LONG TIME NO SEE! So first I really failed at my goal of blogging more, but at least I am doing it now (thank to motivation from Kyleen and Bella)! So I wanted to first come back and blog about my trip to Hawaii that everyone knows I went on and has already seen too much about!
A couple weeks ago, my best friend Lauren and I took off and headed to my mom’s home town of Kaneohe, Hawaii for her high school reunion. We stayed in the Outrigger Reef in Waikiki. My mom’s best friend use to own this hotel so she had a lot of fun stories to tell about it. The hotel is right on the beach and we stayed in the penthouse, so we had an insane view of Diamond Head. Lauren and I went to the beach everyday, but we also went on other adventures. Waikiki is a really fun and built up city to walk around and shop in. The have a San Lorenzo shop with swimsuits covering every single wall. It was heaven. One of my favorite places we found was KAIWA teppan and sushi. I love sushi so much and this was one of the best places I have ever been to! I am not really sure what we ordered since the menu was not in english, but it was insanely good. Another really good restaurant we ate at was Eggs and Things. There are a couple Eggs and Things around Waikiki, but the one next to our hotel is the original. It is a breakfast place, sort of like Stacks for us. It is extremely popular for tourists and locals. So popular that there is already a waiting list when the doors open at 6 a.m. The wait was totally worth it though! Lauren got chocolate chip waffles with guava syrup (she loves anything guava) and I, of course, got my favorite meal: spam and eggs. I love breakfast food, so I was in heaven. Another fun breakfast item we had was guava toast. Our hotel did not have much breakfast food to offer, but the guava toast made up for it. It was so interesting that you ate the whole thing. We ate at so many places I can’t even remember all of them. And for desert we of course got malasadas. Malasadas are fried balls of dough covered in sugar and are DELICIOUS. Leonard’s bakery is famous for having some of the best malasadas around; so good that we walked four miles for them! Actually my bother and his wife walked four miles for them as Lauren and I went to the ABC store. PS the ABC store is my favorite part of Hawaii. They have them on every block, they sell everything, and my mom knows the family that owns it. I love that place so much. Anyway back to food. Some of the other sweets we ate include passion fruit cotton candy, ice cream sundaes, guava cake, and LOTS of chocolate covered macadamia nuts. We ate at some pretty good places when it was up to Lauren and me, but when it came time to eat the traditional food at all of the reunions, I almost threw up. My mom and her friends grew up eating this stuff so they were fine, but there was no way in hell I was going to eat clear chicken noodles and green squid soup. I can tolerate poi and some of the poke, but this year was a whole new level with the traditional food. Thank God for coconut cake though!
One adventure we went on was going to Kualoa ranch. Covered in rich, lush forests, Kualoa ranch is a tourist spot where people can ride ATVs, horses, take a boat ride, or explore their private beach. If you want to book an excursion here, make sure to do it a couple months in advanced. We took the boat ride to China Man’s hat. I love boat rides and the trip made me realize how much I would love to live here and help protect the wildlife! We saw so many turtles and reefs. Everyone was watching Lauren and me take pictures of each other but oh well we got some good shots. Here are some pictures:
Lauren and I also took the trolley around the Island one day and it was so relaxing. One of my favorite things we did was sneak into Trump Tower. I wanted to go in an infinity pool so bad and the only one is at the Trump Tower. So, we walked into the hotel, which by the way has the weirdest flooring and elevator system, and got in the elevator with some British tourists. Lauren said we lost our key (while holding a room key to another hotel) and that our parents were at the pool. They tried swiping us to the pool floor, but it seemed to not work. Lauren and I ended up on a floor that said lobby, so we thought we were back to the bottom. Turns out, the lobby is on floor 9, the same floor as the pool! I will never forget when I was all sad and I hear Lauren go “Uh Camille I think this is it” and I look to my left and there it is. The pool was kind of a let down, but it was so fun trying to get here, and part of the view was amazing. Lauren and I did lots of other things like paddle board, tan in the rain, have photo shoots everyday while moms watched us, watch the Mater Dei basketball team play Marco Polo, and watch Adult Swim in our bathrobes.
I love Hawaii so much and my mom is so lucky to call it home. I hope one day I can call it home too. Her lifestyle and the way she was raised turned her into an amazing and tough lady and I want the same for my future kids! I hope if you go to Waikiki soon you step out of the city and explore the areas that are still like how they use to be, like Kaneohe. The drive to Kaneohe is absolutely breath taking. You drive through basically just green. I got see my mom’s old house and her view is insane. Everything seemed like a backdrop. We also got to go to a party at my mom’s best friend’s house, which is literally on the beach. She took us on a tour of the houses and told us stories about all of her friends who lived in them. It is really nice to go on a vacation and do touristy things, but I love being immersed in the locals’ lives and having a personal element to my vacation.
I am so glad that I got to share this trip with my best friend Lauren and extremely happy I could share my favorite parts with you! I really hope you get to go to any island of Hawaii soon. All of them are so different and so fun.
Thank you so much for reading!!!
everywear 