Hawaii Day 3- Mind the strangers.
Sunday, May 22, 2022
I’m back guys! Sorry for the delay. We’ve been busy catching up on the fun feels that are supposed to come with vacationing that had been seriously lacking at the start of this trip.
This morning was a planned lazy day at the resort. I have not adjusted too well to the time change still. I started waking up at about 3am and finally actually started my day at 4:30am. There was nowhere I had to be so I went out on the balcony, in pitch black, and worked on my blog as I watched and heard this beautiful resort wake up. As I sat out there, I cracked up at the thought of how I could tell which rooms were housed by east coasters since there’s a spattering of other rooms with lights on at 4:30am so unless these people are nut jobs who enjoy starting their vacation day at 4:30am, they are most likely east coasters also fighting this hardcore jet lag- going west is so much harder. I wanted to yell, “Good morning“ to all of them.
After working on my blog for a while I was finally joined by Matt at about 6:30am. He’s doing better than me with battling the jet lag… show off. Once he was up we got ourselves dressed because there is a super popular breakfast spot about 10 minutes from our hotel that I wanted to try. This place, My Cafe, offers all kinds of pancake concoctions and best of all, they offer a pancake flight so you have an easier time deciding. It was still hard to choose but we went with lilikoi (passion fruit), malasda, & cookie butter. We also got an order of country fried steak and eggs to balance all that sugar. I say “we” because a miracle happened on this morning. I. Shared. Food. I know. Miracles really do happen. I knew I wanted to try all of it so I suggested sharing to Matt. I thought he was going to fall of his chair. Needless to say, he was excited that it seemed his wife was coming over to the dark side when in reality, I was just using him and his stomach to get me more food opportunities. Everybody wins!
After breakfast, they had to literally roll us out of there. This place is so popular you only get one hour at the table and then you’re out! I was fine with that rule because I was eager to get back to the resort and enjoy all the amenities it has to offer. After a quick wardrobe change, we were off to the resort’s pool. We didn’t bother with the beach today since I’m more of a pool gal, where the only living things I need to worry about being in the water with me is strangers and their offspring… which come to think of it, can be just as terrifying to me as a great white, or seaweed getting stuck in my toes- equally horrifying. The good thing about the threat of strangers in the pool is if they get to be too much I can just drown them. I’m kidding!! I’ll just pee in the pool when they break my invisible barrier of personal space. I like my space, and my chlorine. What can I say? Matt on other hand loves the beach, but only if there are bodysurfing waves or snorkeling. Aulani’s beach is beautiful, but man made and protected so no waves and nothing to see when snorkeling. It is a great beach for kids and things like standup paddle boarding, but just not really Matt’s cup of tea. I didn’t get any pictures of the beach, but I will later on. In addition to bodysurfing the waves and snorkeling, Matt also seems to love making friends with any living breathing thing- human or animal. So needless to say I was forced to pee in the pool quite often today.
After laying in the sun for quite a bit I finally decided to brave the cool waters of the lazy river. Again, I didn’t get any pictures today as I was just trying to chill. Speaking of chilling, I cannot for the life of me understand why resorts choose to keep their pool water so chilly, but Aulani’s is no exception. I also, for the life of me, cannot understand why the designers of every lazy river known to man insist on adding water features to the lazy river that unexpectidly shoot out freezing cold water as you float by. It’s a LAZY river. The whole point is for me to be so lazy in my tube that I doze off as I float on by, legs propped up on top of the tube, without a care in the world. Instead, I always find myself dangling in my tube with my feet planted securely on the lazy river bottom playing the most intense game of frogger trying to avoid all the random water being shot directly at me. There is nothing lazy about this. In fact, this should just be considered an Olympic sport. Throw in the annoying kids whose goal in life is to apparently convince me that they’re drowning every three seconds, because they HAVE TO swim under the tubes, getting themselves stuck literally every time. This is why my children are home right now with the grandparents. They are much safer there at home where my dad is making my 7 year old a cup of coffee in the morning. I wish I was joking. Enjoy those consequences, Grandpa. “Lisa, Benjamin was so crazy today. I’ve never seen him like that.” Oh really, dad? Could it have something to do with the fact that it’s the weekend… AND MAYBE THE 12 OZ CUP OF STRAIGHT CAFFINE YOU GAVE HIM. I digress.
After my marathon on the lazy river I headed back to my pool chair where I could actually relax and be lazy while Matt headed off to the spa for a massage. These next two hours were kind of a blur of heaven on earth. God, love my husband, but he did’t earn the nickname, “Chatty Marty” for nothing! So I enjoyed the silence of laying on my pool chair alone for basically the next two hours- no new friends were made. Unlike a mere 10 minutes at the pool with Matt where we find ourselves standing in as best man and maid of honor for the complete strangers we just met over a painful conversation started about a mongoose, thanks to my darling man. I’m just kidding. We haven’t been invited to be a part of a strangers wedding party just yet, but it’s been pretty close. In fact, last time we were in Hawaii Matt befriended a couple on their honeymoon who then followed us around the rest of the trip. People are so odd. Who makes friends on their honeymoon??? The only thing you should be interested in on your honeymoon is making… the best dining reservations on the island six weeks in advanced to ensure you try all of the best restaurants. Get your minds out of th gutter… this is a family blog!
