Hawaii: How do you spend 5 weeks in Hawaii?

Oahu and Maui, Hawaii, USA

So we finally arrived, jet lagged, in Hawaii. Yep, we know, don't cry for us Argentina.... it did take us a week to finally get over waking up in the middle of the night and being awake for several hours. Not fun. Our plans had us staying on Oahu for a few weeks, in lieu of China, since we could not get our Chinese vistors visa. So, we first stayed in Waikiki, where we had a 34th floor hotel room with a million dollar view. Thank you Hilton! While there, we hiked to the top of Diamond Head, shopped, laid out at the pool, walked the main streets, ate tons of Subway, sushi and local foods like salmon burritos and poke, and shopped some more. We also indulged in a new favorite called Teddy's Bigger Burgers, where they have amazing food, and tried kahlua pork, which made Christy so happy that she was not a vegetarian any more (it was pure meat magic)!

Then we moved to a VRBO rental on the west side of the island on Makaha Beach, which was literally 15 steps from a small beach, which we had to ourselves most days. The best thing about this was that there was a tidal rock pool that formed a natural "pool" which was protected from the waves. While here, we also cooked our own food (hello turkey tacos!), went to the Waikele Outlet Mall, and washed our own clothes in a real laundry machine.

Then, we were off to Kailua, on the east side of the island, where we had another VRBO rental one block away from one of the so-called "best beaches in America." It turned out to be the windward side of the island, and we had lots of winds, some

grey skies and occasional rainshowers. That being said, it's a great place to relax (heck, the President just announced HE'S even going back to rent a house there again this Christmas!) and chill out on the miles long beach. We loved our morning bike rides to see the beaches, the cool oceanside Lanikai Beach homes, the Lanikai Juice company (fresh smoothies), grilling out every night for dinner and even took a ride along the beautiful coast to eat amazing pizza at Kona Brewing Company. We also took a drive up to the North Shore, but we saw only minor waves.

Then, it was back to Waikiki, where we had our inital nights' reservations (which was booked pre-Chinese visa issues), and where we were upgraded to a penthouse suite on a high floor with an amazing private deck and sun loungers! Needless to say, we moved very little from the deck. While on Oahu we also indulged in some awesome shopping (love the Macy's sales) and hit every Costco on the island.

And then off to Maui! We stayed at one of our favorite beaches called Napili, where we seemed to hit a bad spate of misty weather and high winds. The upside of this was that the waves were amazing - we have never seen them that high before on Maui. We also found some time for awesome runs up into Kapalua (especially the trail runs on the Kapalua Coastal Trail), shopping, reading several novels, and checked out the Maui Brewery, which had amazing beers! After a few weeks on the islands, we just love the vibe here and can't wait to come back!

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