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Sarah’s definitive guide to Oahu
Activities
- Snorkeling
- Honolulu Zoo A- Twilight tour specifically A+
- Byodo in Temple C
- Ho’omaluhia Botanical Garden (and again) A
- Kaneohe Bay Sandbar A++
- Manoa Chocolate Factory Tour B
- Halona Blow Hole B+
- Dole Plantation (and again) A
- Ho’okua’aina (Volunteering at a Taro Farm) A
- North Shore Swells A+
- Whale Watching A+
- Kualoa Ranch ATV Tour C
- High Tea at Moana Surfrider C
- Uncle’s Ice Cream Factory Tour A+
- North Shore Soap Factory (shopping only B)
Restaurants/Food
- Nico’s Kailua – Furikake Ahi Tuna A+
- Foodland Poke A
- Kono’s C
- Zippy’s F
- Morning Brew Breakfast Sandwich A+
- Cinnamon’s C-
- Hale’iwa Bowls A
- Lanikai Juice B
- Banan A-
- Easy Que’ B+
- Waikiki Brewing A
- Maui Brewing B
- Leonard’s Malasadas C
- Vintage Island Coffee A
- Tiki’s Bar and Grill A+ atmosphere/ambiance, B food
- Moke’s Bread and Breakfast A
- Thursday Kailua food market A++
- Buzz’s A+ Drinks, B Food
- Agnes’ Portuguese Bake Shop (Malasadas) B+
- The Hibachi (poke specifically) A+
- Stonefish Grill A+
- Lulu’s B-
- Mexico Lindo Kailua A++
- Valentina’s pizza A++
- Pizza Mamo A
- Slice by HB Baking A++
- Moku (food, delicious, not a huge fan of counter service) A
- Duke’s (A+ or A)
- Uncle’s Ice Cream Sandwiches (A++)
- Waiahole Poi Factory B+
- Hale’iwa Joe’s (Hale’iwa location) A+
- Banyan’s Island Grill A+
- GOEN A
Hikes
- Lanikai Pillbox (and again) A
- Pu’u Ma’eli’eli (fully finished) B+, round 2 A
- Makapu’u (and again) A
- Waimea falls/Botanical Garden B+
- Old Pali Rd. (to pali lookout)A
- Aiea Loop Trail A+
- Likeke Falls to Old Pali Rd. A+
- Diamondhead C-
- Lanikai Pillbox from the back side A+ anytime other than sunrise
- Waipulani Falls A++++
- Manoa Falls B+
- Haunama Bay Ridge Hike C- effort, A views
- Lulumahu Falls A
- Ulupa’u Crater Hike B
- Friendship Gardens to Oneawa Hills A
- Ka’ena Point from the South A+
- Ka’ena Point from the North A
- O’hana Trail B
- Koko Crater Tramway B+
- Koko Crater Arch B
- Likeke Falls out and back C
- Ka’au Crater F
- Ma’ili (Pink) Pillbox A
- Maunawili Ditch Trail A
- Maunawili Falls via Pali Highway B+
- Pu’u Ohulehule C
- Mokoli’i (Chinaman’s Hat) C
- Makiki Valley Loop B+
Museums/Memorials
- Aviation Museum A+
- Submarine Museum A+
- Bishop Museum A
- USS Missouri A
- USS Arizona A+
- USS Oklahoma Memorial A+
- USS Utah Memorial A+
Beaches:
- Laniakea Beach (for turtle viewing specifically) A+
- Pyramid Rock Beach (more for surfing) A
- North Beach (more for surfing) A
- Ft. Hase Beach (general purpose) B
- Waimanalo Beach Park (general purpose) B
- Kailua (general purpose) A+
- Lanikai A+, biased-ly. As a non-resident, B
- Secret Beach
- Ehukai Beach (and again) (specifically for Bonzai pipeline watching people surf) A,A+
Hooky and Ho’omaluhia Botanical Garden
I’ll tack on the sunrise pictures from the morning of the adventures of the day of blog post topic moving forward.
Brian’s friend Ty from when he served on the USS San Fransisco is in the Navy Reserves and had orders for a couple weeks in Hawaii. He and his girlfriend, Megan, arrived on Sunday and we gave them a proper hello by decorating their necks with a Lei and ate dinner at Waikiki brewing in Waikiki. Megan came to us before Ty, they came on separate flights, and I admired her self confidence enough to come meet people she’s never met before.
With all things Navy, she’s winging her scheduled according to what Ty can accomodate (which has changed… and changed… and changed again in the short time they’ve been here) On Monday she headed our way for the afternoon, and I didn’t have a lot of work going on so I played hooky. In the morning I had a stress test appointment for my heart. I haven’t been quite the same since having COVID, so it’s more reassurance that nothing is wrong organ wise. I passed with flying colors.