A special cake for our anniversary from Ashley’s Sweet Shop.
After relaxing in silence for about 90 minutes, I decided to get myself a shave ice since it was so hot laying by the pool while avoiding actually going into said pool on account of how peoply it was. Shave ice is super popular here in Hawaii and I gotta be honest, I don’t get all the excitement over a snow one, the lowest of ice cream truck options, but when in Rome, I guess. They have all kinds of options to make the shave ice more enjoyable so my shave ice is topped with Mickey ears, sweetened condensed milk, three flavors (lilikoi, pinapple, & mango), and vanilla ice cream is somewhere in there as well. Basically, I threw anything they offered on that thing to try and make it more appealing. I was half expecting her to offer to throw her auntie on there as well since there were so many options. I then started contemplating if my concoction even qualified as shave ice anymore. I mean, if your dessert is needing cosmetic surgery to be enjoyable, is it even worth it at that point? Might as well be talking about sugar cookies, who needs plastic surgery via the cookie cutter to make them appealing. As for the shave ice itself, I wasn’t really a fan. All I really tasted was sweetened condensed milk. That could be because it’s “hot enough to make you want to live right” so I ended up wearing way more of it than I ate, which would explain the lack of flavor, I guess. I don’t understand how anyone can eat even a quarter of it with how quick it melts. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a sign by the pool asking us to be sure to rinse off the shave ice before entering the pool rather than the sand. I will say that I haven’t heard great things about Aulani’s shave ice in the first place though so I’m not writing the food group off my list just yet, but it’s gotten a stern look and a tough talking to from me. Needless to say, it’s on thin ice with me. *wink*
After braving the pool to clean off my shave ice, I decided to go do a little shopping before heading up to the room to shower and get ready for dinner. Matt returned super zen from his massage only to be faced with driving us to Waikiki for dinner. Oahu is famous for their horrendous traffic, however, being form NY and Matt commuting to the city every day… what traffic? If they think they have bad traffic, they should never move to NY/NJ. Our drive to Waikiki was pretty uneventful- it took about 30 minutes or so to get there. Parking is also known to be horrific in Waikiki, again, a non-issue for MattyBoy. We were parked and headed to our restaurant pretty quick. Let’s hear it for my Jersey boy! I think I’ll keep him.
Tonight’s dinner was at Eating House 1849 at the International Maketplace. This is another restaurant by the famous Hawaiian Chef, Roy Yamaguchi. He’s super popular over here. Last trip we went to his flagship restaurant, Roy’s, for our 1st wedding anniversary and we’ve been hooked ever since. His ribs are amazing! This trip I wanted to change it up though so we went with Eating House 1849. It did not disappoint! They also put a cute little sign on our table wishing us a ”Happy Anniversary” and surprised us with a special dessert which was so good, so they win in my book no matter what. If you give me free food, we’re BFFs.
Poutine Fries, Mongolian BBQ Back Ribs, Pork and Crab Pillows, Ume Glazed Grilled Pork Bao Buns, Pono Pork Ragout, & Berry Bread Pudding
After dinner, we walked around Waikiki where we window shopped and enjoyed the sights. Waikiki gets a bad wrap, many don’t like it, but Matt and I love it. I think those who don’t like it are people who are not used to a city atmosphere and all the quirks that come along with it. For example, there are a lot of homeless here, walking Waikiki, it’s impossible to avoid it. Unfortunately, a lot of them suffer from mental health issues and/or drug abuse. I can see were someone who isn’t used to dealing with that kind of a crowd would be deterred by it. We on the other hand, love Waikiki and are willing to put up with it. The other Hawaiian islands, after like 7pm, they shut down, there’s nothing to do, whereas on Oahu, you can head over to Waikiki and shop, watch street performers, try tasty treats, etc. It’s fun… minus the random guy asking me if I want to buy some weed.
After a walk around Waikiki we stopped in Liliha Bakery to get some treats to enjoy later on in the room. This is a very popular bakery here and I definitely can see why. It was packed with locals which is always a good sight. We got a few treats and then called it a night.
Blueberry cream square, hupia(coconut) malasada, & lilikoi(passion fruit) malasada.
The drive back to Aulani was pretty uneventful and I was probably asleep before the hotel room door even clicked closed. Matt once again tried to fight off the jet lag and made it to about 10:30pm.
Tomorrow we have a fund adventure planned and then we’ll do some snorkeling, and eating, lots of eating.