Waikiki, Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii

Looks like I still haven't updated my post for Costa Rica...
One of these days (hopefully before my notes on Costa Rica look like chicken scratch to me) I'll get around to posting it...

Monday
Arrived at around 1pm... got on a shuttle (SpeediShuttle, the "official" shuttle from HNL to Waikiki hotels)... It was approximately $13 each way for each person.
Since the town was getting ready for APEC the whole week, there were lots of blockages and we didn't get to the hotel till around 2pm... We ended up looking for somewhere to eat since our room wasn't ready until about 3pm. We ate at Ahi Bowl and Pot (in the Ruffage Natural Foods market; 2443 Kuhio Ave).. It was really close to the Hyatt Regency (where we stayed) and was quite yummy. I had the Ahi Poke Avocado bowl ($10).. this actually ended up being my lunch staple for the rest of the week. I LOVE sushi and sushi-like food... :)

We got into our hotel room and were settled and ready to leave by around 4:30pm more or less and headed back out to get a 4-day bus pass from ABC market ($25). After talking to the concierge, we hopped on the bus to get out to Moana Falls... we ended up getting there by around 5:45 more or less..so our hike ended up being an evening/night hike... if you look at the flickr photos, you'll see my view of the waterfalls was just dark night... it was a very pretty hike though, so well worth it.

By the time we got back it was quite late... almost 10pm, grabbed some dinner at Fatty's Chinese kitchen... (2345 Kuhio Ave) Recommended by the Hyatt bell desk staff.. very good for fast chinese food. I got Szechwan Shrimp ($9 + -?) which was QUITE good. We grabbed a LongBoard beer from a convenient store and ate in our hotel room :)

Tuesday
8-5 Conference - I should mention by the way, that we were in Hawaii due to me going to a conference on Vocational Rehab for veterans with PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) and TBI (traumatic brain injury)... there were speakers from Japan, so they had good rationale to have the conference in Hawaii :)
After the conference, we wanted to find a nice little happy hour to get drinks. Both B and I are suckers for piNa colada... we were directed to Wang Chung (2410 Koa Ave) which is now my favorite bar ever! (and i'm not one for hyperboles :) ) ... this is how i imagine bars should be... the owner was so warm and friendly, including all the other patrons ... (which included other bartenders who were hanging out on off days).. it was just like a nice family/long-time friends feel. Ordered a few drinks, bartender/owner made us a drink as well and also gave us waters for the road. We ended up going twice over the week and this really added to a memorable week there. ---oh, but they don't have pina coladas FYI
For dinner we got food from Me's BBQ (151 Uluniu Ave). B had Kalbi ($9.50), which was tasty. I got the tofu soup ($11) which i thought was soontubu, but is in fact tubu gigeh.. which was still tasty, but slightly disappointing.

Wednesday
8-5 Conference
We wanted to try out another Happy hour, so we went to Five-o (25% off drinks; 2201 Kalakaua Ave). The bartender there was really nice as well. After we drank our piNa coladas, he made us a concoction which was super tasty and has possibly converted B on to chocolately/snicker/cream type of cocktails. Very friendly vibe so far in Waikiki :)
We also walked around International market Place and just bought a bunch of souvenirs at an ABC store.
We ate at Mikawon a korean restaurant (2345 Kuhio Ave). $59 for 1 soontubu, 1 so-long-tang and 1 kalbi... a bit on the pricy side, but was tasty.

Thursday
9-5 Conference
Went Paddleboarding, which was ALOT of fun. Went for about 1.5 hours, rented from Moku (2446 Koa Ave)... we were trying to decide between that and surfing, but the surf was very small (which is actually nice for me), but we decided that we wanted to try out the paddleboarding. Brian at Moku (2446 Koa Ave) was super nice... even with me obnoxiously (usually i'm not obnoxious) saying out loud "i dont think they have paddleboards!" he was really nice and helped us out. It was about $14/hour. I highly recommend them and highly recommend paddleboarding :) it's not any sort of adrenalin fueling sport, but it's really cool to be floating/standing along the water.. sort of leisurely catching waves.. (B caught one and rode it to the end!)
For dinner, we went to a udon restaurant that could possibly be the best udon i've ever had.. Hawaii seems to have a very large japanese population, so they know their Udon... (there also seems to be a large korean population.. saw lots of korean liquor store owners and korean restaurant owners).. Anyway, highly recommend Marukame Udon (2310 Kuhio Ave). When we got there at 7pm, there was a long line outside, though it moved pretty quickly. We got a Kake Udon (tempted to get the bukkake udon, just because, but i opted for what would taste better to me). I added 2 tempura shimp to mine, B got a curry udon and added fried chicken to his and also got this pile of fried onion/potato/thing. It came out to $17 for an incredibly tasty dinner. (We tried to make it out here Friday night, but it didn't work out)...

Friday
Woke up by 6am to be checked out and catch the shuttle by 6:50am. We were picked up and brought to Budget rent-a-car at the HNL airport. We also met up with Aloha Airport Delivery and Storage, who were super fast in arriving to pick up our extra baggage from where we were at Budget (within 1 minute!). We paid $20 for the day of storage. The car rental was $58.93 (government employee leisure travel rate). We took off for Hanauma Bay and arrived by 8:45am :) with plenty of parking. Also, very relieved that my GPS had finally decided to start working (i think it was just not working anywhere around waikiki for some reason). The entrance fee was $7.50 each, parking $1, and if i remember right, the whole snorkel set was something like $12 each... We also paid for a locker at $5 i think... it was like swimming in an expensive aquarium... we even saw a sea turtle :) (see flickr pictures)... ALOT of fun.
We took a drive up to north shore and watched the pro surfers... incredibly impressive... collected some cool lookin' sand... then just before sunset we drove to Tantalus/Roundabout drive which is a really pretty drive up to a vista point. Unfortunately no battery in my camera at this point, so no pictures :( we attempted to drive back to the udon place, but with traffic, APEC craziness at Waikiki, it was not doable.. so we went to a curry place instead which ended up being pretty tasty (Curry House coco ichibanya; 1009 University Ave). We got two curries (1 chicken cutlet and 1 tofu/gyoza) and 2 salads (1 corn and 1 squid) for a total of $22. .. not bad...
since we saved some time with not sitting in traffic, we got to the airport a bit early.. after getting our luggage from Aloha Storage and checking in, we went to some bar at Gate 12 (tequila something) and each got a pina colada while waiting for our flight. :)


Pictures: Click here