Wanderlust Wednesdays: Oahu 2015 Day 1

Two weeks ago I took a mini trip to Hawaii to not only get some much needed r&r but also to celebrate my friend's dirty 30! It was a short trip but since I have been going every year since graduation, we weren't planning on doing anything crazy touristy so it was very relaxing.

It was my first time flying to Hawaii on United and it was less than stellar but I was able to get to Honolulu at 11:30am so it was a good trade off. I usually fly on Hawaiian or Alaska and most all flights fly out of San Diego at 9 or 10am so you don't get to Hawaii until 2-3pm so you lose some precious time to get settled. I started off the day flying from San Diego at 6:20am to LA and then transferred to a jumbo plane to fly to Honolulu. We were delayed for about 30 minutes. On the plane, they ran out of hot food so I was pretty much starving by the time we landed. Luckily, my friends were on the same wave length so we headed to Curry House. Noms. Got too hungry to take pictures but curry never really looks too appetizing lol.

After lunch we went to the store to purchase some snacks and beverages before heading to Aulani. It was the first time we stayed during the start of the busy season so it was crazy to see so many people there. We checked in and our room wasn't ready so to continue the #YOLO tradition of these trips, we headed to the bar. We were lucky enough to grab a seat and some desserts on the Mouse!

Treats from the Mouse included chocolate cake, macarons, chocolate dipped strawberries and pineapple pound cake. I don't have a sweet tooth but I still enjoyed all of it!

While we were enjoying our drinks, we got a text that our room was ready so we headed to the front desk and we were placed in room 842. This was the first time we got an Ocean View room and let me just say it was worth every penny. The view is absolutely beautiful. If you're going on your honeymoon and plan on spending a decent amount of time in the room *wink wink*, know that you aren't missing much. Enjoy a sip of coffee or a cocktail from your balcony. Make sure you head down to the infinity pool to watch the sunset since it's something you won't be able to see from this side of the resort.

We unpacked our stuff and changed into our swimwear and headed to the nearby beach to try to spot some sea turtles which I've missed every time I've been. Unfortunately even though it was high tide around 5pm, there were no turtles so we headed back to Aulani to enjoy the lazy pool.

The day was coming to an end so we went to the community center to borrow 2 movies and headed out to grab dinner. We were going to grab shabu shabu but the wait was close to 45 minutes (on a Thursday!) so we opted to grab boba and Aiea Bowl to-go. Twas delicious and we called it a night since I had been up for almost 24 hours.

Stay tuned for Day 2 on Oahu!

Adventures: Hawaii 2014 - Oahu Day 3

Day 3 on Oahu was just our shopping day but we cant forget about the most important meal of the day: breakfast! We had made reservations at Ama Ama where we got desserts on the Mouse thanks to Tanya's cousin. As always the food was delicious. Their fried rice and the Strawberry Velvet Pancakes were so freaking good. And that's actually saying a lot because I don't usually like red velvet anything because it's too sweet. But this Strawberry Velvet was just the right amount of sweet.

strawberry velvet pancakes - BOMB DOT COM

two egg breakfast with fried rice instead of potatoes

dessert plate on the mouse!

After breakfast, one of the things I wanted to see in Hawaii that I hadn't seen before were sea turtles. The Ko'olina Lagoon actually had a sign saying that sea turtles do tend to beach themselves there and Tanya had seen them there before so we decided to head over.

turtles need their personal space

However, we forgot to check the tide report and it was low tide so the turtles wouldn't be able to make it over the reef.

We did some reef walking which was super scary because it's EXTRA slippery. It's literally like walking on ice if you don't have the proper footware.

After looking for fishies, we walked to Island Vintage Coffee again and got our usual. We then proceeded to visit the hammerhead sharks and sting rays at the JW Marriott hotel.

i was obsessed with these cardinals lol. they look so cute!

After that we had a decent amount of time left so we decided to finally make use of the lazy pool. No footage from lazy pooling this time because my waterproof camera was out of juice but there's a lot of footage from my 2013 Hawaii Vlog if you're interested.

After some swimming, it was time to head into town where extensive damage was going to be done via credit card at Ala Moana. But first we grabbed some grub at Ono Seafood. This was the first time we had ever gotten a parking spot so I thought I'd document the occasion.

The first time I had Ono Seafood, I liked it but I wasn't super impressed but this time I was totally satisfied. I really like spicy food so last time I got the spicy ahi poke. The spicy ahi poke is very filling because the sauce is creamy and heavy. This time I went with what Tanya always gets (I believe it's the shoyo ahi poke) and it was delicious. It's got a bit of spicyness to it so don't fret if you're a lover of spicy food.

