eating our way through o'ahu

 the next morning, i found a note that hotel staff had slipped under the door:

a quick peek downstairs showed that high winds were not a deterrent to the crowds that were already enjoying sun and waves down at the beach.  heh.

while the hub and the bean slept in a little more, i placed a mobile order for our island lattes and made my way down to go and pick them up.  the daily yoga class had just finished up and i was amused to see that like everything else at this resort, the mats were a bright, beautiful shade of pink.

while that would normally be enough incentive to get me out there for a class, i have to admit that i really don't love yoga.  not that it isn't challenging as hell...i just find it boring af.  heh.

i picked up our coffees, headed back up to the room to wait for the others to get ready and took mine out on the balcony to enjoy the breeze and the sounds of the ocean.  those are the moments i dream about when we're back home and i wanted to take advantage of every chance i got to soak it all in.

outfit of the day - a me-made coverup dress over a bathing suit because you just never know when there might be an opportunity for a nice dip in the water.

and we made sure to grab our floaties too, for the same reason.

the bean was craving some fresh mochi, so we revisited a spot we'd found on a previous trip: nisshodo candy store, serving up delicious japanese confections for 90 years.

the old lady had sent us an instagram reel by someone who had ranked all of the most well-known shave ice spots, and since we were fairly close to one of them we stopped in to give it a try.  shimazu shave ice shares a space with a few other food vendors in a little building right next door to rainbow drive-in (which i still have yet to try, maybe next visit?).

the ice was very finely shaved and melted in my mouth instantly, kind of like cotton candy.  it was indeed delicious and definitely gives waiola a run for their money.

as we made our way out of the honolulu/waikiki area we finally got a taste of those high winds that we'd been warned about.

it seemed that this was our day to eat all kinds of fun stuff, because our next stop was ono seafood for some delicious poke.

we drove around a little more, just doing some sightseeing from the car and then decided we wanted to go back and take a nap.  hahaha!  all of those good eats had sent us into a classic food coma and it was time to sleep it off for a bit.

by the time we woke up again, guess what?  yup - time to go eat again.  this was SO my kinda trip.

this time, we walked across the street and up the elevator to grab a table at liliha bakery.  on our last visit to o'ahu we'd hit up liliha on our first day, but since we knew we had one of their newest locations so close to our hotel we hadn't been in a rush to go.  

if you only get one thing here, it has to be this basket of warm, toasted buttery rolls served with their delicious housemade jam.  this stuff is like crack, i tell you (not that i've ever done crack. i guess that's kind of a stupid description, but you get what i mean).

the rest of our meal was pretty basic - loco moco, steak, breakfast for dinner.  and then as the bean and i got comfy in our beds while the hub went downstairs for a cigar and an evening adult beverage, they went into the fridge and busted out the last of the poke as a midnight snack.

what a day, amirite?

all about that royal hawaiian life

the next morning, the bean and i were up first and headed out to grab coffee and bring it back while the hub slept in a little.  i took advantage of this photo op while it was early and didn't have crowds of people waiting to take a picture:

after picking up our island lattes we took our first visit of the trip to the abc store to grab some snacks, and on our way back through the royal hawaiian we stopped to check out the bakery.

i'd remembered to bring our coupon that got us a complimentary bag of freshly baked banana bread, which paired nicely with my coffee.

at the abc store, the bean had picked up some sushi and i'd grabbed a spam musubi that served as breakfast that day.

the nice thing about last-minute trips, especially with the hub, is that we kind of just wing it and don't have a schedule to stick to.  we just do whatever sounds good at the moment, and that day we threw on bathing suits and headed down to the beach to bounce around in the waves and soak up some sun.

the hub had opted out of inner tubing amongst the crowds of tourists and instead found a nice spot at the hotel pool, ordering drinks and relaxing in a lounge chair.  after the bean and i had our fill of salt and sand, we joined him and decided to share some food.

i threw in an order for their famous pink snowball - a light, fluffy cake with layers of pink frosting and lots of toasted coconut.  the bean and the hub weren't interested, but i found it delightful.

