For my parents' 50th wedding anniversary my dad wanted to take the whole family to Hawaii. They went for their 25th and had a fabulous time and I think he wanted to share that with us. So, we decided to go to Oahu first and then on to the Big Island where we would meet up with Eric and Ana. My parents and the four of us flew out on Tuesday, August 6th. We had a layover in Dallas and a small delay taking off from Dallas to Honolulu, but overall our travel day was smooth!
We rented a minivan in Honolulu and drove about 45 minutes on to North Shore stopping at Foodland to grab some food for the next few nights. Since it was going on 7:30pm we were able to stop quickly and catch the sunset and by the time we got situated in our AirBNB rental unit at Turtle Bay Resort, we made frozen pizza and salad for a very late dinner. I think we were all exhausted and went right to bed after that!
The next morning we were up fairly early, still getting adjusted to the time change. We cooked breakfast at the rental, eggs and bacon. Then we set off for a full day of beaches!
Our first stop in the North Shore was the famous Pipeline. It's the off-season for surfing so we didn't get to see anyone surfing, but it was still fun to check it out for a little while. The waves were definitely too crazy right there to "swim" so we knew we needed to move on.
Our next stop ended up being a favorite of the day: Sharks Cove. We brought the kids' snorkel gear and I'm glad we did. It was great!
We made a very quick stop at Laniakea Beach to try and see some sea turtles. We did see one swimming in the distance, but none of them were resting on the beach like they are known to do. So, we moved on again to Waimea Bay Beach Park and it was gorgeous and met everyone's needs. Skimboarding, swimming, sunbathing. It was perfect!
By now it was time for lunch so we went into Haleiwa to Giovanni's Shrimp food truck. My parents and Scott ate there and said it was very good and the kids and I got food from a different food truck. Evan wanted to go to the fruit stand and we shared some mixed tropical fruit that was delicious and they also tried coconut water. No one was a fan of that.
We needed to get out of the sun for a while so we did some shopping and got shaved ice at Matsumoto's and it was tasty and worth the wait in line.
We took a break back at the rental house. Evan wanted to do a bit more skimboarding so we went to the beach at Turtle Bay Resort for a little while. A few people were in burn out mode (jet lag, time change, etc.) so we opted to just order pizza in for dinner. My dad and I went back out for the sunset at a beach right by the house and it was pretty! We watched some of the Olympics and called it an early night again.
The next morning we needed to pack up and check out. We were moving to the southwest part of the island to stay at Aulani for two nights. We grabbed breakfast at Ted's Bakery and it was so delicious! Oh my gosh - their famous Chocolate Haupia Pie was to die for and yes, I totally got a slide of pie for breakfast dessert.
The plan for the day was to stop at Kualoa Ranch before going to Aulani. We had tours booked for the four of us to do the UTV Raptor tour for two hours and my parents did an e-bike tour for two hours. The Ranch was beautiful! We shopped, had lunch, and then our tour started. Scott did all the driving and we followed a tour guide in his own UTV on trails for two hours stopping to take pictures and learn about various spots where films were shot like Jurassic World and Jumanji and many others. It was so much fun, but boy did we get dirty!
We had so much fun! I absolutely loved the North Shore area and Kualoa Ranch! I'd love to go back. But, it was time to head to Aulani for check-in and I was ecstatic!
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