Oahu, hawaii

For the last few years, we’ve planned a getaway in February for us to escape the dead of winter in the Pacific NW. With limited countries open for international travel due to Covid, we decided this was the year for a trip to Hawaii! The boys have never been, and Tyson has been asking to go to Hawaii the last couple years. Our friends, Bethany and Chris, live on Oahu and they have two girls the same age as the boys. We figured it would be fun to visit them while we’re there!

The morning of our flight we woke up to about 8 inches of snow at our house. Uh, seriously? We tried to book an Uber to take us to the airport, but no Uber’s were available in our area because of black ice on the streets. Shoot, we didn’t plan for that! We were frantically calling our nearby friends to see if anyone could take us to the airport like NOW. Luckily our friend, Devin, was able to take us! We owe him big time!

Unfortunately, due to the snowstorm our flight was delayed multiple times - like 5 separate delayed announcements, 3 different potential planes and a gate change at the last minute. After 10 HOURS waiting with a 4 and 7 year old at the airport, we finally boarded the plane. It’s about time! The pilot (named Casino) said we were taking a risk boarding because if we didn’t board and take off within an hour he would time out and not be legally able to fly us out. As everyone was buckled in and ready for takeoff - you guessed it- the captain came on the intercom and canceled the flight. You’ve got to be kidding me! We all gathered our bags and explained to the kids what just happened and that we weren’t going to Hawaii today. Then we had to stand in an hour-long line at customer service to change our flight. Of course we got a lady who was in training on her first day so even though we were middle of the line to start we were literally the last to leave the line. Everyone ended up on a flight the next morning except us who had to  take the 5:30pm flight..... on Valentine’s Day. We had a super fun day planned that day and a double date with our friends that evening. Such a bummer!

The next morning we figured we’d make the most of our time while we waited to go back to the airport so we sledded down our steep driveway all morning and enjoyed some Valentines chocolates. As long as the boys are having fun that’s all that matters.

It was finally time to go back to the airport and luckily our flight was on time this time. Yay! After a 6-hour flight, we arrived in Honolulu around 10pm and they almost didn’t let us in because our 72-hour COVID test had expired. We explained to the manager that our flight was delayed due to a crew mistake that was completely out of our control and luckily he let us through.

We shuttled over to the rental car place and picked up our sweet convertible Mustang. Whoop whoop! The drive over to our Paradise Bay Resort in Kaneohe was nearly half an hour. We pulled up to the front door and starting to unload our suitcases only to find out we had left Tyson’s suitcase at the rental car place. Dang it! It was late and the rental car place had closed so we decided to just check back in the morning and hope they have it. We then walk toward the front door of the resort and see a sign on the door that the front desk closed at 11pm and it’s now almost 11:30. No freakin’ way! We called the emergency maintenance number and woke a guy up out of his slumber to come open the door for us. He said he lived twenty minutes away and would come right over so we just stood at the front door looking up at the stars while we waited. Thirty minutes later he showed up and let us in. Once we finally got in our room we all crashed hard after our exhausting day.

The next morning we drove to the rental car place and thankfully they had Tyson’s suitcase!! We were so happy we didn’t have to spend half the day buying new clothes, swimsuits, toothbrush, etc. Tyson changed his clothes in the car then we headed to Egghead cafe in Honolulu and grabbed a s’more pancakes, strawberry shortcake pancakes, and chocolate banana creme brûlée French toast. Oh, and of course mocha Frappuccino’s. Yum!! Wesley loves my Frappuccino’s so I’m always catching him trying to sneak a sip when I’m not looking. Such a sneaky little fellow! We took our breakfast to a nearby beach park and enjoyed the sun and crashing waves.

We then headed to Makapu’u lighthouse trail to go on a ‘short’ hike. We weren’t exactly prepared for a hike as Marshall and I only had flip flops on and we only had a small cup of water for us to share between the four of us for what ended up being a 2.5 mile hike in the blistering heat and quite a bit of elevation gain. Definitely could have planned that better! The boys complained in the beginning that they were super thirsty and the sun was so hot they were going to burn to dust. Oh good lord! Tyson’s job was to ration the water so we could all survive the hike. They had a big lesson in patience, perseverance, and appreciation for the basics. When we finally made it to the top, we could see whales jumping in the ocean and the amazing view made it all well worth it.

After the nice breezy downhill walk back we put the top down on the Mustang and cruised the shoreline. We stopped in Kailua to share an açaí bowl which was so delicious and a new family favorite we plan to seek out near home! We then headed back to our hotel to freshen up and get ready for dinner with our friends.

