Category Archives: Life in hawaii

Diamond head! {Spring Break Day 3}

Posted on by

1

The night before doing this hike I had talked to my mom who reminisced about doing it 30 years ago! I’m sure not too much has changed since then so hopefully this pictures bring back memories for you mom!

First off, there was zippy parking in the crater (there are only 50 spots or so inside) so we had to park down at the community college and walk in.

dh1The walk up to the crater isn’t too bad at all, although walking through the tunnel is a little unnerving… Especially when buses decide to honk all the way through. Also, I love that my kids were coordinated in yellow and black! Thanks guys!

dhcrater

Diamond head was formed long after the initial volcanic activity that formed the island. Both this and Koko head were formed by secondary eruptions, basically a magma burp. Crazy!

dh2It was hot and dry during our hike, there wasn’t much breeze. Thankfully there are lots of spots to sit and take a water break. I was amazed by the number of people doing this in flip flops… I know its not a REAL hike but it was NOT sandal friendly!

Also? There are stairs. No fun at ALL! I jogged up half of them and then felt like I was going to die. That’s enough of that! The stairs are part of the original fortifications. There are pillboxes all along the coast and I’m pretty sure most of them had guns, but I don’t know that any of them were actually used.

dh3

Oh yes. More stairs.

dh4

Finally! The very top! The breeze was fantastic and the view was amazing. You can see from Koko head to Waikiki. It was SO crowded up there, everyone was squishing and squeezing, trying to get a photo. It was a little insane. dh5

And the award for the most perfectly placed shave ice truck goes to….dhice

 

A nice cold treat after that hot hike. This was a pretty easy one, Mckenna kept track and from the start of the trail in the crater and back it took us exactly an hour.

Of course, we then needed to go cool off…

pool

Spring Break is here! Day 1…

Posted on by

1

It’s that time again where I trade in the drudgery of early mornings and packing lunches  for the drudgery of keeping my children entertained for the next week and a half.

Day 1, we started off Spring Break with a bang. Dave and Busters for lunch and games. In hindsight I should have probably held off on this one as a bribe until the end but oh well. They have actually been fairly decent to each other lately.

DSC_0003a

Look they are even sitting on the same side of the booth, that NEVER happens!! I love Dave and Busters Military discount, especially since I have banned them from drinking anything but water when we go out (I am sorry, $3 for a soda or juice that is hardly touched? No thanks!) Our lunch ends up being quite the deal… Of course I took NO pictures of us playing games, the lighting up in the arcade is horrible anyways. We didn’t hit any jackpots on anything but we had a good time playing.

As we were headed out to the car I decided to take a little detour and hit up Menchies.

DSC_0004a

 

Seems like we are one of the last to hop on this new trend of building your own dessert… There was nothing like this in Spain and we really don’t go out for dessert much. The kids LOVED it and can’t wait to go back!

menchiesIf you haven’t been to this type of FroYo shop before, you get to pick your flavors and topping and add whatever you want to your bowl. Then you pay by the ounce. Needless to say, keep a sharp eye on your kids so they don’t fill up the entire bowl! I went simple with cheesecake flavored frozen yogurt with fresh strawberries, while the kids had some interesting combinations. Mckenna got red velvet and mint with red velvet cake chunks, Omar got mint, ice cream sandwich and coffee with sprinkles.

We will be back! Must try everything!

 

Eat the Street: Mililani

Posted on by

5

 

This is something I’ve been wanting to do for ages, before we even moved to Hawaii I saw some pictures from this event and was sold!

I love to eat and one of my FAVORITE shows is the Great Food Truck Race. Finally was able to make this happen!

First off, some advice. Get there early, as close to opening as you can. Park at a shuttle stop, no worries about finding a spot. Come hungry and with plenty of cash.DSC_0144

 

We did a quick sweep of the trucks (there were SO many-spread out over two parking lots!) to get an idea of what was out there and what we wanted to try. ets

 

foodWaffledogs, delicious! Especially drizzled with maple syrup. The kids were VERY skeptical about these but ended up loving them! ($3/each) Next up Xtreme Tacos, smoked chicken taco. It came with two tortillas and I was able to split up the filling. Because there was pico de gallo in it Omar didn’t want to try it and Mckenna didn’t love it. They were good to me though! ($2.75)

food2Our splurge of the day, wood fired pizza from Kiawe Pizza. So good. ($10) Pop pop donuts ($3.50) Aloha Pops ($3)

fairycakesAnd one more dessert to share, Death by Chocolate from Fairy Cakes. I really wanted everything on the menu! Mckenna was eyeballing the Maple Bacon Cake but it was just too weird for her!

We had a great time sampling lots of goodies. I am going to have to branch out and try some things I didn’t get to next time, Fried Musubi, octopus balls and Malasada burgers are calling my name!

