#5 – The Last Post, with Lessons

Lessons

Miranda:

  • Apple TV FTW. I recommended she bring it almost at the last minute, and because we had so much downtime between Ava’s naps she got good use of it.
  • She should have brought her laptop.
  • Always bring more charging cables than have devices
  • Bring re-usable bags. We brought one, but it wasn’t nearly enough.
  • Bring a couple pieces of tupperware for leftovers.
  • Less clothes and toys for Ava, because we ended up buying stuff there – easily enticed by local wares.

Craig:

  • My PJ pants aren’t necessary – gym shorts are fine PJs.
  • Check dive watch battery. It didn’t have any power for my first dive so it was useless.
  • I need to bring at least 3 usb cables – 2 for my stuff and 1 for the car.
  • Don’t forget toothbrush charger. Annoyingly, this one is the larger of the 2 small-USB standard plugs. 🙁
  • Having my laptop was amazing.
  • Don’t need to bring 2 books…or even 1 book… I play games or write or edit photos, particularly with the laptop with me.
  • Also with the laptop, didn’t use tablet at all. 🙁 Maybe on the flight still though.
  • I want a snorkel compass. I’ve wanted one for years, and I tried to find one while in Hale’iwa but it didn’t work out. I want to navigate and make a little map of underwater places.
  • Just 1 “nice” shirt. I brought 2 but only wore one. I was a little embarrassed by my Hawaiian shirt when I packed it, but ultimately didn’t feel that when I wore it.
  • 4 tank tops. I brought 3, needed a fourth.
  • Bring the meat thermometer! I bought a $6 cheap one so I could cook meat without worrying.
  • 3 weeks is about when we lost our steam. Even with the reduced pace with Ava, we were pretty burnt out after that!

And that’s it for Hawaii #5. Thanks for reading, and I’ll catch ya’ll next vacation!

#5 – TL;DR

Coming down to it now. This is the post I’d recommend to friends if they didn’t want to read the last 29 days. 😛

Favourites

Best Restaurant

Banzai Sushi in Hale’iwa is our favourite restaurant, hands down. When we had a child-free evening and could go anywhere, this is where we went.

For me, Konos is a close second. It’s so easy – you walk in, order some food and they give you pork. I love it.

For Miranda,  the Red Barn Farnstand  is her runner-up.  The food was excellent, and we think it would only get better if they had more than just breakfast available when we went.

Best Place to Stay

Hale’iwa Surf Apartments. We’d stayed there before and decided to go back, and weren’t disappointed. The units are a decent (but not perfect) layout, and their proximity to a great protected reef and also to the Hale’iwa town, makes them perfect.

Best For-Pay Activity

Uncle Bobs Picnic Sail was really great. The boat was nice, we had a good shady spot. The sandbar is a fun site to practice snorkeling and enjoy standing in the middle of the ocean. And I hadn’t realized their snorkel spot would be so great – I hadn’t seen coral like that in Hawai’i before! Overall, an awesome activity.

Best Hike

Kealia Trail. We didn’t hike as much as I thought we would, but this was a fun hike that wasn’t overly difficult, with great views.

Best Free Activity

For me, Sharks Cove snorkeling is the best. The nearby tide pool is a fun snorkel even in high surf, and the cove itself is just amazing to dive under and look at when the surf is calm. With North Shore Tacos just across the street, this place is a great spot with food nearby.

Miranda really enjoyed Kuilima Beach, near the Turtle Bay Resort. Likely for similar reasons – it was a nice and protected swim spot she could float around in, food was available (at a cost) and it felt very safe with a lot of people around.

Favourite Animal

For Miranda, the turtle she saw during Uncle Bobs Picnic Sail. Apparently she had just convinced herself to put her face into the water when a dark shape appeared out of the darkness beside her. She startled and then realized it was a turtle! At that moment, she knew why I love turtles – it was just the two of them, flying in the water.

For me, the many boxfish around the island. They’re my new second favourite fish, they’re just so adorable and black and white!

Favourite Cat

The black one at Hale’iwa Surf. He owns the place. Ruthie and I were walking back from the beach when he intercepted us and demanded pets. He wouldn’t take no for an answer, and rubbed against our legs for more.

Best Drive

For Miranda, the drive from Hale’iwa to Dillingham Airport. She likes the mountain range, that the road is straight and the views of the beach.

For me, from Hale’iwa to Mililani and back. I like that I know how to navigate it. And that it’s this weird road that turns from a state highway into a local road and then into a county highway.

Best Beach

For Miranda, the Chocolate Surf Break behind the Surf’n’Sea in Hale’iwa is her favourite beach. She likes that it’s nice and sandy and not to wavey, making it perfect for hanging out with Ava.

For me, it’s got to be Three Tables. The beach is really easy and sandy, it has good depth to swim, just the right number of people, and the snorkeling is fantastic.

