Oahu trip: Day 1

Decided to spend a week in Oahu for my birthday this year. It's the one place that I feel that I can truly relax. Took the first available direct flight at 9 am.

It's going to be Tammy's first visit to Hawaii.

Literature for our flight.


I haven't flown with Hawaiian Airlines in a long time. I mostly fly locally with Southwest, but Hawaiian's seats were quite comfortable and spacious. Their chair also reclined so much that I didn't even use the full range of it.


One of the perks of flyinh Hawaiian Airlines is that they still provide you with a complimentary in-flight meal.

About and hour before descending we were also provided a complimentary snack (Sweet Maui Onion Kettle chips) and cocktail (island punch) 21+ of course.

Meanwhile everyone else flew with Alaska Airlines. I'm pretty sure this is wine.

They had outlets on their flight.


No complimentary meals on Alaska, but you can always purchase some.




Somebody spilled something.

Looks like it's probably Diane. It's also her first visit to Hawaii.

Took a quick nap and next thing you know we're preparing to descend.







Finally touched down on the island.


Met up with the rest of the group at our car rental and headed off for lunch.





We accidentally stumbled upon Tenkaippin Ramen on a trip back in 2009 and it's been our first place to eat whenever we visit.






Let the vacation begin.


They're know for their Kotteri Ramen. The broth is very thick, almost like a watered down gravy. You don't even need a spoon to eat the ramen cause the broth easily sticks to the noodles. This used to be my favorite ramen spot until I was introduced to Tsujita in southern California.

John loves Gyoza or potstickers and has to try it whenever they are available. Did you know that Gyoza and Potstickers are different from each other?

After lunch it was time for dessert at Waiola Shave Ice. Which is conveniently located a few blocks from Tenkaippin Ramen.


Diane and Jack subconsciously coordinated their outfits. All the way down to the matching shoes. Either that or Jack stalks Diane's Instagram and wanted to match.

There are many type of combinations that can be made. I had the custard bowl with lychee flavor. I think Jack had the strawberry lemonade.

It was time to check into our rental for the week. We usually stay close to Waikiki, but the home that we usually rent was unavailable for our date of travel. So this time we rented a property a little further away on the east side of the island.




The view on our way to the house was spectacular.







I've been to the east side of Oahu in 2007, but haven't ventured here since. For everyone else it was their first time being on this side of Oahu.

Rented a comfy beach front property that I found on Homeaway. I tried Airbnb, but there were some sketchy listings on their site that I didn't trust.



The neighbors.

Our view for the week, with our own private entrance directly to the beach.


Waimanalo beach is gorgeous, the sand was soft and had no rocks or coral. There is also a nice tree line that provided plenty of shade and it was never crowded.


When I first visited Oahu in 2007 I rented an ocean front hotel and one of my fondest memories was sleeping with the balcony open and falling asleep to the sound of the ocean. I'm glad that I'll be able to do that again for the entire week.

Beach access from the backyard.

The view of the mountains from this side of Oahu are breath taking.





After settling in, it was time to enjoy the beach.





If you search around the shore you can find tiny crabs running around.



The property had a banana tree. So we had fresh bananas during our stay.

Around the corner from the house there was Ono Steaks & Shrimp Shack. So we decided we would grab some food to-go for dinner.




There's also fresh coconut on the property.

Don't mind if we do.


Steak, garlic shrimp and brown rice.

Short ribs and garlic shrimp.


Around 9 pm we headed out to Dave & Busters. 

On Wednesday nights D&B seems to be the it spot.

One floor is dining, another for gaming and the top floor has a rooftop bar/club. The club doesn't open until 10 pm, but we were early. We tried taking the stairs but security told us it was wasn't open yet, so we took the elevator.

They didn't seem to mind us being up their. They were still setting up for the night.


It's half off games on Wednesday and half off drinks starting at 10 pm.

We eventually made our way downstairs to play games. Diane's super excited. -_-




People actually line up when they order drinks at the D&B here.






Around midnight we left D&B.



Stopped off for some late night grub at Zippy's.



Ate our meal and called it a night. It's only our first night, six more to go.