The winds are howling like crazy when we wake up on Sunday. It sounds like there is a hurricane, but then I look outside and there are a few people below standing around taking in the serenity of the early morning hours before the crowds hit the beach. They don’t look like they are about to be blown away by the wind gusts so I guess it sounds worse than it really is.

A full breakfast sounded good this morning so we decide to hit the hotel’s Pa’akai restaurant. Not a lot of selections, which is a good thing, as it doesn’t get overwhelming trying to make a choice. I’m in love with kalua pork and go for the kalua pork hash. Hook settles for the local north shore eggs. The food was good, very, very filling.

Who do I spy at the hotel’s Guidepost station as we walked around after brekky? It’s none other than Pono! Turtle Bay’s ambassador canine. Squeeee! I was giddy with excitement. I have been following Pono’s Instagram since I found out about him. Pono, on the other hand, didn’t quite share my excitement. Oh well, it was Sunday after all. A doggie deserves a day off. 🐶

We continued to walk around some, checking out the different areas of the property, including the various gift shops. The prices were surprisingly not bad, and we managed to pick up a few “Ooh isn’t this nice? I need this. I need that” items.

Despite it being windy, the beach is busy. We decide to go out for a ride. We drive towards Kahuku and keep going, just a leisurely drive on a quiet Sunday afternoon. And quiet it sure was, with almost the entire town closed except for Mickey D’s. It later dawned on us that we were in Laie, a predominantly LDS town, hence everything is shut on Sundays.

We start heading back, with the goal of stopping at Kahuku where Hook promised me some seaglass jewelry shopping. I have visions of perusing cute boutique shops looking for that perfect, local, handmade souvenir.

Errrmmm… are we in the right place?? This isn’t quite what I was expecting…😑

Ok, ok, to be fair there was a seaglass shop off to the right with local, handmade jewelry. Just not quite the “boutique” shop I had envisioned.

Hook makes up for it with a shave ice treat. We shared an azuki bean shave ice with ice cream. Ahhhh…soooo good! The shave ice so fine and light. Things are looking up!

There was a Fumi’s shrimp truck outpost at the same spot. Hook has talked nonstop for a month about Fumi’s since he read about it. This was the number one food truck must do on his list. He goes to grab us some takeout for dinner.

While Hook waits for our meal, I go off to make some new friends. Or shall I say, furrrriends. I had spotted cats by one of the stores when we first got here. If you haven’t guessed it yet, I love cats.  L-O-V-E.

The cats are skittish and would not let me pet them. They look well fed as one of the stores look after them. It makes me sad nevertheless to see so many of them in the area.

I finally tear myself away from my attempt to make friends and we head back to the hotel.

That evening we dined on Fumi’s takeout of garlic shrimp, fried cod, some uber tarts for dessert, and finished it off with gin and tonic. Not a shabby way to end the day. Cheers!

Some photos around Turtle Bay Resort

Our next stop is the ‘burbs to run an errand.  We head out to Kapolei where I saw that there is a Petsmart.  Nice area, new shopping centers and homes.  Definitely suburbia.

We are taking a day trip on Monday to the Lanai Cat Sanctuary and I wanted to bring some donations along.  I start throwing tubs and tubs of cat treats in the cart, along with cat toys.  I then add a Sherpa soft-sided carrier to the cart, reasoning that they might need one should someone decide to adopt one of the cats.  Hook gives me the side eye and says it’s probably a ploy on my part in case I fall in love with one of the Lanai lions and want to bring it home.  Ha!  Well, we did adopt one of our cats from the small island of Carriacou in the Caribbean from one of our trips…😺

The cashier is amazed at the amount of cat treats and toys we were buying and asks how many cats we have.  LOL.  I assure her these were going to be donated, and that no, I wasn’t really a crazy cat hoarder!! 😹😹

By now it was just about time to head to the Monkeypod in Ko’olina for some grub and live music.  This has been the plan all along when I saw that Shawn Garnett was playing there at lunch that day.  Shawn is better known as Cousin Flippa on Hawaii Five-0 and I am a big fan of the show.  I was super excited to see someone from the show in person.

Cousin Flippa is a great singer.  We enjoyed the music and, I got to take a photo with him! Yep, fan girl moment. 😎

The food at Monkeypod was very good, as expected for such a restaurant.  We had the truffle fries, the seared ahi sammie, grilled mahi sammie, a couple of cocktails, and of course, the yummy coconut pie. 

It was a pricey lunch, but we were pretty much stuffed.

We make our way up north.  It was raining for most of the drive, heavy at times.  We hit the north shore area and it is traffic galore as people were crossing the street to get to their cars to head home.

A quick stop at the Foodland at Pupukea to load up on drinks and snacks for the room.  I love to browse the local supermarket aisles at every island we visit.  I find that they usually have a good selection of locally made goodies that make for great souvenirs.  Hook gets a pound of ahi poke from the deli which we planned on enjoying at the hotel room as our dinner for the night.  After such a big lunch, we just wanted something simple.

Finally we make it to Turtle Bay Resort, our home base for the next few days.  It was still raining and extremely windy, but our beautiful room and the views of the beach more than make up for it.

By 7 pm I was yawning and could barely keep my eyes open.  Hook made fun of me as I was out by the next hour.  Hey, it was technically way past midnight my time! 

Aloha good night!

Shawn Garnett singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow 

We have always dreamt and talked about visiting the Hawaiian islands, but the thought of the very long travel and the high cost kept us away.  Oh what the heck!  2020 was going to be the year.  We were finally going to make it happen!  What better reason than celebrating our 20 year anniversary?!  Hawaii here we come! 20 in 2020 – Discovering new places 😎

We flew out of Washington Dulles early morning on Friday, Feb 28th, with a layover at LAX, and arrived in Honolulu that evening.  A 15 hour travel day was brutal.  BRUTAL!  But that feeling of we were finally in Hawaii and knowing our eating adventures were about to begin, gave us the much needed boost to get us through.

We picked up our wheels at National Car Rental just outside of arrivals.  The lady at the rental counter welcomed us warmly and it was such a delight to be welcomed with that aloha spirit.  This vacay is off to a good start.

First stop, L&L BBQ at the Airport Trade Center to get a takeout dinner and grab a stash of uber tarts.  I have been so looking forward to enjoying these tarts again ever since I had a taste of the Uber Factory tarts when our friends brought some back from their trip.  I had researched where we could pick some up on our way from the airport and was so excited to see that they were available just around the corner from the airport. Score!

We got a takeout combo plate of kalua pork and pork laulau, and an order of spam musubi and took it to the hotel for our dinner.  Yummy!  The combo plate was so good.  We were so hungry we forgot to take a photo before digging in. 😋.  They give you a lot too.  We shared the plate and couldn’t even finish it.

I was smart enough to know that we would be too tired to drive up north after such a long travel day, so booked a hotel for the night in Waikiki at the Marriott Courtyard.  The staff were again, full of that warm aloha spirit.  The room left a lot to be desired.  The room had a funky smell, the kind of musty smell when something didn’t dry completely.  I am very sensitive to smells and it was yuck! 🤢  The room was very small, and the bathroom was tight with a tiny shower.  It would not be a choice next time.

Oh well.  Tomorrow will be a new day.