Hawaii - Jan 28, 2026 - Day 5 - Island Hopping

 Today we headed to Kauai, but first we had to go to the beach one last time.

We "slept in" today, but still getting up before 8 am local time and headed downstairs for breakfast. The Yoga was still going on when we sat down. We enjoyed our last breakfast, where AA had an omelette and Lola just had eggs over easy.

AA got toothpaste on his shirt.

After breakfast we got our bathing suits on, packed our bag, and headed to the other side of the Sheraton to get to Waikiki Beach.  AA remembered how nice this portion of the beach was from our honeymoon (16 years ago), and wanted to go back. It was about a 10 minute walk. On our way we passed a path full of surf boards locked up, what a neat thing to see them all lined up with a master lock box.

Once at the beach we headed straight into the water. It wasn't very deep, but wow it was nice.  We hung out in the water for about 30 minutes, just reminiscing, discussing our plans and just enjoying the water and the sun. We got out of the water to dry off a little before making our way back to the hotel for check out time of 11.  

We finished packing our bags, and hung out on the balcony/lani until it was just before 11 to go check out. Embassy Suites by Hilton was a great location to stay, and we really enjoyed the space and breakfast/evening reception. (photos of the place when we first arrived).

Got our car, stopped for gas, and headed to the airport. We Arrived with plenty of time, to take the shuttle from the rental car drop off to the Hawaiian Air terminal. 

Once at the terminal, we checked our bags and headed to security. It was pretty uneventful. 

We got some lunch at Mauka Market in the pretty new part of the terminal. AA had the best Ramen (he said it was the best meal of the trip so far), and Lola had a burger and fries, a little disappointed they didn't have any gluten free buns left.  

After lunch we headed to our gate, after browsing some of the shops along the way. At the gate, Lola tried to blog some more, but we didn't have that much time to finish. 

Boarded the plane (AA boarded first as he gate checked his bag), and they let him in on Zone 3 vs zone 4. Lola joined him and they enjoyed their short flight over to Kauai.

Highlight of the flight was going on a runway that was on a causeway, and waiting for 3 fighter jets to take off just prior to us taking off.

The landing was a little rough, but it was super short flight.

Landed, got our luggage, and then AA went and got the rental car, while Lola waited at the terminal with the bags.

We went to Costco, and Safeway to get some groceries.  18 eggs was $10.00.

After we headed to our place in Poipu.  Unloaded our car, and checked out our new place.  It is pretty warm when we arrived and there is only air conditioning in the bedroom.

We headed to the beach, a short walk from our place, to see the water and check out the turtles. 

Back to our place we drove for supper at Living Foods.  They sat us in a very odd place, were we felt like we weren't really apart of the restaurant, but it was ok.  Lola had the broiled fish, and AA had the poke bowl.  The food was really good, and we enjoyed the devilled eggs together.  One as an appetizer and the other as dessert.

Drove back to our place, and went back to the beach to check out the turtles.  The volunteers there said there were approximately 63 turtles there tonight.  The moon was so bright that you could even see them without the red light they shine on them.

Short walk back, we did some laundry and tried to figure out what to do tomorrow, where to hike, and Lola caught up on the blog.

Good night, Lola.

Hawaii - Jan 27, 2026 - Day 4 - Ko Olina

 AA made sure we got up early this morning to walk out to the beach to catch the sunrise. We weren't the only ones that had the idea, as there were quite a few people out on the pier watching the sun come up over diamond head.  the sun wasn't quite over the mountain, but a little to the left.

While we were watching we spotted a sea cucumber on the rocks, and saw a few sea turtles in the distance (swimming in the water).  The sky was pretty clear with some clouds that made for a pretty good sun rise.  

We walked back to the hotel to get some breakfast.  AA is really enjoying the omelettes and Miso Soup, while Lola is enjoying the rice, and fruit.

After breakfast, we got changed and picked up our snorkelling gear to go back to the water.  It was a pretty short walk to the beach. We found a spot just past the pickle ball courts and got our gear on.

The snorkelling wasn't that great, but we ended up seeing some fish, coral, sea urchins and a very large sea cucumber. Little did we know we had to swim like a km out to see Turtle cove, where a whole bunch of turtles hang out.  In the water for about 20 minutes and Lola was ready to get out, swimming is hard work. We sat on the grassed area to dry off, and then headed back to the hotel to get changed and get some lunch.

Lola found this place just on the bottom floor of their hotel called Nalu where they had gluten free sandwiches and dairy free smoothies.  Lola ordered the Ahi Sandwich while AA had the turkey pesto sandwich on a croissant.  We got our food, and..... headed back to the beach to eat it.  We found a table right by the pickle ball court.  It was so nice by the water, and I guess AA really wanted to hang out there today.

After and early lunch, we headed back to the hotel to get our car. We were going Golfing.  We had a tee time at 1:40pm, and it was between a 30-55 minute drive depending on traffic so we gave ourselves a lot of time.

We drove to Ko Olina, where we had stayed previously the last time we were on Oahu with MBMell and DD and the twins. The golf course was right by the Disney Aulani Hotel, and the condo we rented.  Lola was excited to golf there.

It also was a very different climate compared to Waikiki, it felt pretty warm and very sunny (but it was mid afternoon). 

We dropped our clubs off at the Club drop off and went and parked our car. We had about an hour before our tee time, so Lola checked out the pro shop, we hit some balls at the driving range and filled up our cups that were supplied by the course.  

At about 1:30 we headed to hole number 10 (as they were playing the back nine before the front today).  There was a group of 3 guys a head of us, who were playing from the the farthest tees...they seemed to be pretty good.  The course was challenging, but had pretty wide fairways but it was pretty warm, good thing we had water and a cold cloth to wipe AA's sweat.  

Lola lost 1 ball on the first hole, which wasn't a great start, but after the 3rd drive, she got the hang of her driver again. AA hit a few good ones, and then slowly got back into his ball hooking habits with his driver.  He still wasn't on good terms with his 8 iron from the round before.

After 18 holes, Lola beat AA for the first time in her life time.  It didn't help that AA got a 7 on a par 3 hole. I was playing from the woman's tees, but beat AA by 2 strokes.  It was an awesome round of golf, but some of the holes it was very distracting when the fighter jets were practicing flying (it got really loud).  We didn't see any lady bugs...   

We finished our round, got a ride to our car with our clubs, and then went inside to buy a hat, golf ball and get changed for dinner.

AA made a dinner reservation at Monkey Pod where Lola was very excited, we were a little early, so Lola went to get a replacement piece for a frame she broke, and the lady gave her 2 extra pieces for being a returning customer.

At the restaurant we were on the 2nd floor.  AA ordered the hawaiian pizza and Lola had the seafood special, with sword fish and half a lobster tail.  The food was really good.

We finished our meals and headed back to the car to make it back to the hotel.  Unfortunately we were 30 minutes too late to make it to the evening reception, but instead we went to the pool and hot tub.  The hot tub felt so good on our aching muscles.  It also only had 2 other family's there, so it was pretty quiet.

We enjoyed the time in the hot water and cooler swimming pool before heading back to the hotel room to shower off and pack to get ready to leave.

The day was great and the food was also good.  The weather was so comfortable, even at the peak of the day.  

We leave to island hope tomorrow, and we are pretty excited.      

Lola.