we're still alive!

hello all! sorry about taking so long to put up another post - we've been busy enjoying all the island has to offer. our last post was for tuesday and wednesday so let's catch you up on the rest of the time we were on the west side of the island, which was thursday, friday and part of saturday. 

thursday was an "errands" day since we were making dinner for the "surfer guys" that were on the island for vacation at the same time as we were - the surfer guys come to SubPalace on the weekend when they are in the area to surf so tim's parents have gotten to know them pretty well over the past few years. each time they are in hawaii at the same time, they get together for dinner. before our errands, we stopped for lunch at poke stop, a recommended place on diner's, drive-ins and dives and below is a photo of part of one of the dishes we ordered...cute huh?! :-/

part of the shrimp and short rib lunch we had

after lunch, tim and i picked up some great steaks at costco and then ran around the area looking at different shops and of course making a trip to foodland (island grocery store) to stock up on our freezer bags that we love! we started our cooking when we got back and had a great dinner.

friday was our trip to the north shore with tim's parents.  we had some rain off and on through the day, but it didn't really change our plans since the rain was quick when it did come through and it stayed nice and warm even with the rain. we checked out the place where tim and his family used to vacation ever year when he was younger and spent some time walking the beach there. we also made a trip to pipeline, where the waves are the biggest on the island during the winter. the waves weren't huge that day, but the view was impressive as always. following our trip to the beaches, we had to make the obligatory stops, including surf 'n sea, matsumoto's shave ice (guava, pineapple and mango - YUM!), and kua'aina burger shack for lunch! when we got back to ko'olina (the timeshare location), we headed out to the beach to relax and soak in some sun! we made a great BBQ smoked pork dinner that we enjoyed on the balcony with live music from the bar below. we packed up our stuff as tim's parents were leaving to go home the next day and we were headed to waikiki to finish out our stay.

the next morning (saturday) we said goodbye to ko'olina and were dropped off by tim's parents at the moana surfrider hotel - a beautiful historic building in the middle of waikiki that was turned into a hotel by the westin hotel group, but has maintained its historical charm. since we have been here, we have seen at least 3 separate couples a day dressed in wedding attire taking photos throughout our hotel - it is a popular venue for Japanese couples to tie the knot. anyway, we were a bit early to check into our room, so we headed out in search of breakfast. after we walked around downtown waikiki a bit, we changed into our suits and headed to the hotel pool, which is next to the banyan tree bar that has beautiful live music all afternoon and evening. we enjoyed the relaxation time and even were served fresh cut pineapple by the pool staff. when our room was ready we headed up to find that it overlooked the banyan tree bar and courtyard and even had a view of the ocean out of one window! we settled into our room and then headed off to meet the surfer guys for mai tais at the mai tai bar in the royal hawaiian hotel - a perfect start to the waikiki portion of our trip! we finished off with dinner at the cheesecake factory since we were lucky enough to avoid the 1.5 hour wait by finding seats at the bar right away. we walked off some of our meal by taking a stroll down main drag, kalakaua avenue (say that three times fast).

we woke up early sunday morning to be picked up for our scuba day. after waiting for a while to get on the boat, we were finally on our way to the west side marina for our two-tank dive. tim brought his new purchase, a go-pro video camera that comes with a waterproof housing, so we were able to take some videos of what it looks like underwater in hawaii. see the video below to meet one of the friends we made on our second dive... 

after a long day under and on the water, we got back to our hotel, showered up and then headed out for dinner at a great sushi restaurant that we found through yelp. we were seated at a great table outside and had some incredible sushi rolls! we tried a fantastic spicy tuna avocado roll, duraku roll (a restaurant special, featuring seared ahi, pickled radish, and shaved onion on top of a california roll) and a waikiki roll, with pineapple and macadamia nuts incorporated, again, with tuna. We finished our dinner off with an incredible (and sinful!) dessert of tempura brownie - just what it sounds like, with a nice serving of vanilla bean ice cream on top...to die for! tim hasn't downloaded those photos yet, so we'll have to do a separate posting of all the great dishes we've had!

monday morning we got up early again, but this time to meet the surfer guys for a surfing lesson! tim has surfed before, but it was a first time for me - they put me on a 10 foot board and, as promised, i "floated like a cork!" the water was incredibly clear and warm - so much so that we didn't mind sitting on the boards waiting for the sets to come in. i seemed to be able to get the basics of paddling, sitting on and turning the board around and was able to get up on the board 1.5 times - i say "1.5" because the first time i got up was only for about .5 seconds! i think i have caught the surfing "bug" but am not sure how long that bug is going to last with the freezing water we have in southern california most of the year...it may just be a "warm water vacation" kind of bug! we do have video from the trusty go-pro, but those need to be uploaded so we'll do a posting for those videos too at a later date. after the 2 hour rental period on the board was over, we headed back to the hotel to lay on the beach and take a siesta - after all, we were up at 6:30 that morning. we were able to get some of our souvenir and gift shopping done before meeting with the surfer guys again for dinner at duke's - a tradition for them on their last night in oahu. we finished a great dinner and capped the night off with mai tais again at the royal hawaiian.

ok, now we're all caught up to today, tuesday. we got ourselves up and going relatively early as we headed to climb to the top of diamond head crater for the spectacular views of waikiki.  video for this will come at a later date too as it hasn't yet been uploaded by the video guru! today was quite a bit more humid than the last few days have been, but we had some sprinkles on the way up to the top that cooled us off a bit. we spent some time at the top then headed down to be sure we had time for lunch and to rinse off before our couples massage appointment at the spa at the hilton hawaiian village. we highly recommend making an appointment for that spa - it was first class and the staff was great! we emerged incredibly relaxed and meandered our way back to our hotel to pack before dinner. so here we were - making our update post before we head to dinner on our last night in oahu. we are sad to leave, but have had a great time here and made many new memories...this time as husband and wife!


thank you all for following us and we apologize for the delays in postings, but hope that this has made up for that delay. like we said, we plan to make a few more postings in the next few days with some of the videos and photos we've taken along the adventures of our mini-moon! to hold you over, some photos from my phone...

north shore beach

royal hawaiian mai tais!

beautiful plumeria on the way down from diamond head

lots of love,
mr. & mrs. y