Tuesday, June 4
Morning:
After our pretty long day Monday with more driving than expected, we all agreed we were down with a little more chill morning on Tuesday. We decided we didn’t want to head off anywhere “far away” on the island right away again that day.
I met up with my mom in the hotel lobby pretty early where she was just having coffee and puttering around on her phone, and I chatted with her and had tea and wrote my blog post.
We sat in the main lobby sitting area which is just SO cute! They play this great soft Hawaiian music all the time and the doors are all wide open to the outside so there is a soft breeze… we are all super happy with the hotel!! It’s been just perfect for us.
When Ethan woke up he came down, too.
Except he made a Starbucks run (just 1/2 block away) for a lemon cake.
This was so relaxing! I ended up just sitting and hanging out there for way too long. But really, what did I HAVE to do??? Not much. 🙂
Manoa Falls
Finally though around maybe 10:00 we got ready to head out for a bit. The plan was to hike to Manoa Falls, which is a waterfall quite close to the Waikiki area- maybe just 20 minutes or so away.
We paid the $7 to park and set out. It’s just a 1.8 mile round trip hike, but fairly steep/lots of rocks etc. But not overly difficult at all, either.
This trail can be muddy if it has rained (I read this in reviews) and they have a shoe washing station at the trailhead too. Also, there can be mosquitoes here, so I sprayed up (there were some, but not terrible at all for us).
I wanted to do this hike because my friend told me it “feels like you’re in Jurassic Park”. 🙂
It really does!! The hike was so lush and beautiful.
There are also a ton of crazy big trees. So cool.
This hike reminded me quite a lot of Costa Rica, but just a little different in some ways too that I can’t quite put my finger on.
Again, so much vegetation!!
Eventually we came to the waterfall! It’s not a huge, wide waterfall, but very tall and striking against the green trees.
Much larger up close!
Of course we cycled through the family shots…
You can’t swim at this waterfall due to possible rock slides and bacteria in the water here. Which was fine- I just really wanted to hike and see the falls!
About to head back:
The boys and Ivan went ahead and I hung back with my parents. It was a little tricky/slippery in some spots on the way down.
They have a little house with a cafe and small gift shop where the boys got an ice cream sandwich while they waited for the rest of us.
I’d definitely recommend this hike! Beautiful, tropical, and not far from Waikiki!
Barefoot Beach Café
We drove back to Waikiki and were all hungry by this point. Decided to try this barefoot beach cafe that we saw the other day which is right on the water.
Walking down the beach to it:
It had been PACKED on Sunday for breakfast when we first checked it out but fortunately was only half full or so today.
Great little casual place right on the water!
The boys got fruit smoothies:
My parents’ tacos:
I had a really good quesadilla. 🙂
On the way back the boys enjoyed walking out on this little sea wall (which had waves sort of sloshing up over it and was making me mildly nervous but there was a surf school holding lessons right next to it so at least if they fell in they wouldn’t be alone out there. lol)
Pool afternoon
The original plan was to spend the afternoon down at Waikiki Beach, but then Ethan decided he wanted to go to the pool instead.
He and I headed there and others joined us later.
Just to the side of the pool area is the very nice hotel restaurant/bar. My parents and Ivan and I decided to get an afternoon happy hour drink while the boys stayed at the pool. This place is sooo cute and has the most amazing views of Diamond Head.
This restaurant is usually full and all booked up with reservations for lunch and dinner but at this mid-afternoon time we were able to just sit and have a drink no problem.
Back at the pool, it kind of clouded up a little and was again rather breezy. We debated going down to the beach but decided it was kind of “meh” beach weather at the moment. My one complaint is just that I’d probably crank the temperature just a little here in Hawaii. I mean it’s plenty hot during the day (low 80s) but the ocean breeze can feel cool to me sometimes when the sun isn’t out.
I think Asher fell asleep on his chair, lol. We didn’t end up going back to the beach
Wandering around/ Dinner in Waikiki Beach
We took showers and got cleaned up and decided we’d go walk around the main part of Waikiki Beach and get dinner. We hadn’t seen all of the real hustle and bustle area yet by night.
Heading down the street just around sunset:
The lighting was great for some family pics by the beach!!
