Every year for MY birthday we normally do something pretty extravagant or well thought out like traveling to Florida for the Food and Wine Festival at Disney World in Orlando, getting a few friends together to do an escape game, or spending an entire day in the Napa Valley going Jet skiing, wine tasting, and eating lots of delicious food from places like Bouchon bakery and Morimoto Napa. This was the first year that we decided to travel for Joe’s birthday. The biggest reason why we chose to go to Oahu, Hawaii was because Joe has family on that island that we wanted to see before we got married. But also Alaska was having a Buy One, Get One deal for anyone who went to a specific Giants game. It all worked out for us in the end because we were able to stay with that family member for the majority of our stay, which saved us a bunch of money. And they were nice enough to lend us their car for the duration as well. It has been a long time since both of us have been to Hawaii, so it was such a nice feeling to go together. Prior to our trip, I did a bunch of research of the must-see and must do stuff for Hawaii. It took a lot of strategic planning to fit everything we wanted to do in the 5 days that we planned on being there for. First of all, I found it super convenient to use Google Sheets to plan out our trip for several reasons: 1. Since it is a mobile online app I was able to share it with Joe, and open it anywhere (even if we don’t have a connection) 2. The itinerary can be set up so you can see what you have planned every 10, 15, 30 minutes. (I decided to go with 15-minute increments starting at 7:00 A.M.) 3. We were able to easily share our itinerary with anyone else who was going to meet up with us or pick up/drop us off anywhere. 4. Lastly, it gave us a better idea of how much time we had to B.S. in between each activity we did. (This definitely became useful a lot) Here are a few highlights of our first trip to Hawaii: After having a nice breakfast with Joe’s Uncle and his wife, we drove to our first destination Manoa Falls: It is a beautiful 2.3-mile hike with 500+ feet of elevation. For the average hiker who is in good shape and takes the occasional photo, you can easily finish this hike in less than an hour. It has lots of greenery that will remind you of Jurassic Park (probably because Jurassic Park was filmed on a Hawaiian Island), rivers/streams, lots of wet rocks, and a beautiful waterfall at the very top. Disclaimer: For anyone who plays Pokemon Go you can find a stop and a gym when you reach the waterfall. (yes… Joe and I are a bunch of nerds XP) I highly recommend doing this hike in hiking shoes or something with ankle support. There were a lot of muddy and slippery rock areas, having that extra ankle support definitely helped. There were a few people who did it in flip-flops and they looked like they were miserable. Little facts before you do the hike, you’ll actually drive through a lot of residential houses to get to the start of the Manoa Falls hike (we thought we were lost at one point). If you park at the parking lot provided there is normally someone waiting there under an umbrella and they charge $5 to park there. To the left of the base of the Manoa Falls hike sign, there is an Arboretum that you can check out, its “FREE” (technically admission is the parking cost). I would recommend doing this one beforehand because by the end of the hike we were too exhausted to go up any more hills. The hiking area can be very slippery and it rained on us a couple of times during the entire hike. So prepare yourself with a poncho or some kind of rain jacket, we were drenched by the end of it. One last thing, make sure you pack good mosquito repellent, by the end of it I found 6 new bikes on each leg. I was miserable and itching like crazy for the rest of the day.
