thus dooming the ship.  The woman managed to escape unharmed (and apparently undressed), swimming to a nearby small unmanned harbor cruise ship, where she crawled onboard, broke into their stocked bar, and proceeded to drown her sorrows in the memory of her now sunken home.  The staff of the harbor cruise ship apparently found her later, completely nude and drunk as a skunk.



At its greatest depth, we reached around 110 feet down.  When it became time to rise, the driver bottomed the sub, literally (and on purpose), communicating with the Atlantis staff above water to confirm that it was clear and safe to do so.  Clearance received, we quickly saw a massive amount of bubbles blow by the portholes as we returned to the surface.  Hatches re-opened, we climbed out and boarded the boat once again to return to the marina.  As we cruised away from the sub, the ship’s captain made a point of arching by it, so that we all could get a nice picture and wave a thankful goodbye to the crew.



Then guess what happened?!  Remember those photos we took?  Well, thankfully, since we all survived the submarine cruise, they didn’t really need the images for identifying any lost souls, so they were kind enough to offer prints (and an accompanying CD with marine creature pictures included) up to us…for a nominal fee of course.  We politely declined ours, but a few folks decided to pony up some cash or a credit card.

Back on dry land, and having planned that we would have some time to spare on our $2.00 for 4 hours of parking, we enjoyed a very short walk (careful not to get caught by a fisherman casting their line along the water), to a wonderful oasis, Scandinavian Shave Ice.  Now, with all due respect to Mr. Matsumoto and his shave ice on Oahu, as well as Disney’s attempt at Aulani, SSI was our hands down favorite on this trip!  The texture was unlike the other two, closer to Matsumoto than Aulani, but I thought somewhat unique.  Countless bottles of vibrantly colorful syrups hung from up above and around the length of the service counter.  The two young ladies working that day were shave ice experts, perfectly cutting down the ice and forming it, effortlessly pouring the sweet solutions onto the snow balls, and elegantly garnishing them with a variety of toppings.







Offering very few tables inside, we got lucky and grabbed one, enjoying our treats and sampling one another’s creations.  Our daughter was very distressed that she missed the boysenberry flavor in the list, which I did not, so was happy to sample from mine.  In addition, the tables offered these clever little plastic stands in which we could place our shave ice and dig in.  While there, a man came in with a woman and he ordered one of the Jumbo sized shaved ice.  We watched intently as the two staff members manufactured it for him.  I could be totally off, but it looked to be the size of a bowling ball.  We left before he finished or gave up; either way, something that big is not for a single person unless you want brain freeze for eternity.  It does make for a great Instagram photo though!

Conveniently across the street from SSI, we popped into a nice, little ukulele shop.  One of my hopeful souvenirs on this trip was a ukulele and this location offered many wonderful options to choose from.  Against the back wall, they displayed a handful of Hawaiian-made instruments, listing price tags that were well out of my preferred price range.  They were beautiful and worth every penny I am sure, but too much for me.  The proprietor told us that most are not actually manufactured in the islands.  Having a price in mind, I found one that I liked very much, but I was still a bit hesitant about the price.  Out of curiosity, I checked Amazon, finding the exact model, with a tuning device, a case, and a tutorial CD for less than the cost of the ukulele alone here.  Seeing this, I decided to hold off for now, but our daughter fell in love with a mint green instrument and just had to have it.  Checking on Amazon again, this particular model was actually cheaper here, so we bought it.

With a bit of time still remaining for parking, we walked the few blocks down to the Kona Inn Shopping Village.  We popped into several shops, saw several cool things in a few unique businesses, ultimately leaving with a new pair of earrings for my wife.  I was tempted by a hand carved Monkeypod tiki statue, supposedly made by a local family, but decided to pass.

Lunch time!  Trying to think very regionally and efficiently as I planned this part of our vacation (it is the “Big” Island you know), lunch for today was going to be at the nearby Broke da Mouth Grindz.  Less than a 5 minute drive from the King Kamehameha, we found the small restaurant in a track mall, with a fairly empty, nicely sized parking lot.  We arrived at a good time, managing to grab a just vacated table in the full restaurant.  Not being really hungry (boy, I wish we had been), we agreed to just order a single combo plate to share between the three of us.  With all the people there and the seemingly constant phone orders coming in, they told us it would be about 20 minutes for our order to come up.  It turned out to be a fraction of that and the food itself was unbelievably delicious!



Their claim to fame, which a huge wall painting reminds you of, is the Garlic Furikake Chicken.  We ordered a combo plate of it and teriyaki beef, which came with two scoops of rice and tossed green salad.  We wanted to add an order of fries, but unfortunately they were out of fries that day.  All of it, and I mean all of it, was amazingly great, especially the chicken!  We are talking last meal level good!  As I said previously, I wish we had been hungrier.

Very happily fed, our afternoon adventure took us south of our timeshare to Pu’uhonua O Honaunau National Historical Park, also called the Place of Refuge.  The park preserves the site where, up until the early 19th century, Hawaiians who broke a kapu (one of the ancient laws) could avoid certain death by fleeing to this place.  The offender would be absolved by a priest and freed to leave.  Defeated warriors and non-combatants could also find refuge here during times of battle.   In addition, the grounds just outside the Great Wall that encloses the puʻuhonua were home to several generations of powerful chiefs and their royal family.

Paying a single $15.00 fee for our car, we found ample parking on what had now become a very hot afternoon.  We approached the visitor center, then immediately headed off to the right to explore the grounds.  There was a small open theater just off to the right with a posted schedule, but we chose to skip the film and just walk around.





In a word, imposing.  The hard dirt and sand walking surfaces, coupled with all of the black volcanic rocks, seemed to make the heat that day doubly intense.  We felt it coming down from above and then bouncing back at us from below.  I am very glad that we visited this awesome place (and that they had water fountains at the visitor center), but if I were to make any recommendation, it would be to visit when it is cooler.

Somewhat ahead of schedule for our next planned pit stop and then dinner reservation, we drove up to the town of Kainaliu, where I noticed a cool thrift store.  My hope was that I might find something in the way of an old tiki bar mug or something similar.  They ended up having a few related items, but nothing that fit what I was looking for.  I did un-expectantly find on a behind the glass shelf an interesting cache of old-ish Disneyland items, but I wasn’t in the market for them.






OK, time to get our Donkey Balls!  Yep, Donkey…Balls!  Probably not what you are thinking though.  Donkey Balls are a Big Island specialty and the best place to get them are at the Original Donkey Ball Store and Factory in Kainaliu.  So what are they?  Oh, chocolate enrobed macadamia nuts and they come in several flavors and types with names like Blue Balls, Salty Balls, Flakey Balls, Crusty Balls, Dirty Balls, and Frosted Balls.  They also have Monkey Balls (malted), Goat Balls (caramel), Gogo Beans (coffee), and off course Dingle Berries (fruit)!  Their balls are full of deliciousness and of course they will give you a sack for your balls if you make a purchase.  In fact, we even scored a free Donkey Balls shot glass (ok…toothpick holder) with a coupon from a visitor’s magazine we grabbed at the airport.  Great place, several free samples in the shelves and they were willing to grab more if there was something specific you wanted to try.  While not particularly inexpensive, they weren’t expensive overall, but it sure added up with the numerous bags that we bought.  Still, well worth it and they had the best sign outside their shop!






Still early for our dinner reservation, we decided to go ahead and drive over there to see if they could take us early.  Our destination tonight was the Strawberry Patch.  A converted home (we think), this turned out to be such a wonderful dining experience this evening that we decided to return a couple nights later.  We started with the Maui Onion & Cheese Soufflé Dip, served with toasted baguettes, crackers, and green apple slices:






This was phenomenal!!!  There truly are no other words.  For our entrees, our daughter ordered the BBQ Chicken Pizza, which she deemed the absolute best she has ever had (and I can concur via a taste that it was awesome), while my wife and I agreed to share their Cecilia’s Pizza (roasted garlic, caramelized onions, melted brie, tomato, and apple slices and that night’s special Kimchee Fried Rice with Shrimp.  I know, kind of a weird combination, but it didn’t matter, they were both fantastic, especially the rice.

The other really cool thing was that all of the drinks they served were free refills, including the Aloha juices that came in individual cans, poured into glasses.  You don’t normally see free refills with canned drinks in my experience, so this was refreshing, literally.  Also, they didn’t offer alcoholic drinks, but allowed diners to bring their own and didn’t charge a corkage fee if you did.  Lastly, their Passion Hibiscus Herbal Tea was served over ice and so, so very good.  My wife adored it and we both ended up ordering it during our second visit later in the week.

Happily satisfied and skipping dessert in lieu of our Donkey Balls, though admiring the options made that decision very challenging, it was time to head home for the night.  Knowing that we had a long-ish drive the next day, we pulled into a nearby gas station to top off (yeah, the prices are a bit high in the Islands, but not much more than what we are used to in San Diego, so no real sticker shock there for us).  It had been a good day.


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## gregf71

Hi all - 

Day 8 is in progress and will be posted next week.  Please stay tuned!


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## gregf71

*Day 8 – Volcanoes National Park, Black Sand Beach, & a Little Lava Tube*

Early on, the primary reason that we chose to plan a vacation to the Big Island was to see the volcano and all of the interesting features of the national park.  Unfortunately, as I am sure you well know, a few months before our Hawaiian vacation, Madame Pele decided to make her presence known once again.  Multiple fissures, molten tendrils, lava bombs, and countless earthquakes in the area caused destruction and devastation.  Leading up to our trip, I monitored the situation very closely.  While the national park website did provide updates on the conditions and overall situation, affirming the park’s closure, it never provided any indication of when or if the park would become accessible again.  In lieu of it, I found good information on the Volcano House site (an on-property hotel), as they actually had dates listed for their re-opening.  That said, I used the plural “dates” on purpose because it kept changing, getting pushed out more and more as the weeks went by.  The reality was that we wouldn’t be visiting Volcanoes National Park this trip…or would we?

When we ultimately came to the conclusion that Volcanoes was out, about a month before our vacation, I hit my trip-planning spreadsheet and notes, coming up with a couple alternative agendas for the day with previously determined secondary locations.  Then, while perusing the web one afternoon, I came upon another option…Volcanoes National Park!  Wait!  What?!  But, I thought you just said that it was closed!?  I am so confused!!!  Well, it turned out that not AAAALLLLL of the park was closed.  Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Kahuku Unit!

