Hawaii 2015: Day 1

Welcome back, folks!

Today was our day of travel to O'ahu, Hawaii.  We originally planned this trip when I wasn't pregnant, but now it's serving as a Babymoon.  Our plan for this trip is to spend a lot of time eating, sleeping, and relaxing.  What's new?  Don't Nick and I usually do that on vacations?  My Dad and brother's plan is to scuba dive in the mornings while we sleep in.  That is A-okay for the rest of us.  So for the next six days, kick back and enjoy the photo show and food porn with me.

Emmy looked so sad this morning when we were leaving.  Though it was around the same time that we normally leave for work, she could tell by the previous day's worth of packing and suitcases that something was different.  When my family came to pick us up, she hopped into the Pilot and wouldn't move.  Poor girl cried when Nick picked her up to give her kisses.  I gave her a pep talk about Auntie Shanna coming to stay with her, but she didn't seem to be comforted much.  Too bad we couldn't bring her with us.  I think she would have loved running on the beaches.

Our flight went off without a hitch.  I was a little worried because there were a ton of young children on the plane, but none of them had meltdowns.  We don't plan to travel by plane with the kids until they are around 4-5 years old and can [hopefully] control themselves.  Too optimistic for a first time parent?  Perhaps.  The good thing was that I only got up to go to the bathroom five times and managed to drink half a gallon of water on the flight alone.  There were many, many bathroom breaks after we got off the plane though.  Left side baby didn't like the decrease in altitude and was very active on the way down. He must take after me.  Right side baby is the mellow one and takes after Nick.

Fruit lunch on the plane ,which I slept through.

Straight from the airport we went to Christine's Diner for a classic Hawaiian style lunch.  Nick got garlic ahi, Christopher got garlic shrimp, and I got cabbage and Kahlua pork. It was a great first meal to start off the trip.  The diner was literally around the corner from our rental car place.  We weren't starving, but definitely were able to pack it away.  It's a good thing we'll be doing a lot of walking on this trip.

Garlic Ahi

Garlic Shrimp

Kahlua pork and cabbage.  The mac salad and cold green salad was so tasty.  The pork also had a great smokey flavor.  I'd recommend this place if anyone wants to go eat near the Honolulu Airport.  It's a tiny hole-in-the-wall type of place, but definitely good eats. 

After lunch we braved the local Costco.  It was a nightmare.  I thought our Costco on a Sunday was bad.  This was REALLY BAD.  I hate to say it, but that many Asian people all in one spot gets really pushy and rude.  We tried to get out of there as quickly as possible, but with that many people it was hard to move anywhere.  I got myself my organic muscle milk and we got strawberries, bananas, cherries, lychee, smoked ahi, beer, and wine for the suite.  Hopefully that will last us for snacks because I certainly don't want to go back there again!

My Dad booked us a pretty sweet suite (see what I did there?) right on the beach of Waikiki.  All we have to do is cross the street to get to the sand. It has a fully stocked kitchen with two bedrooms and a huge balcony.  Nick, my Mom and I said that we would be perfectly happy watching surfers from the balcony all day.  If you follow any of us on Instagram or Facebook, you'll probably have seen most of these pictures already.

My parents were trying to take a selfie of themselves with the view from our room.  My Dad asked Christopher, "Why is our selfie so dark?"  Christopher just started cracking up and showed me.  They took their selfie in the reflection of the window. 

View from our room.

After getting our luggage and settling in for a little bit, we walked down the main Waikiki strip.  Nick and I have been looking forward to eating at Marukame Udon since my Dad first mentioned Hawaii.  It was pretty warm out, but we still went there for dinner to have hot soup anyway.  Well worth it, in my humble opinion.  We want to take my family to some of the places that we ate at during our honeymoon, but need to venture out too.  Marukame Udon was a must visit restaurant for us though.

Ontema udon with tempura shrimp and vegetables. 

I got the Kake udon with plenty of spam musubi and a beef and ginger wrap. 

Beef and ginger wrap

Even though I walk 3 miles after work with Emmy everyday, my pregnant feet and ankles aren't used to altitude to sea level then walking in flip flops for an hour. 

We called it a pretty early night since it was a long day.  Tomorrow, June 1st, Christopher and my Dad plan to go to North Shore with a scuba shop to go check out the waters up there.  We're going to meet them for lunch and get peel and eat shrimp and shave ice.  Looking forward to what good eats tomorrow brings.

#thankful.