Shop, Eat, Snorkel

Technorati Tags: hawaii,eating,swap meet

We started the day on Wednesday knowing that we wanted to go to the Swap Meet at the Aloha Stadium.  The Swap Meet is basically a giant flea market and a really good place to go for souvenirs.  It is only open on Wednesday and Saturday, so plan accordingly if you want to go.  Last minute we decided to spend the second half of our day at Hanauma Bay.  These two places are on opposite sides of the Waikiki, so we did a lot of driving this day.  I never really mind driving much in Hawaii, because it is so beautiful. 

The swap meet was fun, but there is only so much you can take of it.  Everything starts to look the same and it gets very hot there.  I didn’t take any pictures, but I wish I did, because things can get “interesting” there. 

After leaving there, we opted for lunch between the two locations. We went to the Rainbow Drive-In in Waikiki.  This place has been around for over 50 years and it serves up some delicious plate lunches.  They are most known for the Loco Moco, which is white rice topped with a hamburger, egg and brown gravy.  Not really my thing, but I did the BBQ Pork Plate, which was awesome.  All the plates come served with 2 scoops of rice.   Everyone really liked the fish plate, too. Again, I wish I took a picture of the food.  This place is nothing fancy, you order from a window and there are picnic tables outside. 

With our full bellies, we headed to Hanauma Bay.  I wish we brought our ID’s with us, because military gets in for free, otherwise it costs $1 per vehicle and $7.50 a person.  You also have to watch a short video before they allow you to go the beach.  It is a protected bay, so you have calm waters and really great snorkeling.  Dan and Ray went snorkeling and saw some beautiful fish and got to hang out with a sea turtle.  I spent my time with this little munchkin as she napped in the shade. 

She started rolling over the day before, so there was a lot of rolling off the towel happening. 

Ava and I took a little dip in the water, too. 

 

Some photos from the bay.

 

On our way back, we stopped for Malsadas (donuts, to us mainland folks) at Leonard's.  If you are in Oahu, stop here and try a few Malsadas.  They are filled with different flavors, I loved the chocolate.  Also try the macaroons; one of the best I ever had.

Overall, it was a great, exhausting day.  We took it easy for dinner that night and hit the hay pretty early.  We needed our rest for another packed day.  

Ready, Set, Vacation

Technorati Tags: military base,eating,Waikiki Beach,Hawaii

Adjusting to the time change, we were all up pretty early.  Ava was ready to play at 3:30.  We let her play in her crib and finally got her up around 4.  I did some research on helping baby to adjust to the time change.  The biggest recommendation was to have as much outside time as possible.  I think this certainly helped, because Ava was back to sleeping through the night by the second night.

Before the fun could begin, we need to stock up on some vacation essentials.  So, we headed to the nearest military base and shopped at the PX/Commissary for provisions.  We made sure to get some water, soda, snacks, toiletries we forgot, a float for Ava (that we never used) and the most adorable diapers I have ever seen. 

I also made sure these gems made it into the cart.  I successfully ate the entire bag throughout our trip.

After the necessary shopping trip, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for some fun in the sun.  Originally, we were going to spend time at the pool, but opted for Waikiki beach instead.  Ava was awoken prematurely at the beach, so she was not thrilled about her first dip in the ocean. 

 

 

The water at Waikiki was so beautiful and you can rent chairs and umbrellas if you desire.  It was also pretty easy to bring Ava’s stroller on the beach, giving her a great shaded place to take a nap.

After enjoying some frosty beverages on the beach, Dan got a little hungry for lunch, so we headed to Cheeseburger Paradise (not to be confused with Cheeseburger In Paradise, which is much better!). 

I had the Kalua Pork Sliders with a side salad.  The side salad was very disappointing and the pork was extremely fatty.  Ava looked very interested in trying this dish…

After relaxing in the room for a while and cleaning ourselves up, we met downstairs for happy hour and then a late dinner at Dukes.  Our friend, Steve from North Carolina was in Honolulu for a conference, so he met us for dinner.  We had to wait a while since we were such a large party, so we didn’t eat until after 8!  Needless to say, we were starving. 