Located 24 miles west of the Kilauea Visitor Center, certainly closer to us in Kona, this 116,000 acre portion of the national park was added in 2009.  Here, on this former ranch land, you can hike through forest and fields that include a cinder cone, and more interestingly the remains of the 1868 lava flow!  Even better, it’s free to enter and explore!!  Plus, they offer frequent events, talks and guided hikes, and it just so happened that on the Sunday we planned for Volcanoes, they had a free Ranger-led moderate 3 hour, 2 mile hike called “People and Land of Kahuku.”  It promised a tour through varied landscapes, including emerging native forests, pastures, and lava fields, exploring the human history of the area.  Sounded perfect to us…plus we could still hit the nearby bakery and black sand beach we planned previously in our original agenda!

A quick aside regarding driving on the Big Island.  Do you want to know why it takes so long to get from Point A to Point B here?  Yes, ok, it IS the BIG ISLAND, and all of the other Hawaiian Islands can fit comfortably within its area, but in reality the pure distance in miles from here to there is not really that terribly far.  The required time investment for “longer” drives is primarily due to the fact that there are very few long straight roads on which you can truly push your speedometer.  Google Maps can be quite misleading at times, especially in Map view mode!  The vast majority of the roads we enjoyed took us up, then down, then up and back again; right and left, winding through lush, green forests, vast pastures with tall grass tilting against the ocean wind, and striking remnants of past lava flows with roads cutting right through the stark black.  Sure, there are a few long, straight stretches, particularly along the bisecting Saddle Road through the middle of the island (more on that later), but for the most part we found our driving paths to be far less straight and by consequence governed by lower speed limits (for good reason), and you know what, it was great!

So, the plan for today was now…bakery, Kahuku hike, black sand beach, and if time allowed a stop at a coffee “center” before dinner.  Given that we still had a pretty decent drive ahead of us that morning, though much less than going all the way out to Kilauea, we got up early, chowed on a few Costco provisions and hit the road to famous Punalu’u Bake Shop in the town of Na’alehu.  Located about 7 miles east of Kahuku, we arrived soon after opening.  Marketed as the “Southernmost Bakery in the USA”, their claim to fame are their Lilikoi Glazed Malasadas.



Boy, did they live up to the hype!  While admittedly not hot and fresh like those we got from the Leonard’s truck on Oahu, these were still fresh enough, soft and chewy with the amazing super sweet, ever so slightly tart, crumbly to the bite glaze on top.  I happily inhaled one of them, as well as a guava infused malasada:



In my wife’s opinion, this was our greatest baked goods experience during the entire two week trip!

OK, grinning with malasada goodness in our bellies, we headed back towards the Kahuku Unit.  Arriving about 20 minutes before the recommended arrival time for the guided tour, we had time to check in (a very informal process) with the park rangers seated at a folding table just off to the side and hit the nearby restrooms (the only ones in the entire park area!).  When the time arrived, we all grouped up and made our way to the far end of the main parking area (I cannot call it a “lot” because it was all dirt and small rocks) and proceeded to take our turns getting the bottoms of our shoes sprayed with some sort of disinfectant and then run back and forth over an upside-down brush.  The ranger explained in great detail exactly what we were protecting against, but I can’t recall what it was…though I do remember that it was very destructive.  Hey, it’s what you need to do, so please do it.   

The initial part of the hike took us up a surprisingly challenging incline along the side of the cinder cone, green and grassy, leading us to more flattened ground that exhibited mixtures of black rocks, dirty grey paths, and brush and trees mixing the colors of green, yellow, and brown.

As mentioned previously, the distance of the hike was only 2 miles, but we stopped frequently to listen to the rangers, we had two of them leading us, as they told us about what we were seeing and some of the history and fables surrounding it.






The sheer variety of what we walked through and by was very cool.  I recalled earlier reading people’s posts online about how there was nothing to see here at Kahuku, but in my opinion they were completely wrong.  I have to wonder if they ever got out of their cars and actually explored.  If they had, I suspect that their reviews would have been very different.

We finally arrived at what I considered to be the first gem of the walking tour, the 1868 lave flow:






It was simply breathtaking to look at, let alone walk through.  Each step we took upon the black made a unique scratchy crunching sound under our feet.  Slightly up above it, we could see the huge expanse of the flow, giving us an almost scary sense of how powerful nature can be when it wants to.  From our vantage point, we could see where the lava spread west, all the way down to the ocean.  It was both beautiful and frightening at the same time.  Along the path, though there wasn’t really a true path here per se, we saw remnants of collapsed lava tubes, as well as the skeletal remains of a European mouflon long horned sheep.

Making our way up the length of an actual dirt airstrip, one of the rangers asked, “Anyone planning on hiking out to the green sand beach?”  Not us, as it required a 2.5 mile hike, both ways, to visit it, but I hear it is spectacular!  “Look down,” she said.  To our pleasant surprise, there it was!!  Ribbons of actual green sand glistening within the dark grey dirt!  Granted, this was surely not as impressive as a full beach of the stuff, but it was still pretty darn cool!






The final leg of our hike took us to the rear of the cinder cone and what we saw completely shocked us…it wasn’t there!  From the parking area, it appeared that this beautifully green small mountain or tall hill (I have no idea what the height requirements are to define them) was fully whole, but it surely isn’t!  This, my dear readers is what volcanic eruptions and later cinder mining can do.



We made our way beyond the quarry, heading up a slight incline towards the remaining top of the cone.  The 360 view was magnificent!



Stopping here as a group for the final time, the ranger who did the majority of the talking throughout the hike, finished her prepared script, tying together everything that we saw with the theme of the tour.  We sat in the grass, listening and watching a nearby group of adults and kids, the latter of which took great pleasure in repeatedly rolling themselves several yards down the fairly steep side of the cone.  Giving our guide a very well deserved applause, the group disbanded and we made our way down the windy walking path to the base and parking area.  A look at the time, realizing that we didn’t really want lunch yet, and a quick pop into the restrooms, we headed off to our next destination, the Punalu’u Black Sand Beach.

About a 30 minute drive northeast from Kahuku, we drove through Na’alehu again, waiving thankfully to the Punalu’u Bake Shop as we went by.  Man, did I want to pull a hard left and go back in to grab some more!  We arrived at the beach to find very limited parking, managing to fit into a space along the roadside, across from an abandoned and dilapidated restaurant building, being slowly reclaimed by the forest it seemed.  A very short walk down the road and there it was:



Very different texture than the sand I am used to; not too surprising though as it is pulverized volcanic rock, broken down by years and years of waves rolling against them.  It almost felt like walking on an alien world down there; very different and very cool!  After admiring the sheer beauty of this place for several minutes, the waves were rather harsh this day, we meandered back to the left to check out a nice lily pond, and then headed out.

Lunch brought us back to Na’alehu, this time pulling in virtually across the street from the bakery at the Hana Hou Restaurant.  It was fairly crowded, but we were luckily seated immediately at the one remaining table in the back.  I already knew what I wanted based on many positive comments on Tripadvisor and Yelp, the Island Style Gravy Burger!  My wife and daughter decided to share the Hana Hou Club sandwich, which they were surprisingly blown away by.  They both said that the turkey was fabulous!  My burger was rich and savory with cheddar cheese and grilled onions inside, along with a cup of brown delicious gravy to use as a dipping sauce.  It was very tasty!

Back in the car, we once again resisted the call of more malasadas from the bakery and began the trek back towards Kona.  Now in the Captain Cook area, since we certainly had the time, we stopped at the Royal Kona Coffee Center & Lava Tube.  Hitting the first floor bathrooms first (gotta love a men’s room with a sign above the urinals to please not go on the floor), we then climbed the stairs up to level 2, scouting out the gift shop and the small museum, they sold these really cool full size burlap coffee bean bags (not that we bought one, but they were cool nonetheless), and enjoying multiple free samples of their coffees.  If you go, pay attention to the labels here, only some of them were 100% Kona coffee, several were blends.

Heading down a small hill in front of the visitor center, we could see the parts of the processing plant in operation.  A couple of the roasters were actually operating and depending on where you stood, you could inhale the heavenly aroma of the coffee beans being constantly turned within.  Nearby, there was a very cool, very tall tiki carving that I am thinking was once an actual tree.  Finally, off to the right, was their little lava tube.  I am sure that it is not nearly as impressive as the Thurston Lava Tube within the Volcanoes National Park, but still it was pretty darn cool to walk through:






Nearing dinner time, we returned to the town of Kealakekua, where we had previously dined at the Strawberry Patch; this time, however, we were headed to Teshima’s Restaurant for a Japanese dining experience.  They do take reservations, but not online, so I had called about six weeks early to reserve a table, and I am sure glad that I did.  When we arrived, our table was waiting for us with a nice little “Reserved” sign sitting atop it.  Within minutes of being seated, a line started to form outside that remained constant for the duration of our visit.  The place was packed and it became obvious as to why…the food was delicious!

My wife and I both ordered from the Teishoku, defined as a classic Japanese set meal, section of the menu and here is what arrived:











The variety of items was fantastic.  Miso soup, steamed white rice, pickled vegetables, fried shrimp, and a savory dipping sauce sat on both of our plates.  Where they differed was her sashimi and fried fish, where I had beef sukiyaki.  Our daughter went with a hearty bowl of saimin.






It was all wonderful, especially that giant, butterflied shrimp tempura!  We were all VERY happy!

Another great dinner completed, we planned to hit the nearby Gypsea Gelato location for dessert.  If you recall, this was the source for the gelato our daughter loved during dinner on our first night on the Big Island.  A short drive down the road from Teshima’s, we found easy parking right in front and quickly found ourselves enthralled by the choices.  Free tastes were quickly offered by the staff on duty, but honestly it made our decision harder because it was all so good.  Unfortunately, they didn’t have the one flavor on hand that night that I was most curious about…Tom Ka.  Yep, that wonderful hot soup you get in Thai restaurants in gelato form!  Ultimately, we made our selections, two each, with me going the sweet and fruitier route and my wife and daughter going the more savory chocolate direction.  Handmade gelato goodness at its finest!

