Oahu, Hawaii II
I’m back for part 2 of my Hawaii trip from fall of 2022. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, Hawaii was truly incredible and I cannot WAIT to go back. Lets get started!
Day 3, we started with early morning coffee again from none other than Island Vintage Coffee (obviously a trip favorite) and then we had character dining at Makahiki and saw some adorable characters. The characters were truly hilarious and made breakfast so enjoyable! After breakfast, Diana and I split up from the group for a bit! I really wanted to explore some of the island outside of Aulani and Dianas dad just happened to live down the street from the resort. He was SO kind and agreed to drive us around for the day so I could see it. The first thing we saw was a sea turtle just hanging out on the beach, which was literally a highlight of the trip because I have always had such a love for sea turtles. After leaving that beach, we headed to the sunrise shack! It’s this tiny little shack on the side of the road that serves smoothies, açaí bars and more! It had been on my Pinterest board for YEARS so seeing it IRL was too exciting! We enjoyed our bowls and headed further towards the north shore to just see more of the island. We stopped here and there on some beaches, watched some cliff jumpers, and walked around the town center for Hale’iwa! It was an adorable little town square with shops, fruit stands and more. Finally, to close out our Oahu island tour, we grabbed some donuts from Leonards and let me tell you, if you go to Hawaii, make sure you grab these! They were warm, sweet, covered in sugar and truly incredible. After getting back to the resort, we met back up with the girls to watch sunset together! Literally one of my favorite days.
Day 4 started out with another early morning coffee trip to Island Vintage (are you sensing a trend yet?) but this time we got açaí bowls too! After breakfast, we headed to the lagoon for an early morning swim and a full pool day! It was such a nice day just relaxing, going in the lazy river, on the water slides and the ocean! We had the best time just hanging out by the pool all day. After our day in the sun, we showered and got ready for dinner at MonkeyPod. Aulani is in a great location both on the sand and nearby some shops, restaurants, a grocery store and coffee shops! MonkeyPod was delicious, I would highly recommend! After dinner, there were only 4 of us left as some had gone home before this day and after dinner that night :(
Day 5 in Hawaii was our last full day here :( I woke up by myself this day for sunrise and to really take in the resort one last time. We got coffee and got ready for the day in the room, then headed down to meet as many characters as we could! They have exclusive characters here at Aulani so it was so much fun to meet all of them. We headed down to the beach that evening to take some sunset photos, then grabbed dinner at the little cafe we ate at on the first night, and got another drink from the lounge! It was the perfect way to end the most incredible trip. Before heading to bed that night, per Aulani tradition, we left our “leis” on the statue of stitch as a farewell to the island. So special :’)
I truly don’t have many words to describe how special this trip was. I think about it often and its so fun to look back at all the photos and videos throughout it. The Islands of Hawaii are simply so beautiful and should be protected at all costs! Please be mindful of the land and natives when you travel their, that is their home. <3 Thanks so much for reading along while I recapped these trips, and stay tuned for more blog posts to come!