She's Saying Aloha, an April 2022 Oahu and Aulani Trip Report (Completed 7/7)

[GrandCalifornian]

On Thursday, we slept in a little bit until about 7, and then started what would be one of our favorite days of the trip.



With the wedding over with, we planned to spend the day exploring the island. Marshall and I started the day by heading out to grab breafkast from the hotel buffet and bring it up to the room for the girls.

I was able to catch up on work stuff and Allie worked on homework for a bit while we had some mediocre breakfast fare.

Yeah, this day they had sausage and eggs, so we brought up a plate of sausage to the room. It was more like a kielbasa sausage than traditional breakfast sausage, and was ok, but not spectacular. Marshall had a bowl of Fruit Loops which he enjoyed.

We promised Lorie and Steve that we would get them to the airport but we had some time to kill before that so we went on a walk down to the beach and to find the Honolulu Cookie store.

On the way though our first stop was at the ABC store, of course!


Allie got a boba ice cream and a boba tea. I'm not sure how she got Mom to agree to that for breakfast, but she was loving it.



She was living her best life. I don’t think there’s anything better in Allison’s world. Marshall found the ukaleles and decided he NEEDED one but we made him wait to make sure he didn’t find anything else.

Yeah, we figured that phase would pass, but he seemed pretty set on it. We made it out of the store without any new musical instruments, and walked towards the beach. We went down the block to the Honolulu Cookie store, but found that they didn't opem until 10, which was too late for us.



I was sad, I’m still sad we didn’t get to see it but there’s always next time.

Yeah, we never made it back when they were open. Instead we crossed the street and went down to the beach.




The kids played in the water to their knees, and we watched the morning crowd, which wasn't too big, but people were definitely there.




Paul also saw someone flying a drone which made him very interested in drone rules in Hawaii. Side note, Paul is a drone nut, has had them forever and has several that he left at home. He brought no drones on this trip.

I had actually thought about it when packing for the trip, but just like a Disney trip I figured there'd be nowhere I could fly them so I left them all at home. Now I was on one of the neatest beaches I've ever seen and someone else was getting to fly and get drone video of it.

After a little research he figured out it was totally legal to fly there and lots of other places on the island. Being the awesome wife that I am I encouraged him to keep an eye open at Costco later in the day to see if they had one. Kinda like a super awesome souvenier.

I love my wife. That sounded like a cool idea, and one I would follow up on later in the day. We hung out on the beach for a while and the kids enjoyed getting to play and snack at the same time.

Allison was a crack up double fisting with her tea and icecream at the same time.


We didn’t have a ton of time before we headed back to the hotel so the boys could make the trip to the airport.


We met Steve and Lorie in the lobby, then the girls headed up to the room while we walked to the Jeep. Marshall and I enjoyed the ride, and Steve and Lorie appreciated the ride. We sent her back to work first to minimize the time with all of us out of the office. They had extended their trip before the wedding, and we got to stay after.

It worked out really well. We once again got some work done while the boys were gone, Allie brought a lot of homework to do. Sixth grade work is a lot harder than her previous independent study trips. I ended up helping look up poetry styles and terms and tried to help her.

Yeah, it was good to get a little work done. On our drive we got to see a life size transformer that we had noticed on the roof of a building just South of the airport.


Marshall got to see it, and thought it was pretty cool.

Once the boys got back it officially signaled the end of all of our obligations and we were excited to go exploring.


We hopped in the Jeep and headed off in search of fountain Diet Cokes. There was a 7-11 on the way to the freeway, so that's where we went.

It was also time to try some spam musubi.


Allie was REALLY excited to try “spam sushi”. It didn’t disappoint, we all really liked it and it was a great snack to kick off the days adventure.]

It was the first seaweed wrapped food item that I have ever enjoyed. It was actually really good.

False, you eat sushi and you like it.

I do like some sushi, but I didn't realize it was wrapped in seaweed like that. This looked like something I had tried before and not enjoyed, but was quite good.

I’m glad you liked it. We all did. Next up we headed off to cross something off Paul’s bucket list.


