2025 Family Hawaii Trip: Part III (Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday + flight home)

[dorchadas]

This is the third of three posts about our 2025 Hawai'i trip. The first post is here and the second post is here.

I'm starting to get used to hearing birdsong from all around me even walking through random alleyways between tall buildings. I've accepted that the weather never changes and isn't going to change. I've learned some of the Hawai'ian words that don't get used outside of Hawai'i, like keiki ("child", often used for kids menus or on some public health warnings), pupu ("appetizer"), 'ono ("Delicious", used on menus), Wahine/Kāne ("woman"/"man", used on restroom doors), or the phrase e komo mai ("Welcome!", used a lot in business entrances). All that said, this is our last three days there, and then we go back to Chicago and back to our normal lives. All vacations end.


Monday
Today Laila slept in, and after finally getting up at 7:45 a.m., after eating breakfast and taking her medicine, she declared "I'm tired" and went back into her room and fell back asleep, and sashagee and me with her, so we didn't really get a start to our day until 9:30 a.m. I woke up, showered and ate a yogurt bowl with some toast, and we decided to take Laila and go to the shops on Kalakaua Avenue, home to a bunch of fancy designer brands but, wanderluster_kp assured me, also home to some ordinary shops where we could hopefully find some loose pants that sashagee could wear over a swimsuit. For their part, Poppa and Nana took off to do their own thing--fair play since they spent so much time watching Laila yesterday.

Unfortunately, after they left but before we left, there was a bit of an incident. Laila was wanting to wear "princess stuff" (wanderluster_kp's heels), but since she was a bit iffy on remembering to only walk on the rug we said not until later. She seemed to be taking this as well as a four-year-old could until she suddenly grabbed her mostly-full water bottle, ran up behind sashagee, and threw it at the back of her head. I sat with Laila in the corner convincing her of the extreme seriousness of her actions while sashagee lay down in the room, and in the end, I told Laila that there would be no more princess stuff for the rest of our trip. She had lost her privileges.

sashagee's feet were still hurting from the walk yesterday, so when we left we first started at the ABC store to pick up a couple snacks for Laila and a Holocard bus pass for sashagee. After Laila ate her chicken katsu musubi, sashagee hopped on the bus and Laila and I started walking. I thought it was only five minutes or so, but it turned out to be more like fifteen. Still, when we passed a Hilton nearby, they had a neat statue of some people dancing in front:

Apparently this is called Kaha Ka ‘Io Me Na Makani, meaning "The hawk soars with the winds".

We found sashagee sitting on a bench near the start of Kūhiō Avenue and switched over to Kalakaua Street to go shopping. We passed a bunch of designer stores and the occasional lower-end one--ABC stores, a shooting range, some restaurants--until we passed by a shop called Avanti Hawai'i that sold aloha shirts (as they're called here). sashagee really wanted a dress/shirt set that she, Laila, and I could wear together, so she spent a while looking around and finally decided on a brown and red combo. I thought it looked...fine. I'm not sure how often I'll wear it, but I'll wear it at least once. The saleswoman said it looked really nice on me, but, well, she's trying to make a sale so what do you expect? When sashagee went and paid, the total came to almost $250 for the three of us. I hope she really likes that dress.

We kept going, trying to find some pants for sashagee and some linen casual dress shirts for me, but by this point Laila had had enough. The culmination came when she was just lying on the floor next to sashagee in Macy's, refusing to go into the dressing room or move, so I took her to wait outside. Cue her hitting me, trying to bite me, trying to bite herself, and me telling her that we do not hit, we do not bite, and we were certainly not going to go back inside and we had to wait until sashagee came back. When she did came back, we walked to the bus stop, got sashagee on the bus, and Laila and I proceeded to walk back. This time, both of us walking instead of me carrying her. I held her hand, I would pick her up when she collapsed on the sidewalk and set her back on her feet, and after about ten minutes of walking she had calmed down enough to apologize, give me kisses on my arms and forehead, and promise to listen and that she wouldn't hit anymore. And she didn't--on the rest of the way home when I hold her, she was gentle and kind again.

We got back to wanderluster_kp's apartment around 3 p.m., not long after Poppa and Nana got back, and Laila and I had a bit of a snack. Then sashagee tried to take a nap but was foiled by Laila constantly trying to bust into the room and convince her to let her have the "Princess stuff" back, so eventually we all came out and watched a bit of Hello Kitty's Super Cute Adventures. Then we drew on Laila's watercolor book. Then we chased her and tried to stop her from going in and out of rooms. This went on for hours, and eventually Poppa went to go look at the sunset, even though it was cloudy and rainy. I stayed behind, since Laila was being so ornery and I didn't want to dump her on Nana and sashagee, and that meant I missed the surprise sunset that did in fact happen:

Picture taken by Poppa. He says the colors weren't so vibrant to the eye, but still.

