This morning I took Bestie to the Swamp Meet & Marketplace at Aloha Stadium in order for her to get her shop on. We were only there for an hour and a half because we had to head to Shagri La for our 10:30am tour. Despite being short on time Bestie was able to do lots of shopping! She found some awesome souvenirs, soaps, local Hawaiian made jams and jewelry. We both got matching Plumeria rings – it’s a little tradition we started to remember the trips we go on together [we just need to get Doc a ring].

The morning started off with breakfast at Cinnamon’s Restaurant in Kailua. They are famous for their Guava Chiffon Duet Topping. I ordered the Portuguese sweet bread french toast with guava chiffon duet topping, Doc had the guava chiffon pancakes, and bestie had the guava chiffon pancakes ala mode. The food was great – a bit heavy – I was only able to finish half of my french toast. When compared to the breakfast we had on Sunday at Boots & Kimo’s – I would definitely rank Boots higher than Cinnamon’s. The food was good but it wasn’t amazing enough that I would want to go back. 

After breakfast we headed to Diamond Head to hike. Diamond Head is a crater that was formed nearly 300,000 years ago during a volcanic eruption. The hike is only 0.8 miles – however it involves a hike, 74 steps, a tunnel, a second set of 99 stairs, and then a spiral staircase consisting of 52 stairs. Once you get through all of this you get to the top of the crater and are blown away by the breathtaking view. The elevation of the crater summit and theuppermost level is761 feet. It was extremely windy up top but that didn’t stop us from taking a bunch of pictures!

Read More

Today was an adventurous day. Bestie wanted to snorkel and we heard that Hanauma Bay is one of the best areas to do that so we headed there. I put in Hanauma Bay into my GPS and we started driving to the south of Oahu. We did very little research beforehand thus we were very surprised when we arrived and found Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve Park. First we had to stand in line and buy a ticket to enter the Bay – the admission fee is $7.50 – however it is free for Hawaiian natives. Then we had to watch a 10 minute video on the history of the bay as well as the rules and regulations for snorkeling at the bay. Once all the legal stuff was over we walked down to the beach/bay area to snorkel. We brought a pair of snorkeling gear from the apartment but we also rented some equipment for Doc to go snorkeling as well. As the video suggested you should always go snorkeling with a buddy – we couldn’t send bestie alone therefore Doc decided to go. As Doc and bestie snorkeled I took a ton of pictures and videos of them. They were raving about the snorkeling and all the coral, fish, and sea creatures they saw. They snorkeled for a solid hour and a half. I mostly sat on the beach and listened to music – it was very peaceful and calming. 

Read More