Tag: Oahu

Hawaii 2026

Oahu and the Big Island

Planning 😁

Meeting up with Krystal and Randy and the kids on Oahu.  I will hang out with them for a week and then fly over to the Big Island solo to blog and decompress.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.  I’m doing carry-on only for this trip.  I know, I know, I have talked myself out of it in the past but I will be flying to two islands and I want the flying situation to be as simple as possible.  I don’t want to drag a giant bag and have to check it and then wait for it at baggage claim. This does pose a problem though.  No self defense weapons are allowed in your carry-on.  Well knives and I don’t know about pepper spray.  I will probably be fine in Oahu with Krystal and Randy but once I get to the Big Island I want to be prepared.  I’m going to ask my local sporting goods store what is legal to pack on board.  I guess when I go through TSA I will find out.

So, what’s on my packing list? I need to pack light and in the past I have always over packed.  I also need to be able to lift it above my head into the bin lol.  I’m not saying that I will be packing (Kris) light lol. I need more than three pairs of underwear and a swimsuit.  So somewhere in between, Kris and Krystal (who packs her whole closet) 😂

I will have my carry-on suitcase, backpack and pillow.  The backpack houses the stuff I can’t live without.  Like my iPad, headphones and car food.  For those of you that don’t know what car food is, it’s quick food that I can stuff in my mouth if I feel my blood sugar dropping. I keep a bag in the car and try to remember to bring it when we go out on the boat.  I am gluten free, dairy free, apple free, onion free… the list goes on. So, protein bars, nuts and fruit snacks.  Maybe a little candy too lol.  I’m flying Delta and I don’t know what the food situation will be.  Normally I go with Hawaiian Airlines and they always feed you but I couldn’t get any flights out of Eugene that I wanted.

I will wear all the bulky stuff that takes up a lot of room in the suitcase.  Water/hiking shoes, pocket jacket (with all my important stuff in the internal pockets) some stretchy pants with shorts underneath, headphones and a hat.  I have found if I wear a hat and headphones my seatmate won’t try to make idle chit chat with me.  No, I don’t need to know your life story and although encouraged by the government, I won’t be wearing formal attire to ride six hours on an airplane lol.

Oahu

Day 6 Thursday

Kalama Beach Park. The surf was good for body boarding. It was super shallow a long way out with a nice sandy bottom. Camden caught quite a few waves and then got rolled in the surf by a wave. He jumped up and got his goggles and went right back out! Noa loved the water and kept trying to run into it lol. We played in the sand.

Manoa Chocolate Factory for chocolate tasting. Delicious. I wanted to eat them all. Well all except the goat milk chocolate bar. It tasted a little too goaty for me lol. Since the dark chocolate was dairy free even Noa got a taste and I think she liked it. We were still wet from swimming so when we stood up we left a few butt imprints on the cushions lol. I bought four of the Maui benefit bars and some cacao nibs.

The Buffet at the Hyatt with Kasey and Liz. We made reservations and after I pushed send it said there was a cancelation fee of $35 per person! Well no backing out of this one. It was awesome. All you can eat snow crab, shrimp and dessert 😁 perfect and totally worth it. That’s all I ate. Kasey and Liz ate the fillers. Unnecessary food that takes stomach space away from the good stuff lol. I was just there for the seafood and mochi.

The super moon is tonight. Waited until 9pm. It really didn’t look that much bigger than the regular moon but it was brighter. I was able to get a couple of good pictures of it. One normal pic and one looking like there was a cat face on it😺 lol I thought it was pretty awesome lol.

Day 7 Friday

Last day in Oahu

Walked with Noa to get coffee while Krystal and Randy drove to find the perfect matcha tea. I don’t think they found it but that is their story to tell hahaha. Noa was a perfect angel. We watched birds, window shopped and she had a snack all while i got my steps in.

Dave & Buster’s for some gaming fun. I must admit I played the coin pusher the whole time but I ended up winning 2600 tickets! I gave the remaining card points to Camden and we did the Hot Wheels racing game.