For as long as we have been contemplating a Hawaii trip, I have said that one thing I want to do there is to get a Costco hot dog. I enjoy these at home, and at $1.49 with a fountain drink they are a great deal. The coolest thing is that the price is the same on the island, so I wanted to go check it out.


He also wanted to check for a drone so we obliged and headed off to Costco.


Unfortunately the Costco we wound up at did not have any drones. We did however pick up some snacks and beach towels. We also saw that they had some unique items, like fresh Poke and pallets of Spam.



It was fun and felt oddly like home. We all got hot dogs for lunch and they were yummy and also just like home.



It was a bucket list accomplishment, and the timing worked out great. After our lunch we headed off for more island exploration, and found our favorite beach of the trip.

Next up a picture perfect magical beach day and does Paul end up with a drone…..stay tuned….

 

[DaisyDuck001]

Was Bob the boba stuffed toy along for this trip? It seems like he would have fit in very well!

 

[Wood Nymph]

I like the Transformer on the roof. There must be a good story about why they put it there.

I would never try anything with Spam in it, but it looks like it was a great price. So was the hot dog.

I can't wait to hear which beach you liked, and more importantly, how that beach compares to what they have at Aulani.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Was Bob the boba stuffed toy along for this trip? It seems like he would have fit in very well!

Good question, but sadly No. Bob stayed home, but Allie did bring most of her Nuimos with her.

I like the Transformer on the roof. There must be a good story about why they put it there.

I would never try anything w

I like the Transformer on the roof. There must be a good story about why they put it there.

We saw it from the freeway a couple of times, and looked for it from surface streets one time, but didn’t find the stirs behind it. We were just glad Marshall got to see it.

I would never try anything with Spam in it, but it looks like it was a great price. So was the hot dog.

We were willing to try Span since it is such a big thing there. We were actually there during their Spam festival, so we gave it a try. I was more concerned about the seaweed part of it, but all together it was quite good.
The hot dogs were just like home, price and all, so it was a nice break from vacation food prices. From nice meals at Disney to 7-11 and Costco hot dogs, we’ll eat it all.

I can't wait to hear which beach you liked, and more importantly, how that beach compares to what they have at Aulani.

We were impressed with the quality and variety of the beaches on Oahu. While they were all pretty, some were even better than others. The kids wanted one where they could play in the waves.
At Aulani the beach is in a little lagoon that opens to the ocean at one point. It is nice and protected, but isn’t a long stretch of sandy beach. We’ll show lots of pictures of the different beaches when we get to them, and they are coming soon, we promise.

 

[longboard55]

This is what I liked about this trip. No time spending discussing who had the best this or that. Just have fun. Little things like the ABC are fun in Hawaii. We always go to McDonalds

 

[Vero4us]

Thank you so much for taking the time to share your trip with us. We are hoping to go in January so I am eagerly looking forward to hearing more about your experiences! I am definitely going to try the Spam sushi!

 

[Wood Nymph]

At Aulani the beach is in a little lagoon that opens to the ocean at one point.

The last time we were in Hawaii was September 2008. We could see from the airplane that it was very industrial on that side of Oahu. It was also very dry, rather than tropical.

 

[jimmymc]

The last time we were in Hawaii was September 2008. We could see from the airplane that it was very industrial on that side of Oahu. It was also very dry, rather than tropical.

That area has changed a lot since 2008. Ko Olina, where Aulani is, was build as a resort town from the ground up, with several high end hotels and a large golf course neighborhood. It also rarely rains there.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

This is what I liked about this trip. No time spending discussing who had the best this or that. Just have fun. Little things like the ABC are fun in Hawaii. We always go to McDonalds

We really enjoyed our Hawaiian vacation. For somewhere we had never been we really enjoyed experiencing it.

Thank you so much for taking the time to share your trip with us. We are hoping to go in January so I am eagerly looking forward to hearing more about your experiences! I am definitely going to try the Spam sushi!

Thanks for joining in. I would not have expected to enjoy anything about the Spam Musabi, but I would totally have it again. It was tasty.

The last time we were in Hawaii was September 2008. We could see from the airplane that it was very industrial on that side of Oahu. It was also very dry, rather than tropical.

