O’ahu 2022 – The Last post

“What do you mean, ‘the last post”, you didn’t write any?” You’re right, I’m sorry, and maybe I’ll do better next time? Or maybe I was just writing to much before?

Here are my and Mirandas’ traditional “top lists” for our vacation. The goals here are to:

Remind ourselves for the next trip of what we did and didn’t like.
Provide an easy copy/paste link for others looking to gain from our mistakes. 😀

With that intro, here we go!

Best Restaurant

We love eating at O’ahu, but we hadn’t ever stayed in Honolulu/Waikiki before so had to find new places to enjoy. We’re not “foodies” by any stretch, but we like what we like!

For me it was a near tie between 2 new restaurants to us. Top billing goes to Surf’n’Salsa in Hale’iwa. Second best burrito I’ve ever had (and to be clear — the best burrito is still Tacofino in the Financial Distract of Vancouver — the chorizo burrito has squid in it and is crazy good). The service was weird with the front desk lady pointing me at the kitchen to solve some problems we had, which was awkward, and their chips’n’salsa were to hot for me (I enjoy spice, but I’m pretty white), but the burrito made up for it. I had the chipotle burrito with steak. The front desk lady recommended the steak and she was so right.

The runner-up for me was Five Star Poke. It was a block away from our apartment and I went there on the last day when Miranda and I couldn’t agree on where to eat so I picked up McDonalds for her. I’m so sad I found this on the last day! I had the Spicy Ahi Tuna comboed with the Garlic Shoyu Salmon and it was the salmon that won me over — garlicky and miso-y and just a ton of flavour.

For Miranda, she loved her regular go-tos of North Shore Tacos and Giovanni’s. The tacos are simple, clean and their sauce is damn good. And the garlic shrimp plate of Giovanni’s really punches you in the mouth with garlic, it’s so good!

I didn’t ask Ava what her favourite restaurant was, I’m not sure she’d know how to answer the question…she doesn’t eat much when we’re out and Miranda tends to bring a tupperware of snacks for her.

Best “for pay” Experience

These include:

Kayaking the Anahulu River in Hale’iwa (rented kayak, not a tour)
Kayaking the reefs in Kane’ohe (rented kayak, not a tour)
Turtle Canyon snorkel tour
Dolphin excursion snorkel tour
Dole plantation

For both Miranda and I, it was the Anahulu River! This is a staple of our O’ahu trips and this year was augmented because Ava had a ton of fun which made it even more fun for us. It’s just a nice paddle up a gentle river and then you slowly float back to town. Ava and I swam in the river as Miranda floated and we played on Ava’s bodyboard and tried to find a turtle, and Miranda saw a ray!

I asked Ava what was her favourite by showing her pictures and she loved everything. 😀 She loved the boats because she met some super fun kids she played with, she loved the waves and the bubbles out the back of the wake and she had an absolute blast on the Dolphin tour because they pulled out a paddleboard and paddled her and 2 other kids around a snorkel area and they all had fun “accidentally” falling off the board and climbing back on. Her kind of fun!

Best Free Experience

Miranda’s and mine are similar here — we went to a couple new beaches that we hadn’t been to before. We did this because they were said to be great spots to bring young kids — I wanted to introduce Ava to snorkeling, and Miranda wanted to sit on the beach and relax.

Miranda’s favourite was Paradise Cove, which was a public beach with no facilities and only 10 parking spots. We got there early to get a parking spot and spent 4 hours swimming around, sitting under a giant beach umbrella. The kid was happy and entertained with very little effort needed, and we had lots of snacks so didn’t need to rush off.

My favourite was a bit south at Ko Olina lagoon #4. It was similar to Paradise Cove, but better because it had facilities like freshwater showers (I love this feature of Hawai’i beaches :D).

Neither of these places were great snorkeling, but they were protected coves with gentle sandy slopes and were exactly what I wanted to be able to introduce the kidlet to looking at the fish.

Ava’s favourite “free” experience (because it was bundled, or because it’s all free from her perspective) was the pool at the hotel. She made a couple friends there and the ease of going there meant that we could say “yes” to the pool even when there wasn’t much time left in the day to do an activity. I scoff at hotel pools when you’re 2 blocks from the beach, but it turns out there is huge value in this even so!

Unexpectedly Best Item Brought

This category is about the item you brought that you found way more useful than you thought it was going to be!

Miranda had a bunch of honourable mentions:

Tupperware containers which she used to pack snacks for Ava for the day (and for me, honestly :D)
A Roku she bought just for this trip, we plugged it into the apartment TV and it was easy to get Ava to zone out for a little bit.
Shorts under her dresses.
Ava’s headphones!

For me it was two things. First was a fanny pack. I bought this thing a couple years ago because I wanted a “kid go bag” that was my own. We had a shared one, but I always found it overfull with things I didn’t think I needed, so I bought my own. Fast-forward to 2 years later and I haven’t used it for a bit, but it was perfect for this trip. In it I had a webbed strap, some clips, some twist ties, hand sanitizer, wipes and I used all of those at least once. And then it was a great place to keep my wallet and phone when I was in swim shorts!

Second place for me goes to some “sinking snakes” Miranda brought. I wouldn’t have written about these except that when making this list Miranda put these under her “worst item brought” and I was like “HELL NO, those were super useful!” Ava and I took them to the pool and not only did Ava have fun diving down to get them, but they allowed us to play with much older kids than Ava would be able to otherwise. Every kid likes grabbing things from the bottom of the pool!

Favourite Item Brought

This category competes hard with the above one, but is different because it’s not an “unexpected item” and neither of us really had strong feelings about anything we brought this trip.