Gelato enjoyed, we hit the road, stopping to fill up the gas tank along the way back to the timeshare.  We had a long drive ahead of us tomorrow!


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## alohamom

I LOVE the Big Island, such a cool and laid back place. Thanks for sharing!


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## heaven2dc

Loved your very informative description (and pics) of your visit to the volcano area!  And the food - amazing!  One day I hope to visit the islands


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## gregf71

*Day 9 – Eastbound and Down…Hello Hilo!*

Up early again, we ate just enough of the Costco provisions to settle our stomachs because, just like the day before, our initial long drive would culminate at a destination of malasada goodness!  Heading north up the western coast of the island, we took the 19 all the way up to near Waikui, where he then turned due east, passing through Waimea en route to Honoka’a and ultimately Tex Drive-In.  Now, I had read that these were hands-down the greatest malasadas on the Big Island.  Well, we’d be the judge of that!  Here were the contestants:



Definitely the largest of all the malasadas we enjoyed during our trip, they were freshly made (you could watch the person making them through a series a large windows), optionally available with a selection of creams injected inside, and rectangular.  Of the six we purchased, five were unfilled and my wife ordered one with Bavarian Crème.  The verdict?  It was a split decision.  I absolutely LOVED them; my wife…not so much, but then I doubt she would have liked any other malasada after her lilikoi glazed from Punalu’u Bakery the day before.  Our daughter?  It’s a doughnut and she’s a kid, of course she devoured them.  Overall, I don’t know if I can call them the best on the island, but then I don’t know that there is a best on the island or in all the islands for that matter.  We enjoyed three different types of malasadas on this trip, Leonard’s on Oahu, Punalu’u Bakery, and now Tex Drive-In.  I thought that they were all amazing in their own special ways, and comparing them to one another is like comparing a Dole Whip to a Churro.  My recommendation…try them all!

OK, now for the scenery!  A mere 15 minute drive northwest of Tex, we gazed up this:



I give you the Waipio Valley Lookout.  Parking was very limited in the small lot, but we got lucky and claimed one while we watched many others forced to park along the road behind us.  Not just a lookout to the beauty below, it also serves as a trailhead for those who want to trek down (and back up) to the valley.  Nope, not our thing, so we were very happy looking out from up above.

The lookout also serves as the northernmost point of the Hamakua Heritage Corridor, a scenic drive south towards Hilo along sea cliffs, through lush valleys, tropical rainforests, and towering woodlands, and offering detours out to nearby waterfalls, grassy pastures, and old plantation towns.   Our next destination was Laupahoehoe Point Beach Park, a little under 40 minutes south.  Wow, what an interesting drive this was!  All was tame until we made the left off of the “highway” (they can call them highways, but they really aren’t) and onto Laupahoehoe Point Road.  We suddenly found ourselves making our way down through a very curvaceous two lane road, which on multiple occasions led to a single lane bridge, where courtesy (and following the posted signs for right of way) was the call of duty.  Speed was certainly not the goal on this road, nor the right thing to do.

Finally, we arrived and parked in a grassy space, in front of a memorial and across from a large open grass area.  We could hear the thundering sounds of the waves immediately.  The sea was angry this day my friends, but that didn’t deter a few men from standing out between some rocky outcroppings, wearing thigh high waders, and casting their lines.  The contrasting colors were stunning; we had the pitch black volcanic rocks, merging with the crystal blue water and raging white surf, coupled with the multiple shades of green from the surrounding trees.  So amazingly beautiful:







Granted, we didn’t walk the full length of the property, but we never actually saw what we would consider to be a beach.  Perhaps it was off to the north from where we explored, but if so we were still very happily satisfied.

Returning to our car, we made a quick stop at the memorial to pay our respects.  On April 1, 1946, a tsunami killed 19 schoolchildren and 5 adults here.  All of their names and ages are engraved upon a rock.  The village that once resided here was relocated further inland to avoid another tragedy.  After a solemn moment and a hug of our daughter, we drove off, once again meeting the challenge of the windy road above.

A thirty minute drive south and a bit inland brought us to Akaka Falls State Park.  Yet again, we found a ton of folks parking their cars along the road, outside of the parking lot.  As we pulled in, we noticed that the lot was quite full, but luck was on our side yet again as we arrived just as another car was pulling out.  The moral of the story, my friends, is always check the parking lot first!

It was raining.  No duh!  We were on the wet side of the island after all.  Truth is, my wife and daughter were actually happy to see the rain because we could finally pull out all of the rain gear we lugged with us on this trip.  It was not a wasted effort after all!  Rain jackets on (yeah, that was the extent of our “gear”), we stopped at the top of the pathway and paid our $5.00 “cover charge” to an employee sitting under an umbrella at a fold out table.  It is weird how they do this here.  It is $5.00 per car or $1.00 per pedestrian if they walk up.  Perhaps this is why so many cars parked outside of the parking lot; they were willing to walk further just to pay a few bucks less.  Whatever works best for you I suppose.

Visitors to Akaka Falls have two choices, left or right.  Right, which is what we chose, takes you first to view Kahuna Falls and then you make your way to the big show, Akaka Falls.  While not overly difficult, be warned that this fully paved and hand-railed circular path is by no means flat.  You walk down several steps and guess what…you walk up a bunch too.  If I am honest, Kahuna Falls are nice to look at, so worth the effort, but Akaka Falls is spectacular!






Again, we visited while it was raining, not pouring by any means, but a good solid drizzle.  It was a bit grey and cloudy, but it didn’t take away from the majesty of the falls before us.  It may be even more beautiful with crystal blue skies atop it, but we were still mightily impressed.

After a quick bathroom stop next to the parking lot, we started to drive away just as the weather started to clear.  Whatcha gonna do, right?  It was lunch time or should I say smoothie time!  A mere 15 minutes away sat What’s Shakin, home of some of the island’s best all fruit smoothies!  Hidden in front of a serene, green pasture, we parked just as a tour bus arrived.  Happily beating the mass of people that exited, we lined up in the fairly short queue (again…good timing) and placed our orders.  For the life of me, I cannot recall what we had specifically, nor did I take any pictures of them (I know…WHAT?!), but I can tell you that they were delicious and refreshing.  We enjoyed them sitting at one of the many undercover picnic tables adjoining the building.  While there, we laughed as we watched a small herd of goats prancing away at the rear of the pasture behind us.  Add the very pleasant breeze we enjoyed and you really couldn’t have asked for much more.

Nourished and re-energized, we continued our southern trek and stopped at the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden.  This place is a true labor of love.  The Garden was created through the untiring efforts of one man, Dan J. Lutkenhouse, who came upon Onomea Valley in 1977 while vacationing with his wife, Pauline. Mr. Lutkenhouse purchased the 17-acre parcel for its seclusion and beauty, without knowing exactly what to do with it. Quickly abandoning ideas for a commercial venture which would destroy the natural environment, he decided instead to establish a botanical garden to preserve the valley and its beauty forever.  I won’t go any more into the history of this place, but what this man made and how he made it is truly amazing.

Buying tickets, we made our way into the garden.  Before I continue, I should mention that by this time of the day, in this area of the island, it was blue sky and really, really hot!  Couple the heat with the fact that the top section of the garden itself is pretty steep, though with paved steps and pathways, I was a tad concerned heading inside.  We found walking down to be a pleasure, where walking back up was, ha, not fun.  So “not fun” that they offered, for an extra fee, a cart ride up from the bottom of the garden.  We heard many older visitors opt for this option and honestly I can’t say that I blamed them.

The sheer number of different plants and flowers in this garden is astounding.  I will let some of our pictures simply speak for themselves:













The paths ultimately lead visitors down to the coastal waters, which again were mighty aggressive this day and certainly not suitable for swimming; standing back and gawking at, yes, but actually getting into, not safe.

Narrowly surviving the climb back up to the visitor center (yes, I am being overly dramatic, but we were huffing and puffing and dripping sweat), we entered the air-conditioned oasis that was the gift shop!  It is not a big shop at all, folks, but we must have spent easily a half hour in there just cooling off…and yes, we did buy a few things, a pair of earrings for my wife, a wooden carving for our daughter, and a guitar pick with a tiki on it for me!

Having our full of nature for the day, we decided to head into Hilo to just look around a bit.  I’ll be honest, I was kind of shocked with Hilo.  We quickly found parking in a public lot up from the bay and then hoofed it around for several blocks.  Maybe we just visited during an economic downturn for the city, but there were a lot of shuttered businesses where we walked.  Of the shops that were open, we meandered through a few, mostly “new to you” type stores and a really cool shop selling local artist’s and artisan’s works.  After about 30 minutes or so, we gave up and decided to head to our next planned destination, Big Island Candies.

Located in Hilo, Big Island Candies completely blew us away with its awesomeness!  As soon as we walked inside this large building, we were immediately greeted by staff at the front desk, offering us samples of a couple different items; they were both mouthwatering!  Off to the right were bathrooms and I think office space, to the left sat the widespread retail center, and in the back, behind a series of tall clear windows was the manufacturing area.  Unfortunately, we must have arrived between shifts because while there was a handful of white apron-clad staff in the back area, they were collectively discussing something and not actually working any of the machinery.

As we perused the incredible assortment of candies, chocolates, treats, brownies (oh, those brownies!), and signature shortbreads (which were specifically what got this place on my wife’s radar), as well as the many assorted gift boxes, we frequently stopped to grab more and more free samples from upon the shelves.  If a particular item didn’t have a sample readily available, all you had to do was ask one of the many roving staff members, who would simply run to the back and get you a piece to taste.  Friends, we were in Heaven and I can honestly say that I was so mesmerized by this place that I forgot to snap a single picture; sorry about that.