Pedicure at Tami-A nails with Krystal and Liz. Of course we had to go here lol. Halfway through the pedicure I remembered that most nail places don’t take credit/debit cards. I wasn’t sure how much cash I had but I lucked out. Krystal had some cash and I had enough for me and Liz.

Fireworks show to end the night by the lagoon. They were shooting them off of the docks. Very cool.

Oahu

Day 4 Tuesday

Pu’u Pia hike. 1.9 mile out and back. Or should I say up and back down. Elevation was 721 ft. Very beautiful hike. Through the jungle with vines and vegetation all around. Muddy and slippery at times with tree root steps. Yes there was falling involved lol. Just on the way down. Me and Camden. We made it to the top and the view was amazing. Took a group photo. The last one was four years ago. We added one small human👶

Back to the room. Since there was no running water we went swimming instead. I took my muddy shoes and scrubbed them with sand. Refreshing 😁

Hard Rock for dinner. It reminded me of the old days. Traveling and eating out with the kids. Even though they are grown it’s still the same. Although Krystal didn’t get nachos and Kasey didn’t get chicken strips lol.

Day 5 Wednesday

Tragedy. Camden dropped his lip balm in the toilet. I said five second rule. He got it out of there pretty quickly and the toilet hadn’t been used. I said clean it with a disinfectant wipe but Krystal didn’t agree and threw it in the garbage. 😭

Thrifting at Savers. I found some t-shirts and a small carry-on for the trip back. I think my stuff expanded lol.

Razor Sports. Drift carts. So much fun. A mix of Mario Kart and go-carts on tiny wheels. There is a lever you can pull to lift the back end of the cart up to drift around the corners. I think Liz screamed every time she turned a corner. Kasey and Randy couldn’t catch me though lol. Hard as they tried they couldn’t pass me and Camden was in front the whole time.

Lunch at the mall Rainbow drive in. Hamburger and rice plate. Delicious!

Beautiful sunset.

Oahu

Day 2

Woke up at 4am which was really 7am at home. Made myself go back to sleep and ended up sleeping until 6am/9am lol

We walked down to swim in the Hilton lagoon. It was a little over half a mile. It started raining but it was more like taking a shower. The water in the lagoon was a tiny bit chilly but refreshing. I walked out towards the middle and looked down and a school of fish surrounded me. Not small ones. These were around 12-15 inches long and pale blue in color. There were 8-10 of them swimming in a circle around me. So amazing. I wonder if they live there full time or got sucked in through a filter?

Kasey and Liz flew in at noon and we went to Costco to pick up supplies. It was a zoo. The parking lot reminded me of the old days when we would go to Costco in Eugene. Searching for a parking spot for fifteen minutes. The inside of the store was no better. Bumper to bumper shopping carts. I like to see what local snacks they carry and I found these. Hmm. I love crab and I was curious as to how they would taste but I just couldn’t do it lol.

Walked down to get shave ice and shopped a bit.

Day 3

Woke up early and walked down to get a Matcha with Krystal. The coffee shop we tried to find on Google/Apple maps couldn’t give us directions so we settled on Honolulu Coffee. Not three minutes later we found Dean & DeLuca lol. Oh well. Doesn’t look like they had matcha anyways so we are all good.

Drove to the Dole Plantation and rode the train. Noa loved it. No bugs this time.

Krystal chose lunch at Beet Box Cafe. Vegan organic vegetable food lol. Yes, nothing there for me to eat so I walked down the street to McDonald’s lol.

Stopped at Green World Coffee Farm and then headed back to the hotel.

Found this notice slipped under our door…. That is so awesome 🙄 in addition to not having a pool, due to reconstruction, we will not have any water from 9am-3pm.

Went swimming at the lagoon again and the ocean side. The ocean side is so much warmer. Like bath water. You just have to watch out for rocks.

Walked down the street for some Spam Musubi for dinner. Yum! Then we walked back down to watch the dancers at the mall.

Total steps today 17,531/7.25 miles😅

Yes, my feet are complaining a little. lol.