More food truck dates and locations for Oahu:

http://www.streetgrindz.com/

Do you have any favorite food trucks or know of any food truck events?

 

 

 

Breakfast with a view…

Posted on by

0

 

Omar had soccer pictures on Saturday morning over on Hickam, when he was done we had some time to kill before his game so we popped over to Wright Brothers for some breakfast. I LOVE eating here, it is priced really well ($3.25 for a kids plate and that includes a drink) the food is good and it comes out quick. Also the view is pretty great, right across the entrance to Pearl harbor. The outdoor seating is really beautiful although hard to come by, I was stalking tables waiting for someone to leave!
breakfast

It’s a great spot to take pictures (which is why soccer pictures are done here I assume!) Lots of pretty trees and a lovely backdrop. I’ll have to bring them back in something other than soccer uniforms!pose

 

There is also a seawall right by the restaurant that allows some great fish watching, lots of FAT fish from all of the bread people feed them. I even saw some yellow tangs which is crazy because we haven’t seen them ONCE while snorkeling.fish

Anyways, get over to Wright Brothers, have some breakfast or lunch and enjoy the view and breeze!

 

 

 

We are halfway DONE!

Posted on by

3

So this weekend we finally had our halfway party… For those not familiar with the Navy, this is a party that the FRG (Family Readiness Group) throws to celebrate the halfway point in a deployment. Basically keep your spirits up. Thankfully I have an absolutely awesome FRG board and we threw an incredible party for all of our spouses.

DSC_0005

 

 

I just need to give a huge shout out to Target for their clearance Valentine’s items. This decor ended up costing about $40 for everything!

DSC_0004

 

 

We also had a little backdrop set up in the corner where we were recording video messages to send to the ship! Some of them got a little emotional and I was tearing up a little!DSC_0003

 

DSC_0002

 

 

I was a little worried that we were not going to have enough food because the RSVP’s had been pouring in and this was going to be potluck style.DSC_0006

 

Well I did NOT need to worry! We had SO much food! Not an inch to spare on the counter!DSC_0009

 

 

Thank you to all of the wonderful families on our ship…. Seriously, if you are new to a sea command, find your FRG! Not all of them are full of drama and catty women!DSC_0036

 

And my board is full of wonderful women… Taking on this position was SO outside my comfort zone, but I have made such wonderful friends in the process. I couldn’t have asked for a better team!

DSC_0044a

 

Nu’uanu to Manoa Falls Ridgeline hike

Posted on by

1

Okay, let me start this by saying that this is NOT the hike we intended to do! We were looking for the ruins trail, we accidentally started at the Judd Trail and said, eh, why not. (ed. note: When telling our husband about the day his comment was “This is how people die” lol.) Judd Trail is beautiful! There is a stream crossing at the beginning but we were all able to hop across keeping our feet dry.
hike1

It’s amazing how quickly the trail changed, from bamboo, to forest, to jungle. The scenery was unbelievable.hike2

We met up with Nu’uanu trail and hiked that up to the ridgeline. That right there is a great hike. There is a nice little grassy spot where you can eat lunch (and try not to get blown off, it was crazy windy up there!) Also try to get a group picture at the bench!

184241_617447968270296_468440457_n

This was our big ol’ group of kids, and they all did awesome. Picture is crooked because Katie’s camera was hanging from a tree!
hike3

At this point is where we REALLY should have turned back, but the though was that the trail would loop around (Again: “This is how people die”) So we kept going.

hike4

Nice easy stretch going downhill, we connected up with a Paoa Flats trail that wound through a lovely bamboo forest… then we passed a guy who said we weren’t far from Manoa Falls. That didn’t sound right to our group as Manoa Falls is on the other end of Waikiki. hike5 hike6

Onward we forge with the trail getting more and more muddy and a bit of a pain, some Cuh-RAZY switchbacks downhill, GPS tells us that yes indeed we are headed to Manoa Falls. Sounds great, one more hike to cross off our list!
hike8

Manoa Falls is STUNNING! Super high waterfall that people do swim in despite the WARNING/DANGER signs (30 Ton rockslide 10 years ago was enough to keep me outside of the roped area)

We continued our walk downhill toward the Monoa Falls trailhead, giving a call to a friend for a ride back to our cars. hike9

I highly recommend these trails separately but not together unless you want to do some serious hiking and you have a friend you can call to hook you back up with your car! With kids ranging from 3-11 this hike took us about 5 hours. One for the memory books for sure!

I also have this bad boy on order for future hikes:
Oahu Hikes: The Best Hikes and Walks on the Island (Lone Pine Guide)

We started out off of Nu’anu Pali Rd which is off Old Pali highway. You should see the trail head about a mile or two up the road on the right.