The worst part of it, and I kid you not, was having to pick what we wanted and manage to show some level of self-control.  Our first priority was to get some gifts for family and co-workers, which we did, including a couple special gift/keepsake boxes, the proceeds of which went to help those impacted by the recent volcanic eruptions.  Next, we got to shop for ourselves, and while the intent of the free samples was to help you identify what you liked, ideally making your decisions easier, they made them ever so much harder.  I know, life is tough, huh?  Selections eventually finalized (after circling the shelves, I kid you not, easily a dozen times), I recommended to my wife that we buy one of their nice large zip-up insulated bags.  We could not only use it now to transport the items, but it was the perfect size to be a carry-on for our flight home.  As the cashier scanned in all of our selections, the total just kept creeping higher and higher.  Grasping the bag last, she then paused before scanning its barcode and looked at our subtotal.  Not saying a word, she grabbed a card from under the counter, as well as a hole-puncher, and proceeded to hole-punch the heck out of it!  She then either scanned a barcode on that card or manually entered some sort of code into the register, saying, “The bag is free since you spent so much.”  Joy!

Nearing the late afternoon at this point, we had one more stop to make before dinner…the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Factory!  A short 15 minute drive south out of Hilo proper, we soon found ourselves making a left off Highway 11, onto none other than Macadamia Nut Road.  Really, could it have been named anything else?!  Traveling down this lengthy, fairly straight road, we soaked in views of what simply had to be acres upon acres of macadamia nut trees.  At last, we reached the facility, quickly snapping a few pictures with the inflatables out front, and then entered the visitor center and gift shop.  Yet again, we found ourselves in the same earlier dilemma…too much goodness to choose from!  Free samples were offered at a service counter, but yeah, same thing, all of the assorted flavors of macadamia nuts, including Mango Chipotle, Honey Sriracha, Maui Onion and Garlic, and Kona Coffee Glaze (among others), were all so good!  After several deep breaths, we made some practical decisions (darn it!) and exited with a nice stash.

Directly outside, across the parking lot, sat the manufacturing building.  A large sign indicated where the self-guided tour began, with stairs leading up to an exterior walking platform; the ladies decided to have a little fun:



We popped up and, just like with Big Island Candies, we arrived between shifts.  Similarly, we saw a few staff members within, but none of the machines were in operation.  We could easily see the colorful packaging loaded into several of them, but they sat their motionless, awaiting to be filled with nutty goodness later that day.

Heading out, we made our way back into Hilo proper to our dining destination for this evening, the Hilo Bay Café.  I am not going to go into great detail about the meal here.  It was good, not great, but the service was excellent, and the view of the bay was exquisite.  It should also be noted that this restaurant sits up above ground level on a series of stilts, so that it pretty cool, and it is located next to the famous Banyon Drive.  Online comments about the restaurant were mostly positive (yeah, I know these are always subjective), plus they took reservations; with such a long drive still ahead of us, returning to the Kona side of the island, this fact was important to us.

Dinner wrapped up, our final “adventure” began…driving back to our condo.  The route was pretty simple, hit Saddle Road and go west, merging onto the Daniel K. Inouye Highway and then the Mamalahoa Highway.  As I touched on during our Day 8 section, it kind of amused me how they called certain roads “highways” that were nothing more than two-lane roads through mountains, flatlands, and residential areas.  I suppose depending on the elevation, some this roads could be called “high” ways, but come on.  Saddle Road and Mamalahoa Highway were only two lanes, but Inouye Highway was a glorious three lanes and we could legally drive 60 miles per hour!  Yay!

The adventurous aspect of these roads were twofold.  First and foremost, in sections of the two-lane stretches, you could pass one another if you had the gumption and the horsepower to do so.  Secondly, it was really dark out there, really dark.  No light poles that I could remember and nothing but Mother Nature on either side.  Seriously, if your headlights were out, then you were in trouble at night out here; and if I am not mistaken, our Wi-Fi petered out off and on while out here too. 

Leaving Hilo, we were racing the sunset in the western sky and as expected we lost.  There were long portions of the drive where we were seemingly alone on the road.  It was a tad creepy; totally the setup for a scary movie.  In a few instances, we would see a pair of headlights appear from the black behind us.  Trying our best to mind the posted speed limits (our rental car actually had an audible alert that went off when we hit 60mph…so annoying!), lights that we saw would inevitably catch up to and pass us, disappearing back into the black ahead of us.  Eventually we made it home, safe and sound, and very ready for a good night sleep.  Tomorrow…we snorkel!!!


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## alohamom

I just LOVE how you guys are letting your foodie senses guide you! We do the same. If you go back to Big Island, try the Hamakua Mac Nut place at the top of the island. Same sort of thing as the Mauna Loa one but closer to Kona side.

I gotta admit, we were stupid enough to drive down into Waipio valley. We did it once and man, NEVER again. The trip down was nerve wracking but on the trip back up I honestly thought we were going over the cliff and going to die in a fiery wreck! I had tears in my eyes and I dont really cry that much. It was pretty darn incredible once we were on the beach but if I had known how crazy that drive was going to be I would have never done it. Good choice to only do the lookout!


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## gregf71

alohamom said:


> I just LOVE how you guys are letting your foodie senses guide you! We do the same. If you go back to Big Island, try the Hamakua Mac Nut place at the top of the island. Same sort of thing as the Mauna Loa one but closer to Kona side.



Yeah, I am kind of famous at work for traveling on my stomach.  I get hit up for recommendations all the time.  I always say that one of the best ways to enjoy travel and to get to know the people and place better is through their food.  I always try to look for the more "locals popular" places and most often love where I go.

Thanks for the recommendation!  We very much want to return to the Big Island!


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## gregf71

*Day 10 – Time to Get Wet!*

Many, many months prior to the vacation, my family and I were enjoying a wonderful lunch and visit with a junior high school (yes, I am too old to call it a middle school!) friend of mine at Liberty Station in San Diego.  She is a flight attendant and frequently works routes to and from the Hawaiian Islands and every so often is able to stay for a bit for a little rest and relaxation.  When we mentioned the Big Island to her, the very first thing that she said we had to do was the Fair Wind Snorkeling Cruise to the Captain Cook Memorial.  In her opinion, we simply had no choice in the matter.  We had to do it!

Being the planner that I am, I researched the company and their tours thoroughly and came to the same conclusion…we had to do it!  Now, when originally booking our trip via our AAA Travel agent, we did so, including the Aulani portion, through a Pleasant Vacations package.  It included the flights, our room reservation at Aulani, the rental car on the Big Island, as well as a $50 credit towards an excursion.  We were provided with a URL for Pleasant Activities, whereby we could review all of the travel excursions they offered through partners.  If I’m honest, that website is rough, not very user friendly at all, especially as you try to navigate through it, but with a little patience and help from our travel agent I found and booked what we were looking for (with 50 bucks off!)…the Kealakekua Bay Morning Snorkel Cruise!

Fast forward to this beautiful day, we slept in a bit and nibbled on a few things before heading out for our 8:30am checkin time.  The super sweet thing was that Fair Wind was actually a short 10 minute walk from our timeshare!  Surely, we could have driven over (sorry, I know, don’t call you Shirley), but the parking lot proved to be fairly small and some of the spots were taken by vehicles towing small boats or water crafts.  Checked in, we joined the many other people preparing for their cruises this morning.  Ours was but one of three or four that were heading out soon.  Large bottles of “reef safe” sunscreen were put out for all of us to rub onto ourselves.  The necessity of this was something that was made very clear to us in the final trip documentation that we received from AAA.



Very near 9am, the call went out to line up near our vessel; double-decker with two walking platforms leading directly into the water, and for the adventurous two slides up front!  Boarding the boat, we nabbed some spots on the second level in the rear, just above the BBQ grill as we were to discover later.  The initial cruise was wonderful!  Mostly calm water, refreshing breezes, and wonderful coastal views.  You couldn’t have asked for anything more…except for maybe…food!  Yep, breakfast now and a BBQ lunch later were part of the experience!  While staff walked around with trays of fresh fruit and sliced up muffins, we could also head down to the first level to hit the spread there and grab juice or coffee.  Have I mentioned that we never had a bad slice of pineapple on this entire trip?!

After about 20 minutes or so, the Captain turned the boat into Kealakekua Bay.  The water was a complexity of blues.  In shallower areas, you could see the white sand and grey reef under the light aquamarine water, slowly darkening into shades of navy blue as the floor sunk deeper and deeper.  Anchoring in what seemed like the center of the bay, the Captain pointed out the Captain Cook Memorial, now behind us, providing us with a brief history, and clearly stating that our craft was our beach and that we were not, by any means, to touch the shoreline (not that there was any beach here anyway).  There were people walking around the monument to Cook, but we were told they came from up above and hiked down to it.  Officially, as passengers of the Fair Wind vessel, that area was off limits.





Finally, it was time to hit the water!  Grabbing our respective fins and masks, which they handed out earlier while we cruised to the bay, we made our way downstairs and to the rear platforms.  Sitting on the steps, we pulled on our fins and dipped into the cold.  Yes, the water was quite cold initially, resulting in several squawks as people, including myself, got into it, but thankfully you acclimated quickly.  Our daughter was in emotional conflict at this point.  She very much wanted to get into the water, but she was deathly afraid of being in “open water.”  I put quotes around that because while in theory we were in water that was open to any and all sea creatures, the fact of the matter was that it was populated only by small, non-aggressive fish, lots of urchins, and the occasional eel.  Eventually, I got her in, laying on top of and holding on dearly to a boogie board (which by the way had a built in viewer to look underwater).  To give myself some added buoyancy I grabbed a black inner tube and put my right arm through it, placing my left hand on her boogie board to make her feel better.  I volunteered to hang with our daughter while my wife swam off to explore.

Our daughter and I very much enjoyed floating around and checking out the world below us.  Beyond the no going on land rule, the second big rule was no touching the nature, especially the reefs.  You had to be careful, especially with the extra six to eight inches the fins added to your feet length, even when just hovering above.  After a bit, my wife returned to us, offering to take a turn with our daughter so that I could explore on my own.  While the reef was not as colorful as I hoped, several of the fish made up for that.  We saw many different species of fish, mostly swimming individually, but there was also a decent sized school of fish huddling just above the shallow sea floor, almost directly under our ship.







Eventually, as you came above water, you could smell the wonderful vapors from the grill, as the burgers, veggie too, were cooking away.  Returning to the boat, we reclaimed our spots upstairs, dried off, stowed our fins and masks, and then hit the chow line downstairs.  Burgers and fixings, fresh fruit, chips, and salad were accompanied by sodas to drink…all included as part of the snorkel cruise.  How was it?  It was decent.  I didn’t expect it to be great at all, but it was tasty and hit the spot.

