After spending our last full day in Oahu, we woke up early the next morning to get ready to drive down to Honolulu Airport to fly over to the neighboring island of Kaua’i. We were sad to leave Oahu, but were excited to see what was in store for us over at Kaua’i.
Our last morning at the Turtle Bay Resort.
The ocean by the hotel.
Saying goodbye to this beautiful view from our hotel room.
Dan bidding the Turtle Bay parrot goodbye.
We stopped by the Paalaa Kai Bakery in Waialua (North Shore) to get some breakfast before we drove down to Honolulu Airport.
Paalaa Kai Bakery in Waialua
Lots of baked goodies at Paalaa Kai Bakery
Azuki croissant for breakfast... so yum!
Waiting for our flight at Honolulu Airport.
The flight went very smoothly, and we arrived at Lihue Airport in Kaua’i in about an hour. 🙂
The Kaua'i shoreline from the plane.
When we first arrived, there was a slight drizzle, but the skies quickly cleared up.
We stayed at the Aston Islander on the Beach in Kapaa while we were in Kaua’i. The hotel was close to the airport and right on the beach, which was really nice. 🙂
Aston Islander on the Beach in Kapaa
The balcony of our hotel room, overlooking the beach.
After checking in and getting all of our luggage settled in, we were hungry for lunch and made a beeline for Hamura’s Saimin Stand, which was recommended to us by a few of our friends. (Thank you Rumi, Bryan, and Dan’s coworker Jay!)
The famous Hamura's Saimin Stand. I'm ready to eat!!!
The place was crowded and the wait quite long, but we stuck through it.
Saimin is a type of noodle soup that is unique to Hawaii, and is sort of a fusion of Japanese, Chinese, and Filipino traditional noodles. It’s made out of soft wheat egg noodles… I’d say that in Japanese noodles, it most closely resembles ramen, but the broth has a much more subtle and light flavor.
Dan got the Special Saimin.
I got the Shrimp Special Saimin. It was very good!
We also ordered skewers of chicken and beef, which Hamura's is also known for.
A lot of people recommend the lilikoi chiffon pie, but we were too full at the time and decided against getting it. But if you ever get a chance to go there, apparently the pie is pretty darn good so give it a try! 😉
After driving around Lihue, we were starting to melt (it was a really hot day), so we stopped at Shaka Shave Ice (a random shaved ice place we found along the road) and got some shaved ice.
Me with my shaved ice. (lychee+watermelon+guava). It was definitely not as good as some of the places we went to in Oahu, but it was so hot that I was grateful for anything cold.
Oh, a funny side story: Some of our friends had strongly urged us to rent a convertible while we were in Kaua’i, insisting that the experience would be so much better if we were able to drive around the island with the top of the car down. Despite my persistent prodding to do so, Dan said it was too expensive and so we reserved an economy car instead when we booked our rentals a few months before the trip. But when we we got to the vehicle rental, the economy compact cars had been overbooked, so they upgraded us to a convertible with no extra charge! I got my convertible after all. 🙂
Dan with our "sweet ride." (JK... we quickly found that the Sebring was not as comfortable and convenient as we thought... It was still nice to drive around with the top down, though!)
For the rest of the afternoon, we returned to our hotel and spent a couple hours relaxing on the private beach at the hotel.
The private beach at Aston Islander on the Beach.
Dan walking into the water.
There was no one else on the beach!
Beautiful mountains in the distance.
Dan, who jumped at every chance to go snorkeling during the trip, busted out his snorkel gear and went exploring...
...while I kicked back and caught up on the gossip from the mainland.
We eventually migrated over to the hotel pool, which was also pretty nice.
Relaxing after a dip in the pool.
Poolside bar.
After freshening up, we headed out to have dinner. We were pretty exhausted by this time, so we decided to go somewhere close and chose to eat in the local town of Kapaa. Being the carbnivore and pasta lover that I am, I selected Kauai Pasta as the dining place of our choice.
Dinner was very satisfying and was the perfect way to end the long day of traveling and familiarizing ourselves with Kaua’i. We only had three days left in Kaua’i, so we were determined to make the best of it! 😀
We just returned on Sunday morning from our vacation in Hawaii! We actually hadn’t taken our honeymoon when we got married almost two years ago, and we’d always wanted to go to Hawaii since we had both never been. We took a little over a week off to finally go on a real “honeymoon” vacation — we thought it would be appropriate to go now, right before we hit the 2-year mark since our wedding and graduate from our newlywed status. We went to two islands, Oahu and Kaua’i, and we’d been diligently researching and planning all the things we could do for a couple months, collecting recommendations on places to go and things to eat from our friends. Thanks to their help and all the planning, we had a truly amazing and memorable trip!
Because we took so many photos and did so many things, it’s impossible to cover everything in one blog post, so we’re going to try to do this by each day… and Dan will most likely have some video footage to share here and there, too. 🙂 So here’s Day One!
