Hawaii: Part II – Saturday and Sunday

Saturday:

Before I recap my weekend in Oahu, here’s a group picture of us standing near the waters at the luau.

Click to read more.

By the way, not all of these pictures were taken by me. I gathered them here and there from my boyfriend’s cameras, others’ cameras, and my own.

Our Saturday was very eventful! We were originally going to take this day to visit North Shore but because we couldn’t rent a car, we decided to visit North Shore on Sunday. Instead, we decided to go parasailing before our luau! I looked up a few places on Yelp! and found X-Treme Parasail. We arranged for a shuttle from their company to pick us up at a nearby hotel and off we went! It was around $37 for each person (no option to ride alone) and my boyfriend and I partnered up to ride. I will have to post up the parasailing pictures at a later time because my boyfriend has all of those pictures in his camera! Here are a few for now.

As you can see, the weather was GORGEOUS, and oh my goodness, the water was SO SO clear and BLUE. Wait for the pictures.

X-treme Parasail

Afterwards, our tired selves came back to our condo and got ready for the luau. We got some tickets for Germaine’s Luau because my friends W&C recommended it! At $80/person, it included a shuttle ride to and from the luau, dinner, and 2 drink tickets.

We had an awesome shuttle tour guide (COUSIN KYLE!) who made the ride there extremely fun. Bus #7 with all of the hot people!!! I absolutely loved him. Once we got to the luau, we picked our spots near the stage and got straight to taking pictures and getting drinks. We soon got our food and overall, I’d have to say it was good. I couldn’t finish most of it (what’s pictured) so I had to give it to my piggy boyfriend.

The show was awesome!!! The hula dancers, the fire dancer, the costumes … visual overload! I really can’t say enough about the luau. Many others may not have been thrilled (I know most people go to the Polynesian Culture Center) but the view was beautiful, the people there were fun, I had my awesome friends and boyfriend with me … what more can a girl ask for? It was especially beautiful when the sun started to set.

I’d have to say the MOST EXCITING PART was that myBF went up on stage!!! And he performed!!! So I guess one of the hula dancers was eyeballing myBF during the luau because when they started looking for dancers to participate in a dance-off, she immediately came to our table and dragged him on stage. I took his camera and immediately started taking snapshots of his dance moves. The host showed the participants how to dance, and it was really fun to watch everyone move in a very … awkward fashion. The only person who had any kind of rhythm was myBF because you know, he’s a dancer on the side.

So when everyone started getting off of the stage, I realized the same hula dancer pulled him off to the side to talk to him (still on stage) and I raised a Korean eyebrow and was ready to punch someone in the throat. Just kidding; I’m not possessive. I figured she was asking him to stay to demonstrate something, and I was right! The host started asking myBF all of these questions, and afterwards, he asked that D and the hula dancer have a dance off. Well, of course he won because he incorporated his robotic moves into his hula dance and the crowd went wild! They lei’d him, and I got everything on camera!

The luau ended shortly thereafter, and everyone started to go up to myBF to congratulate him. I overheard one guy ask him if he had a manager, and myBF told him, “My girlfriend is my manager.” Yes, that’s right! I was very proud of him because he’s an amazing dancer/performer and I was happy he got to show everyone his moves. He is such a ham!

We went back on the shuttle and had another enjoyable ride thanks to Cousin Kyle. We got back to Waikiki around 8 p.m.

Germaine’s Luau

We were really tired from our long day parasailing and luau’ing (;p) but we didn’t want to go back to the condo just yet. We walked along the Waikiki boardwalk and decided to drop by a bar to have some drinks. We stopped by Duke’s but it was way too crowded, and the atmosphere was very … young and sleazy. We walked a few more blocks (man, we walked SO MUCH throughout this trip) and ended up at the Mai Tai Bar at the Royal Hawaiian.

I was being creepy, and kept taking pictures of my boyfriend. And we shared this beautiful pina colada and it was delicious!

Beautiful (expensive) hotel, lovely bar right on the beach. Weall pretty much left at different times so myBF and I were able to have a nice, romantic walk back to our condo.

Sunday:

We knew we had a long day on Sunday so we woke up early to get some breakfast. We dropped by Rainbow Drive-In with our rent-a-car (got it early that morning), and enjoyed some good ol’ Hawaiian food. Nothing fancy — just casual.

Rainbow Drive-In

Next, we decided to stop by Leonard’s Bakery because we’d heard such great things about their malasadas! We got a few boxes for the road up to North Shore! Coconut, regular sugar malasadas, and vanilla creme. Look at that line … it was early in the morning, too!

Leonard’s Bakery

What a beautiful day for a road trip. Considering Oahu is a small island, it didn’t take us more than an hour to get up north. Once we got to North Shore, we dropped by Matsumoto’s to get some shave ice. We’d heard Matsumoto’s shave ice rivals Waiola’s shave Ice so we had to compare!

M. Matsumoto Grocery Store

The verdict? Waiola definitely wins on this one. Matsumoto’s shave ice was too sweet and the shave ice wasn’t as smooth as Waiola’s. Also, it was entirely too much for the two of us to finish. Look at that huge blob of sweetness!