Lunch over and we were back in the water!  That’s why we were here, right?!





As happens with all good things, our time at Kealakekua Bay eventually ran out.  The call came from up above to re-board the vessel and the staff began the meticulous process of checking the passenger manifest to make sure that no one was left behind.  Once all onboard, we began our cruise back.  It was during this time that we struck up a conversation with another family sitting next to us; the topic…Hurricane Lane.  While slightly on our radar at this point of our trip, the news with Lane was starting to finally get real, as it appeared that the Big Island was going to be in its path.  The other family was leaving for Maui the following day and were concerned about its impact there.  At that point, there were still a lot of unknowns with Lane.  The only thing that we could do was watch the news, be aware of our options, and act accordingly.

Overall, the Fair Wind experience was about 4 and a half hours long by the time we returned to shore.  They offered a similar afternoon activity, but I heard and read that the morning one is better, though admittedly more expensive.  All of our stuff in hand, we disembarked and made the short walk back to our condo, where we showered and got dressed for the rest of our day.

Originally, the plan for this afternoon and evening was to grab a treat and then some sandwiches or something easily transportable for a dinner, taking it up to the Visitor Center on Mauna Kea for some hopeful stargazing.  On this particular night of the week, they brought our telescopes at the visitor center for free views of the heavens.  The trick was getting there early enough to get one of the limited parking spots, but not too early to run out of things to do before nightfall.  That all said, we chose to simply go another direction.  While the treat was still most definitely on, we decided to skip Mauna Kea and the take out dinner, in lieu of a nicer sit-down meal and just relaxing.  All of this fun was finally catching up to us.

For our treat, we headed into Kona, for the other Gypsea Gelato location on the island.  It was my hope that they had the famous Tom Ka flavor in stock…and oh was I happy:






How did it taste?  Amazing!  It was full of coconut and exotic spicy goodness!  Pairing it with a macadamia nut gelato, recommended by the staff member, I sat outside and simply enjoyed every delectable bite.  If you are a fan of Tom Ka soup, then you must try this!






After walking around a bit and a failed attempt to find something for my Dad at Kona Brewing (a short drive away), we decided that it was time to head out for an early dinner, returning to the Strawberry Patch.  Tonight, it was curry for me and my wife, though she chose the spicier of the two, and our daughter ordered the Chicken Alfredo.  Yet again, the chef delighted us with her cuisine!  And we all enjoyed several glasses of their wonderful Passion Hibiscus Herbal Tea over ice.  I should add that I am not a tea person whatsoever, but I loved this stuff!

Once again happily fed, yet a tad bushed, we decided to gas up the car (we had another decent drive planned for tomorrow) and return to the condo.  Once there, of course the need to know about Hurricane Lane became the priority.  We sat and watched local and national news coverage and it was looking more and more that the Big Island was going to be hit.  It was also being tracked to hit Oahu and news footage there showed people raiding the Costco’s and grocery stores for food supplies, virtually emptying shelves.  We decided as a precaution that we should go get something as well.  Recalling that there was a grocery store nearby, we headed over there and were honestly shocked to see what we saw!  It was all cool.  The shelves were fully stocked, there were only a sparse number of people shopping, and those there were definitely not stocking up for the Apocalypse.  Walking around the store to check out our options, we ended up buying just a few things, a loaf of bread (Sweet Bread from Pu’unulu Bakery!), peanut butter and jelly, a bit more fruit, and a flashlight just in case.  Driving home, we could sense that our daughter was starting to really worry about what might happen.  We did our very best to sooth her concerns, assuring her that our resort was in a safer place and that we were together, which was the most important thing.  Tomorrow…Flumin’ Kohala & Lane Is On Its Way!


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## gregf71

*Day 11 – Flumin’ Kohala, a Pirate’s Dinner for Us, & Lane is Getting Serious!*

When we went to bed the night before, the latest news that we saw regarding Hurricane Lane was that its path would hit the Big Island, Maui, and Oahu, but they weren’t really sure when.  It appeared to start to slow down, which concerned us because we thought the longer it stayed out over the water, the more potential fuel it could pick up, and the greater the storm it could become.  Not to mention, as I stated previously, the repeated images on the TV of grocery stores and Costco’s on Oahu with tons of empty shelves added to our trepidation, especially our daughter’s.  We tried very hard to deflect her from the news by playing cards and looking at pictures we’d taken, but it only helped a little.

As I awoke this morning, I opened the blinds in my room to discover a beautiful morning.  Blue sky, fluffy white clouds, and no wind or rain to be seen or heard.  We quickly got showered and dressed, munched on some provisions, made sure to grab our waivers, and hit the road, northbound to Hawi!  Our destination…the Flumin’ Kohala headquarters!

Nearing Hawi, the weather started to turn a bit.  The blue skies were replaced by lots of grey, and a few black, clouds, ready to dump their precious cargo down upon us.  When we pulled into the Flumin’ parking area, it was raining pretty well.  Since it was a bit before opening, we sat in the rental car, listing to and watching the rain fall.  We don’t get too much of this in San Diego, so it was a pleasant distraction.

When their doors opened, we entered and I will admit that I was a tad concerned that they were going to cancel due to the weather, but nope, we were still on!  However, as we later found out, they did decide to cancel all of the other excursions this day, not due to the rain apparently, but to do some maintenance on the flumes; so we considered ourselves very lucky.

Sitting in an adjoining waiting room with our other “flumers”, the staff provided us with some light refreshments.  They then proceeded to visually measure our waists and handed out floatation devices that we had to fasten around ourselves.  Purely a safety precaution, but really unnecessary because first, the water in the flumes are very shallow, and second, if you fell in face first, then this thing would not help you.

Once we were all together, a staff member stepped up to the front of the room and gave a safety spiel.  Next, all of us made our way out of the building and into an awaiting passenger van, filling all of the rows.  The ride down to the Kohala Ditch was very interesting.  What started on a nice, flat dirt and grass parking lot, made its way onto a few miles of paved roads, and then it was off-roading time!!!  I have had less bumpy rides on an electric bull!  The shock absorbers on the van had obviously taken a serious beating over time.  Our speed was purposely slow as we trudged through the ranch area; and they really mean “ranch”…we actually came upon three large cows, with big horns included, along the way.  Apparently, these cows just love to eat guavas!

So, where exactly were we headed?  Well, hand drilled and blasted over a century ago out of solid rock deep in the canyons of Kohala, “The Ditch” brought water and prosperity to the people of Kohala.  Hundreds of men risked their lives to build it, and many perished during its construction.  Boarding kayaks, visitors enjoy a guided tour through three scenic miles of thick rainforest, mountain tunnels, elevated flumes, and winding concrete channels.  Is it fast?  Nope, it’s pretty darn mellow, except for the using the oars to push off the sides and walls part…that was pretty intense at times, but still really fun!

When our van arrived at the drop off destination, one of our guides led us towards a beautiful wooden bridge (if you can call it that) with a nice view of a small waterfall.  To say that this place was lush and green is a serious understatement.





Continuing around the corner, we discovered the rest of our crew, one who would be kayaking with us and the others who brought a second vehicle towing the boats.  Grouping all of us one final time, they established who would ride in which of the three kayaks they now placed in the water.  Each of the three families were assigned a kayak and one guide was placed with the first and third.  We were assigned the second kayak all by our lonesome, with our daughter up front with an oar, my wife in the middle with the camera, and me in the back, also with an oar.  The guides both took positions on the front of their respective kayaks and we were off!  While it was my primary job to row and keep us moving forward, it soon became clear that our daughter’s front position role was to help direct us by pushing off the sides of whatever we were about to crash into.  She found it fun at first, but quickly grew tired of it, though she pushed through and did a great job.







What words can I use to describe how amazing this experience was?  Serene, beautiful, lush, humbling (especially the manmade tunnels), and especially wet!  Besides the fact that you would occasionally splash yourself or your boat mates while rowing (accidentally of course…wink wink), it also rained a bit while we floated down some of the external portions.  Oh yeah…and there was the waterfall!  And it was SO COLD!  In the darkness of one of the tunnels we could hear it coming towards us.  Yes, we had headlamps provided by the tour guides, but they didn’t really work in the distance, so the rumblings of the waterfall came at us from deep within the black ahead.  It wasn’t scary at all, but the anticipation of it made your heartbeat quicken…not to mention when it rained down upon you.  Did I mention that it was REALLY COLD!?!







Overall, we coursed through nearly 3 miles of “The Ditch”, which included 5 or 6 tunnels.  The guides kept us involved the entire time with historical facts, stories, a little trivia, and many, many jokes.  When we finally reached the end, the other staff members were waiting for us.  Assisting each person as we not so elegantly attempted to get out of our kayaks, we returned to the shore and were immediately provided towels to dry off with.  Then it was back into the van, which now had the heater turned onto Super Nova temperature, and another bumpy ride back to the headquarters in Hawi.

Back at the main building, we used their facilities to change into dry clothes and while I waited for my family to finish up, I bought a sweet, black trucker cap with the Flumin’ Kohala logo stitched into the front.  Warm and dry, it was now time for lunch…our destination was Minnie’s in the nearby town of Kapaau.  The claim to fame here is their Korean Chicken.  Both my daughter and I ordered a plate lunch with it, while my wife ordered the fresh fish of the day, which was Ono.  To say that it was fabulous would not be doing it justice.  The Korean Chicken, which turned out to be wings, were so unbelievably flavorful and juicy.  Each delicious bite melted in your mouth and liquid goodness ran down your chin (so make sure to eat over your plate).  My wife adored her fish and couldn’t believe the large portion size; and she loved the tartar sauce!  In fact, the owner noticed that she had used up her first portion and immediately brought her more.  My wife was very happy indeed!  Great food and great service!!!