The Ko Olina area where Aulani is is North of the really industrial area, and is developed as a fancy resort area. It was originally a more rocky shoreline though, so the sandy lagoons had to be man-made. It makes for a nice area, but is just a different look and feel than some of the other beaches. We really were impressed with the variety of beaches on Oahu, and you can drive to whatever you want.

That area has changed a lot since 2008. Ko Olina, where Aulani is, was build as a resort town from the ground up, with several high end hotels and a large golf course neighborhood. It also rarely rains there.

Yeah, it had more of a suburban, new development feel to it. We enjoyed the varitey and getting to know the different areas of the island.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

When we left off, we had just finised lunch at Costco and were headed off in search of a beach. Kathy recommended the East side of the island, and I was up for a drive so off we went.

This time instead of going along the coast we cut across the middle of the island.


I’d like to be honest here, we did very little research for this trip and I had no idea what to expect.

I knew it would be beautiful but the drive was just amazing and so breathtaking.

We basically followed the GPS and took highway 61 over the mountain. As we climbed it got prettier and prettier.


On the other side of the hill, we went through a tunnel and then had a beautiful view of the other side of the island.


We pulled over at the turnout for the Mauanawili trail and got to overlook the coast and look back on the mountain.




We also made some chicken friends, they were all over the place. The kids loved seeing them.


We had heard about wild chickens, but they always amused us. Once we took some more pictures, we headed down the hill in search of the beach.


We were headed for Lanikai beach which Kathy had been to a couple days before and said would be perfect for the kids. We drove around and found a place to park. Parking here is super tough, it kinda reminds me of some of our beaches here in California where there’s street parking only.

Exactly, we were driving through a neighborhood and looking for street parking where we wouldn;t block anybody's driveway. We circled around a couple of times and found a spot about half a block from a beach access walkway. We grabbed our things and made the short walk to the beach.


Once we saw the water, I was impressed. It was a neat shade of blue, and there was sandy beach as far as you could see with islands in the distance.


It was my favorite beach, and was just beautiful.



When I say this beach was like a postcard I mean it felt like we walked into a postcard dream world. It was a gorgeous beach on a beautiful day.



The kids goal was to get to swim in the waves, and they were perfect here. They were big enough to swim in without breaking near the shore or being too tall.


The water was pretty shallow too and they just had a ball going in and out of the water and playing in the sand.

The water was nice and warm, and it was easy to get into and swim. The kids made a sand turtle like they had seen on Waikiki.




We hung out on the beach and watched the kids play for quite a while. We snacked on chips and watermelon and just soaked it all in.


\It very much felt like a vacation at this point.

Yes, after a few days of deadlines and running around, we had time to just sit on the beach, and irt was a beautiful one at that.

After we soaked up all we could of the sand and sun and salt water we decided to do some more adventuring and drive down the coast.

We walked back to the Jeep and proceeded to fill it woth sand from our shoes and towels from the beach. We stopped by another 7-11 and got drinks, including another boba can for Allie.


This one was brown sugar, which wasn't anybody's favorite but still wasn't bad.

We drove for a bit until we all needed a bathroom. We stopped at Waimanalo Beach park where there were some bathrooms and kids at football practice.


It was a nice little city park, right on the beautiful shoreline. The bathrooms were fine, but were inhabited already by some pretty large rats.


They stayed in the rafters, but were kind of creepy.

It was not the best place for a bathroom but it did the job. I just kept my eyes on the rats and got out of there pretty quick.

The beach portion was pretty nice, with bigger breaking waves near the shore.




Marshall ran over to check out the playground, and immediately joined in whatever game the kids there were playing.


He makes friends really fast. After we tore him away from his new bffs we hit the road again.

We continued South along the shoreline past the Sea Life park where the luau was the night before, then stopped at Makapu'u Lookout to take some more pictures and generally play tourists.





It was up fairly high on the cliffs above the shore, and had a great view to the South and East.

It was another beautiful lookout and we enjoyed the view.

We stopped at another turnout that overlooked Hawaii Kai as we worked our way back to the North.



Paul was headed to the Costco in Hawaii Kai looking for a drone.

I figured since there was another Costco just off the highway we could stop in and check it out. We were also looking for dinner options, and found a Raising Cane's in the Costco parking lot, and decided to make it a one stop shop. I ran in to Costco unsupervised, and found that they had two drones in stock to choose from.