We headed straight to the beach. Look at the beautiful sky in the picture below! I took that photo with my iPhone 4, and although the phone takes wonderful pictures, it still doesn’t do the beach any justice. Luckily for us, it wasn’t crowded at all (unlike Waikiki Beach, ugh), and we found a quiet place to set up shop. We swam, we boogie boarded, tanned, and had a lot of fun. While I was swimming, I swam into some big boulders under the water and both of my knees got roughed up. How bad was it? Well, when I walked out of the water, I had blood pouring down both legs; the blood wouldn’t stop! Sigh. Afterwards, we got hungry so we decided to head up north a bit more for lunch.

Waimea Bay Beach Park/Northshore

Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck!!! We’d been waiting all day for these. For $15, we got 12 jumbo shrimp with two scoops of garlic rice. Dennis and I shared a plate and it was just heavenly! I even took the opportunity to tag up the side of their truck with our names. So long as our names are on that truck, I guess I will keep him around.

Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck

After we finished our lunch, we decided to drive to another beach we heard was even better than the one we were previously at. It has a small cliff you can jump off of, and there’s even a volleyball set-up. We were excited to check it out but once we got there, the lack of parking and crowding deterred us from enjoying a few hours there. We just took a quick look around, and decided to leave.

We planned on checking out the Dole Plantation to get some pineapples but on the way there, we wanted to drop by Macky’s Shrimp Truck because we heard people talking about how it may be even better than Giovanni’s. Uh-oh. Considering we really enjoyed Giovanni’s shrimp, we wanted to see if Macky’s could be even better. Verdict? Giovanni’s for the win. Why? Giovanni’s gives you more shrimp (2 more), and an extra scoop of rice. Also, the mixture they use to marinate the shrimp in is bolder. Macky’s gives you a pineapple wedge, a small salad, and one scoop of rice but all of that doesn’t make up for the fact that the flavors weren’t all there. Dennis wanted to eat his own plate this time (piggy!) so I got my own plate. Was only able to finish half.

Macky’s Sweet Shrimp Truck

On to the Dole Plantation! Such a touristy thing to do but I wanted to see if I could get any souvenirs! My boyfriend bought me one of those pineapple dolls (so cute!!! I call mine Goldie. ) and I got my parents the kissing salt-n-pepper set. Their lips are magnets so you can have be apart but put them close enough together and they kiss. My parents really loved them. We also tried their dole whip ice cream and it was super delicious but I gave most of it to Dennis because I wasn’t in the mood for anything too sweet. I also bought some butter toffee popcorn (SO delicious!!!!) and a couple of other souvenirs. I actually regretted not bringing back more of the popcorn (bought stupid chocolate instead) so I went online to buy them straight from their website but holy the shipping cost is insane!!! I ordered some anyway but I guess they’re waiting for more because I got an email saying they were all sold out for now.

I wasn’t feeling too well and my friends wanted to do some kind of a walking tour so I decided to opt out. However, my boyfriend was determined to experience Dole Plantation with me so he bought us two Pineapple Express tickets and we enjoyed a lovely ride through the plantation. We took so many pictures, too! Thanks babe!

Dole Plantation

After finishing up our tour at the Dole Plantation, we decided to go watch the sunset! We tried to figure out where would be the best place to watch the sun set because we wanted to take some photos, and good ol’ Google Maps came to the rescue! I love my iPhone!!! Daniel found that Sand Island Beach Park (on a peninsula) would be a great place to watch the sunset — without any obstructions. We BARELY made it on time because once we got there, the sun was already ready to set, and we still had to park and walk over to an area where we could see it clearly.

Daniel, Dennis, and I nearly RAN to the edge of the peninsula to take some pictures. And we took GORGEOUS pictures at that! Here’s one I took with my iPhone. Have a few pretty ones I took with my DSLR but you’ll have to wait for those.

Afterwards, we decided to grab some dessert before heading over to dinner. We stopped by Liliha Bakery because my friend W told me they have the best cream puffs. She was SO right because these babies were SO creamy, flaky, with just the right amount of sweetness! You see that chocolate filling? Well, I was in the car so the lighting isn’t so great but trust me… the pictures don’t do them justice. Oh man, my mouth is watering just looking at these pictures again.

Liliha Bakery

We were super hungry so we stopped by Uncle Bo’s Pub and Grill. The place doesn’t look very alluring, I know, but once we got inside, we saw how glamorous it is! The head chef and owner is a Thai guy, I believe, and the food definitely had an asian flair to it. Love fusion food!

Because the boys had to take the rent-a-car back before the place closed, we got dropped off at Uncle Bo’s while they returned the car. Since the rent-a-car place is near our condo, they also dropped off all of our beach gear. Poor men! And on top of that, they had to walk the mile or so to Uncle Bo’s just to meet us. The total time it took for us to get a table: 45 minutes. The total time it took for the men to get to Uncle Bo’s: 1 hour. So time-wise, it was great because we just sat and had a few drinks while we waited.

Drinks, oyster shooters, spicy tuna (delicious).

Their nachos are really popular and we definitely tasted WHY. Holy heaven in my mouth. We ordered two of those. We also had their clam soup and again, WOW. Wow. Yep, ordered two of those as well. The third pic is of an eggplant vegetarian dish (for Shirley) and I definitely did not enjoy that. Way too peppery. The last two pictures (below) are of the Hawaiian pizza Dennis ordered. Mmm, best pizza I’ve had yet! Very reasonable prices! We split the bill, and for $30 a person, we had a big, big meal. What a way to celebrate our last group outing in Hawaii!

Uncle Bo’s Pub & Grill

After dinner, we headed back to the condo and washed up. Since my friends had an 11 am flight, they had to wake up early. We slept by midnight.

Advertisement