and after that - well, i know we went back upstairs to get cleaned up and then headed back out to grab dinner...somewhere.  i guess i was just living in the moment and didn't take any pictures which isn't like me at all, but hey - we were on a relaxing vacation and spending time together.  that's all that matters anyway, right?

who needs sleep, anyway?

mere hours after getting home from our epic eras tour outing, the three of us were in the car heading right back the way we'd come - but this time, our destination was LAX for...this:

the bean and i hadn't gotten home from sofi stadium until after 1:30am.  while i scurried around trying to get myself packed as quickly as possible, the bean was resigned to staying up all night in order to watch a livestream of BTS' suga closing out his solo concert tour with a final show in korea while also getting packed for the trip.  absolute madness.

at this point, we only had a couple of weeks left before the new school year started so we were doing our best to squeeze in as much fun as possible.  i wasn't at all sure that we were going to be able to fit in any kind of a big summer getaway this year, but somehow the hub pulled off the impossible and off we were for a week in our favorite place.

we always rent a car despite the exorbitant parking fees everywhere, because while we love waikiki and hanging out at the beach we also really enjoy driving around the island.

because our flight was so early, we'd arrived right around lunchtime.  and after mulling over our options, we decided to hit up one of our most favorite holes-in-the-wall:  kyung's seafood in honolulu.

kyung's never disappoints.  the freshest sushi and sashimi and ice cold soju slushies were a fantastic way to kick off our visit to paradise.

while our go-to place to stay has been the moana surfrider for years, this time around we decided to try something new.  the "pink palace," also known as the royal hawaiian, is just down the street from the surfrider and was our home for the week.

look, i brought taylor to hawaii with us!

the cool, comfortable beds in our room were really inviting and we all ended up taking some well-deserved naps.  the hub and i woke up before the bean and decided to take a short walk just across the lawn to the international marketplace, where we hit up our favorite island vintage coffee for a pick-me-up.  i was pretty excited to have my first island latte of the trip:

when we got back to the room, the bean was awake.  we were all hungry again by then, and so we headed downstairs and over to duke's for one of their delicious cheeseburgers.

of course, duke's was poppin'.  we cruised around the dining area a few times looking for an available table with no luck.  the hub had us hang out in the waiting area while he went to try and sweet-talk the hostess into giving us a spot us and came back to report that we could be seated immediately as long as we were okay with sharing it with another family.  hell yeah, we were. bring on the cheeseburgers.

when we got to the table, we smiled and introduced ourselves to the family of four that were our stablemates.  and when i sat down, the mom looked at me and said "do you make cookies?"

<insert record player screech here>

after my initial shock, we started chatting and it turns out that i'd done cookies for her son's first birthday...in 2015.  she found this blog while googling for information on run disney races and actually ordered cookies from me twice.  absolutely wild.

we all had a great time having dinner together - trading ideas for things to do while in o'ahu, sharing disneyland tips for their next stop on their vacation, marveling at the craziness of randomly finding each other after all these years.  i don't know if she still reads the blog, but if so...hey gurl hey!

and that's a wrap

and then it was time to go home.  WOMP WOMP.  and adding insult to injury, we woke up to one hell of a gorgeous morning.

we got our stuff all packed up and ready to go and soaked in every last minute of paradise.

as we made our way back towards the airport, we made one last stop...at liliha bakery, for a final delicious meal.  funny, last time we were in hawaii we started our trip off this way.

it's all about the toasted buttery rolls and insanely yummy jelly, plus the coco puffs and of course...spam and eggs.  mmmmmm.

with the rental car refueled and safely returned, we dropped off our luggage, made our way through security and dragged our asses to the gate.

sigh.

just like our flight out, we were greeted warmly by the flight attendants and offered a beverage before takeoff.  i perused the menu to see what our choices were for lunch:

bye again, o'ahu...for now.

as per her usual, the bean was passed out before we reached cruising altitude - just barely waking up to eat when lunch was served.

i spent the flight alternating between watching stuff i'd downloaded and dozing off, and then a few short hours later we were home.

such a wonderful trip, so full of love and laughter.  it had gone by so fast, but the memories we made together will last forever.  words cannot adequately describe how amazing those five days were, and although we're back to life, back to reality...the magic of my firstborn's wedding weekend lives on.