After a quick text to my loving and supportive wife, I grabbed one and checked out.

He was so excited! There’s no way I was going to stand in the way of that joy.

It was a good deal on a nice little drone that is a nice compliment to my larger ones I have at home.

We then had dinner at Cane's, which is something we enjoy at home too.


It rounded out a day of fairly economical dining.

It’s nice to have home comfort food on vacation. It also helped with budget for the trip in general.

Yeah, one nice thing about not being in the Disney bubble for the whole trip was we could eat more economically, and we still got food that we all enjoyed. The Hawaii Kai area is really nice, and probably was my favorite part of the island. If money were no object, I'd love a nice house on the water there with a neat boat dock out back. Hey, you gotta have dreams.

Within a few days I already had a favorite area for a house. That's ok, I have better taste than budget.

We then continued towards the hotel and saw the sunset as we drove.


We circled around the neighborhood a little bit and noticed the big crowds of people leaving the beach area for the day. It amazes me how many people were all around Waikiki.

It was pretty busy around the hotel but we finally ended up going the right way down the one way street.

We made it back to the room and here is where Allies boba can collection gets tragic.

She had kept the cans from each boba drink, and had them all lined up on the shelf by the TV.

The housekeeper had thrown them away when she came to clean the room. Allie was in tears that her collection was gone.


It was kind of sad, but they were basically trash. That was not what Allie wanted to hear though, and the only way to console her was to agree to purchase cans of all the flavors of tea again so that she would have a complete set.

It was hard to console her and not laugh at the same time, because the housekeeper did in fact clean up the trash that she left on the table.

Yeah, it was a case where one person's trash was another's treasure... Oh well, she was able to laugh about it a little later, and it meant she got more boba, which had to be a good thing, right?

I think so. Yeah luckily she found the humor in the situation pretty quickly and she didn’t pout for too long.]

We spent the rest of the night starting to pack up and then we went to bed before too late. It was a super day of exploring Hawaii, and I'm so glad we had the extra day before heading up to Aulani.

It was a perfect day. Coming up we FINALLY see Aulani and have a super surprise for the kids.

Check out our Friday adventures in the next update.

 

[DaisyDuck001]

When I read the part about Lanikai Beach I thought it looked pretty, but I wondered if there were any restrooms there. Since you ended up stopping soon after that for a restroom elsewhere, does that mean Lanikai didn't have one?

Bummer about the boba cans, but the housekeeper's mistake was understandable. Maybe the hotel had asked her to recycle aluminum cans, and it's not so common to save them as souvenirs.

It sure was nice you got to spend that extra day there instead of having to pack up and leave when you were extra tired. But I'm looking forward to reading about the Aulani chapter also!

 

[Wood Nymph]

The first beach that you stopped at looked perfect for the kids. It also looked like you mostly had the beach to yourself.

The housekeeper had thrown them away when she came to clean the room. Allie was in tears that her collection was gone.

Oh, no! I had something like this happen at Disney once and ever since then I would put anything that looked like trash in the closet, so housekeeping wouldn't throw it away.

 

[FrannyFrogs]

FYI you convinced me to upgrade from a full size car to a Jeep for our Oahu trip next month! Rates were super high but they're coming down a bit at about 4 weeks out!

 

[alohamom]

I am so glad you took the time to go to Lanikai, I tell everyone to get over to the East side beaches at least once and we go over quite a bit when we are at Aulani.
Our favorite is Kailua, which is a sister beach to Lanikai just down past the little lighthouse.
We generally like it better because there is parking and public restrooms/changerooms. It is usually a little more crowded because of that but nothing like Waikiki.
I have never been into the restrooms at Waimanalo but now I don't think I ever will! Yikes, rats watching you is a little more than creepy to me-I would have walked right back out LOL!
Waimanalo always feels a little dangerous to me, there is this house up and to the left of the parking area that looks abandoned and the parking area is sort of sketchy too.
It's unfortunate because the beach there is gorgeous.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

When I read the part about Lanikai Beach I thought it looked pretty, but I wondered if there were any restrooms there. Since you ended up stopping soon after that for a restroom elsewhere, does that mean Lanikai didn't have one?