Best Dollar Spent

We bought a used high chair early on, for Ava for $25, which was well used. She joined me while I was making dinner a couple times.

I also bought a book called Twinkle, Twinkle, Small Hoku, which is a book which could be read to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. I sang it to Ava after night after we bought it!

Best Item Brought

My snorkel fins and mask and snorkel were used just about every day. I’m so happy I brought them and got so much use! I swam every single day we were there, and most of them used this equipment!

 

Miranda’s Apple TV brought her a lot of joy while waiting for Ava to wake up from her naps. It was small and easy to bring and very useful!

 

Best Photos

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#5 – The Beer of O’ahu

I’ve been promising this one for a few weeks, and I hope it doesn’t disappoint. I did my damnest to drink a different beer whenever I could, and ended up with 15 different brews. I prefer darker, maltier, sweeter beers, and I dislike strong hops, to give you a sense of where my preferences lie. However, I’ve drank enough high-hop beers to, I feel, give an opinion on the ones I did drink.

Overall, I think the craft beer of Hawai’i is not as varied, or as creative, as the craft beer of Vancouver and the American regions south of it. In some places there seemed to be promise, but it then fell flat.

Kona Brewing

This is the oldest brewery of Hawai’i, and the only one that I knew going in, because I’ve drank their beer on-island before. Their Longboard Lager is, I think, the most well known of their brews. We bought a mixer pack for the house, and I also went to their brew pub in Honolulu, so I got a good sampling of their stuff. They also ship to the mainland, so you may find them at your local store!

https://konabrewingco.com/

Longboard Lager – 20 IBU, 4.6%

As I said a moment this, this is their most well known beer. This lager is simple, but effective. It’s a far cry from the Buds and Kokanees of the world, offering a good body, but it’s not so outlandish as to scare away people who might be wary of strong-flavour. I like this beer, but I wouldn’t drink a lot of it because lagers aren’t my thing. Available in bottles, and in the mixer pack.

Big Wave Golden Ale – 21 IBU, 4.4%

Of the readily available Kona beers, this one was my favourite. It has a good golden body that brought me back time and time again. However, compared to where my true loves lie, it’s still fairly light. It has a good crispness to it, but with enough fullness to be called a “golden ale”. At the same time, I wanted a little more of a honey ale from it. Available in bottles, and in the mixer pack.

Fire Rock Pale Ale – 35 IBU, 5.8%

It starts with a nice copper taste, but then finishes with just hops, which turned me off. Put this in the pile of “I’d drink it, but only if it was the last in the mixer box”. Available in bottles, and in the mixer pack.

Castaway India Pale Ale – 50 IBU, 6.0%

I do not, at all, like IPAs. This one claims a bunch of stuff about citrusy hops and a touch of mango and passionfruit balanced by rich caramel malts, but all I tasted was hopppppppps. At the same time, I opened one after a super hot day and it was refreshing. But it was the last one in the mixer pack. Available in bottles, and in the mixer pack.

Koko Brown – 45 IBU, 5.5%

Now we’re talking. This beer was amazing! Nutty, with a very unique toasted coconut finish. And unlike a coconut beer I’ll review in a bit, this one actually tasted like toasted coconut! I had this one at the brew pub, and the menu said it was only available in Hawai’i, but their web site says it’s available elsewhere!

Maui Brewing

http://mauibrewingco.com/

This brewery looks like the next biggest, as I saw their product in a number of O’ahu restaurants, but it’s still a lot newer than Kona. We went to their brew pub in Honolulu and I got a flight, which added 4 beers to my list.

Coconut Hiwa Porter – 30 IBU, 6.0%

This was a good dark beer, but not at all coconuty by my taste. I found it a disappointment, but only because it tasted like a lot of other dark/malty porters in the world. I wanted coconut, because it says coconut! You can buy this one in a can.

Pineapple Mana Wheat – 18 IBU, 5.5%

This was a decent wheat beer, with a pineapple taste that was a lot more pineappley than the coconut was coconuty. I had it twice, by mistake, because I forgot to write it down the first time! Both times I had the same reaction — it needed a pineapple wedge. I don’t love wheat beers, but I’d drink this one again (and did). Available in cans.

Waimea Red – 50 IBU, 6.5%

I always want to love red ales, like the Parallel 49 Gypsy Tears, and I keep ordering them and keep being disappointed. I feel like the colour should impart a different flavour than a full-bodied hoppy ale, when I don’t like hops, but it does. This was a basic ale that wasn’t bad, but wasn’t exciting. I had it at the brew pub, but you can get it in cans apparently.

Lilikoi Saison – 15 IBU, 5.5%

This was the best of my flight at the brew pub. It was nice and fruity, not to fruity. Bitter, but not to bitter. It was labelled as a sour beer. I liked it.