Oahu / Molokai

This trip for packing has been much different from my past trips. Normally I am packed at least three months in advance and ready to go. Not this trip. As I came across things I knew I wanted to take I put them into a big plastic container. That started three months ago but there was no organization involved. Two days before travel day I started going through what was in that box. OMG I stayed up way past midnight packing into a small suitcase and then switching to a medium sized one. I won’t go into all the details because I don’t want you all to think I’m crazy lol. I loaded my suitcase and backpack into the car and left for work. No turning back now.

Stopped at Krystal’s. They were still packing lol.

I am staying at the Country Inn and Suites, taking the shuttle to PDX at 6am. Long term parking is $10 per day and I don’t have to drive to the airport. I was assured there would be plenty of time to check my bag, get through TSA and board at 7:15 am. Makes me nervous but okay….

I got stopped at TSA🙄 No pat down this time. TSA agent holding up my backpack and waving my Nintendo Switch: “Whose bag is this? All electronics larger than a cell phone need to be taken out of your bag”, people staring…….oh well, I made it to the gate by 6:20am and I beat Krystal and Randy.

PDX

First one on the airplane and sitting in First Class. Hawaiian Airlines sends out an offer to bid up to first class and I won! Scored seat 3G. It’s a middle seat so no window but hey, first class lol. Worth it!

Mai Tai in hand. Flight attendant said she would keep them coming until I said when. Um, on number one and, when lol. Coffee please. Well one third coffee and two thirds cream lol. Does that really count as coffee? Or coffee flavored cream?

Krystal and Randy are in the back of the airplane. I think I hear Noa…

8:14am and we are in the air. There is a three hour time difference so when we land it should be around 11:14am. Coming home will be brutal though lol.

Ipad loaded with movies? Yes please. Movie=The Weird Al Yankovic Story. 😂😂 I love Rocky Road! Like a Surgeon! My Bologna! Sing it😂 If you know, you know.

Touchdown 11:00am. I love that we have the whole day ahead of us.

Called the hotel for an early check-in. They will text me when available. Randy took the shuttle to get the rental car so we are hanging out at the airport. Otherwise we would all be grumpy lol.

Checked into the hotel. It’s in a cute little shopping area that is convenient and walkable to the beach. Five minutes in the room Noa locked herself in my bedroom. By herself. Poor baby was so scared. Ten minutes of coaxing her to unlock the door while she was wailing and calling the front desk for help. Second call stressing that she was locked in the bedroom and she is one and a half years old. Mimi to the rescue. I asked Krystal if she had any pens and used the barrel to unlock the door. I know. Genius right? lol. That’s from all my years of taking those pens apart to create chaos in school. That’s a whole other blog though.

Noa didn’t sleep much on the flight so she went down for a nap with Randy while Krystal, Camden and I walked to the beach and looked for food. We decided on PF Changs. Camden ate like a ravenous animal, devouring almost everything in sight. Poor kid was starving.

Walked back down to the beach for sunset. Perfect ending to a great day.

Oahu /Molokai

Wow. The town of Lahaina on Maui burned down along with the surrounding residences. It’s unbelievable that a wildfire sparked and blew through the town and homes so quickly. We were just there in January of this year and I was thinking about going back there for this trip but decided on Oahu instead.

Is the trip still a go?

So many mixed messages on social media regarding travel. I understand, people are mourning and some say to stay away from Maui and to stay away from all of the islands. That tourists are using up all of their resources. Others say, please come. Even to Maui. That their businesses and jobs will be affected without tourism. Some are afraid it will go back to covid times. Conspiracy theories flying. Who, what, when, where, why, and how. So many questions unanswered. I feel the answer is a double edged sword. The big corporations on the islands do benefit from tourism but they also provide jobs and use services from small businesses on the islands. If the vacationers stay away will it affect the islanders negatively?

Well, I am still going but not without much consideration and forethought. I will make sure to shop small, tip with cash and leave as small of a footprint as possible. I think that we all need to consider this when traveling anyway.

My heart goes out to everyone affected and sending ❤️ always.