Originally, we planned to drive from here up to the Pololu Valley Lookout, but with the weather being off and on drizzly (kind of heavy at times), we decided to skip it and instead head south to Waimea to the Rare Hawaiian Honey Company.  The drive down was both magnificent and strange.  The scenery was simply gorgeous, especially a vast ranch with vistas of green pastures where we saw several folks enjoying horse riding.  Now for the strange…while driving through a residential area, we noticed a grey creature in the distance, standing two-legged in the street, just in front of a private driveway.  It was short and round, most probably feathered, so at first we thought perhaps it was a really large nene.  Nope, they don’t get that big and as we continued to drive closer to it, the darn thing just seemed to get bigger and bigger.  Finally within clear view of it, we realized that it was simply a large goose.  But, it wasn’t any ordinary goose, it was an Evil Guard Goose!  I swear, as our car drove closer and closer towards it, the bird never budged an inch.  It remained steadfast in the street, in our lane, as we approached.  It stared us down (I assure you that its eyes were glowing red), seemingly playing chicken with us.  Guess who blinked?  We did of course, having to swerve around the beast.  I was just glad that it didn’t start chasing after us!

Anyway, we eventually arrived at the Rare Hawaiian Honey Company.  A very industrial building welcomed us as we parked in the very open space nearby.  Have any of you heard of Vosges Haut-Chocolat out of Chicago?  Well, Vosges is one of my wife’s absolute favorite chocolatiers and makers of fine chocolate truffles and other extreme goodness.  Several years ago, they offered very limited edition chocolates called Volcano Island Honey Truffles.  My wife absolutely adored these little treasures and was so sad when they stopped making them.  Well, as it turned out, the rare white honey used by Vosges was from the Rare Hawaiian Honey Company!  Joy!

We entered the building and were immediately greeted very warmly by the woman working inside.  She chatted with us, telling us about the varietals they offered, as well as affirming the Vosges connection.  Motioning over to a nearby shelf, she presented these little beauties:






“What would you like to taste,” she asked.  Our eyes got huge as we looked at each delectable honey.  I jokingly said, “All of them,” and she replied OK!  Opening up a drawer, she pulled out these very cool, small pieces of paper, and with one simple origami-like move, turned each into a tasting spoon.  She formed several spoons for us and then proceeded to dip each into a honey we asked to try.  We ended up trying most of them and it was all wonderful!  The flavors and the textures varied with each delectable taste.  I am not a honey aficionado by any means, but I could tell that this was special.

It was very hard, but we finally made some selections for ourselves and for a gift for my Dad and his wife.  Heading out of the building, we then made the long, arduous trek…next door…to the Tropical Dreams Ice Cream store.  Yep, incredible island honey and ice cream literally next to one another!  I think they actually shared a wall.  Being a company store, where I think they actually made and packaged the ice cream, they didn’t have the usual counter service and scoops available.  Instead, everything was pre-packed and could be grabbed from one of the open freezers.  The ladies made their selection (I was too happily full of honey tastings), grabbed a couple plastic spoons, and we hit the road, returning to the timeshare for showers and little rest and relaxation.

It was during this time that I received a very unexpected phone call.  It was the proprietor, or should I say Captain, of the restaurant we had a dinner reservation at that evening.  Nope, we were not planning a dinner cruise tonight, but a meal fit for a pirate (more on that in a bit).  Anyway, the Captain called because he wanted to confirm that we still intended to dine at his establishment.  Apparently, he received a call from OpenTable, whom we made our reservation through, to confirm that he would be open tonight, offering to contact everyone with a reservation if he, like many other restaurants on the island, decided to close due to Hurricane Lane.  At this point, Lane was hitting the east side of the Big Island, especially Hilo, really hard and many places were choosing to close for the night, maybe longer.  The Captain assured me that he would remain open this evening and very much wanted to cook for us; and it would just be him, as his sous chef and third staff member were on call for emergency response.  I really appreciated that he made the effort to reach out to us and given that the weather on the Kona side was still pleasant (with a small rogue rain cloud here and there), as well as the reports on Lane being that it wouldn’t reach our side until maybe early hours of the next morning, we affirmed our plans to go.

I then received yet another phone call.  This one, however, was from the Ocean Rider Seahorse Farm, where we had pre-purchased tickets for a 1:45pm tour the next day.  In this case, I was informed that due to the reports on Hurricane Lane, they decided to cancel the afternoon tours, offering us instead a morning time.  Since we had a pre-existing reservation at the Mountain Thunder Coffee Plantation, I had to decline, so they apologized for the inconvenience (please, totally understandable) and said that they would refund our money.  Classy!

Concerned at this point about the coffee plantation tour, I decided to give them a call.  Yep, they were going to be closed the next day to allow their staff to be with their families.  Apparently, they lost the record of our tour reservation, which was not pre-paid, so had not known to reach out to us.  I had made it months earlier with a roastmaster over the phone.  At the time, she indicated that our date was very near her due date for her baby, but assured me that if she was not available, then one of the other roastmasters would take care of us.  When I mentioned her, they told me that she was already on maternity leave and may have forgotten to forward all of her reservations to the other staff.  No harm, no foul.  They offered to give us the tour that afternoon, but given the drive time from the timeshare and our dinner reservation, it just wouldn’t have worked out.  Too bad, we were really looking forward to this tour (and the 4 pounds of 100% Kona coffee that came with it), but we completely understood the real priority here.  Hey, it gives us yet another reason to return to the Big Island!

Alright…dinner time!  Start humming Yo Ho Yo Ho, A Pirate’s Life for Me or maybe Come Sail Away from Styx; but if the theme song to SpongeBob Square Pants is more your speed, then feel free to go there!  Tonight, we dined like a pirate at Privateer’s Cove!  Located literally two doors down from the wonderful Broke da Mouth Grindz, home of the exquisite Garlic Furikake Chicken, we found ourselves entering one of the most unusual restaurants we have ever been to.  It really is hard to describe this place…and it’s Captain/Owner/Chef.  He is definitely a character; not that he is playing one at all, he is uniquely himself.  The décor is definitely pirate, with a little steampunk thrown in.  It is certainly not a fancy or stuck up place whatsoever; it is meant to be exactly what it is…a pirate’s life for everyone, without walking the plank…unless you make a call on your cell phone inside the restaurant, which is strictly forbidden!






When we arrived, the Captain was near the front chatting up the one table with customers.  He greeted us, friendly and loudly (this man is certainly not a quiet talker), telling us to sit where we liked.  Noticing that the Captain’s Table was open, a table for four with a “guest” (and his formerly feathered friend) already seated, I led the family right to it!






Soon, the Captain grabbed a chair from another table and sat down to talk to us a bit, getting to know us and describing his place, his process, and the current menu.  The menu changes weekly, as he and his crew regularly restock with fresh goods from around the world.  He refers to his entrée section as the Ports of Call with each option representing a different style and region of the globe.  For our starter, we chose the fried calamari, which was wonderful, and for our entrees our daughter ordered steak topped with pesto, my wife the local fish, and me the Australian lamb chops.  Sodas were self-service and though alcohol was not officially served here, you could simply pop over next door to his Port of Call Public House to grab a drink and bring it over.  Our food was excellent, all of it; simply excellent.  Our daughter still talks about the steak with pesto to this day.

For most of our meal, we were the only ones in the restaurant.  I suspect that a lot of that had to do with the potential of Hurricane Lane.  The Captain spent a lot of time talking to us.  He is certainly a straight-shooter and he tells you his thoughts and opinions on whatever topic is at hand, sometimes un-edited or filtered.  It’s his place and he is the Captain, whether you like it or not.  Personally, I found him very nice and a refreshing personality.  Could he be a bit too much for some folks?  Yeah, sure, but I respect who he is and really appreciated his service to us this evening.  That said, he did go a little long (and real) on the potential impact of the hurricane on the island, which ultimately upset our daughter a bit; still, a fine pirate, and a restaurant that I would love to sail back into one day.

Returning to the timeshare, we hunkered down and got updates on Lane.  Reports still indicated that it was bearing down on the eastern side of the island, yet they had no assurances of what its future path would be.  The consensus was that if the west side was going to see anything, then it would arrive while we were asleep.  Wyndham staff members came to our condo and brought in all of the patio furniture as a precaution.  Now with no plans for the next day, we went to bed wondering what tomorrow would bring.


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## alohamom

I am curious if you would "flume da ditch" again?

It has been on our bucket list for Kauai because the Kohala one was closed for a while, I kind of think a mud slide closed it up or something like that. Obviously it is open now and it looks awesome.

I kind of remember reading that the bridges at Aulani's lazy river are inspired by the sugar plantation ditch ones like the one in your third picture


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## gregf71

alohamom said:


> I am curious if you would "flume da ditch" again?
> 
> It has been on our bucket list for Kauai because the Kohala one was closed for a while, I kind of think a mud slide closed it up or something like that. Obviously it is open now and it looks awesome.
> 
> I kind of remember reading that the bridges at Aulani's lazy river are inspired by the sugar plantation ditch ones like the one in your third picture



Absolutely, yes, we would flume da Ditch again!  The experience was truly wonderful, as were all of the staff.  In fact, it turned out that we couldn't enjoy all that we could have.  Remember how I mentioned that they cancelled the afternoon excursions because they needed to do maintenance?  The section they needed to address is part of the usual tour and we missed it.  I am not sure how much we actually missed, but there is definitely more to see!

Come to think of it, yes, the bridges you go under in the Aulani lazy river certainly do resemble the ones that crossed above us in the flume system.  I didn't realize that.  Cool!

I hear that the Kauai one is on inner tubes, right?  If so, then a different kind of experience I would think...less ducking (not that there was much of that at all in Kohala).


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## gregf71

*Day 12 – Mahalo Hawaii…It’s Time to Go Home*

Originally, today was going to be a coffee plantation tour and roastmaster experience (Mountain Thunder Coffee), followed by a plate lunch place (Pine Tree Café), then a seahorse farm tour, share some deep fried pineapple from Island Fish & Chips at the King’s Shops, a drive up to check out the famous Hapuna Beach, and then dinner at the Tommy Bahama Restaurant at the Shops at Mauna Lani.  I was seriously looking forward to getting their Pineapple Crème Brulee for dessert!  Unfortunately, fate (and Hurricane Lane) had other ideas and as I detailed on our Day 11 log, we suddenly found ourselves with half of our day canceled and uncertainty about what we could possibly do.

