Since there aren’t any direct flights from Austin (our hometown) to Asia, we opted to break up our journey to the Far East with a stop on O’ahu to catch up with old amigos. Having the chance to revisit some of our favorite places with our kiddo in tow was a surreal experience. Thankfully our amazing hosts also had a little boy Andy’s age, which set the tone for an awesome weekend at the cabins of Malaekahana Beach (where we went when first dating eons ago!)
We were leery about taking Andy on any of the hikes we’d regularly hit when previously living there, but he marched up to the top of Manoa Falls like a champ! The key – telling him all the gnarled roots along the path were an obstacle course. Ha! Whatever works.
Besides missing friends and the obvious year-round perfect weather, one of the things we missed most after moving away from Hawaii was the food! We’d always taken for granted how the freshest ahi on earth was so commonplace that even Safeway had better cuts than anything we’d seen in Texas. We nearly ate our weight in musubis as well – and were shocked how quickly our super picky kiddo warmed up to them too. Baby’s first spam musubi, while it sounds ridiculous to say, was a memorable milestone for us! We were also blown away by how far Honolulu’s beer scene had come in the last decade – light years from away its days with only one lousy brewery to visit.
For us, O’ahu will always be first and foremost about the friends we made over years of living there. You can always tell who your real life-long friends are when you go many years without hanging out and pick up right where you left off. So impossibly good to see everyone again! Cheers, and till next time…
Lovely!