We rescheduled our Valentine’s double date to the next day and fortunately they had their babysitter already lined up. After dropping the kids off at the sitter, Bethany and Chris hopped in our mustang and we headed to Haleiwa Joe’s in Kaneohe for dinner. We walked to the back of the ginormous line but Marshall walked straight to the front to ask how long the wait was. They said 2 hours! He noticed a group of 4 leaving a table in the bar and asked if we could snag that table while we waited for our table in the restaurant. The lady said technically we should be waiting in line even for the bar and Marshall was like “we are standing in line”. She laughed and said we could take the table. Gosh, my husband is a genius! We enjoyed drinks and great conversation in the bar and then moved to our table that had a gorgeous view of a lake with a serene jungle surrounding.  The food and the drinks were on point, but the company was even better.

The next morning I worked for a few hours and then we took the boys out to grab lunch. There weren’t many restaurants close by the hotel, so we found a hole in the wall take out place that had great reviews for making the most amazing homemade pasta. We brought it to a nearby park to enjoy while enjoying the ocean view. Marshall had some meetings scheduled after lunch so I dropped him off at the hotel and took the boys to a nearby beach. It wasn’t the nicest beach which was obvious by the fact that there were like five people there and nobody in the water. But Tyson enjoyed dipping his feet in the water and Wesley was having fun throwing sand everywhere.

While we were still playing at the beach, Marshall called me saying he got done with his meetings early, so he had reserved some kayaks for us at our hotel. We jetted back to our hotel and hopped on the two person kayaks to explore the area from the water. Tyson rode with me while Wesley rode with Marshall. We paddled along the shoreline searching for sea turtles. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any but we had fun racing against each other and paddling with an antler-looking stick the boys found floating in the bay.

After our 2-hour kayaking adventure, it was time to make our way to the next hotel...but of course we had to stop for some ice cream along the way. We checked into our room at the Grand Waikikian and got ready for dinner. We cruised around town in search of a restaurant overlooking the water for dinner. We quickly realized that pretty much the only parking is in hotel parking garages that charge a ridiculous amount. Umm, no thanks! Since we weren’t starving, we decided to just get food from the little market inside our hotel and enjoy a quiet evening in our room.

The next day Marshall and I had to work most of the day so we rotated taking breaks to hang out with the boys. I walked them to a nearby coffee shop to get a snack in morning. The coffee tasted like garbage but at least the snacks were really good. In the afternoon. Marshall took them to the pool which had a water slide that Tyson loved going down. Wesley on the other hand thought the water was too cold and didn’t want to even go in the pool at all.

It was getting close to dinner time and we were all excited to check out downtown Honolulu! After walking about a mile trying to scope out a restaurant for dinner, we landed at Tommy Bahama which I always thought was just a clothing store. It had a great vibe and the food and drinks were pretty tasty as well. Live music started towards the end of our dinner which was a nice surprise.  We hung out a bit longer to enjoy the relaxing solo guitar. After dinner we took an Uber to Dave’s ice cream shop near our hotel for a delicious treat.

The following day I had off work and was super excited to spend lots of time in the sun! I took the boys to a café in the morning to try Hawaii’s famous malasada’s which are like custard filled doughnuts dipped in powdered sugar! Just heavenly! Once we got back to our hotel, the kids and I rented a huge tricycle pedal boat that we pedaled all around the lagoon. Tyson's job was to help me pedal and steer while Wesley's job was to make sure my Frappuccino didn't fall into the water. He accomplished that task by holding it up to his mouth the entire time, lol. By the time we got back to shore my coffee was nearly empty. That little stinker!
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Later that afternoon we walked about a mile along the shore from our hotel all the way to Waikiki beach. The boys found some dead crab shells along the path that they really enjoyed stomping on for some reason. When we finally made it to the beach, Tyson and Marshall got in the ocean and were able to walk super far out in the shallow water to body surf in the bigger waves next to people learning to surf. Meanwhile, Wesley and I were busy building sandcastles and sunbathing.

When the boys were all beached out, we walked back along the beautiful shoreline to our hotel. Later that afternoon, our friends Bethany and Chris brought their two girls over to our hotel to hang out while they enjoyed a date night on the town. We all played the game ‘Would You Rather’ which got the kids laughing hysterically. It was fun having other kids for the boys to play with on our trip. We definitely need to plan more vacations with friends that have kids around the same age!

