Day 11 - Hawaii Honeymoon

We woke up around 8AM and walked about a mile along the beach to Queens Surf Cafe. It's this hidden little breakfast nook on the water that David's aunt told us about. 

Then we sat on the famous Waikiki Beach for one last time and took it all in. 

 On the way to the airport, we happened to pass Leonard's, a place famous for their malasadas, fried dough balls, and stopped for some treats for the plane.  

At the airport, the excitement wasn't over.  I haven't mentioned yet about how slow Hawaiians are.  The security line was out the door.  Literally out the door.  And while we waited outside that door, we watched two women being arrested.  It looked like a smuggle job gone wrong but we can't be sure.  

When we got on the plane, we popped some melatonin to prepare for the redeye flight.  David was out like a light but I couldn't sleep because the stewardess was laughing so loud and talking to the other attendent the ENTIRE time.  I watched multiple people complain to her and she never stopped.  Just another disappointment on Hawaiian Air.  But hey, if there's no such thing as a perfect vacation and that was one of the biggest complaints - I guess it wasn't too bad.  And on another plus side, I finished an amazing book called The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. 

So that my friends, was #drmthehoneymoon.   We are really looking forward to returning on an anniversary trip!  

Day 10, Hawaii Honeymoon

It was depressing to leave the Four Seasons.  What an incredible hotel!  We got on our little Go! Airlines 18 minute flight and returned to Oahu. 

We finished the road trip we started in the beginning of the trip and swung by the east/south side of the island, by Koko Head, Halona Blowhole and then Diamond Head Crater for a quick hike. 

The Blowhole 

From the top of Diamond Head 

For a late lunch, we raced to Hanks Haute Dogs and made it just in time.  They close at 4PM!  We got the Andouille, Chicago and Chili dogs. We then checked into Aqua Bamboo and went for a walk to exchange a shirt at the Stupid Factory, my new favorite store, and watched our last Hawaiian sunset.

Diamond head in the back - the place we were standing on top of in the previous photo.

Dinner was at Sansei, a highly recommended sushi spot.    

Day 9 - Hawaii Honeymoon

Of all days to wake up before the crack of dawn and get on a boat, the one after having food poisoning was it for me. I contemplated not going but I spent so much time researching and I was really looking forward to it and didn't want David to miss out either.  

We drove in the dark, in silence, all the way there.  We watched the sunrise as we boarded the Trilogy catamaran with 45 other people.  Despite the fact that I probably looked alarmingly scary, the crew was so welcoming, serving us "Mama's famous cinnamon rolls", fruit and coffee.

We were on the boat for no more then 10 minutes, making our way to our first location, before our first dolphin sighting, a pod of Spinners. I've never seen a wild pod like that.  The boat stopped and they came right up to say hi. Once they got bored we continued on to Molokini. 

Molokini is a cresent shaped island of volcanic rock and now a bird preserve that you can see from the plane and at many points from Maui.  It used to also be something for the military so when you snorkel, you can see bullets on the ocean floor.  We were assured that all the mines were gone by now however, a 4carat ring was still somewhere down there.  

I took my ring off and snorkeled for about 10 minutes and then had to quit, David took the full hour.  This is the point I fell asleep, hence the lack of fun snorkelface photos.  We moved on to the next spot, Turtle Town - an underwater cave known for being a hangout for the Honus, which I skipped but David said he saw one. 

The Trilogy crew was super friendly and attentive and made me feel better even though I wasn't yet.  I sat up by the steering wheel in the shade and had a conversation with the Captain about the Maui Humane Society & his dog among other things.  I feel like you can just chat with locals about anything and they just seem so happy.   

After they served lunch, I started to wake up and feel a little better and it was sailing time. The catamaran is a gorgeous custom made sailboat as well and we sailed for about an hour along the coast.  It was pretty cool but also exciting to see how excited the crew got from sailing.  I steered for a little too!   

Naturally as we docked, I was feeling better.  We said farewell to Trilogy and relaxed at the regular pool at the hotel where I took a very much needed nap. I still felt really guilty about ruining dinner last night so I called Mama's Fishhouse and arranged a retry. Thankfully, they were sympathetic and very helpful in rearranging the night!  

I'm so grateful they did, it was one of the best meals ever; not just on this trip.  They start off serving you a tomato ginger bisque amuse bouche sipper.  We then had the wasabi crusted calamari, David had crab filled lobster tail and I had a fish that is similar to snapper but I can't remember it's name now and wish I did.  This place is so fresh they even credit the name of the fisherman who catches it that morning!  Everyone says you have to go here when you go to Maui and I couldn't agree more.  

Wasabi Crusted Calamari 

It was the perfect way to end our stay in Maui.