When I woke up around 7am or so, all of my blackout curtains were closed as usual, allowing very little light into the room.  I could hear a quiet “swooshing” sound coming from outside, so I walked over to the curtains and slowly pushed them aside to see if the storm had finally arrived.  Oh my gosh, what was I seeing?!  Um…golfers, a group of four to be exact, with one in particular taking a series of practice swings.  Remember, our timeshare, particularly our condo, sat right next to a section of a golf course.  Shots completed, the quartet hopped into their cart and sped away down the fairway.  OK, I thought, looking up and around.  Blue sky, a few white clouds, and absolutely no wind.  Apparently, Lane didn’t make it over to the Kona side of the Big Island overnight.  What?!  The prognosticators were wrong?!  In their defense, weather prediction, especially on television, is not an exact science.

Alright, so where was it?  We got up and checked the news.  The east side was completely flooded and still being dumped on.  We sat there eating breakfast, watching areas of Hilo covered in water that we had just driven by days before.  Wow, it was bad; but was it going to get bad where we were?  And if so, when?  One thing that we did know was that the airlines, specifically Alaska Airlines, were apparently waiving their change fees.

Given that our primary plans for the day were canceled and we had no clue if anything was actually open near us, I decided to check flight availability for that afternoon or early evening.  We had a direct flight home to San Diego scheduled for tomorrow at 2:05pm and it turned out that there was an identical flight today with available seats!  I quietly called my wife in to discuss the matter.  What should we do?  The weather on the west side of the island was still very nice, but could change.  Businesses were closed as a precaution, so what would we do besides stay at the condo and play cards and watch the news?  Was it safe to go out and just drive around?  Ultimately, we decided to see if we could fly out today.

I made the call to Alaska Airlines and they were able to move us over to today’s direct flight, except they couldn’t assign us actual seat numbers.  We’d have to discuss that with airline staff at the airport.  I walked up the Wyndham front office and explained the situation.  The manager on duty was amazingly wonderful.  She told me that since we had the condo booked into tomorrow that they would hold it for us in case we couldn’t fly out and needed to come back.  I told her that we still had a cache of water bottles and some food, hoping that we could donate it to them as an emergency resource if needed.  She thanked me, accepting the offer, telling me to just leave it there and their staff would claim the stuff later.

Returning to the condo, my wife had already told our daughter.  As soon as she saw me, she walked up and gave me a big hug, saying, “Thank you, Daddy.”  I gave her a big hug back and assured her that it was all going to be ok.

Bags packed quickly and the car loaded up, we stopped by the front office one last time to drop off our keys and thank them again for their generous offer to hold the condo for us if need be.  A quick stop by the nearby gas station, which was thankfully open, we topped off the tank and headed to the car rental return by the airport.

Rental car returned and cleared, we climbed into the airport shuttle and were off.  The airport was fairly busy, but not bad at all given the potential situation.  Thankfully, the Alaska Airlines section had several available staff and very few customers to assist.  We quickly checked in our luggage, paid the fees, and obtained our boarding passes, but still with no seating assignments.  Apparently, we needed to work that out with someone at the gate desk.  The TSA line was not bad at all, as we were through it in about 20 minutes.

Finally inside, we confirmed our gate assignment and immediately went to speak to someone about seats.  My primary concern was that our daughter was seated with one of us.  It would be great if we could get three seats together, but 2 and 1 would also be fine.  Finding the gate staffer, I explained the situation, but she was unable to address it at that very moment because she was still resolving ticketing issues for the flight that was about to begin boarding from the same gate.  She took our boarding passes, made a note of the need, and told me to stay near until I was called.

In the meantime, we scouted out what was open.  When we arrived on the Big Island, my wife saw that the airport gift shop sold bagged and approved plants, flowers specifically, that could be purchased and taken to the mainland.  As a gift for her mom, she planned on getting one of these when we came back through the airport, but alas the shop was closed today because of the possible hurricane.  We noticed that the newsstand was open, but it closed very soon afterwards.  The only thing actually open was the single restaurant, where we ended up grabbing a few things for a makeshift lunch…certainly not the goodness we planned to enjoy from the Pine Tree Café, but you make the best of things given the situation.

After a while, the flight prior to ours loaded and departed, yet we still had not been called by the staff member about our seats.  As the seating area by our gate was now mostly vacant, we moved into it from where we had been seated.  After about 20 more minutes here, I decided to pop over and inquire about our status, whereby she said, “Oh, sorry, you are all set!”  All set?  How exactly, I wondered.  “We have seats,” I asked.  “Yep, all together.  Here you go.”  She handed me our new boarding passes and sure enough, we had three seats together!  Joy!

I returned to my family and gave them the good news.  They both let out a deep sigh.  We sat there for about another 30 minutes or so, enjoying the shade and the wonderful breeze, which you can only get at an open airport terminal.  I do have to say though that we were rather shocked to see other outgoing flights headed to both Honolulu and Maui.  Last we heard, both locations were in Lane’s path, but there were flights and people on them excitedly headed to those islands.

Finally, it was our turn to board.  If you have not traveled through the Kona airport, there are no gangways that connect the planes to the physical airport.  Passengers walk between the two upon the actual tarmac, accessing and departing the planes via attachable stairs.  In some instances, they provide two sets of stairs, one connected to the front of the plane and a second attached to a rear door; and that was the case for us.  As our seats were in the back of the plane, I mean literally the last row, we scooted around the mass of folks heading to the front set of stairs and entered the plane through the back.  It was fantastic because we were the first ones back there and had immediate access to all of the unused overhead storage (of which we only needed one, but it was nice to have the pick of the litter)!  The only negative was that we were seated directly across from the restrooms and let me tell you, when the plane is sitting on the tarmac and the ventilation system is not fully running, it can get a wee bit stinky back there.  Not that anyone was using them at that moment; it was more of a residual stench.  Still, we were on the plane and going home before the storm, so we were happy.  Thankfully, after takeoff and with the air-conditioning running, the smell dissipated quickly…though having those needing to use the facilities lining up next to you was a drag.

We all retained a small sense of anxiety until our flight actually took off.  Once in the air, we knew all would be ok.  We took one last look at the Big Island as we lifted up higher and higher:



Mahalo Hawaii, thank you for letting us visit and experience your wonderful treasures and amazing people.  We will return.

So that’s it!  That’s all he wrote!  The flight home started with a little turbulence, but otherwise it was very uneventful.  Returning home, we stopped by In N Out Burger for a VERY late dinner (it was either that or a carne asada burrito…such a tough choice!).  We learned that weekend that our original Friday flight took off as expected, without any issues.  Hurricane Lane never really hit the Kona side of the island.  Better safe than sorry though, we thought.  Overall, it was a grand vacation; one that will live within us for the rest of our lives.  We created amazing memories as a family and are already talking about when we will go back.

I hope that you found our tale fun, informative, and maybe a little inspiring.  I enjoyed writing it!  Go to Aulani!  Go to the Big Island!  Eat shrimp from a truck!  Try Donkey Balls!  You will not regret any of it.  Aloha!


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## alohamom

Thanks for taking the time to document everything in such rich, careful and delicious detail-wonderful report!


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## Amw1064

Great pictures.  Love Aulani and everything about Hawaii.  We are going back next summer.


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## Flossbolna

Thank you for sharing the rest of your trip as well! I really enjoyed reading about the Big Island. Sorry that your trip was cut short by weather, but it definitely made sense to get out instead of dealing with trying to get home after the storm.


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## North of Mouse

A very wonderful trip report from beginning to end!! Thank you again for sharing, and so happy you had such a great trip!!


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## MamaRoo

What an incredible trip you had with your beautiful family. Thank you so much for sharing it with us - I thouroughly enjoyed your trip report, your writing and touring style. You must share links to any other trip reports that you've written! Mahalo!


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## gregf71

MamaRoo said:


> What an incredible trip you had with your beautiful family. Thank you so much for sharing it with us - I thouroughly enjoyed your trip report, your writing and touring style. You must share links to any other trip reports that you've written! Mahalo!



Gee, thanks, MamaRoo.  I do happen to have a couple other trip reports on these boards from years past, here you go:


Orlando 2016
Disney World & DISapalooza 2015
Alaska Disney Cruise 2013
Enjoy!


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## dreamit

@gregf71, I came across your trip report while researching Aulani. Thank you for sharing the details of your vacation, which, by the way, sounds like a truly amazing trip. I've never been to Hawaii and have been researching a trip to Oahu. Now, based on all you shared, I feel compelled to work out a trip split between the two islands. I'll definitely be using your trip report as a reference for day trips! It's reassuring, too, to see that you were able to visit both sides of the island without switching your home base. I don't think that I'd want to add a third resort/hotel/condo to the itinerary. Thank you, again!


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## gregf71

dreamit said:


> @gregf71, I came across your trip report while researching Aulani. Thank you for sharing the details of your vacation, which, by the way, sounds like a truly amazing trip. I've never been to Hawaii and have been researching a trip to Oahu. Now, based on all you shared, I feel compelled to work out a trip split between the two islands. I'll definitely be using your trip report as a reference for day trips! It's reassuring, too, to see that you were able to visit both sides of the island without switching your home base. I don't think that I'd want to add a third resort/hotel/condo to the itinerary. Thank you, again!



Mahalo!  I am so pleased that you liked our report and find it useful.  Even with it getting cut a bit short, we still had an awesome time.  It was our first visit to the Big Island (Kauai pre-kiddo) and we found it so amazing in many regards.  Have fun trip planning and have a wonderful trip!


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## TNGirlwCamera

Enjoyed your trip report! Sorry it was cute short. OMG the food you guys had!! I will have to keep up with some that you mentioned. I have been to Oahu, I have never forgotten how good the pineapple is and I loved the plantation.


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## bennifer

Thank you for the trip report! I'm planning a very similar trip for 2020, but we'll be doing the BI first. I have Oahu figured out, but didn't know anything about BI. This has given me a wealth of ideas!


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## gregf71

bennifer said:


> Thank you for the trip report! I'm planning a very similar trip for 2020, but we'll be doing the BI first. I have Oahu figured out, but didn't know anything about BI. This has given me a wealth of ideas!



You are most welcome, bennifer!  We were so pleasantly surprised how much there was to do on the Big Island.  Early on in trip planning we figured that since we had a week on the Big Island that we would have no problem doing everything we wanted, leaving a lot of time for just lounging lazily around.  Boy, were we wrong!  Truth is, we discovered so many cool things to see and do that we had to leave several things off of our plan this time.  Guess we will have to return some day!!!  Enjoy your trip planning and your trip!  Cheers!


