Hawaii Vacation Summary: Part 1

For my birthday, Jonathan surprised me with plane tickets to Honolulu for an 8 day vacation in the Waikiki area of Oahu. A lot happened in those 8 days so today I’ll just give a brief summary (ha!) of Days 1-4, and then feature the latter half of the week later on. Here’s a general itinerary of our trip. 

Day 1: We flew from SFO to HON at 9 AM. (PS Forest did AWESOME on the flight!) 

Factoring in a 3 hour time difference, the 5 hour direct flight landed us in Hawaii around 11:30. After collecting our bags and securing our rental car we made it to our resort around 2 pm while promptly realizing that we left our stroller at the rental car place. Oy vey! We headed back towards the airport in the legendary Honolulu traffic and then swung by Walmart on the way back to stock the kitchen of our 2 bedroom condo. By the time we got dinner made and fed the toddler, Forest was quite ready for bed at 6 pm. We were bummed that we didn’t make it to the beach at all, but tucked in early, prepared for F to wake up in the very wee hours of the morning from jet lag. 

Day 2: Forest slept for 14 hours (!) which was a personal record that caused me so much suspicion that I actually had to sneak in to make sure he was still breathing. When he finally woke up at 8 AM (11 AM CA time!) we packed up and headed to the North shore where Jon’s old fraternity buddy and his wife live. Richard showed us around to some of the good beaches and then we all went to Turtle Bay Resort for drinks and lunch on the water. 

The weather wasn't great so after lunch we went back to Richard’s to watch the LSU game and tried (unsuccessfully) to put Forest down for a nap. At halftime we said goodbye to Richard and drove the hour back to our condo. 

That afternoon we finally walked to Waikiki beach to scope out the area and found a nice playground at Fort Derussey park for Forest to burn off some more energy before calling it a night. 

Day 3: We headed out early to Waikiki beach and spent the morning chasing Forest around. 

He loved the waves and played so hard for the first 30 minutes that he ended up sitting still and playing with his sand toys for 40 minutes (!) afterward. Another record! 

That afternoon we headed out to meet Richard for a hike on the East side of the island.  Richard told us that this Pill Box hike offered some of the best views on the island but as we made the 45 minute drive eastward the weather got gloomier and gloomier to the point that we had hardly any visibility. When we finally got to the trailhead it was properly pouring so we opted not to hike up the side of a slippery mountain with a baby in tow.  We felt bad for Forest spending all that time in the car just to turn around and go home, so when we spotted a McDonald’s with an indoor playground we pulled in. 

Forest was really enjoying vacation.

We were feeling like most of our trip was being wasted in a car and were pretty discouraged by the weather and the traffic. We made the drive back to Waikiki and had time for a short walk on the beach walk before eating dinner and getting Forest to bed. 

Gloomy weather:(

We were determined to have a better day the next day! 

Day 4: We started off the morning with an early hike up Diamond Head, the famous mountain backdrop for Waikiki beach. It was quite an intense hike but great exercise (esp for Jon with the 30+ lb baby on his back) with phenomenal views. 

In the afternoon we went to Fort Derussey beach where Forest went absolutely wild running around and it took a lot of energy just to keep him alive in the surf.  

Ominous skies!

He rewarded our efforts with another marathon sand-toy session in which he recruited nearby beach goers to help him find rocks for his bucket. What he lacks in self-preservation skills, he makes up in charm- I'll give him that. 

That night we went to a local sushi restaurant, Sansei, for an early bird special that they feature on Monday nights. The restaurant was a bit hidden so we thought that would deter the hordes of people from packing the restaurant, but when we arrived 20 minutes before opening time, we were at the back of a very long line. Jon kept our place in line while I chased Forest around the neighboring resort. We were the second to last party granted admission for happy hour and we feasted on half price sushi which was totally worth the wait.   

Ok guys, that's enough for today! I'll try to have the second half of the trip recapped by Friday, but no promises. Jet lag is really messing Forest up on this end and yesterday he didn't take a nap AT ALL. Another record for him....One that will teach me to stop complaining about short naps from here on out!