The following morning I worked for a few hours and then we all walked into town to a cute little cafe called Island Vintage Coffee for lunch. I had an exotic looking açaí bowl that came in a half coconut shell. Insanely delicious! I’m looking forward to finding my favorite local açaí cafe when we get back home!

Marshall had to run back to our hotel to hop on a meeting and I decided to take the boys out for ice cream (again! Lucky boys). The boys each got a cup of chocolate soft serve ice cream covered in Oreo chunks. They were in chocolate heaven! We strolled through a courtyard park to find a spot to sit down and enjoy the ice cream. There were lots of stone seats that had signs saying not to sit on them. I found one seat that didn’t have a sign so the boys figured it was safe to sit on. As soon as I snapped a picture, up walks a security guard basically asking if we were blind and didn’t see the signs. I was like ‘ohhhh, I totally didn’t even notice the signs. My bad!’ That’s ok, we ended up walking over to a different bench down the road that was better for people  watching.

We continued walking to find a coffee shop called Kai Coffee that I had found online. Of course, I’m always trying to find the best local blended coffee drinks. This place was descent, but nothing compares to the one I had at Egghead Café that was AMAZING. We’ll definitely need to go back there!

The boys and I Ubered back to our hotel and got changed into our swimsuits. We went down to the pool and once again Tyson was having a blast going down the water slide while Wesley sat on the side with his head down all sad because the water was too cold. Marshall jumped in the pool and then Wesley felt comfortable swimming around in the water. He was quickly ready to make his debut on the slide! He was having so much fun he probably went down at least 20 times. I was so happy to see him on the slides because the main reason I chose this hotel was because I knew the boys would be super excited about the water slides.

After the boys had enough pool time for the day, we wanted to surprise them and take them to Dave and Busters arcade. They are obsessed with arcades and were super surprised and ecstatic when we arrived. Wesley’s favorite games are the car racing ones and Tyson likes the zombie shooting ones. Both Tyson and Wesley won a jackpot on some games, so they quickly racked up tickets. Tyson was so excited that they had Pokémon cards as a prize option and he had enough tickets to get a pack. Wesley got a pack too, but he was more excited about his ring pop.

It was getting late in the afternoon,  so we headed back to the hotel for Marshall and I to get ready for our date night. Awww yeah! Bethany and her girls came over to our hotel and hung out with the boys while we hit up the town. I really wanted to have a romantic dinner at a nice waterfront restaurant but there were quite a few restaurants still closed due to Covid and the ones that were actually open didn’t take reservations. We ended up finding a nice place called Basalt that took reservations but was located in the back of a market instead of on the water. However, I was pleasantly surprised with how great the food and drinks were. They were known for adding charcoal to their dishes, so we bought a couple packs of charcoal pancakes to bring home.

Afterwards we were on a mission to find the best cocktail bar with unique and interesting drinks. Most cocktail bars had no re-opened yet, but we found one called Bevy that was in a more artsy, hip part of town. When we first walked up the host at the front door, he said it would be about a 20-30 minute wait. As we were talking, a few people walked out of the bar and we joked with the guy ‘oh perfect, we’ll just take their spot’.  He laughed, looked around and said ‘ok follow me’ and sat us at their bar stools right away! Yay! I prefer sitting at the bar because we can watch the bartender make all their creative concoctions. I had a delicious mai tai with a crystallized ginger foam on top and then an earl grey margarita. So yummy! We highly recommend this cocktail bar! It has a lively and funky vibe with great bartenders that are fun to talk to.

The following day was Saturday which we were really looking forward to because it was the first day on our trip that neither Marshall or I had to work. Finally! We picked up a rental car and headed straight to Egghead café that had the best breakfast and blended drinks. There were no tables available so we just ate in our car. No biggie!

We continued our journey to Bayview Mini Golf in Kaneohe. The boys love playing mini golf so I was excited to surprise them. Right when we pulled up, the first thing Tyson noticed was the sign that said ‘zip line’. He was over the moon and wanted to go on it like NOW! Wesley wasn’t old enough, but he wasn’t interested in it anyway. Marshall went zip lining with Tyson since I got to zip line with Tyson last time at Gatorland in Florida. The zip line goes right over the top of the mini golf course and they got to ride across it three times. On the first run, the guy working at the end of the zip line didn’t catch Tyson in time so he started sliding backwards and was just dangling in the middle of the line. Seriously dude? The guy had to swing a long rope out to Tyson to grab on to, but he kept missing. Clearly he was new. After about five attempts Tyson grabbed ahold of the rope and was pulled to the end of the line. He said he was a little scared hanging up there, but he was ready to go down again. Tough guy!

