Honolulu - Last Day

It’s our last full day in Hawaii. We miss Kauai so much. We wanted to spend the day as close to our Kauai experience as possible. We set out for Hanauma Bay. Before getting there, we found a great restaurant, Island Brew Coffee House which was on Maunalua Bay. The food was amazing and we had a nice view of the water from our table outside. 

After breakfast we made our way to Hanauma Bay. We got there before the parking lot was full which was my goal. They only have 300 spaces so when they are gone, there is no getting in. We waited awhile and then were ushered into a room to watch a short video about the bay and the rules while snorkeling. At last, we made it down to the beach. We didn’t have a beach umbrella which sucked but we did have some chairs in our condo that we used. 

We spent hours snorkeling. The water was perfect and there were so many fish. We really wanted to see a sea turtle but we were not so lucky. We did see large schools of fish and hundreds of different varieties. I didn’t take any pictures of the fish but we got a bunch of videos on the GoPro. I saw the biggest schools of fish the further out I went. Everything was going well until I ended up like a beached whale on top of the coral that we were instructed not to touch. Oh shoot, I could not get off of it as the large waves rolled in. Just when I started to make progress, I was thrown back into the coral. Do you know how hard it is to laugh in a snorkel mask? I was dying laughing at myself. I’m not sure how many people saw the show I was putting on. Luckily, I finally made it out of the rocks/coral without any cuts...on that trip out. 

We took a break on the beach and Mike drank the beer he smuggled in. It’s tough lounging on all these beautiful beaches and not being allowed to drink a beer or have a cocktail. I’m not sure how strictly they enforce the rules though. It is comical looking around and seeing all the large “water bottles”, being carried around by the adults. With all the screaming kids running around, we all needed a “water bottle” to relax. 

This beach was nice but I am over all the people on this island. I really miss Kauai. Knowing we were almost ready to leave, Mike and I decided to go out snorkeling one more time. This time I was going to try and make it past the coral and rocks I previously got beached on so I could possibly see some turtles further out. It was a good idea but I’ve eaten so much the last two weeks that my stomach hangs down further. There was no sneaking across the coral. I’d like to think the tide went out a bit which meant there was less water for me to float in but sadly, I don’t think that was the case. Mike followed me awhile and quickly realized he would never be able to float across the coral without touching it. At the point where I realized I needed to turn around, a large wave hit me and I was slammed into the coral below. My knee got scraped up pretty good. Salt in a wound feels oh so lovely. We snorkeled and took some more videos for awhile and headed back to the beach. 

We had been there for a few hours so we were all ready to go. We happily paid the fee to take the shuttle to the top and we left. 

After reading a bunch of blogs, we decided to wait to buy our souvenir macadamia nuts at Costco before we left. We headed there, ate gourmet lunch at Costco. They had an awesome acai bowl that they have to bring to Arizona. It was so good! We bought our souvenirs and headed back to the condo. 

We got cleaned up and rested for a bit. It was our last evening in Hawaii so despite the family’s interest in hanging out in the room, I was not going to do that. They decided to join me as I explored Waikiki Beach. We headed down to the beach to walk around and found ourselves in the middle of the Pan Pacific parade. We sat on the curb and watched it. We all enjoyed seeing the costumes, drummers, dancers and bands. Kyle really loved feeding the dragons $1 bills which he learned meant that he was going to have good luck. It amazed me how many people flew here from Japan for this festival. 

After the parade finished, we headed to souvenir row. Kyle has been dying to spend his money on a wooden Hawaiian fishing hook. He wanted to buy one for $55 at the Dole Plantation yesterday and I wouldn’t let him. I told him he needed to shop around. He looked on Amazon and they were hundreds of dollars. He got mad at me so I told him I would find him a better one at a better price. We found so many at what looked like a small swap meet wedged between the designer purse shop and the designer clothing stores. The first one Kyle saw was priced at $89. He gave me the look like he was disgusted at me for not letting him buy the $55 one. The seller immediately lowered her price to $50 and he was ready to hand over his money. I told him we needed to look around first. She then lowered her price to $45 as we walked away. I just about had to restrain Kyle from purchasing it right there. We walked to another booth and he saw another one but slightly larger. The guy told him he would sell it to him for $40 then almost immediately lowered the price to $35. Kyle snatched it up and thanked me for “shopping around”. I haven’t seen Kyle this happy our whole vacation. 

Next, we stopped in to the Maui Brewing Company for an appetizer and a drink. The boys got virgin strawberry daiquiris, I got another Mai Tai and Mike got another warm beer. Come on Hawaii, what is the deal with the warm beer being served in cold cups? Mike was not impressed. We ate some good nachos and headed out. I really wanted shrimp from a food truck we found yesterday after we had already eaten dinner. 

We walked a short way to the food trucks. Stephen and I waited for our food for 45 minutes from the shrimp food truck and it was worth the wait. I had the best food I’ve eaten this whole trip. I got garlic shrimp that were huge and amazing! Stephen got some shrimp tempura that were so good also. Mike and Kyle were in no mood to wait in the huge line for the good food truck so they got pizzas from the crappy food truck nearby that took five minutes to get the food from. They said their food was good. They were done eating and in bed by the time Stephen and I made it back to the condo with our food. We packed a bit and then we went the bed. We fly home in the morning and have to leave for the airport at 7am.