For Miranda, it was melatonin to help her sleep and a little bag of re-usable cloths that she brought. For me it was my snorkel gear, which I like being able to pull out and use without needing to worry about rentals or fit or sanitary concerns. For Ava it was nubby (her stuffed bunny) and her backpack, which she regularly carried with a bunch of toys in it.

Best Dollar Spent

This is about efficiency!

For Miranda and I both it was a new beach/sun jacket cover she bought. She bought it after she burnt her shoulders in the first week, and I borrowed it on several occasions. It was so nice. I didn’t think I’d like having things on my arms (I hate sleeves) in the sun, but it was breezy and light and not hot and fine to get wet and so comfortable so was great.

Worst Restaurant

We had a couple rough restaurants this time around, but not many that were straight up bad.

The worst was Oahu Mexican Grill. The ordering was super confusing, they tried to give me something I hadn’t ordered and messed up my order. When we got food, the taco’s Miranda had were kind of meh and my nachos were soggy. Ew.

On our first pass of this category, Miranda had said Longboards near Ko Olina was her worst because the salad she ordered was really bad. The experience overall was decent. My burger was ok there. But America, come on, your salad’s suck. A bunch of iceburg lettuce and a few cherry tomatoes are why no one likes salads in your country. You can do better.

For me, and this was sad, it was a sushi place that had been recommended called Katsu Midori. Worst, not because of any experience or the food, but because they were “full” by the time we got to them! They wouldn’t let us in to eat! I was pretty sad I failed at this. This is my fault, not theirs, but be ware and make reservations!

A last minute addition to the list here was The Local @ HNL in the airport. The ordering experience was trying to be efficient — you ordered your food on a website and paid for it online and the kitchen got the order and you’d already paid and yay. But the system wouldn’t allow multiple orders at the same table so we had to troubleshoot that. Then when Miranda fixed part of that problem with the server another website foible appeared. The food and drinks were crazy expensive in a city with expensive food and drink and the nachos had some strange cheese on them that reminded me of fake cheese from a jar.

Favourite Animal

A family favourite, they were:

Miranda’s ray that she saw in the Anahulu River.
I saw a sweet little black squid while snorkel diving down in the Dolphin tour! (no dolphins though 🙁 )
Ava generally loved the koi everywhere, but specifically the koi at the Dole plantation. There was a fish food machine nearby that we pushed some quarters into and the koi (hundreds of them) went a little crazy to get food.

Worst Item Brought

Miranda thinks we didn’t need to bring the picnic blanket she packed.
I didn’t need two pairs of adventure shorts. I only needed 1 plus some exercise shorts.

Best Research Time Spent

For me it was when I looked into Paradise Cove, which led to Ko Olina later in the week. We had read about the area in previous trips, but just hadn’t taken the time to go, and I was glad we did this trip.

For Miranda, it was an indoor kids playground she took Ava to one day called Kid City. She wishes we had one in Vancouver, because she’d go to it all the time. It was the perfect combination of all of the things she likes to take Ava to.

Most Missed Item

For both Miranda and I, the Tula was a staple of our last trip to Mexico and I wished I’d had it here as well. The kid is still to small to go walking for as long as Miranda and I would like to walk and so I uncomfortably packed her on my shoulders for several long distances. Having her on my back would have been much more comfortable! The worst part was that we agreed to bring the Tula then both forgot to pack it. >.<

As well, anti-nausea meds — 2 out of the last 4 boat tours I’ve been on have ended with me having nausea. Not a good ratio. I think I’m getting old. It’s ruining a good time. 🙁

Saddest Lost/Broken Item

Let me itemize the things we lost or broke this trip, it’s brutal:

Our water camera
One swim fin of mine (but not two)
Ava’s body board
Ava’s sunglasses
Ava’s lifejacket
Ava’s mermaid toy

Miranda’s saddest item was the body board. I was separated from them for a short time and while waiting, Ava started using it as a kite in the crazy Hawaii wind so Miranda took it to keep it safe. I arrived back to them at the bus stop at the same time as the bus arriving and in the process of getting everything and everyone on the bus Miranda sadly left the body board at the bus stop. Ava took it well, but Miranda and I were both a little upset at ourselves. Later in the trip we bought Ava another one, and this one came with stories about how her mom had lost her old one at the bus stop. She told that story to a bunch of people, including us, several times. She took the new body board to bed.

Mine was the water camera and the fin. The water camera I’m almost immune to — I’ve broken more “waterproof” electronics than I will recount here (though you could probably itemize that list by going through the archives at this blog :D). I’m cursed. I literally just walked into the ocean with the battery door open. So dumb. We replaced it with a $40 one from Facebook Marketplace the day before our Dolphin tour.

The fin was super annoying, I lost it on the first day we were at the beach. It just slipped out of my bag and I was shoulder-carrying the child and carrying a lot of stuff and I didn’t notice I dropped it. I walked our path several times, minutes after we think we’d lost it, but I think the Honolulu clean-up crew is too efficient — it was gone. I bought new ones of the exact same type, but I’ll always remember because I now have 3 fins.

Honourable Mention

I’ve mentioned the Dolphin tour a few times here, but you won’t see any photos of dolphins and I haven’t exactly raved about it.

The tour with Iruka Tours was really really good. The operators were fun, knowledgeable, efficient, and well-run. Just…there were no dolphins in the area! We boated around for probably 3 hours looking for them before giving up and dropping anchor for some snorkeling. I want to give these guys my money again next time we’re in O’ahu, because they worked hard for it keeping a boat of tourists entertained while the “main attraction” wouldn’t come on stage!