Several people have expressed surprise to me that I took (2013), and am planning to take (2016), the kids traveling while they’re so young. By myself. That first time was a bit hard, being with them 24×7 after always working. But, as I’m discovering this time, it’s so great to travel with young kids because kids under 6 often get free meals or lodging! It totally keeps the costs down.
This Hawaii trip always has a special place in my heart because it was so relaxing, after running around for several years working, caring for the kids, and over-volunteering at school. I didn’t realize how everything was so 緊繃 in our lives till we enjoyed the simple things in life like going to the beach and having some maitai.
Itinerary: Prince Court breakfast, Waikiki, Surfeiswe Moana lunch, Willows dinner
I can’t believe today is the last day for us in Oahu. This has been a much needed vacation, one I did not realize that I needed.
This morning, Astroboy woke me up at 6:30am, seeing that I’m not there (I woke up at 5:30 after 8 hours of sleep), he asked for me. Of course, this meant he really wasn’t going back to sleep. He then woke Thumper up with his “Mama, I’m huuungry, I want to go to Berkeley Bowl.” This is what happens when your son eats ice cream and smoothies for dinner.
After some quick research, I decided to go to Prince Court, which is in the Prince Hotel, about 10 minutes away. I wanted a good Waikiki buffet breakfast with lots of fruits and breakfast selections. Prince Court wasn’t quite it. But it was close by and within our budget. Compared with the one at Orchid where its $70/adult. It was still a good breakfast, especially because the kids ate free!
We had yogurt and cereal, eggs, hashbrown, and lots of Portugese sausage and papaya. There was a full selection of Japanese style breakfast that we did not try, though we did have some of those delicious Japanese nori packages. I saw a lot of Japanese tourists in the hotel. It seems particularly geared toward them.
After breakfast, we came back and I did more last minute Googling trying to figure out if I could do a luau today. Unfortunately, last minute planning does not get you a good luau. So I gave up and we headed out to the western side of Waikiki by bus. By this time (10:30am) Astroboy was getting tired and it took another bribing of some Chinese snacks to get him going.
We walked to the Moana Surfrider, which is my favorite hotel on Waikii. It’s one of those old style hotels that were built 100 years ago, looking like a plantation house; similar to the ones you see in San Digego or even Yosemite’s Wawona.
The kids loved playing at the beach there. It was not as good as Hanauma Bay though. There was a steep drop pretty quickly and the kids couldn’t really go into the water at all. But they still had a good time sitting down and letting the water wash over them, and running around in circles singing.
I couldn’t stand the super hot sun so after an hour or two, so I gathered the children up and changed them. Found out the beach isn’t actually open to the public when I reread the sign. No wonder no place to rinse off except the hotel restroom. We went back and ate at the Beach Bar in the hotel. The food was really so so given that the price just reflects its location. But we still had a good time with fish tacos, papaya and arugula salad, and live music.
Finally, we tredged home at 2:30, with Astroboy refusing to do things left and right because he was over-tired. The bus was super full and someone said it was a “Third world system”. Why, I do not know. A quick shower to rinse off the sand, and the kids fell asleep at 4pm.
I finally caught up on laundry (yay for onsite laundry!) and bought my postcards and did my back stretching exercises while the kids sleep. After waking them up from their nap at 6pm, we taxied to Willows, the Hawaiian restaurant where my sister had her wedding reception.
We had some delicious Hawaiian buffet. It isn’t as good as the wedding banquet I had of course. Thumper thought that the Kalua Pig was just like Chipotle carnitas and asked for seconds.
I tried the laulau and lots and lots of ahi poke.. There was a lot of seafood there, including crab legs. Totally reminded me of Las Vegas buffet crabs. No taro for me though because they cooked it in some sort of stew. And I had wanted to have the bland version. That was the one thing I was disappointed about.
After waiting forever for the taxi, we came home and watched a lot of Christmas TV on ABC Family so I can pack before we went to bed at 11.
