My Dave Tires: Hawaii, Days 4-7

I'm back with some more Hawaiian shenanigans!

DAY FOUR, September 8: If you don't remember the whirlwind that was my first three days in Hawaii, go refresh here. This day was a day of relaxation for all four of us. We headed out to the lagoon, the water was much calmer today so we broke out the swim goggles and the GoPro to find some awesome fishes.

But first, I had to bury T under the sand...because we were on a beach, duh!


I plan on making my former film major boyfriend compile all of the GoPro videos we took! We got some amazing footage and I can't wait to share it with you!

We were underwater for so long we didn't realize most of the day had passed and we were starving! T's parents wanted to take T and I to Ala Moana Center for lunch, it was a huge partial outdoor mall that still had some premier designer stores. While T's parents went off to Sam's Club, T and I took the chance to walk around and get some steps with our Fitbit!

I didn't do any shopping here, I swear.

After walking around for a hour or so, T and I craved some shave ice--so we met back up with T's parents and walked to a local shave ice place. It was good but not as good as Baldwin's shave ice! Am I becoming a shave ice snob?! Maybe...

Today was SO laid-back that I didn't take any pictures with my T3i other than a sunset picture but the reason why we were chilling so hardcore was because we had something big planned for the next day!



DAY FIVE, September 9: Kualoa Ranch! If you didn't know, this is the ranch/valley that appears in a lot of movies, TV shows such as LOST, 50 First Dates, and Pearl Harbor the movie! It's basically Hollywood of Hawaii if I could find any more simple definition.

Kualoa Ranch was SO beautiful, but it was SO hot that day and taking the tour in a converted school bus wasn't our brightest ideas. Do you remember how plasticky and sticky those seats were?! Imagine being in those seats on a 90+ degree and over 70% humidity day. EW.


T was so excited, if you don't know him already--he's such a TV show/movie snob. He has a list of movies for me to watch...that I keep putting off. Sorry, not sorry.

You can't beat the view!

The bunker that was used LOST and a couple of other movies/shows! Also an historical Pearl Harbor location for when Hawaii was attacked.

When I asked T why he wanted a picture here, he said "you never know if a future movie/show will be filmed in this room, so take the picture and I can say I've been in the same room as X and Y and Z!" Nerd.

My turn to be a nerd? I ran to this sign and hurried T up to take a picture. Shrug.

T also has a weird obsession with Easter Island and tiki people. Don't ask me why.

I know what you're thinking, "usual Japanese tourist".

After the tour, all we wanted to do was go swimming but when we got to the beach, we were all way too exhausted from the heat to go swimming. We decided to sit on the beach and people watch. We picked Lanikai Beach which is a public beach near where famous people like Oprah, President Obama and more celebrities usually like to stay in the houses in the area. We didn't see anyone famous, darn.

We stopped at Starbucks for the first time during our stay in Hawaii to get some Kona Starbucks coffee for friends and family. I have a collection of You Are Here mugs from Starbucks, so I grabbed a Hawaii mug for my collection. (I'm up to 8 mugs right now, but that's another story for another time!)

For dinner we decided to drop by a place called Teddy's Bigger Burgers, they were probably one of the best burger places we've ever had. It reminded me so much of Red Mill burgers in Seattle, if you haven't been--you should! Ironically, while at Teddy's we discovered that there were two locations less than 10 minutes away from me in Bothell! You can bet we're having Teddy's again when we're home in Seattle.

DAY SIX, September 10: Today was a laid back day again due to the long day we all had the day before, we grabbed the chance to head out to the lagoon again.

T and I decided to join T's dad in getting some more Manapuas. Manapuas are snack food that's popular in Hawaii, they're usually called steamed buns or pork buns back on the mainland. It's a pastry that's stuffed with different meats, usually pork or chicken.

After eating some Manapuas, T and I decided to give the lagoon a break and head to one of our hotel's pools. We couldn't resist getting a frozen Mai Tai and Piña Colada. The drinks helped cool us off just in time to watch the sunset from a fireside area outside. We got a couple of bug bites sitting there, but the sunset was so worth it.




Day six was super relaxing and probably boring to read, sorry!

DAY SEVEN, September 11: We started waking up later in the day at this point, we were all pretty exhausted from being in sun most of the days and walking around so much. For day seven, we decided we needed to do some souvenir shopping for our family and friends. I won't say what we bought but we got some cool local stuff this day.

You know who you girls are. <3

It was also thundering and raining so hard today that when we went to lunch at Kua 'Aina Sandwich in the Ward Village the lights started flickering! The sandwiches were so good, the fries helped! The Ward Village is a stone throw from Ala Moana center, so it was also half outdoor/indoor shopping center. We bought some Hawaiian shortbread cookies from Honolulu Cookie Company, T and I decided on triple dipped chocolate cookies. We haven't ate them yet as of the moment I'm writing this post, but we plan on eating some this weekend!

After lunch and running through the pouring rain we decided to get some shave ice from Waiola at the Ward Village. We sat in a dry spot and munched on our goodies.

T and I decided to stay in and watch a movie because we had yet another HUGE day in Honolulu/Waikiki the next day. You'll want to read this, I promise!

Don't worry, day 8 definitely makes up for day 4, 6 and 7! Keep an eye out for the post coming on Wednesday.