Day 4: Aloha Stadium Swap Meet, Diamondhead, and Ka Wa’a Luau
I'm so sorry that I've been MIA for so long. I promise I have a good reason...we bought a house!!! I'm still in shock that we were able to take this next HUGE step not even a year into married life, but I'm thrilled. It wasn't nearly as terrifying as people make it out to be (or maybe we just got lucky?) and in my opinion, WAY easier than wedding planning. LOL. Anyways, maybe I'll do a married life update after I finish my TR (since we will have probably hit our year anniversary by then anyways), but for now, on with the continuation of our TR!
After a long day of travel and an early night’s sleep, we were up and ready to get our day started at 5:30AM! Normally, I would lay in bed and try to go back to sleep or at least play on my phone for a bit, but knowing that this was our first full day in Hawaii and we were up before the sun was perfect for us because we would get to experience our first Hawaiian sunrise! We slowly started to get up and out of bed, brush our teeth, and get on some clothes. By 6 or 6:30, we headed down to the lobby to ask around what time to sunrise was. We were only about 20 minutes away from sunrise, so we walked around the pool area for a few minutes and then out onto the beach to watch the sun rise. It was beautiful and so nice and peaceful. Once the sun was up, George went into the water, while I stayed on the beach taking pictures and enjoying the lovely morning.
After getting dried off, we went back to the lobby to speak with one of the activities cast members to get directions around the island, as well as suggestions on what would be fun activities for us to do. Our original plan for today was to go to Pearl Harbor, but it just so happened to be the 75th Anniversary of the bombings at Pearl Harbor, so it was closed to guests today and they were having a big ceremony there. While George was in the shower, I was actually watching the dedication on the news. It was very humbling.
Since we couldn’t go to Pearl Harbor today, we decided to go to the Aloha Stadium flea market and then to Diamondhead. We started to head to the Aloha Stadium for the flea market around 9:30 so we could get there by 10. We heard if you go too late in the day that it gets too hot so we wanted to get it done as early as possible. We (or I) mainly wanted to check out the stadium so that we could get some cheap souvenirs to bring back to everyone. We quickly walked past a dozen or so booths and realized that they are ALL. THE. SAME. And like beyond tacky souvenirs. After just 10 minutes, I knew I didn’t want to be here for very long and that I probably wouldn’t purchase anything so we quickly walked around maybe a quarter of the stadium before heading back to our car. We did buy a couple of things, like some Hawaiian taffy, which was sooo delicious and we snacked on for the entire trip. We also got a couple of magnets (which we collect) for our fridge and a hand-carved wood tiki statute. If we ever go back to Hawaii, we’ll definitely be skipping the swap meet.
I don’t think we spent more than an hour or hour and a half at the swap meet before getting back in our car and driving to Diamondhead. We weren’t too far away…maybe 15 minutes. Once we got there, we parked the car and ate our lunch, which we had packed in a cooler to bring along with us. We had such a gorgeous view of the park and I was anxious, but also dreading to make the climb to the top. While I do workout and am in pretty decent shape, I forgot to bring my running shoes so I was walking in my Vans. I also just had on regular shorts and t-shirt, not workout clothes so I was a little concerned about just being really uncomfortable, despite the hike not being too long. On top of all that, I just wasn’t feeling well still and it was really hot and humid out. My nose was once again getting runny and I felt like my cold was possibly relapsing. But we were already here and it was slightly overcast, which would make the hike a little cooler so I sucked it up and we started to make our way up.
Our lunch view from the car. And our newly acquired dashboard hula girl.
I’m not going to lie, I was pretty grumpy during the hike up. It really wasn’t difficult, but it was really hot, the stairs sucked, and I wasn’t feeling good at all. The trail also wasn’t paved or anything so I was walking in a combination of dirt and rocks and it was hurting my feet. I was really kicking myself for not packing my running shoes. Let’s face it ya’ll, with the exception of theme parks, I am not an outdoorsy gal. I like my cities and my indoor activities. Me and nature usually don’t get along, so this wasn’t my favorite activity. Anyways, it took about 30 minutes to get to the top. We made a couple of stops along the way to observe our surroundings and also took little breaks before the next big group of stairs we would have to climb. I was SO relieved when we finally made it to the top. It really was a beautiful sight and even though I knew I’d be able to do the hike without any problems, I still felt very accomplished. We stayed up top for maybe 15-20 minutes and took pictures and just reflected on where we were and what we just did. It was pretty amazing to be standing in the pill boxes that our soldiers were in on the anniversary of the Pearl Harbor bombings.