After, we met for lunch at Kapalawai market, a pretty famous local Hawaiian deli/convenience store. The food is really good beach food. We took our sandwiches and made our way to Lanikai so she could see the beach. We went for a quick swim, walk, and then went to the Ho’omaluhia Botanical Garden. It is a beautiful hidden gem, and free! Although I intend to donate.
It’s a very big park so it’s organized such that you drive to different parking locations and walk to explore a section of the park. We started at the first section to visit the lake. It’s a huge coy pond with tons of coy.
I’ll jump forward to our third spot, which was the “seasonings” path, we think. It had a really great view of the lake, and the only “Seasoning” we recognized was a tree that smelt like popcorn. As we were walking toward it, Megan was wondering if someone was eating popcorn.
We went to another section (this was our second stop) that has a great view of the mountains and the ocean. Here, there’s a plaque explaining you’re in the center (Caldera) of what once was a volcano. The volcano geography is what gives Hawaii the unique ridges on the mountain sides. We could see the view of the bay. The walk up to the viewpoint is awkwardly steep, so the lady told us to walk backwards, also so we could see the view. The mountains make up the Ko’olau Range. koʻolau means “windward” in Hawaiian
The park closes relatively early, at 4pm, so we left and explored the Marine Corps Base (I wanted to show her more private, quieter beach options). I’ll make a post about how in love I am with that base later. We tried to go to the commissary, the military grocery store, but it’s closed on Mondays… so went to Target instead. Then she went back to Waikiki.
That was my hooky half day. Definitely going back to the gardens with Brian and to see other parts.
Found an Eng in the wild
Engineers on Submarines are known for their really intense schedules. We were able to get one of Brian’s friends from SOAC who is now an Eng to come get drinks with us since we were on the other side of the island. Here he is on the phone talking to one of his guys about a critique they’ll be having on Monday. I sent it to another mutual friend with the caption “We found an eng out in the wild, doing his eng’ing”. It’s very hard for Eng’s to get time off or enjoy things without being bothered.
We were over there because a friend of Brian’s from the USS San Fran, Ty, was visiting Hawaii from Colorado with his gf Megan and we met them in Honolulu at Waikiki brewing for drinks. This was the start of a fun adventure of them being in Hawaii!
This second picture was taken using my very nice camera. I have this really awesome feature on my camera called “live view”, which basically gets the picture to show up on the screen before you take it, almost exactly like using a phone. So it makes for an easy hand off to a waitress or willing budding photographer. I turn that mode on and we show up on the screen, then they just have to click on any of our faces to focus and then click the shutter (big, round button) then voila! Picture on a really nice camera. I make sure the exposure settings are correct before handing it off, but they still have to fix the focus. It took me a while to discover this, but I figured it out so that Brian could start taking pictures with my camera of me in it.
Honolulu Foodie Part 1
Leonard’s is famous in Honolulu for their Malasadas. They are portuguese donuts, basically sugar dough balls that can be stuffed. I did not get an actual picture of the donuts, whoops. I will say they were more filling than donut. The line was long but moved fast. 6/10 on my scale of foodie experiences. I like my donut with a side of filling. They also have a ton of other goodies. I’d compare this experience to going to Mike’s Pastries in the North End, except the cannolis are way more worth it.
Tiki’s on the other hand, totally worth it. We were able to get reservations, that is a huge plus these days. They had really sweet souvenir Mai Tai glasses. Brian’s (red volcano) is named Aloha Bob. Mine is King Kalani Paiʻea Wohi o Kaleikini Kealiʻikui Kamehameha o ʻIolani i Kaiwikapu kauʻi Ka Liholiho Kūnuiākea. Or, alternatively, Tiki Man.
The views were pretty incredible and we already booked reservations for sunset for when my family visits in April.
The food was great, drinks were great. 10/10 recommend this place. Some places we’ve visited but don’t have pictures:
- Waikiki Brewing 8/10 Decent food, relatively easy to get a table, cocktails available
- Maui Brewing 5/10 I had a symptom flare here… I was feeling overwhelmed by their ordering process (walk up to a window and it gets brought to your seat which you have to fine), it was really loud, decently long wait
- The signature Prime Steakhouse (top of ala moana hotel) 8/10 Really delicious food but you pay the price, piano music, have to have luck getting a table near the windows, service was great
- Beach place that I mentioned previously that’s not worth remembering
We tried to go to Duke’s, which seems famous, but it was a THREE HOUR wait. Pass. Stay tuned for more food adventures.