After grabbing the grub to go, we headed to Ala Moana where we sat and ate in the car (classy, we know lol). After grubbing, we did some serious damage. Pretty much bought all of Sephora and made my first Chanel purchase. Mischief managed majorly. Sephora post will be coming up soon (I was waiting for my package to arrive).

Happy Monday friends! 

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving with your loved ones!

p.s. we've got some big news so I apologize in advance for a lack of posts! we'll pretty much be completely booked all thru December! I'll let you all in the good news as soon as we get everything finalized which should be very soon! Again, thank you all for reading and tagging along in this roller coaster life of ours :D. Love you all!

Adventures: Hawaii 2014 - Oahu Day 2

With the time change from California to Hawaii, it's much easier to wake up early. We were up and ready to tackle the day easily by 7am. But first, let me take a coffee drink selfie.

vintage kona mocha with peaberry chip

It was pouring all over the island and Tanya had forgotten her tennis shoes so we went back to Kaneohe to grab them and since it was actually drier on the "wet" side of the island we decided to do the Pillbox Hike (great Wiki Resource: link).

It was a little muddy from the drizzling earlier that morning but there are ropes on the side of the trail if you need some extra grip. It is not a paved trail so you need to watch for areas of major slippage. We were in a rush to complete the hike since it looked like it was about to start raining again so we actually didn't hike to the actual 3 pillboxes. You can get a pretty good view without even hiking all the way up.

(note: the two photos below were taken at the same spot and no filters were used but I did change the ISO settings which is why they look so different. But it gives you an idea of how gloomy and ominous it was that day)

Right after we finished the Pillbox Hike and got back to our car, it literally started pouring. We drove by so many people taking cover under random people's homes. Due to our stranger danger meter, we decided to not offer any rides.

Originally we had wanted to hike Koko Head again because it is seriously the Everest for someone that rarely exercises lol. But since it was raining, we figured it wouldn't be the best idea. So instead, we decided to tackle another hike. I had mentioned doing the Makapu'u Lighthouse Hike so that's exactly what we did. There's a decent amount of parking but make sure you don't have anything valuable in your car. Right when we arrived, there was a cop interviewing some people and their car had been broken into (window was shattered) so be very careful and exercise common sense!

After that hike we decided to do our usual ritual of getting an Acai Bowl. We headed for Salted Lemon.

Their acai bowl is quick huge so if you're not particularly hungry, I would suggest sharing. My only comment would be that their acai bowl needed more granola! But it was tasty nonetheless.


I had also wanted to go to North Shore and try Matsumoto's Shave Ice since I've never been in all the times I've been to Hawaii so since we still had some extra time, we headed north to do one more hike at Waimea Falls. This really isn't a hike and you also have to pay for entry so it's not something that's a must do. If you are interested in visiting an arboretum or botanical garden, then this is more the place for you. The trail is VERY easy and is good for all ages. You can actually take a dip in the water at the end of the hike at the waterfall which I wouldn't recommend unless you want leptospirosis (there's a huge sign warning you about it) but again, you can YOLO it up all you want lol but I wasn't about to ruin my vacation by getting an infection.

these leaves made me think of a bug's life and bug's land in california adventures

i'm standing there for size reference lol. the tree is gynormous!

After finishing that hike, we headed for Matsumoto's Shave Ice. If you are using an iPhone, be very careful of the directions it gives you when going from Waimea Falls to Matsumoto's Shave Ice. It actually tells you to turn right into a road that does not exist! Luckily there's another rode that takes to you back.

I actually enjoyed Matsumoto's Shave Ice more than Waiola Shave Ice to my surprise. But I will say it was probably because of what I ordered and the presentation. If you are someone that looks at the menu and is completely confused as to what to order, I would order the Hawaiian combo with condensed milk (everything tastes better with condensed milk!). Also spare the extra 30 cents and get the cone holder thing! Your clothes and hands will love you for it 'cause it gets dirty! Plus you won't end up with half your ice on the ground. The Hawaiian combo came out as a rainbow (obviously) and it was extremely tasty! Highly recommend. Unfortunately I don't have a picture because eating shave ice and taking pictures are two things that don't go together but here's a picture of what it kinda looked like. As you dig into it more, it looks prettier and prettier with all the colors.


After driving all over the island, we retreated to Aulani and spent some time in the pool before heading back out for some Curry House. I don't know if it was all the traveling we had done that day or all the hiking but this bowl of Curry Udon with Fried Chicken tasted so BOMB. I've actually been to the same place before but it didn't taste as good the time before. I always say you have to try a restaurant twice before you can rate it on Yelp because of exactly this reason. Everyone has their off days.

After the noodling, we went to Target to do a little shopping. When we got back to Aulani, we watched 17 Again (one of our favorites from pharmacy school) and then fell asleep. 

Day 3 was our shopping day so there weren't very many pictures but I will make that post soon! Thanks for reading (or at least just skimming through the pictures lol)!