Sushi Izakaya Gaku: This place was recommended to us by a friend who just returned from her Hawaii trip. When we first walked in you can definitely tell that this place had a really nice ambiance. In the front of the store, they have a table and bar seating set up. And toward the back, they have traditional Japanese floor seating. Unfortunately, Joe caught a stomach bug our first day on the island and couldn’t enjoy all the delicious food we ordered. We had ordered: Hamachi Tartare with fresh quail egg, several orders of grilled beef tongue, a small and simple udon noodle soup, silver skin fish nigiri, and high-grade hamachi nigiri. A lot of the food we ordered were recommendations from the employees, and we loved every single one. We make it a point to always ask the employees, “What is your favorite dish?” because the employees work there every day and probably eat the food every day also. So they would know what is the best above all the rest. Wish we could have gone back before we flew back to the mainland. Definitely one of the better sushi places we have ever been to. I will note that you shouldn’t walk in expecting large portions like a full-on Japanese restaurant would offer. They are more of a small plates tapas kind of place. Hence the name, Izakaya, which translates to a type of Japanese bar in which a variety of small dishes and snacks are served to accompany the alcoholic drinks. Dole Plantation: First thing we did was the dole plantation maze. We’ve never done a labyrinth style maze, so this was exciting. At the beginning after you enter there is a board that basically lets you know to start and end your journey at that spot. The board recommends you download the dole plantation app (I recommend you download this beforehand while you have wifi somewhere). Scan the QR code and it timestamps when you started and stops it when you finish and scan the code again. The maze has 7 secret stations that you need to locate, each named after the larger island in Hawaii. You can also use the app to scan the codes for this. I did both scanning and the tracing the totems. The maze had a lot of shortcuts, which made it a little easier to reach each of the secret stations. (Hint: if you notice a trashcan while in the maze you are really close to one of the secret stations). Toward the end of the maze, we told ourselves that we would stop taking what looked like shortcuts which made the last part of it really difficult. It rained a lot this day also so I would recommend not wearing flip-flops. I experienced a lot of near-slip and fall on my ass moments. But overall the maze was super fun, it was filled with lots of beautiful flowers, and we discovered that I am a way better navigator than Joe, especially when it comes to not looking at a map. After we had finished the maze, we purchased what you MUST get when you visit the Dole Plantation, which is Dole Whip, in our case, it was Pineapple Floats and we headed over to the koi pond. When I originally came here with my family there was a lot of koi fish in the pond next to the train exit, unfortunately, they were all gone, which was really unfortunate. However, we did find it entertaining watching the roosters walking around like they owned the place. They reminded me a lot of Hei Hei the rooster from the movie Moana.
Matsumoto Shave Ice: If you go to Hawaii getting shave ice is a must. Matsumoto was highly recommended from all the websites and apps that I looked at. Joe got the Ichiban Special (1 syrup flavor, ice cream, red bean, condensed milk, and mochi served in a waffle bowl.), and I got large with two flavored syrups (Mango and Strawberry) and ice cream. It was a nice surprise when I found the ice cream that they hid inside the shave ice. The mango flavored syrup was delicious, I wish I only got that flavor though. Oh well, you live and you learn. Romy’s Kahuku Prawns & Shrimp: After our trip to the North Shore a lot of people recommended checking out Romy’s. So after we checked out some sea turtles sunbathing on the beach we headed in that direction. Romy’s has a shrimp and prawn farm onsite that you can see from the outdoor seating. Since we were already stuffed from the food we got at the North Shore we shared the Butter and Garlic Shrimp, the shrimp was cooked perfectly and the garlic butter mix tasted amazing with the rice once all the shrimp was gone. There was a funny sign that they put up that said “This is good food, not fast food” so you know that it will take a while to make your food. If that wasn’t there I probably would have complained about the wait LOL. But definitely worth the wait. Koko Head Shooting Complex:This place is a hidden gem for anyone who likes to shoot almost any type of guns or archery. To shoot here it is completely free, however, you do need to bring your own stuff and follow the rules of the range (for obvious safety reasons). Shooting with the Koko Head volcano in the background was awesome and the weather made it even more beautiful. Shirokiya Japanese Village Walk: I found this place jaw-dropping. I wish I took more pictures, but the whole place was located downstairs on one side of the Ala Moana shopping center. When we walked inside the entire area was filled with 50+ Japanese food booths. They had stands that sold crepes, milk and fruit teas, curries, musubi (its Hawaii, you got to have musubi somewhere), lots of different types of dessert places, as well as a few places that sell alcoholic beverages. We ordered Mango Fruit Tea, Wagyu Katsu Curry with rice, sauteed peppers, pickled onions, and a side salad. I was expecting the Katsu to be overcooked but as you can tell from the picture it was cooked a very nice medium rare. The dish overall was mouth-watering if only we order 2 of these.
This was one of the best trips we’ve been on in a while and we can’t wait to go check some of these places out again.
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AuthorI'm Jamie - a food enthusiast, chef, and blogger. My love for all things food and food science has led me on this journey to becoming a Registered Dietician Nutritionist (RDN). To me, nutrition education means showing and communicating creative and delicious ways to make food healthy. I hope to share these recipes and break the stereotype that healthy food shouldn't taste amazing. ArchivesCategories
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