After the sunset was over, Poppa came back with wanderluster_kp, who had gone straight to the sunset after work! Laila immediately latched on and wouldn't let go, and so wanderluster_kp had to come with us to go get dinner for Laila. sashagee picked out a taco salad and split it with Laila, but Laila didn't really eat anything.

After Laila's medicine, sashagee suggested I go back to Macy's and try to find a linen summer dress shirt, so after I kissed Laila goodbye I grabbed my satchel and left. The night was cooler--down to 24ºC now!--and there was a cool breeze blowing off the ocean, but I walked pretty quickly so it didn't make much of a difference. When I got to Kalakaua Avenue, it had come alive. All the beautiful people were out, as were all the people hoping to make some money off the beautiful people--trinket-sellers, caricaturists, vaudeville performers, busking musicians, Falun Gong devotees, the works. I walked down the streets, dodging other tourists and admiring the tiki torches that had all been lit:

I went to Macy's and checked the shirts, but no dice. I couldn't find a single shirt with long sleeves that was linen, and while I did find some 100% cotton shirts, at the price they wanted for them I could get some shirts from Suit Supply for only slightly more and those shirts would be custom-tailored to fit me. I looked around for a few minutes before giving up and leaving.

Checking maps showed a poke restaurant called Uncle Sharkie's in a nearby indoor mall, but when I finally found it, it was just walled over with wood and obviously no longer there. The next closest was a place called Kai Poke, so I went there. It was fast food poke, with a couple people behind the counter, and I just got some simple shōyu ahi poke, paid my $17--really not that different from prices in Chicago, to be honest--and sat down outside to eat it. Right around when I finished eating, I got a text from sashagee to hurry home, so I did. It turned out that Laila did not want to go to sleep, and while she had finally fallen asleep when I did arrive, she was in sashagee's and my bed because she had destroyed the Bluey camping enclosure that wanderluster_kp had set up for her. I put it back together, moved Laila back into it--she went willingly this time and without any fuss--and after waiting for a daifuku to thaw so I could eat dessert, I went to bed too.

Pretty much a wasted day, honestly.



Tuesday
Laila woke up late, around 7:45 a.m., and sashagee was still asleep, so I woke up and gave Laila her medicine and then, seeing that Poppa and Nana were up, I went back and took a shower. While sashagee napped, I ate breakfast and Poppa took Laila out for a walk to the park, eventually returning around 10:30 a.m. when sashagee had woken up. When she saw her, Laila immediately promised to listen and gave sashagee lots of kisses and apologized for her behavior. sashagee wasn't entirely convinced--and we certainly were not going to let her try the princess shoes after her latest display--but at least her immediate first reaction had been apologetic.

Now that sashagee was awake, the two of us left and went back out to Sunny D's to get her some coffee and a breakfast burrito. While there, we passed one of the apartment complexes that seem pretty common around here:

This reminds me so much of the average apartment building in Japan. The same long line of doors, the same outside walkway open to the elements, the same visible air conditioners from every unit. The difference is that here it's only ever 18ºC to 27ºC or so year-round and also that iron fence on the bottom row of apartments to prevent random people from walking up to the front door. That kind of thing is very rare in Japan.

Speaking of Japan, when we made it to Sunny D's sashagee noticed that two of people standing near the entrance were speaking Japanese and asked me to ask them if they were in line. They didn't move when the line did, though, so it turned out to be unnecessary. sashagee got her coffee and we went back to wanderluster_kp's apartment, and not too long after everyone decided to go to the beach, so we loaded up the wagon, including Laila, and went back to Waikiki Beach. It was mostly cloudy and there was a slightly cold breeze, but this time Laila did actually get in the water, and pretty deep too:

She alternated going in the water with running on the beach over to the artificial lake by the hotels, and then back to the water to throw some stones in and then diving in after sashagee, repeat. After an hour and a half she had worn herself out pretty thoroughly, so we went once again to Dave's for shaved ice:

Lilikoi and guava flavors.