Barefoot Brew Ale – 23 IBU, 5.5%

I had this in the brew pub. It was labelled as a honey amber ale, which is my brand, but this was a little to light for my tastes. I want more roundness, more honey, and this was innocuous in flavour, in my opinion.

Mac Nut Brown – 20 IBU, 5.1%

I love this style of beer, but this one was disappointing. As with the coconut porter, I wanted more mac nut from it. Without the mac nut advertising, this would have been a decent brown ale. With the mac nut advertising, it didn’t give me enough mac nut. I had this one in the brew pub.

Root Beer

These guys brew root beer, which is awesome. You can really tell it was handcrafted, as it has a taste of not-mass-produced. You can buy in in cans on the island. It has a strong taste of vanilla, and had a decent bite to it, while being sweet enough but not to sweet. Would highly recommend!

Other Breweries

I had 3 other beers, 2 of them local and 1 an import, but not enough from each brewery to justify their own heading. 🙂

Honolulu Beerworks Kewalos Cream Ale – 20 IBU, 5.25%

http://www.honolulubeerworks.com

These cans are available around the island. The only other cream ale I’ve had is the Sleeman one. I didn’t write any detailed notes on this one, but it was pretty good, was exactly what I wanted from it, and would have it again.

Big Island Brewhaus Golden Sabbath – 30 IBU, 8.5%

http://bigislandbrewhaus.com/

Take note of the 8.5%, because I didn’t when I bought it. There’s a craft beer store in Hale’iwa that I bought this in. This was an excellent beer. A Belgian-style strong golden ale, it had exactly the sweet and full flavour I wanted from it. I had the entire 22oz bottle in one sitting, by myself, and was fairly drunk at the end. Thankfully, I was sitting on the couch with Miranda and didn’t need any of my faculties. Highly recommended!

Hitachino Nest Red Rice Ale – 26 IBU, 7.0%

http://www.kodawari.cc/?en_home.html

This is my new favourite beer. All the Japanese beers locally are pretty much the same – light and crisp. They’re nice, and I drink them occasionally, but I like different.

The Red Rice Ale is different. First, it’s a malty beer with a full, round flavour. It’s very very sweet. And as it ends, it has a slight taste of sake. It reminds me a lot of Innis and Gunn. I&G was my favourite beer for a long time, I loved the rum finish to it, because it’s aged in oak rum barrels. This one is aged in sake barrels, and you can tell. I don’t super love sake, but I love the combination of sweet into sake.

 

The End

Those are my Hawai’i beers. I’m sad I ordered the Maui Pineapple twice, because the Honolulu Beerworks Makakilo Brown Ale was in tap at the Beachhouse and I missed it!

 

#5 – March 29th and 30th – last day, one beach, an an airplane

On our last day, the adults decided to look after each others children to allow us to have some time alone.

Miranda and I took Mia, which ended up with Ruthie, Mia and myself spending 3 hours at the Laie beach snorkeling and swimming and goofing off. It was a great time! Mia is a champion snorkeler and swimmer, and Ruthie has a boundless well of fun games to play in the water!

D&J went to Banzai Sushi in Hale’iwa for lunch, which made Miranda and I happy that they liked it so much when the 4 of us went, that they decided to go again. Miranda and I went to Banzai Sushi for dinner as well. 😛

Other than that, this day was just a lot of packing.

The 30th was our travel day home, and this morning it seems like a blur. We had to get to the airport super early to drop Ruthie off for her flight at 11 (ours was at 2). We had hoped to get all our boarding passes and do security together, but our flight desk wasn’t open until 11 so I sat with Ava and our luggage while Miranda and Ruthie did all that.

The Hudsons were on our flight as well, so after we got to the gate and a short wait and cooling down (we walked the entire length of HNL with a lot of stuff) they showed up and we all hung out again.

The flight felt interminable. Ava was pissy because she had to sleep almost right away and didn’t want to and then only slept a half hour. She woke up angry, and only stopped when Miranda pulled out some Easter-themed gel sticky things. Ava and I spent the next 2 hours pulling them off the airplane window, dropping them, and putting them back on, while Miranda dealt with her flight anxiety.

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Ava had 2 more in-flight naps of awfulness, and woke angry each time. At the end of the flight, our neighbours said she was a wonderful baby and we sputtered and assumed they were having us on. They were serious.

We got home to a clean house and happy cats, both of which were strange. Apparently our housesitters cleaned a lot before they left, AND gave our cats a lot of love and attention!

This morning it’s just a lot of unpacking and organizing our stuff. I have 2 more posts before I’ll be done writing here for now!

#5 – March 28th – another day, another beach

We had been planning to go to Hanauma Bay on this day. But the night before we did some time planning and it was just to far away – an hour and a quarter – and with us not wanting to leave the house until 1030ish, and the Hudsons not wanting to be out from noon-3 (the sun is VERY burny), we couldn’t find a plan that worked.