Dukes is a great, local landmark.  It is right on the beach in the Outrigger hotel.  They have a great menu, with a lot of fresh fish dishes and a nice salad bar.  They also have live entertainment most nights. Since we had to wait so long, they brought us complementary Crab and Mac Nut Wontons, which were awesome.  I had a bunch few.  For my entre, I ordered the Seven Spice Ahi.  I wasn’t in love with this dish; I wish I had ordered the Mac Nut and Herb crusted fish of the day.  Everyone else was raving about that.  Oh, food envy.

Ava slept completely through dinner.  Dan and I decided to do her nighttime routine before we went down for Happy Hour each night.  We would feed her, give her her bath, put her in her jammies, and tuck her in in her stroller.  This worked great!  She would sleep through dinner each night, waking up around 10 for another feeding and to be moved to her crib.  That stroller was a lifesaver! 

After all that sun time and waking up so early, we were ready to crash pretty early.  Lights out by 10:30.

Wal-Mart in Paradise

We arrived in Hawaii on Monday morning and Ava was exhausted from all the traveling.  Where was our first stop?  That’s right…Wal-Mart!  Super exciting, but we needed to get some baby essentials (diapers, formula, water, etc.) 

We would like to give huge kudos to Embassy Suites for accommodating us so well.  We checked in and realized we were in a first floor suite with 2 full beds.  We had requested a king.  They found a new room for us on the top floor of the hotel with a great view and king sized beds…total upgrade. 

View from room- The hotel is perpendicular from the beach, so only the end rooms have frontal ocean views.  The ocean view was looking out to the left and the other view was straight on. Looking to the right was a view of the mountains.

 

The same time we were checking in, the delivery man showed up from Paradise Baby.  We were so impressed with this company.  We rented a swing (helpful, but not necessary), a bouncy seat (great for feeding), bathtub (super helpful), beach tent (necessary), and a Jumperoo (not at all necessary, but Ava loved it!).  The driver brought everything up to the room and set it all up for us.  The swing was super handy as we were trying to unpack and get settled in. 

After settling in, we took care of something very important…Happy Hour!  The Embassy Suites has a Manager’s Reception every night with open bar, snacks, and live music 3 nights a week.  Ava snoozed in her stroller while we toasted our vacation with Blue Hawaiians and Mai Tais…perfection. 

Dan, why look so serious…it’s HAPPY hour after all.

Times are different now that we have a baby, following happy hour Dan picked up sushi to go as I got Ava ready for bed.  We put her down and enjoyed sushi and cocktails on the balcony, calling it a night by 10pm.  

Technorati Tags: hawaii,Embassy Suites,Paradise Baby

First in Flight

Technorati Tags: flying with baby

Ava had her first plane ride and we all survived!  I panicked over this since booking the flight, over 2 months ago.  All that panicking was for nothing. 

Does this look like something worth panicking over?  (Thanks, Dan for the super flattering shot). 

Here are a few things we did to try to make the flight a little more bearable. 

1.  Since we were traveling to Hawaii (a 5 1/2 hour flight from LA alone), we decided to break up the flight.  We flew to LA (just over 2 hours) first, spent the day in LA and then got up and took the first flight of the day to Hawaii.  This was great for the way there, not so sure it was totally necessary for the way home.  The flight was substantially cheaper this way and we got to spend a little time in LA as well.  Ava got to meet Keith (and spent some time in a bar for the first time:))

2.  Carrying extra bags without extra hands was a bit of a challenge (Ava is not quite ready to carry her own bag).  Avis was awesome!  Something I bet many of you don’t know; if you rented a car and have a car seat set up, Avis will have a driver take you to the airport, so you can keep the baby in the car seat.  Not all Avis locations do this, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.  Also, those little Smart Carts were total lifesavers. 

3.  Travel with the Ergo (or baby carrier of choice).  I used this when trotting through the airport, but it also worked miracles for putting Ava to sleep.  When she was having a hard time, I put her in the carrier and walked around the plane a little.  She was OUT in no time. I went back to my seat and she continued to sleep for almost 2 hours.  This worked on the flights to and back from Hawaii. 

4.  We bought a smaller stroller.  I have a Baby Jogger that I LOVE, but it is a little big.  We went out and bought a Combi Cosmo Stroller. It is much lighter and smaller.  It also folds very small and quick, which was great through security and at the gate check.

5.  We packed a ton of toys, but we really didn’t need more than 1 or 2.  Ava had fun just playing with us, napping, and just staring out the window.  She is very social, so she also enjoyed meeting some of the other passengers (who were amazed at how well behaved she was on the plane).