Hula Show
On our way we stumbled across a free hula show right on the beach. This was so neat! Live musicians, dancers, sunset, beach… yes please.
The famous surfer Duke statue in the heart of Waikiki Beach:
City scenes:
Maui Brewing Company
This brewery is HUGE.. huge!! They also had live music and a super cool vibe, so we decided we’d do that for dinner. This patio area where we were seated looked over the main drag in Waikiki and also the live music behind me.
Some games around the corner for the boys:
Trying local beer:
Oh, and we got a nice treat- the hotel across the street put on an 18 minute fireworks show on the beach, and from our table at the brewery, we just happened to line up with the opening between the buildings and could see most of them! This was neat.
Live music was good:
We all really liked Maui Brewing Company. They had a good menu and beer and it’s right in the heart of Waikiki. Very fun night!
We then made our way back to our hotel, pausing to peek into the International Market Place all lit up.
This was a nice day! I felt for a minute like, oh, we didn’t really “do” that much in terms of exploring or experiencing new parts of the island, but really, we did see several new places (the waterfall hike, new lunch place, exploring more of Waikiki) AND we just relaxed/enjoyed each other’s company at the pool, happy hour, and dinner.
Only things I would have changed would have been no clouds rolling in in the p.m., and just a teeny bit warmer!!
GRATEFUL KAE 
I can SO relate to the feeling of “we didn’t do much today” – somehow I feel this pressure to fit everything in because we’re away from home and paying so much money just to sleep in uncomfortable beds.
BUT, really, days like this are the best and often the favourite memories from an entire vacation. I’m so glad it all worked out and sounds like another lovely day in Hawaii. Though the cooler temps would be a bee in my bonnet, too!
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This sounds like a LOVELY day!!! That’s the benefit of taking a longer trip- you don’t have to cram activities into every minute of every day. It’s nice to just relax and enjoy being in Hawaii. It IS supposed to be a vacation, after all.
I was in Maui about… 25 years ago? Around this same time of year, and I do remember that about the weather. Overall it was very nice, but there was that breeze and I remember thinking a couple times that it could have been a touch warmer. Great weather for hiking and being active, but it can get chilly if you’re in the water.
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It looks lovely, but I’m over here laughing about how it could be a touch warmer. LOL for days.
Gold stars for you getting these recaps done so quickly and efficiently!!
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Looks like another wonderful day! We went to Maui Brewing on Maui and it was a great spot with games to play/lots of seating. I don’t remember if we ate anything there, though. We went there after doing an snorkeling excursion since it was in the area so my memory of it is a bit foggy since it was kind of a long day.
Hopefully you get some better beach weather later in the trip. We had pretty much perfect weather when we were there for our honeymoon but the weather patterns can be so weird w/ clouds/rain moving in. I think we lucked out that our part of the island that we stayed on had good weather during our stay. We did experience very different weather when we drove over to another part of the island (the north side). It apparently gets an insane amount of rain and sure enough, it was raining when we were over there checking out some blow holes.
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Okay add an AM run maybe and this day was exactly my speed on vac. Every post you do I’m like I NEED THIS TRIP. SO SO beautiful and relaxing and quality family time. LOVE IT!!!
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What a great day. I am always amazed how much you pack into your days when traveling in a group… doesn’t it take time to get going in the morning? The backdrop of the photos always looks so wonderful, Hawaii is so photogenic in all aspects.
Love that cute polkadot dress, btw.
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I love free days in between exploring days to feel more in vacation mode.
I’m surprised that you didn’t mention about Japanese culture invasion which is what I felt when I went there in 2013. everything was labeled in Japanese even the buses. maybe not as Japanese anymore?
Waikiki beach seems busy… I guess it’s because it’s so popular and I remember loving the sunset time walking there.
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Hmm, I can’t say I have seen a “huge” Japanese culture invasion at all! I mean, I did notice at one place that they had a few Japanese drinks on the menu specifically, which caught my eye as we don’t have anything Japanese at home in Wisconsin. I guess now that you mention it I have seen some Japanese characters on signs! But I didn’t even notice really… standing in Kauai airport right now waiting and I do see the No Smoking sign is also in Japanese! (I think?)
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