{"id":4278,"date":"2019-11-03T07:23:45","date_gmt":"2019-11-03T07:23:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/updates.xephalon.net\/?p=4278"},"modified":"2019-12-10T07:54:32","modified_gmt":"2019-12-10T07:54:32","slug":"trip-to-honolulu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/2019\/11\/03\/trip-to-honolulu\/","title":{"rendered":"Trip to Honolulu"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>We had planned a trip to Oahu to unwind and enjoy some family time, so we kept our agenda light with minimal activities planned. With much to wrap up at work, we didn’t finish packing until late and overslept our alarm. Fortunately, we managed to beat rush hour traffic to board our 7 AM flight at SFO, where we entertained Westley with TV shows, Nintendo, and WikkiStix<\/a>. Picking up our car seat-equipped rental<\/a> and checking in to the marina-view AirBnb<\/a> were a cinch, leaving us time to enjoy Marukame Udon<\/a> and SomiSomi<\/a> taiyaki while exploring the Ala Moana Center<\/a> and Shirokiya Japan Village Walk<\/a>. Due to the jet-lag, we awoke super-early next morning for Leonard’s malasadas<\/a> on the way to Hanauma Bay<\/a>. Westley did not have the courage to snorkel with us, so he mostly worked on sand castles while we took turns swimming with the fishes. We were so post-prandial from Fatboy’s<\/a> loco moco and BBQ lunch plate that we napped in the parking lot at Sea Life Park<\/a> before heading in to feed their sea turtles and parakeets. That evening, there was hardly a line for the crispy tonkatsu at Tamafuji<\/a>, which gave us time to nab an epic matcha warabi mochi parfait at Nana’s Green Tea<\/a> and a Quiksilver<\/a> rash guard before calling it a night. On Saturday, we marched through the Hilton<\/a> property to embark on the Atlantis<\/a> submarine ride for a deep-sea view of fish and corals amidst sunken boats and planes<\/span>, followed by refreshing cold soba and uni\/ikuro bowls at I-naba<\/a>. We hung out with my friend Jeff’s family at Izakaya Gazen<\/a> afterwards, then at their house until well past bedtime. Sunday brunch at Koko Head Cafe<\/a> included amazing cornflake french toast and “koko moco,” which kept us nourished for our visit with the African wild dogs and giant koi at the Honolulu Zoo<\/a>. We returned to Waikiki Yokocho<\/a> for Bario Ramen<\/a> and Nana’s<\/a> hoji soft-serve, followed by lychee sorbet from Henry’s Place<\/a> and supersized udon bowls from TsuroTonTan<\/a>. Our busy Monday began at dawn as we braved cold rain to inspect sea anemones in the shallows of Duke Kahanamoku Lagoon<\/a><\/span>. We warmed up with homemade chow fun and congee at Lam’s Kitchen<\/a>, grabbed road snacks at Musubi Cafe Iyasume<\/a><\/span>, then drove to the Dole Plantation<\/a> to enjoy a Dole Whip<\/a> while waiting in line for the Pineapple Express<\/a> train ride. Our afternoon at the Polynesian Cultural Center<\/a> included a musical canoe show<\/a>, a revisit to our favorite Samoan performer<\/a>, poi balls and games<\/a>, rhythmic bamboo sticks<\/a>, and pole fishing<\/a>. We returned for a late dinner afterwards at Sushi Izakaya Gaku<\/a> with uni shooters, chazuke, and a massive yellowtail collar which shifted the bulge from our wallets to our bellies. The next day, we split some Liliha<\/a> coco and choco puffs on the way to the tiny Waikiki Aquarium<\/a>, ate unimpressive Palace Saimin<\/a>, then revisited the lagoon for water gun fights. For dinner, we compared tonkatsu at Bairin<\/a> with Jeff’s family, then shared coconut, pineapple, and watermelon sorbets<\/a> for palate cleansing. An earlier morning visit to Haunama Bay on Friday scored us free snorkeling, this time as a whole family, which made us plenty hungry for tako and ahi poke<\/a> and malasadas a la mode<\/a>. Westley slept through lunch at Helena’s Hawaiian Food<\/a>, where the pipikaula short ribs and butterfish collars overshadowed the kalua pig, tripe stew, and chicken long rice. Unfortunately, he awoke too late for aqua-bike rentals, but we did enjoy more lagoon time prior to Wagaya ramen<\/a> and corn tempura. After packing the next morning, we returned to the Ala Moana food court for Jollibee ChickenJoy<\/a>,\u00a0MyungRang<\/a> Korean hot dogs, and shaved ice<\/a> before heading to the airport. In honor of the holiday, Westley flew home as Spiderman to the delight of the crew. We spent the last days off recovering from jet lag by adventuring through Koholint Island in <\/span>Link’s Awakening<\/a>, as we reminisced about our trip to the Japanese food haven of Honolulu.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We had planned a trip to Oahu to unwind and enjoy some family time, so we kept our agenda light with minimal activities planned. With much to wrap up at work, we didn’t finish packing until late and overslept our … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4278"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4329,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4278\/revisions\/4329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}