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Lune De Miel – Part III // Oahu

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It is snowing flurries as I type this, I’m not even kidding.  Here, look:

INSANE

INSANE

Crazy, right?

It seems like forever ago I was sitting on a beach, drinking an ice cold beer, with my wonderful husband.  In Part I of my Lune de Miel series I invited all of you to return to Tahiti with me.  We ate delicious street food (the very thought of it makes my mouth water!) and paddleboarded our way through crystal clear waters.  In Part II, we explored the tropical paradise of Maupiti and met some of the friendliest French and Tahitian people ever.  I’m proud to announce that my review of Le Kuriri has increased their business a bit – I even had a potential booking guest contact me for more information – WOW!

TLVO - Lune de Miel Hawaii (4)

The third and final installment of my series whisks us away to an island that my husband and I love (and frequent annually): Oahu.

TLVO | Lune de Miel Hawaii

TLVO - Lune de Miel Hawaii (8)

Oahu is where our honeymoon journey started and ended.  We have dear friends that live on Oahu and knew that we wanted to spend a few days there before we jetted off to a remote island in the South Pacific.  The humidity we experienced when we landed was welcomed.  Coming from DIA (where it was cold and fresh off of a snow storm) we found ourselves peeling off our layers and even changing in the airport stalls into shorts and flip flops.  We rented our car and made our way to the other end of Oahu where we would be guest-room-crashing in Makakilo City, ready for fun times ahead!

One of our gracious hosts, Jonah.

One of our gracious hosts, Jonah.

Early AM Walk + Coffee

Early AM Walk + Coffee

For us, visiting Hawaii is a bit different than most people.  We’ve been fortunate enough to visit often (my family had a home in Hawaii Kai and my brother attend UH) and tend to skip most of the tourist attractions in favor of local dives.  When we visit, it’s usually to frequent spots that we always stop at during our visits. We look forward to stuffing our faces with delicious Hawaiian fare like Poke, Kalbi Ribs, Japanese Food, Mai Tais, shrimp carts, fresh pineapple and plate lunches to name a few.

TLVO - Lune de Miel Hawaii (3)

While in HI, we found ourselves at a beach for a majority of each day and we prefer beautiful beaches far away from Waikiki and Diamondhead.  There is a really beautiful beach that we visit called Nimitz Beach.  This beach is beautiful and located near a functioning military base.  My favorite thing about Nimitz Beach is that you can find old pillboxes that were used as lookout points during WWII.  The pillboxes tend to have lots of graffiti over them and are super fascinating.  There’s something so strange about walking along a beautiful beach and coming across remnants of wars past.

Nimitz

Nimitz

Another beach that we love is in the town of Kailua.  We stay in Kailua when we aren’t staying in Makakilo and love it.  You can bike anywhere and there are lots of delicious places to eat.  If you are a big fan of brunch (or good food in general) you need to get yourself to a wonderful little place called Boots & Kimo’s.  They are famous for their macadamia nut sauce – which they drizzle liberally over a stack of pancakes.  It’s an amazingly creamy and sweet topping that makes even the most boring pancakes instantly standout.  They don’t sell their signature sauce to take home, which is a bummer, but imagine a huge bowl of macadamia nut ice cream melting + heavy whipped cream + sweet sweet heavenly goodness and you’ll get a sense of what this mac sauce tastes like.

Kailua

Kailua

Keeping it Classy with a Bud Light

Keeping it Classy with a Bud Light

Boots & Kimo's Famous Mac Sauce!

Boots & Kimo’s Famous Mac Sauce!

More delicious Boots & Kimo's

More delicious Boots & Kimo’s

During this visit, we had a chance to spend time with our good friends in Makakilo.  I love this family.  They remind me so much of my own.  They have always been so welcoming when we visit and they sure do love to party!  We enjoyed a couple of impromptu family cookouts and I really loved being invited into the fold.

TLVO - Lune de Miel Hawaii (13)

TLVO - Lune de Miel Hawaii (12)

On the second leg of our Hawaii trip, our rental car was a badass hardtop Volvo convertible.  We loved having the choice of having the top down when cruising in the sun, or having the robotic car put the top back on during sporadic rains showers.  If you can somehow finagle a rental car upgrade for something like this, do it.  You will instantly feel badass.

Like I said, BADASS.

Like I said, BADASS.

We also had the chance to rent a beach house in Ewa Beach on our last leg.  We have friends that live in Ewa Beach but we’ve never stayed there ourselves.  The area is very much a locals area, with cars parked on lawns and LOTS of backyard parties.  It reminded me a lot of parts of Hayward, CA, where I spent a few years of my childhood – very chill and family oriented. Here in Ewa Beach, we had the pleasure of meeting a giant turtle named Henry, along with his smaller counterpart, Hoopz.  They were super cute and I loved waking up and greeting them each morning.

Ewa Beach

Ewa Beach

Beach View of the Main Beach House

Beach View of the Main Beach House

Henry the Turtle

Henry the Turtle

Hoopz!

Hoopz!

While visiting the North Shore, we stopped in Haleiwa for some bombass shrimp plates from Giovanni’s.  We were stoked to hear that Giovanni’s opened up a second location in a random mini food cart mall off the side of the main road through town.  We enjoyed a plate of their famous sauteed shrimp under the canopy of some ridiculously beautiful trees.  Later, we drove along the coast and admired the huge swell coming in.  We spotted a pod of whales off in the distance and stopped to watch them surface every now and then.

North Shore swell

North Shore swell

Food Truck Heaven

Food Truck Heaven

Must-try Shrimp

Must-try Shrimp

Some of my favorite memories from this part of our Honeymoon were spent cruising around in our rental car, top down, blasting hawaiian jamz.  I love the music in Hawaii.  Super chill, super happy and just roll-your-window-down-and-drive-with-your-arm-out-the-window flavor.  I’ll be honest, whenever I return from Hawaii I have a day or two where I listen to nothing but island jamz on Pandora and sit around in my shorts.  It’s awesome.

Cruisin' in a convertible with the jamz turned WAY up

Cruisin’ in a convertible with the jamz turned WAY up

tlvo sunset

Oh Hawaii, you are always so beautiful.  We look forward to returning very soon.  Our tummies and our hearts say Mahalo!

xo.carmel



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