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## tink too

I have just found (and read) your fabulous TR.  Looks like you had a wonderful time despite the weather cutting your trip short.  We're visiting Oahu this year, so really appreciated all the great information you shared.


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## gregf71

tink too said:


> I have just found (and read) your fabulous TR.  Looks like you had a wonderful time despite the weather cutting your trip short.  We're visiting Oahu this year, so really appreciated all the great information you shared.



Thanks Tink!  Glad you enjoyed and found it useful!  Have a fabulous trip!


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## dachsie

I too just found your trip report.  I am going to the big island for a conference before heading to Aulani.  Have used your report to see what I can fit in to do before moving to  Oahu.  Thank you!


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## gregf71

dachsie said:


> I too just found your trip report.  I am going to the big island for a conference before heading to Aulani.  Have used your report to see what I can fit in to do before moving to  Oahu.  Thank you!



You are very welcome, Dachsie!!!  I hope you have a wonderful trip!


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## dachsie

gregf71 said:


> You are very welcome, Dachsie!!!  I hope you have a wonderful trip!


Thanks - quick question - approximately what does a daily car rental cost at Aulani?  Trying to figure out if need a rental for whole time or not


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## gregf71

dachsie said:


> Thanks - quick question - approximately what does a daily car rental cost at Aulani?  Trying to figure out if need a rental for whole time or not



We booked our 1 day car rental via CostCo about 6 months ahead of time and it came to about $92.  I checked multiple times between the initial booking and our arrival date, but the price never lowered...sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't.  Keep in mind that we always planned to leave Aulani for only 1 day, so an extended rental wasn't necessary, not to mention you need to consider the cost of daily overnight parking fees if you rent a car elsewhere and park it at Aulani over multiple nights.


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## ksromack

Thank you so much for such a detailed and wonderfully interesting trip report.  We are visiting just Oahu which just means we'll have to plan a return trip because you had me at 100% Kona coffee!


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## gregf71

ksromack said:


> Thank you so much for such a detailed and wonderfully interesting trip report.  We are visiting just Oahu which just means we'll have to plan a return trip because you had me at 100% Kona coffee!


Hi ksromack!  Thank you for reading it!  I'm glad you enjoyed it and found it inspiring for a Big Island visit!  We very much want to return to the Big Island, but I guess we will just have to settle for returning to Aulani this summer!


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## ksromack

gregf71 said:


> Hi ksromack!  Thank you for reading it!  I'm glad you enjoyed it and found it inspiring for a Big Island visit!  We very much want to return to the Big Island, but I guess we will just have to settle for returning to Aulani this summer!


Ah, so you are making it back!  This is sort of what I'm afraid of....that it will become a must do for us and we're coming from St. Louis so our flights will require a layover in CA somewhere (this time SFO seemed to be  the cheapeset way to do it).  I really don't want to do a non-stop from Chicago.  Anyway, maybe next time we'll check out San Diego.  Our niece just moved there from Stanford and she's getting married!


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## gregf71

ksromack said:


> Ah, so you are making it back!  This is sort of what I'm afraid of....that it will become a must do for us and we're coming from St. Louis so our flights will require a layover in CA somewhere (this time SFO seemed to be  the cheapeset way to do it).  I really don't want to do a non-stop from Chicago.  Anyway, maybe next time we'll check out San Diego.  Our niece just moved there from Stanford and she's getting married!



Yes indeed!  Just Aulani this time out, but staying a bit longer than 2018, allowing us to have two days with a rental car to explore the island.  While out and about, we plan to hit a couple repeats from 2018, but looking at some different things as well.  I am currently in big time trip planning mode!

I wouldn't say that it has become a "must do" in the sense of prioritizing it #1 over other vacation destinations, it just worked out for 2020.  We considered other options before choosing to return, balancing it against what we did in 2019 and what we plan to do in 2021 (my 50th birthday and our 20th wedding anniversary), as well as financial realities.

Congratulations to your niece!  San Diego is great!  I was born and raised here.  Lots of great food and sights to see!  You should pay us a visit one of these days!

I'll be flying through the St. Louis airport in the spring coming home from a business conference...any food recommendations in there?!


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## ksromack

gregf71 said:


> Yes indeed!  Just Aulani this time out, but staying a bit longer than 2018, allowing us to have two days with a rental car to explore the island.  While out and about, we plan to hit a couple repeats from 2018, but looking at some different things as well.  I am currently in big time trip planning mode!
> 
> I wouldn't say that it has become a "must do" in the sense of prioritizing it #1 over other vacation destinations, it just worked out for 2020.  We considered other options before choosing to return, balancing it against what we did in 2019 and what we plan to do in 2021 (my 50th birthday and our 20th wedding anniversary), as well as financial realities.
> 
> Congratulations to your niece!  San Diego is great!  I was born and raised here.  Lots of great food and sights to see!  You should pay us a visit one of these days!
> 
> *I'll be flying through the St. Louis airport in the spring coming home from a business conference...any food recommendations in there?!*


As in at the airport?  I can tell you of the restaurants mentioned my best experiences are at Budweiser Brewhouse, Mike Shannon's, Schlafly Brewing, and Pasta House.  I'm not sure what terminal you will be flying through, though.  Schlafly is a local microbrewery with some really awesome beers.  Mike Shannon's used to be excellent.  He was one of our Baseball Cardinal's broadcasters who opened his own restaurant downtown by the stadium.  That restaurant has since closed and he opened a smaller bar and grill type near his home across the river from downtown.  Pasta House is a local chain  restaurant and is my favorite.  Their pasta con broccoli is amazing and their house salad is something I could eat every day (lettuce, pimentos, red onions, artichoke hearts, and lots of garlic and parmesan cheese).....you will need a mint after eating that!

Question......we have 6 nights on Oahu.  The first 5 nights are at Aulani.  We'll have a car and plan to spend 2 of those days exploring the island and 3 of them staying mainly at the resort (with maybe a dinner exception off site).  Then our last night is on Waikiki Beach where we have a tour planned that will probably duplicate some of what we may have already explored on our own at the NOrth Shore.  We will have reservations at Hula Grill for our one night for dinner while staying at Moana Surfrider and a sunday brunch at Orchid's the day of our departure.  We fly out late that evening on a red-eye to SFO.  Does that sound ok?  Does 3 fairly-full days of resort time sound about right?  I wouldn't mind taking advantage of all the free things at Aulani and even the paid ones (like making flower Mickey ears, etc).  We are commando Disney parks people so relaxing at the resort is something a bit new to me


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## gregf71

ksromack said:


> As in at the airport?  I can tell you of the restaurants mentioned my best experiences are at Budweiser Brewhouse, Mike Shannon's, Schlafly Brewing, and Pasta House.  I'm not sure what terminal you will be flying through, though.  Schlafly is a local microbrewery with some really awesome beers.  Mike Shannon's used to be excellent.  He was one of our Baseball Cardinal's broadcasters who opened his own restaurant downtown by the stadium.  That restaurant has since closed and he opened a smaller bar and grill type near his home across the river from downtown.  Pasta House is a local chain  restaurant and is my favorite.  Their pasta con broccoli is amazing and their house salad is something I could eat every day (lettuce, pimentos, red onions, artichoke hearts, and lots of garlic and parmesan cheese).....you will need a mint after eating that!
> 
> Question......we have 6 nights on Oahu.  The first 5 nights are at Aulani.  We'll have a car and plan to spend 2 of those days exploring the island and 3 of them staying mainly at the resort (with maybe a dinner exception off site).  Then our last night is on Waikiki Beach where we have a tour planned that will probably duplicate some of what we may have already explored on our own at the NOrth Shore.  We will have reservations at Hula Grill for our one night for dinner while staying at Moana Surfrider and a sunday brunch at Orchid's the day of our departure.  We fly out late that evening on a red-eye to SFO.  Does that sound ok?  Does 3 fairly-full days of resort time sound about right?  I wouldn't mind taking advantage of all the free things at Aulani and even the paid ones (like making flower Mickey ears, etc).  We are commando Disney parks people so relaxing at the resort is something a bit new to me



Yep, at the airport only.  I will have a 2 hour mid-afternoon layover in the St. Louis airport on my way back from Minneapolis.  So something small and tasty may be necessary before boarding my flight home.  I like to try and hit local places in the airports versus the national chain restaurants, like McDonalds, etc.

Regarding your itinerary.  Honestly, and yes I know that this may be a cop-out answer, but it really depends on you all and what you want out of your vacation.  In 2018, we stayed at Aulani for 5 nights with 3 1/2 days at the resort (the half day being our arrival day), 1 day exploring sites on Oahu, and our last morning was just breakfast before heading to the airport and going to the Big Island.  This upcoming summer, we wanted a bit more of Aulani and Oahu, so we are staying there for 7 nights, allocating 4 1/2 days enjoying Aulani and 2 days of island fun.  To your question, "_Does 3 fairly-full days of resort time sound about right?_"  Sure, absolutely, but everyone has different needs when it comes to their vacation.  Could you divide the time up differently?  Yep, but who's to say if you should?  In my mind, our time at the resort in 2018 was more about simple relaxation (much needed relaxation I will add), where our day out (and the Big Island portion) was meant for a bit more excitement and variety.  We too are usually commando-type vacationers, especially when we hit Disneyland or WDW, or are vacationing for the purpose of seeing sites and experiencing other countries or cultures.  To me, Aulani is more about chilling and simply exhaling.  I could float in that lazy river for hours, let me tell you.


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## ksromack

Ok, are you flying SW?  That is in Terminal 2 which is where the Pasta House/Schlafly restaurant is located.  I think 2 hours is plenty of time  Pasta House also has the StL famous "toasted ravioli" which is a pretty quick/easy snack/appetizer.


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## gregf71

ksromack said:


> Ok, are you flying SW?  That is in Terminal 2 which is where the Pasta House/Schlafly restaurant is located.  I think 2 hours is plenty of time  Pasta House also has the StL famous "toasted ravioli" which is a pretty quick/easy snack/appetizer.


 
Yes, Southwest.  These recommendations are perfect!!!  THANK YOU!!!


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