The island of Oahu, April and May 2014

Aloha! Having recently returned from an epic trip in Hawaii with my Mom, it's time for another travel entry! The trip took place towards the end of April and the beginning of May. We spent 12 nights/12 days in Hawaii. We spent four nights in Oahu, three nights on the Big Island, and five nights in Maui. I'll stick to the island of Oahu in this entry.

I love Hawaii. We went five years ago and had an amazing trip filled with great memories. My Mom was selling our house, and vowed when it was sold that we'd take a trip to Hawaii-and that we did! We arrived around 5:30pm, which is a nice time to arrive since you can get to your hotel, get a little freshened up, and head out for some drinks and dinner. Our first stop? Obviously Duke's for some mai tais!

First Mai Tais of the trip!

We knew we'd finally arrived when we started sipping our mai tais! After a 5.5 hr flight and a 6.5 hour flight, it was so nice to be back on land for close to two weeks.

Our first day we started off with some delicious breakfast at the Hula Grill-some yummy eggs benedict and some amazing banana macadamia nut pancakes. YUM!! Check these out: 

Banana Mac Nut Pancakes

Anyway, we spent the day relaxing on Waikiki Beach--a hub of activity, surfing lessons, Stand Up Paddle (SUP) boarding lessons, swimming, lounging...a fun, gorgeous beach which has beach, tall buildings, and a mountain all in one setting. One of my favorite beaches in the world for sure!

Waikiki Beach

So anyway, we spent the day lounging around-perfect plan for your first day in Hawaii-and that night we went to "Art After Dark" at the Honolulu Museum of Art. They have this every last Friday of each month with music, performers, artists, drinks, food, a dj....we had a blast and ended up dancing for the last half hour or so!

Mom and I at Art After Dark

We finished the night at Duke's bar once again.

Our second day our main activity was a hike to Manoa Falls. We ended up taking some city buses to get there, which worked out well, but definitely would have been a lot easier with a car (we didn't rent one on Oahu). Anyways, the hike was only .75 mile each way, but was treacherous due to previous rainy weather, so the rocks were slippery and muddy. Mom survived with her walking stick and she kept a positive attitude the whole time! In the end, we both had some laughs and were happy we accomplished this wacky hike. We celebrated that night with a nice steakhouse dinner :)

Manoa Falls

We made it!

Hanuama Bay

Our final day we went on an adventure to Hanuama Bay to snorkel and lounge. It's known to be very pretty and have great and easy snorkeling, since the coral reef is so close to the shore. We had a wonderful morning here. We took the city bus, which was easy and convenient, and spent the first half of the day here. I snorkeled and saw lots of cool fish, especially some funky neon-colored guys. Just laying out, reading, and relaxing was also quite nice!  After we had had enough of the sun for the day, we headed back to Waikiki Beach and had a drink at the Mai Tai Bar, which was right on the beach, so we watched the passersby and all the action on the beach. There was also a Zumba-thon going on, which we may or may not have joined after our drink! :)

We had a casual dinner that night at Jimmy Buffett's, and then of course, where else did we go? Duke's to finish off our last night in Waikiki, Oahu.

What can I say? A few days of beach, lounging, restaurants, mai tais, with some hiking and dancing thrown in....a great start to an amazing trip!

Next, onto the Big Island!