Day 1: Waikiki & Lanikai Beach
I wish you were here with me, walking on the beach in Hawaii
Ziggy Marley, Beach in Hawaii
Saturday April 17th
My internal alarm clock went off at 6:45am HT this morning and I was up. Annie, who I’m sharing a room with, had gotten in late last night and we both met each other for the first time upon waking up this morning, lol. She’s from Dallas, is super chill, has done a lot of solo travel, and a little more fast paced which I appreciate.
We met up with Amy, Luke, and Travis for breakfast at Dukes Canoe Club. We didn’t realize it was a buffet when we made the reservation so luckily we got there before there was a crazy line. Breakfast was pretty standard – eggs, potatoes, bacon, French toast. Luke ordered POG juice (Passion Orange Guava) which is a Hawaiian staple. They even have POG flavored hard seltzers. Weirdly enough pineapple juice has been scarce and difficult to find in the nearby stores. I guess POG is all the rage out here ?
After breakfast we loaded up the Sentra and took the scenic route, driving along the coastline to our next destination: Lanikai beach. On the way there was a scenic spot called Blowhole Lookout so we pulled the car over and scoped it out. The view was surreal. We snapped some pics, saw scuba divers swimming around, caught some sun, then got back in the car to continue our drive.
Blowhole lookout
We got a little nervous driving through a quick rain shower patch for 15 mins but luckily came out on the other side with sunny and blue skies.
To get to Lanikai you have to search for parking in a residential neighborhood. After circling a few times we found a spot and walked up to the beach. Lanikai is much more laid back than Waikiki which I prefer. The view surrounding the beach made me feel like I was finally away on a beautiful island, the type of view I had pictured in my head for Hawaii to be. While we were hanging out on the beach we met Manuel & Cristal from NY, they moved here about a month ago to escape the city. Both of them spoke Spanish and I attempted to keep up. Surprisingly they told me I spoke the language pretty well. I was flattered and we started talking about the east coast vs island lifestyle. They gave us some local restaurants recommendations and we exchanged numbers to try and meet up tomorrow at North Shore.
The sun was shining and the rum was flowing. Overall it was a perfect beach day.
1st row (left to right): Annie, Amy & Me | the Hawaii crew – Me, Luke, Amy, Annie, & Travis
2nd row (left to right): Me, Cristal, & Manuel | Me, Cristal & Annie | Amy & Travis
Getting back to the hotel I felt pretty drained. The sun definitely got to me, first real tan of the season always does. I was in dire need of a shower to freshen up.
For dinner instead of dealing with waiting over an hour to get into a restaurant on a Saturday night we opted for take out. Annie and I decided to walk to Dukes Market since they had a bunch of different to-go options which was super convenient and only an 8 minute walk away. I ordered kimchi friend rice mixed with fried egg and Korean beef (forgot to take a pic but it was delicious and I’ll definitely have leftovers for tomorrow – 4.5 stars) We ate dinner and the whole group was pretty exhausted. We decided to call it an early night and wake up at 7am to go hiking and drive up to North Shore.
Overall Solid Saturday. The one activity we missed out on was kayaking to the two twin islands off in the distance. We saw plenty of kayaks going out there and I wish we could have found a rental place nearby. Maybe next time. We’ll see what ventures tomorrow brings.
XO Steph