We went back to the apartment and got everyone all cleaned up, and then Poppa and Nana decided to go for a drive. Since they were already gone, sashagee, Laila, and I left for lunch--or rather, I had said I was going to go get poke and sashagee and Laila decided to follow me. We went about half a mile to the McCully shopping center once again to a place called Ohana Poke House since it had extremely high ratings online, and since they had teriyaki chicken both others could eat there too (sashagee doesn't like fish very much, Laila is too young for sashimi). The clerk did warn me that it would take while to get our meal since they had just run out of rice, but once I had waited a while and my "Hawai'ian-style" ahi poke came out, it was absolutely delicious. And the first thing Laila ate in the teriyaki chicken was the pickled ginger, and the second was the seaweed salad! We've done a good job of raising her with diverse tastes.

We walked back to find that Nana and Poppa were already there, so we hung around the apartment for a bit waiting for wanderluster_kp to finish work. Around 5:15 p.m. Poppa and Nana left to go look at the sunset, and after some confusion--we had thought that wanderluster_kp was coming home but she spotted Poppa and Nana walking and decided to join them--we left too. When we first got there it seemed there would only be a bit of red and orange in between some other clouds, and I was preparing for disappointment, the same as the first sunset we checked out, but it surprised us.

There was a South Asian family nearby also taking photos but they kept getting interrupted by a wharf rat--not a euphemism, a literal rat--jumping in and out of the rocks and sending them running. sashagee said that they must not live in a city at all if a rat of that relatively small size caused them problems. I know I've seen bigger rats go scurrying when I open the door to take the trash out. That's just part of city life.

We walked back to the apartment and gave Laila a shower, and then she decided to watch some train videos before bedtime. After she went to bed, sashagee, wanderluster_kp, and I all went to to a meal together on our last night on the island. We went to a place that wanderluster_kp knew about called Monkeypod Kitchen in a nearby hotel, which had an hour wait for any of the available tables but did have three spots together at the far end of the bar. The restaurant was open to the ocean, though being after sunset the only real benefit we got was the sound of the waves hitting the rocks. We spent a while chatting, ordering a couple drinks and some food. True to my word I got more fish:

The White Walker: Fid Street gin, crème de coconut, lime, lemongrass, Thai lime.

This was delicious. Extremely light and creamy, and it would have been great on the beach on a hot day but it was still nice at night.

Organic Macadamia Nut Crusted Fresh Fish: pan-fried mahi, macadamia nut and panko crust, maui pineapple relish, organic scallion-garlic rice, lemon beurre blanc.

Not the best fish I've ever had but pretty close. A light but recognizable flavor, complimented by the lemon sauce. The rice was good but not really memorable, and the (unlisted) bok choy was delicious. Not worth the $54 I paid for it but worth at least $40.

We talked about the sea turtle that wanderluster_kp had done a CT scan for, about Laila, and about our family almost until closing time, memorably interrupted when a waiter came nearby with a rolled-up newspaper, asked the two women sitting next to us to move, then smashed a giant cockroach to paste. As he cleaned it up, the bartender said:

Welcome to paradise.

Then we paid our bill, walked back to the apartment, and went to sleep.



Wednesday + flight home
We slept through sashagee’s alarm but so did Laila, so we all woke up at 7:15 a.m. and got ready for the day. After I ate breakfast, Laila was being a little ornery (this would be a theme for the day) so I decided to take her for a walk. We went out along Kaio'o Drive and down to Ala Moana Boulevard and then took the first left. That took us very close to Sunny D's right around the time that sashagee texted me and asked me if I was out getting coffee for her. Since it was pretty close, I stood in the light rain and got a "hapa coconut" coffee--not sure if this is a racial metaphor or not in this context--and then brought it and Laila back to the apartment. I sat down for around ten minutes and was planning to go on another walk when sashagee asked Poppa if we were going to go on a drive like we had originally planned. When they said yes, we said we wanted to come, so we got everyone ready to go and piled into wanderluster_kp's car and started driving. After the trip to Ka'ena Point I was really expecting the drive to take much longer, but it turned out to only be around fifteen minutes before Poppa told us that we were there and to get out and look. And what a sight it was:

This is looking east, toward the windward side of the island. Something like 80% of Hawai'i's entire population lives in Honolulu, which means it's an even larger percentage of the population of O'ahu, and the reason is that the Ko'olau mountains block the wind and rain so Honolulu stays sunny and warm. Up here at the overlook it was misty and cool, with a chill breeze blowing. Surrounded by pine trees with the wind on my skin and on vacation with my family, I couldn't help but be reminded of all those childhood summers spent in Oregon, where the breeze off the ocean meant that even sunny days were often cool.