Once Marshall and Tyson completed their three zips we were all excited to play mini golf. Tyson started the course with two hole in ones! The boys are actually just as good as Marshall and I. We never keep score though because all that’s important is that everyone is just having fun.

Once we completed the course, we headed to Turtle Bay Beach on the north shore. Apparently the movie ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’ was filmed there. The boys thought it would be fun to make giant sand volcanos on the beach. They even made a hole in the top to try to put water in, but instead the water just melted away the side of the volcano. Ooops! Once we rebuilt the side, Wesley thought it would be funny to squash the volcano with his weapon of mass destruction (aka his butt). Such a silly boy!

We were ready to continue our adventure to a beach called Laniakea that is known to have sea turtles that lounge around on the beach. The beach was packed and the only parking spot left was next to a giant puddle. Oh well, we’re taking it! We crossed the street over to the beach and saw a sign pointing to the turtles. At the very end of the beach where it was super rocky, there was one giant sea turtle sunbathing on the beach. It blended in with the rocks so the boys didn’t even notice it at first. There was a red rope placed around the turtle so that nobody would touch it. I was happy that we got to see at least one turtle. However, Tyson was more excited about the big waves at this beach. Marshall and Tyson jumped into the waves and was having so much fun body surfing. Tyson got dunked by the waves a couple times and had to run to his towel to wipe his face off and then would run back in. Meanwhile Wesley wanted to build another sand volcano with me….and of course destroy it.

We all worked up an appetite and made our way to a nearby restaurant called Beach House for dinner. It had a beautiful waterfront view and great food as well. We debated staying a while longer to watch the sunset but we were all ready to head back to our hotel and get some rest before our last full day in Hawaii.

We woke up energized and excited for our last day of adventure. Of course, we just had to go to Egghead Café for breakfast one last time. It’s so stinkin’ good! This time there was actually a table available for us to eat inside. Yay! So much better than eating in our laps in the car. We then headed to Kailua to a bike rental shop called Pedego. I was super excited to rent electric tandem bikes. I’ve always thought they were so cool and this is the perfect time with the boys being still young enough to think it’s cool to ride on the back of a bike with mom and dad. Wesley rode with me and Tyson rode with Marshall. They couldn’t quite reach the pedals so they rested their feet on the middle bar. Whenever we twisted the throttle to go super fast, the boys would squeal with excitement! We rode along Kailua beach and then over to Lanikai beach which both have the most beautiful turquoise blue water.  On our way back, Tyson hopped on the back of my bike and Wesley got on Marshall’s. Marshall thought it would be fun to go off-roading onto the sand. For some crazy reason, I followed behind him and then quickly lost control. Tyson and I flew off the side of the bike onto the sand. Luckily we didn’t get hurt but I might think twice before trying to ride bikes on sand again.

We parked our bikes at the Kailua farmers market and strolled around for a few minutes before returning the bikes. We walked down the street to Nalu Health Bar for lunch. They have delicious salads and sandwiches and of course açaí bowls. Tyson and I are officially obsessed with açaí bowls!

We wanted to get a little more beach time in so we drove to Lanikai beach to chill for awhile. A local boy around the boys’ age with long wavy blonde hair immediately approached the boys and asked if he could build sandcastles with them. The boys gave him a nod and they each grabbed a shovel and started digging away. Tyson and Wesley ended up burying the boy in the sand, lol.

It was getting late in the afternoon and the boys really wanted to go down the water slide at our hotel one last time before the slide closed at 5pm. So we headed back and got our swimsuits on. Unfortunately it started to rain just as we got to the pool, but the boys didn’t care so Marshall and I sat under umbrellas while we watched the boys go down the slide. Luckily in Hawaii it’s still super warm out even when it’s raining!

I had made dinner reservations that night at Tiki Grill and Bar on Kuhio Beach. When we arrived, they sat us at the table with the best view of the beach. Awww yeah! The band was setting up to play some live music for us. Even better! I expected them to play some soft Hawaiian music, but instead they busted out some 90’s alternative music which were totally diggin’! The boys threw some dollar bills in the tip jar to start the trend. Shortly after sunset we made our way back to our hotel to get a good night sleep before flying out at the butt crack of dawn.

We were all thankful that we were able to escape the snowstorm back home and enjoy some warm sunshine for a week. Hawaii is always a fun place to vacay!