We left San Francisco Airport in the wee hours or Friday morning on June 11th, and arrived in Hawaii in the late morning — there’s a three hour difference between California and Hawaii, which worked in our favor the way there (but of course, we lost three hours on the way back).
Flying into Honolulu Airport.
After landing and picking up our rental car, the first thing on our minds was lunch! We were pretty hungry from not eating anything on the plane, and we were ready to start getting our grub on with all the good food that we heard was in Oahu. We headed over to Andy’s Sandwiches & Smoothies, which my coworker-friend Tarrin had recommended.
Andy's Sandwiches & Smoothies in Honolulu.
It was a small eatery with a hole-in-the-wall atmosphere, and they are known for serving up fresh sandwiches and fantastic smoothies! They are especially known for their avocado sandwiches, but as I’m not a fan of avocado, I got the turkey sandwich without avocado.
My turkey sandwich!
Dan had an avocado sandwich, since he LOVES avocado.
Super hungry and ready to eat!
Both the sandwiches and the strawberry smoothie we had were delish — big thanks to Tarrin for her recommendation. 🙂 But as if that were not enough, we decided to try some of the shaved ice in the area, too. Everyone who we’d talked to who really knew Hawaii well or had lived there in the past had recommended Waiola Shave Ice in Honolulu. Matsumoto Shave Ice in Haleiwa is of course the famous one that all the tourists go to, but they all told us Waiola was where it was at! So of course, I couldn’t wait to give it a try….
We got our shaved ice! (No worries, one of those is for Dan...)
I got the Obama Rainbow -- what the President himself ordered when he brought his kids to Waiola Shave Ice -- lemon-lime, cherry, passionfruit!
When I hear about shaved ice here, I’m usually very skeptical because I expect the rock-hard snow cones that are typically served here in the U.S., as opposed to the finely shaved ice that I grew up on (our family had a Japanese shaved ice machine that we’d bust out every summer). But the shaved ice in Waiola was the most finely shaved ice I’d ever seen! It was seriously the best shaved ice I’d ever had — I was blown away by how good it was! The flavors were great, too!
The hotel we were staying in while we were in Oahu was all the way up in the North Shore, so for the first day, we decided to drive along the Eastern side of the island and take in the views, randomly stopping here and there. It was a gorgeous day, which made for some breathtaking views and several stops along the way….
This was near Hanauma Bay...
Gorgeous blue waters and a beach in the distance... the photos don't do it justice.
The Halona Blow Hole
Waves crashing against the boulders.
Our silhouettes in the sun.
Random artsy photo of necklace and dress.
Driving with the windows down, enjoying the warm Hawaii breeze.
Such lush, green mountains!
I believe this was Punalu'u Beach...
After a couple hours of driving (it took us a while since we were driving up the Eastern side of the island instead of cutting through the middle, and because we kept making stops), we finally made it to the Turtle Bay Resort, where we would stay for the next five nights.
The road into the hotel, flanked by palm trees.
Finally arriving at the Turtle Bay Resort! This is where they filmed the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall.
After checking in and settling into our hotel room, we were hungry for dinner so we decided to eat dinner in the local area of Kahuku… at none other than Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck!
Giovanni's Shrimp Truck in Oahu.
We saw a lot of shrimp trucks in the North Shore, but apparently Giovanni's is the best!
Waiting for our order to be called. If you know me, you know there are few things in the world I love more than shrimp. I was super excited.
The hubby is excited, too.
Shrimp Scampi from Giovanni's Shrimp Truck. SO GOOD!!!
Dan decided to get something different and went for the lemon butter shrimp. The shrimp scampi was definitely better. Still good, though!
This was actually the only shrimp truck we went to at the North Shore during our whole trip. We wanted to try some of the other ones that are supposed to be good (like Macky’s, and Romy’s…), but we were down in the Honolulu area most of the time, so we never got the chance. I definitely could have gone for more shrimp during our stay! Thank you Estella, Megumi, Bryan… everyone who told us about Giovanni’s! It was so good, I am drooling now just thinking about it.
After dinner, Dan spotted a roadside fresh fruit stand on the way back to the hotel, and he was seduced by the big fat Iced Cold Coconut sign. Dan loves coconut! (Me? Not so much.)
Dan getting his coconut from the fruit stand in Kahuku, on Kamehameha Highway.
Dan with some young coconut! He can now die happy.
We returned to the hotel for the evening, taking dips in the pool and just relaxed. The Turtle Bay Resort was right on a beach, so we had a gorgeous view not only from the pool area but from our hotel room as well!
Relaxing by the pool at Turtle Bay Resort.
The sun setting in the distance.
Only Day One, and we already ate so much good food and saw so many beautiful sights! We were definitely excited for the days to come. Stay tuned for more of our adventures in Hawaii!
