Layover in Oahu

We broke up our flight to American Samoa by scheduling a long weekend in Honolulu, staying near the airport in Waikiki. We arrived with 10 checked bags (actually nine -  one of our bags didn't make it out of Sacramento until a couple of days later), and took a shuttle over to the Hyatt Regency Waikiki. I give a Yelp score of four stars to the hotel; we received the Lei greeting, excellent service, a nice room, and great location right across the street from the Duke Kahanamoku statue, in the heart of Waikiki.

  

Knowing it was going to be the last chance for awhile to get our pick of restaurants, we took advantage and had a lot of great Japanese and Hawaiian influenced meals. Our favorite was a place we happened upon called Heavenly, where they served recipes made from locally sourced ingredients. We stopped there twice, having loco moco, green curry and ramen for dinner, and granola, fruit, french toast and loco moco(again) for breakfast. Deliciousness.

Levi and Finn had an absolute blast at the beach. Finn basically squealed as every wave approached; it put a big smile on my face. For the rest of our stay in Hawaii, Finn negotiated to go to the beach.

The best thing decision we made however was to rent a car and get out of Waikiki. On Saturday we drove out to the Bishop Museum, which is a complex of museum buildings featuring Pacific and Hawaiian history, a traveling exhibit (currently featuring candy, which seemed to capture the kids’ imagination), the Hawaiian sports hall of fame, a planetarium, local flora, and a hands-on science museum featuring a multi-story volcano. The highlight for me was the main room of the Pacific Museum, which was an open three story room looking like something out of a Harry Potter book.

  

We then drove across the island and saw some really dramatic, picturesque views. Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures, as our phones ran out of juice.

Ah well, we returned the next day, driving to Waimea and around the north shore. We took a quick detour through an arboretum. Then we stopped at a shrimp truck, ate some pickled mango, and stopped at a farm where we ate a grilled banana bread dessert. We also stopped at a macadamia tree farm. Yeah, it was basically about the food.

We made two more stops that day, one at a spot called Shark's Cove, and then the justifiably popular Hanuama Bay for snorkeling. Levi gave snorkeling a try, but after taking in some salt water and generally struggling, he gave it up for another day. He later said snorkeling was the best and worst part of his day. We'll try again another time.

We did the beach again Monday morning for the kids, and then we headed over to the airport and caught our flight to American Samoa.

So that was Oahu - we really enjoyed ourselves over the long weekend. On to American Samoa!