Bummer about the boba cans, but the housekeeper's mistake was understandable. Maybe the hotel had asked her to recycle aluminum cans, and it's not so common to save them as souvenirs.

It sure was nice you got to spend that extra day there instead of having to pack up and leave when you were extra tired. But I'm looking forward to reading about the Aulani chapter also!

It was nice and not too crowded, but we did not see any restrooms there. We thought maybe there were some further North, but we didn't go that far. @alohamom mentioned that Kailua is nearby and does have restroom facilities, so we will have to check that out next time.

The cans worked out ok. It was sad but funny too, and totally understandable.

I thought the extra day would be a bit of a waste since I was excited to get to Aulani, but it would up being just great. We could have done all this from Aulani too, but probably wouldn't have since there was so much to see and do there. We'll make it there in the next update.

The first beach that you stopped at looked perfect for the kids. It also looked like you mostly had the beach to yourself.

There were more people around than the pictures really showed, but it was a great beach. The kids had a blast and it was just perfect for us that day.

Oh, no! I had something like this happen at Disney once and ever since then I would put anything that looked like trash in the closest, so housekeeping wouldn't throw it away.

It was a simple honest mistake but it really bugged Allie. They were all lined up in order of her preference, but in actuality they were just a bunch of recyclables. I liked our solution to buy each flavor again, and in the end so did she.

FYI you convinced me to upgrade from a full size car to a Jeep for our Oahu trip next month! Rates were super high but they're coming down a bit at about 4 weeks out!

Yes! Nice choice. My work here is complete. Actually, now if I can just convince Melissa that we need one for home...
It was the perfect rental car for the island. Melissa's sister told us there were three kinds of rental car people on Hawaii: the mini van / SUV people, the convertible Mustang / Camaro couples / and the Jeep people. We were happy to fit into that group, and only walked up to the wrong Jeep in a parking lot once. You do kinda have to watch out for that.

I am so glad you took the time to go to Lanikai, I tell everyone to get over to the East side beaches at least once and we go over quite a bit when we are at Aulani.
Our favorite is Kailua, which is a sister beach to Lanikai just down past the little lighthouse.
We generally like it better because there is parking and public restrooms/changerooms. It is usually a little more crowded because of that but nothing like Waikiki.
I have never been into the restrooms at Waimanalo but now I don't think I ever will! Yikes, rats watching you is a little more than creepy to me-I would have walked right back out LOL!
Waimanalo always feels a little dangerous to me, there is this house up and to the left of the parking area that looks abandoned and the parking area is sort of sketchy too.
It's unfortunate because the beach there is gorgeous.

Thanks for the insight. We felt like we knew almost nothing about what was where, and just blindly explored the island for six days. We got the sketchy feel from Waimanalo too, but it was neat to experience all of the island, not just Aulani or Waikiki. We really are looking forward to going back again, and will check out Kailua when we do.

 

[DaisyDuck001]

Did you do a character meal at Aulani?

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Did you do a character meal at Aulani?

We did do the breakfast on our second morning at Aulani. We will cover it in detail, but we really enjoyed it.

 

[jimmymc]

FYI you convinced me to upgrade from a full size car to a Jeep for our Oahu trip next month! Rates were super high but they're coming down a bit at about 4 weeks out!

I had a convertible Mustang and that was a pretty good alternative.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

On Friday morning, I got up before everybody else and left the room about 6:45 to take some sunrise pictures and video with the new drone.


I really wanted to fly it over Waikiki, and this was the perfect opportunity. The beach wasn't too crowded, and the sun was just coming up over the other side of the island.


The new little drone performed well, and I flew it out over the ocean and just above the waves at the breakwater.



I made two fun flights before heading back up to the room.



During the second flight I got a message from Melissa that she was up and getting in the shower.


Everyone else got up fairly early and we packed up the room. It was so easy to get up early in Hawaii being 3 hours earlier than home.

I couldn’t believe how early we were ready and packed. We decided to say a good farewell to Waikiki and have breakfast at Wolfgang Puck Express.