So Duke and Jamie picked another beach – Kuilima – which is right out the front door of the Turtle Bay resort on the North Shore. We took 2 cars, to help with the plan.

This was a nice beach! It’s very well protected from the high surf that you could see very clearly. There were some good rocks at the entrance to the bay that kept it away, and were also very nice for looking at fish under. The bay bottom was mostly sand, with a few scattered rocks and it had a variety of depths so you weren’t (in my case) skimming with only 5 inches between my chest and the rocks. I also found a great little coral forest on the left side, just where the waves started to get a little more choppy.

The price for the beach though, is that it was quite popular, being right out of the hotel. There were hotel-only shaded beds and chairs, and a shack where hotel guests could get towels and snorkel equipment. We had to suffice with our own towels, and sitting under the shade of a tree (which moved).

Here’s a couple photos.

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I blew up the floaty chair and Miranda sat in that with Ava, which looks super relaxing, while I pulled them around the bay a bit. Then I took off to explore the rocks, which was nice.

We came in, showered the salt off us all, and sat under our beach umbrella trying not to burn. There was a beach-side restaurant which wasn’t guest-only, but charged $24USD for a burger. I bought a “kimchi ahi melt” for $25 since it sounded cooler. They wanted to charge $25 for a grilled cheese, which was madness. We bought a couple expensive things, ate well, and then Miranda, Ava and I packed up and left.

It seems weird to do it that way, since there was a lot cheaper options in the greater world, but we wanted to sit on the beach and enjoy it for a bit, and we wanted to go straight from the beach to home and put Ava down for a nap.

Ava fell asleep on the 15 minute drive home, which pains me because I’ve never successfully transferred her from the car to her crib. She’s always woken up, and then been angry that I was trying to get her to sleep more – she was done sleeping!

We formed a plan. Stop the car, unbuckle the car seat, carry it in, and transfer. As I unclipped her from her seat, she woke, and she opened her eyes, and then as I placed her carefully into her crib, she closed them again! We celebrated very silently, as parents do.

Miranda and I had a peaceful afternoon, while the Hudsons and Ruthie stayed at the beach. Apparently they had a wonderful time there!

Dinner was leftovers, and following that we stayed up and talked for several hours. We find this with the Hudsons – we rarely leave their house when we expect, because the conversation just flows super nicely, and it’s hard to find a good place to say “ok, we need to leave!” Which is part of why we thought they’d make great vacation partners. 🙂

This morning Ava woke up very early, 4:30am, and was whining a lot. I took her to the grocery store to buy a couple small items we needed to finish out our trip, and then she went back to sleep. Usually Mia is awake around 6am, which is when Ava is usually awake as well. However, I’m writing this at 8am and there’s no Mia, no Duke, Jamie, no Ruthie. And Ava is having a good nap (albeit an interrupted one – she woke for about 25 minutes in the middle of it). So Miranda and I are just interneting at the kitchen table. 😛

Today is our last day in Hawaii. I have a couple more posts — one for today, one for all the beer I’ve consumed, one for “lessons” and hopefully one for “favourites”.

#5 – March 27th – the beach and the PCC

The Polynesian Cultural Center was on the Hudsons todo list, so we did that today! But it only opened at noon and our mornings start at 6 so we had some time and went to the beach!

Here are some photos of Mia being a snorkeling champion!

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The beach at our place is pretty decent, would go again.

The PCC was more interesting than I ever would have expected. Granted, we arrived 45 minutes late, and then had to eat for about an hour before we went in, but I left at 5:15 and had a bunch more stuff I would have done if I’d had more time. We watched a bunch of cool dances, and Ruthie and I learned how to make coconut oil. Particularly at the “general admission” level, I would go again to see  (and eat) the stuff I missed!

#5 – Just Ava and Sushi

Another couple photos with no attempt on figuring out what day they are from!

We bought Ava a few Hawaii-themed items…

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I can’t even stand how cute she is!!

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And then the sushi dinner with Duke and Jamie while Ruthie watched over the kids. Man this was good sushi!

#5 – March 25th – Laie Point and Sharks Cove

We really wanted to take the Hudsons to Sharks Cove tide pools, because it’s a great place to take a small child to snorkel, and a decent place to take an adult!

First, though, we walked to Laie Point down the street because it’s amazing and we needed to kill some time while Ava slept. Here’s a video of the waves at the point:

Mia snorkeled like a boss. She’s unreal. She’s like sticking her face in the water and flailing and breathing really really hard through the tube and then jumping up and she looks really panicked, but then she sticks her face under again and (through the breathing tube) asserts that she can do it. While flailing so hard she has to breath three times as hard!

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I brought my GoPro and wanted to try out the videos! At some point it got switched the camera mode instead of video mode, so I got this neat photo.

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And here is the only video I took at the cove: