25+1.25 Year Anniversary Trip to Hawai'i

Hawai'i 2025 Trip Notes

We wanted to take a special trip to celebrate our 25th Anniversary in 2023 but life was a bit busy, so we just returned from our 25+1.25 year anniversary trip to Hawai'i.

Why Hawai'i?

We went to the Big Island for our honeymoon in 1998 and we thought a special trip would be to return to the state but see some of the other islands. We chose O'ahu and Kaua'i.

Here's a quick summary of our trip:

Day 1: Saturday, January 11, 2025

J drove us to the Colorado Springs airport where we had a quick flight to Denver and then had our direct 7+hour flight to Honolulu. We arrived around 4:30 P.M. local time.

1st View of O'ahu

We checked into the Kaimana Beach Hotel in the Waikiki area and discovered our amazing view of the beach from the 8th floor.

View from our 8th floor room

We walked around town a bit and ate dinner at the Maui Beer Co. Sheila EVEN ate pineapple on the pizza!

      

Day 2: Sunday, January 12, 2025

Of course, we woke up early to watch the Broncos at 8 A.M. local time. They lost, but we enjoyed having beer & nachos so early in the morning at Lulu's!



We had a lazy beach day, along with reading on our 8th floor balcony and then a lovely late dinner in the hotel restaurant, Hau Tree that was outside on the patio next to the beach.

Lamb Chop Dinner (#BringBackFoodPix)

Day 3: Monday, January 13, 2025 

(Sheila's Dad's 84th birthday up in heaven)

We rented a car to go explore the North Shore of O'ahu and our first stop was at the Leonard's food truck to sample the "fancy" Portuguese donuts called Malasadas.

Then we went on a nice hike, the Makapu‘u Point Lighthouse Trail where we saw some interesting birds and tried to see whales.

View from top (no whales!)

Black 'iwa bird in flight

Wingspan of the black 'iwa

After the hike, we went to the Hoʻomaluhia Botanical Garden. It was a FREE garden nestled in this valley surrounded by these mountains.

Here are a few samples of plants we saw:

Then we drove further north to try to see big waves. We found a beach and walked around a bit...of course, saw one of the many roosters and chickens that just wander around like pigeons!

We also saw this memorial that was interesting...

Then we had dinner at Stonefish in Haleiwa (pretty far north) before driving back to our hotel. Sheila had the BEST crabcake salad!! Chris's hankering for a burger was semi-satisfying...

Crab Cake Salad (#BringBackFoodPix)

Day 4: Tuesday, January 14, 2025

We woke up early for our reservation to visit the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor at 9 A.M. This was a humbling tour to honor the hundreds of service people who died during the initial bombing that forced the USA into World War II.

Rainbow over Pearl Harbor Entrance

Then we toured the USS Missouri that is now retired and watches over the sunken USS Arizona as it was the ship where the Japanese signed the surrender that ended the war. We took the engineer's tour to see below the decks and saw the engine room too.

USS Missouri watching over USS Arizona (Bow to Bow)

Japenese WWII Surrender documents on the USS Missouri

We ate a quick lunch and had some drinks next door at Restaurant 604 and went back to our hotel to rest a bit before our dinner reservation.


That evening was our VERY SPECIAL SUSHI meal to celebrate our anniversary. We can't tell you how SPECTACULAR this meal was at Omakase by Aung. It is an exclusive little restaurant that only has 8 seats and they only have 2 seatings each evening for the 16 course meal!! Sheila LOVES LOVES LOVES sushi and Chris really likes it too so this was certainly a very special treat. See the photos below of some of the courses and at the end of the evening, they sang for us and made a special dish for us (and a cute young couple celebrating their THIRD anniversary).

 

Scallops (about the 10th course)

Chef Aung

First Course - soup with caviar!

Video of Special Anniversary Surprise

Special Anniversary Course

Day 5: Wednesday, January 15, 2025

We slept in a bit this morning, took a long and strenuous hike up Diamond Head Crater since we started from our hotel and then walked back to have lunch in Waikiki. We had a great view of our hotel from up there!

Then we went in search of some lunch and ate a nice outdoor lunch at Tiki.

Smoked Marlin Dip at Tiki (#BringBackFoodPix)

For the rest of the day we had some lazy time reading on our balcony and then to the beach to watch the sunset. Then we Uber'd over to a Ramen place for dinner and walked home to pack up for our early morning flight.