We also wanted to walk down to the beach one more time, and Marshall had decided he needed a Ukelele from the ABC store, so we stopped there on the way to WPE.



We also picked up Allie’s boba can replacements so she was feeling much better with a whole collection again.


We finally made it to WPE for breakfast, which is a feat we have never been able to accomplish at WDW.

Breakfast at this WPE was good, but nothing too exceptional. I got a breakfast sandwich, and Allie got a spinach and mushroom omelette. Melissa and Marshall got traditional american breakfast plates because they were out of French toast.




It was good enough though…. We were all anxious to get on our way though because we were headed to AULANI! We walked back to the Hyatt and finished packing everything up and headed out to the Jeep.



We were able to drag our bags with us as we walked over to the parking structure, so I didn't have to come back and pick everyone up. As we got to the parking lot, I walked right to where I had parked and attemptted to open the red Jeep, only to find I was at the Jeep parked next to ours.


Yep, with that many rental Jeeps on the island, we wound up with one right nexxt to us n the parking lot. Fortunately the remote didn't work on it, so we wound up in the right one.

It was so funny, I can’t believe he didn’t notice which one’s lights flashed when he pushed the button on the remote but it made for a really funny moment.

Once we opened up the right Jeep, we had no problem storing all of our bags in it behind the back seat. We didn't want to leave them there all day though because of potential theft, so we had an excuse to drive straight to Aulani. It was about a 40 minute trip, first North towards the airport, and then further North in new territory for us towards Ko Olina.

The landscape changed as we went along and you could tell it was a little dryer than other places we had been. We passed an outlet mall and some other shopping.


It felt more suburban and a lot like home, with shopping centers near the freeway exits. The freeway continued on into a pretty resort area near the coast, and we could spot Aulani among the resorts.


We pulled up to the valet and bell services took the bags we weren’t going to need on our afternoon adventure.


The valet checked on our room and let us know it wasn't ready yet, but they had no problem storing the bags and parking the Jeep nearby while we went in and explored the resort for a bit before going out again.

It was so exciting to finally be there. The entrance lobby is just spectacular and open, you can see straight through to the courtyard outside through big open doors.



It had a very unique Hawaiian feel, while also feeling like Disney at the same time. It was like a spectacular cross between the Poly and AKL or WL.



It was so fun and we were excited. We explored a little bit and stopped at the front desk to check in.


The CM appologized for the room not being ready but we were fine with that. She got us all set up to have them text us the room number when it was ready, and she gave the kids a ton of buttons.

It really wasn’t a big deal that the room wasn’t ready, we had an adventure surprise for the kids we had scheduled.

Before taking off though we walked around and checked out a bit more of the resort. We saw both gift shops, Kalepa's Store which is a traditional resort gift shop, and Hale Manu, which is a fancier location across the hall with some artwork and higher end clothes items.



We just oogled at all the fun stuff, there were so many Stitch things, I just kept adding more to my want list. Then when we went over and saw the art we saw some Noah pieces we’d never seen before.


One of them in particular stood out to us, as it had Minnie and Mickey building a sandcastle on the Aulani beach. It was a castle we immediately knew we wanted to add to our collection, we just had to decide which size and format.


We didn’t end up buying anything yet though, we’d be back.

There was a lot of activity in the lobby and surrounding hallways. There were lots of people coming and going, which was interesting.

I didn’t expect the business but it was ok.

We wanted to hang out and explore it some more, but we knew we had three nights ahead to do that. We walked back to the valet and picked up the Jeep to head out for more exploration.


We didn’t tell the kids where we were going only told them we were going on a hike like adventure.

They were getting more curious, but were along for the ride... We headed up H2 through the middle of the island.


We were headed for the North Shore to do some sightseeing on the way to our destination. We were all starting to get hungry though, so we drove through a Wendy's in Wahiawa.


We got our normal Wendy’s orders like home, nothing too special. It feels odd writing about fast food on a trip report but there it is. It was Wendys.

While we were there Melissa's Dad called, and we dealt with a little bit of work stuff while we placed our lunch order.

Ah yes, work follows wherever I go.

Check out the rest of our day, and the big adventure in the next update.

 

[DaisyDuck001]

Wow, this leaves us all in suspense about your mystery destination.