This is looking north from that same point, toward the northeast part of O'ahu where the wind and rain is strongest. Poppa told me that it's where they filmed most of Jurassic Park. I haven't noticed any velociraptors while here, but maybe I haven't been looking hard enough.

The original plan had been to continue to the northeast and stop at a white sand beach in a small cove, but as previously mentioned, Laila had been very ornery, including running through the mud, ignoring sashagee's requests like "stop running through the mud," and otherwise not behaving properly, so sashagee declared that she wouldn't get to go to the new beach, so we turned back and headed for home. With nothing else pressing to do in the meantime, when we arrived and Laila started to eat lunch, I went to go return some of the sandals that sashagee had bought earlier in the trip--she had gotten two sizes because she wasn't sure which one would fit, so we didn't need the unused one--and after returning that, I decided to get one last local lunch. I hadn't had any of the local musubi (結び, from 結ぶ musubu, "to tie, to bind, to connect") because when I think of Hawai'i I think spam musubi and thats as treif as it gets. It turns out once you're here, though, that they also have chicken musubi, so I got a chicken katsu musubi and ate it with some leftover seaweed salad to use up some of the food that we had filled wanderluster_kp's fridge with:

Not pictured--the salmon I also had with it. I had to keep my promise to have fish for basically every meal here.

The initial plan had been to go to the beach one last time, but Laila was once again ornery and kept saying she didn't want to go and getting in sashagee's hair, so in the end I decided to take Laila for a walk to the park. We made it about three-quarters of the way there, able to see it across the river, before wanderluster_kp texted to say she was coming home from work, so I turned around and walked along the river back to her apartment. All in all, Laila and I walked about a mile and a half, and she was much more subdued when we made it back. She had, unfortunately, used up the time that could have let her go to the beach--which is fine with me, honestly--so we proposed going to get ice cream one last time instead. Laila also said no to this, and to several ways that we asked about it, and it wasn't until I basically picked her up and we told her that wanderluster_kp would carry her that she came around to the idea.

We walked out and across the street and into the Ilikai Hotel and to Dave's. wanderluster_kp didn't want anything, but when I asked Laila what she wanted she thought a moment and then said, "Ummm, how about, purple!" so we got her ube:

While wanderluster_kp didn't order anything, Laila really wanted to share with her:

For my part I ordered guava and mango sorbet, as a last tropical taste before we went back to wintry Chicago.

When we were done with our ice cream, we walked back to wanderluster_kp's apartment, finished packing everything up, loaded up the car, and drove to the airport. We all said goodbye to wanderluster_kp, went through security and waited at the gate, and boarded the plane on time.

The flight started off mixed--wanderluster_kp had loaned us her Bose headphones so Laila was much more absorbed in her train video and Bluey-watching since she could actually hear what was going on. On the other hand, one of the flight attendants came up to me and told me that despite being warned literally weeks in advance about my meal preferences, they had somehow been unable to secure a kosher meal so I didn't have a dinner available. After about an hour and a half, the situation flipped--they told me they managed to find the kosher meal and were making it, but Laila went into demon mode, ripping out multiple headphone cords, kicking the seat in front of her, scratching us when we stopped her from kicking the seat in front of her, yelling, the works. Eventually we managed to plug in her Bluey headphones with a cable that Poppa had bought for that purpose, and that meant she could hear the sounds and she went back to being reasonable again.

Eventually, Laila fell asleep but the rest of us couldn't. Both sashagee and I were too uncomfortable, so we made the best of it while Laila slept until she woke up at 11:45 Hawai'i time, about two hours from landing. She wasn't happy about having to wait even longer until she could get up, but we landed an hour early, left the plane, got our luggage, and walked out into the chill Chicago air (-11°C, 40° lower than Hawai'i). We got back to our house around 8 a.m. and Laila and sashagee immediately went to sleep but I stayed awake and here we are.


It was a lovely vacation, but despite the cold weather I'm still glad to be home. Even Laila wanted to go home after a week and she loved the beach.

Bonus--a photo of the whole family:

Comments

[angelofthenorth]

That's a lovely pic

[dorchadas]

Thank you!

Just wish we'd gotten one with the red sky that happened about ten minutes later.

[gwendraith]

I've been following your posts while you have been in Hawaii and it looked like an awesome holiday. The photos were wonderful. Nice to know that Laila loved the beach 😀

[dorchadas]

She wanted to go to beach basically every single day!

[matsushima]

Aw, what a great family photo!

[aguart]

Such a wonderful vacation!
You and your sister look very much alike :)