Last Sunset in O'ahu

Day 6: Thursday, January 16, 2025

We had breakfast in the lovely cultural garden in the Honolulu airport before we flew to Kaua'i.

Cultural Gardens in Airport

We arrived in Kaua'i too early to check in so we explored a bit in our rental Jeep (they gave us a "free" upgrade). We went to Hanapepe where we ate an interesting Hawaiian lunch, walked across their swinging bridge (to nowhere!), and visited the Westernmost Bookstore in the USA! We also went to the grocery store to stock up on breakfast, lunch and dinner items for the next few days.

First look at Kaua'i

Found a Peace Pole!

Swinging Bridge to Nowhere in Hanapepe

Lunch at Ku'uleis Gourmet: Pastele Plate & Ahi Katsu (#BringBackFoodPix)

Finally at 2:45 P.M. we checked into the Waimea Plantation Cottages (an old sugar cane plantation), explored the grounds a bit, saw the sunset, and ate dinner there at "Chicken in a Barrel".

Our cottage is the red one on the left.

View from the cottage's lānai.

Our Cottage!

First sunset in Kaua'i

Day 7: Friday, January 17, 2025

We woke up early to be on time for our 10 A.M. reservation with a tour company to take a special kayak/hiking trip!

We kayaked up the Wailua River (where they filmed some of the movies "Jurassic Park" & "Indiana Jones"), moored our kayaks, donned our packs, and hiked about a mile to the "Secret Waterfall" where we had a little lunch and Sheila took a dip in the cold pool!








After kayaking back, we had a few beers at Napali Brewing.

We tried to make it back before sunset, but the traffic was TERRIBIBBLE!

That night we grilled pork chops at our cottage and ate on our lānai.

Day 8: Saturday, January 18, 2025

We had a lazy morning and then drove up the road (with the top off the Jeep) to explore Waimea Canyon. We stopped at a few lookouts and took lots of photos.

Napali coast (from top of Waimea Canyon)

still have phone booths around the islands!

On the way back, Sheila bought a $15 pineapple to make a fancy drink! 

Here's the pineapple's photoshoot:















That afternoon we sipped cocktails, read our books and watched the beautiful sunset. Then we walked into town to eat at L&L Hawaiian (a local chain with Hawaiian fare). Chris had lau lau and Kalua pork and Sheila had Hawaiian chicken.

Day 9: Sunday, January 19, 2025

We had a nice breakfast and then headed to hike at the Pihea and Alaka'i Trails at Waimea Canyon. It was a moderately tough hike with slippery spots and some places where you had to climb up steep rock formations. When we were about to summit, Sheila went the WRONG way (thinking it would be easier) and she had to go through mud up to her ankles (thank goodness for great waterproof and mudproof boots) and then literally had to pull herself up a steep, plant-covered "hill".

Chris at the top of a particularly muddy trek.

        

After the hike, we went to the grocery store again to get steaks to grill as our reward for our 4-mile-ish hike! Before heading home, we stopped at Jo-Jo's Shave Ice for our first experience of this delicious treat!

Then we walked to the pier and explored the beach a bit more before grilling our steaks for dinner we ate on our lānai.

Day 10: Monday, January 20, 2025

Lazy breakfast on our lānai and we had to check out by 11 A.M. so we went exploring again.

Here's what we did:

• visited the Russian Fort near our hotel and it wasn't very interesting!
• drove to Wailua Falls (famous from the beginning of "Fantasy Island"),
• walked across the Kapaia Swinging Bridge and watched butterflies,
• walked around Kaiakea Point,
• enjoyed Shave Ice in Kaapa,
• drove to Hanalei Bay on Northshore to see some lovely beaches,
• drank beers at Kauai Beer Company.
• ate sushi one more time,
• returned the rental Jeep and checked in for our flight, and
• boarded to begin our journey home.

Photos from the last day:

Near Hanalei Bay

Interesting spider

Can you find Chris in this shot?

Kapaia Swinging Bridge

"Fantasy Island" Falls (real name Wailau Falls)

(sort of) Day 11: Tuesday, January 21, 2025

Woke up on the plane and arrived in COS by 9 A.M.  Q picked us up at the airport, we arrived home, and collapsed into bed after sharing some photos with Q (J was at work).