Five Days in Hawaii: Day 1 – Ala Moana, Breweries, and a Sunset Dinner Cruise
In December, Dan and I spent an incredible five (and a half) days on the Island of Oahu in Hawaii. We arrived around 3:00 pm on Thursday, December 13, and left on a red eye late on the evening of Tuesday, December 18. And boy did we have a great time! It wasn’t just that we were escaping the extremely cold, rainy weather where we live — although that did help! Hawaii is a beautiful place, and even though we only had time to visit one island, we had a wonderful time exploring.
An Evening in Paradise
Although we arrived in Honolulu around 3 in the afternoon, it took a while to get to our airbnb because of rush hour traffic between the airport and Waikiki. I wish I had taken a picture of the airport as we walked through, because it looked exactly the same as I remembered it — and the last time I was in Honolulu was over 15 years ago.
Our airbnb was just two blocks away from Waikiki Beach. It was a small, tidy studio apartment that was perfect for us. After we dropped off our luggage, we walked down to the beach to enjoy our very first Hawaiian sunset together.
We were feeling a bit jet-lagged, but we decided it was time to go get some dinner. We made our way over to Maui Brewing Company. Hawaii has a great selection of craft breweries, and this Maui-based brewer’s Waikiki location is right across the street from the beach, which gave us a great view as we enjoyed dinner.
The First Day
The best part of visiting Hawaii from someplace five hours ahead is that we wound up waking up early and were able to go down to the beach again, this time to watch the sunrise.
There is a lot of Japanese culture infused into the modern culture of Hawaii. That’s because Hawaii is a big tourist destination for the Japanese; it’s only a 6-hour flight to Honolulu from Tokyo, and during the right times of year, flights are no more expensive than it is for someone traveling from the east coast of the U.S. to visit Europe. That said, we stopped by Lawson Station, a Japanese convenience store, to buy some onigiri for breakfast. Onigiri are Japanese rice balls, sometimes wrapped in seaweed and often including different yummy fillings or toppings. You may have heard of spam musubi, which is especially famous in Hawaii; that’s technically a type of onigiri.
We took our onigiri with us to the Honolulu Coffee Company to get some much needed caffeine. Kona coffee is world-renowned as one of the best tasting (and most expensive) coffees in the world. The beans are grown in the Kona district of the Big Island of Hawaii. It’s still a little pricey to get bags of Kona coffee in Hawaii, but you can get a cup of Kona coffee for a reasonable price at most coffee shops on the islands — including Starbucks!
Ala Moana Center
A quick trip on Honolulu’s public transit, conveniently known only as “The Bus”, brought us to the Ala Moana Center, Hawaii’s largest mall. It includes some high end stores along with many you won’t find anywhere else in the U.S. We ate traditional Hawaiian “plate lunches”, featuring Kalua Pork, macaroni salad, and rice. Afterwards we checked out the booth where you could build your own flip-flops. The mall is also home to extensive “Japan Village Walk” that sells both ramen and Anime toys, as well as the studios of a Japanese-language radio station.
Waikiki Brewing Company
After all that hard walking at the Mall, we headed back to Waikiki. But before we headed back to our airbnb, we stopped for some hard-earned day-drinking at the Waikiki Brewing Company. Dan tried a flight of offerings that included the Hana Hou Hefe, a light wheat beer, and the Black Strap Molasses Porter. I ordered my first Mai Tai of the trip and enjoyed it thoroughly at the outdoor bar. Anticipating a full evening, we then headed back to our room.
Fireworks Cruise
After an afternoon break back at our room, a mini-bus picked us up at a nearby hotel and took us to Honolulu Harbor for our fireworks cruise. Every Friday night, the Hilton Hawaiian Village puts on a fireworks show on Waikiki Beach. To view the fireworks, as well as a beautiful sunset on the Pacific Ocean, we booked passage on the Makani Catamaran, a small sightseeing ship with an impressively tall sail. The cruise included dinner (kalua pork, egg rolls, even sushi) and afterwards each of the passengers received a macadamia nut cookie.
The seas off of Honolulu were pretty calm as oceans go, but be prepared if you’re someone who gets seasick. The boat made a couple of trips up and down the Honolulu waterfront while the sun set and the passengers ate dinner. Also available on the cruise are a wide variety of alcoholic beverages. The booze flowed freely as the fireworks approached. A middle-aged Australian lady may have attempted to pole dance to “Roxanne” by the Police at some point. After the fireworks, the Catamaran headed straight back to port.
After we made it back to Waikiki, we stopped in one of the many Japanese-style food courts in Waikiki for some $2 beers and some tasty tropical beverages. We also stopped at Magnolia Ice Cream, where Dan and I shared Dan’s first ever halo-halo. This popular Filipino dessert is also a very big staple in Hawaii.
We had a great first day in Hawaii, but by the time the evening ended, we were very ready to go get some rest and plan for Day 2 of our Hawaiian adventure.
