Wait, you didn’t think I was going to leave it at that, did you?  I actually plan on dragging out our trip to Hawaii for as long as possible by recapping it island by island then posting a big old travel guide (with hotel, tour group and restaurant recommendations!) at the end.  Partly because I wanna keep reliving this vacation and partly because when I’M travel planning, reading recommendations from other people is so so helpful.  And without further adieu, Oahu!

We flew (direct!) from Denver to Honolulu and were transported to Waikiki and serious story, I returned from the airport bathroom to find Joey, Lori and Adam all laughing because the woman ushering us to our bus had apparently called me a teenager.  This is my real life.

We stayed near Waikiki Beach and I’ll be honest, it is crowded and touristy.  I’ve seen worse though and when you can walk to the beach and have your wedges toes in the sand in five minutes, you forget about all of that.  Also, it took all of 30 seconds for me to fall in love with Hawaiian sunsets.  We walked down the beach and grabbed dinner at Duke’s.  Plus umbrella (or backscratcher?!) drinks for all!  On the walk back to our hotel, we found some shave ice because: when in Hawaii!

The next day we were up and at ’em for a full day at the Polynesian Cultural Center.  Our bus driver was… quite the character.  I don’t even think I can go there because it would take too long but I don’t think any of us will forget “Cousin Ken” any time soon.  As for the cultural center, it’s more or less a theme park, divided into areas for each Polynesian island/culture, where they do scheduled performances throughout the day.  Though we all had fun, we agreed that we could have skipped the all day activities and just came for the luau and post-dinner show (front row seats, hi-ya!).  I drank from an actual coconut and later on from a full pineapple, so I was happy.Read More »