You can't see my face here, but I promise you it was not a happy one
From inside the pillbox
We made it!
After taking everything in, we started to make the descent back down. I was in much better spirits going downhill and it only took about half the time. Haha. So even though I was grumpy at the beginning and seemingly hating it, was I glad I did it? Yes, of course. I’d even venture as far as saying I would do it again if we ever return to Hawaii (granted I bring the proper shoes and clothing). When we got all the way down, we headed to the gift shop because George wanted a shirt and a magnet and we then took our celebratory “We did it!” photo in front of the Diamonhead sign. We got back into our car right as it started to look like it was going to rain.
It was mid-afternoon at this point and we needed to head back to Aulani to get showered and changed because we were going to a luau that night! I was so excited for this because Aulani had just started offering their own luau the month before we arrived and I was starting to hear great things about it. I knew going to Hawaii for the first time that I really wanted to go to a luau, but it was nice not having to leave our resort to go to one. I’m jumping ahead of myself. On the drive back to Aulani we did have to make one quick stop—at the Leonard’s Bakery food truck for some malasadas! I had read several Aulani trip reports for research and every one of them said that malasadas were a must. I was skeptical, but let me tell you, they were AMAZING! So good, especially when they were fresh. We ended up just getting a dozen and snacking on the leftovers throughout our trip. We got some plain ones, as well as the ones with filling and they were ALL good. We ate these on the balcony when we got back to our room and enjoyed the view of the pool.
After a quick snack break, it was time to shower and change, then we went down to the lawn where the luau was being held. The line we had to wait in for the luau was so long, and it took about 30 minutes to even get checked in. I don’t remember why, but between waiting in the line and something else that had happened between the time we got in line and the time we got in the luau put George in a bad mood. Upon entering the luau, we were handed some “free” adult beverages. They were tiny but delicious. When we finished our sample of a drink, we went to the bar to order more and that’s when we found out the absolute absurdity of drink prices at Aulani. George wanted another one of those mai tai drinks, and I just wanted a Diet Coke. Want to guess how much Aulani was charging for a can of Diet Coke? If you guessed $8 then you guessed right. We were flabbergasted and quite frankly PISSED, because we paid $130 a person for this luau and it didn’t even include drinks other than water. I totally got not including alcoholic beverages, but a not even a soda or juice? Ridiculous. With George already being in a bad mood, he was kind of over everything and asked if we wanted to just leave and see if we could get a refund. At that point, I was exhausted and feeling really sick so even though I was really looking forward to the luau, I didn’t really care anymore, especially if George was just going to be upset the whole time. We went to the check-in desk and explained the situation to see if we could get a refund and unfortunately, they told us no. With having paid so much to attend the luau, we of course decided to just stay.
Thankfully, once the luau officially got started, George’s mood brightened up and we actually had a really great time. The luau started off with the buffet, which was excellent. It was all you can eat and they had tuna poke, a pig roast, a prime rib carving station, terikayi chicken, rice, poi, boa buns, and much more (including desserts). George and I LOVE sushi and I think we ate our weight in tuna poke to really get our money’s worth. About halfway through eating, the actual luau show started and it was incredible! The hula and fire dancers were amazing…especially the guys! The storytelling aspect of the show was also really good and very authentic. You’d never know this was a show being put on by Disney. No mention of Mickey or Minnie at all. In the end, all the dancers stayed behind so you could meet and take pictures with them. After feeling really negative towards the luau at the beginning, we ended up having such a great time and were so glad we did it. It was really expensive, but I’m happy that we did it at least once and I did think it was worth the price for a first-time trip.
After the luau I was completely and utterly exhausted, and at this point, my cold had come back full-force. About halfway through the luau show, I started sneezing and that was the start of my cold relapse. I was so disappointed and I think I went to bed in tears because I was afraid that this would ruin the rest of my vacation. Would the old saying of being sick on vacation is better than being sick and at home ring true? We’ll see in our next installment. And hopefully it won’t be over a month until my next update.