Another early day today! Jonny & Michael start the morning with some surfing lessons, Wincy & Winnie are going to try and get the infamous Stussy Honolulu shirts. First, the surfing. Me & Michael meet up at the surf shop, and meet our instructor, Big Todd. During the registration, we got asked an interesting question. “Are you guys confident swimmers?”. This is an interesting question because it’s very much up for interpretation. Me & Michael were thinking the exact same thing too! Yes! I’m an extremely confident swimmer. I’m just not that good 😅. But, that worked out fine, as you only need to be able to swim about 2 meters back to the surf board.
After the registration, we walk with Big Todd out to the beach to start the lessons. He brings us out to the surf boards he’s got setup for us, and gives us a brief lesson on how to paddle. There was also a brief lesson on where on the board to stand, and how to get from the lay down position, to kneeling, to standing. And when I say brief, it really was quite brief. The on beach portion of the lesson was probably 10 mins tops. Next started the hard work, we had to paddle out to the starting point. Little did we know, this would be the hardest part of surfing. Big Todd would get us started on a wave, and off we went to practice. We both did surprisingly well, being able to stand and ride waves multiple times during the lesson. Having to paddle back out to the starting point though, absolutely killed us. I couldn’t recall the last time I felt that sore. Didn’t help that we hiked Diamond Head the day before (even though it’s an easy hike). When I was paddling out to our last wave (didn’t know it was our last wave), my arms were completely dead. I tried to signal to Big Todd that I was done, I couldn’t make it back out. He just hollered at me to get back over for another wave 🙃. Fortunately, when I finally got over to him, he mentioned that this would be the last. Unfortunately, we still had to paddle back to the beach. I layer on the board, waiting for assists from the incoming waves. I look back, and Michael was fully doing this as well. He looked very dead tired as well. I finally managed to get back to the beach, and ran over to help Michael. He had drifted quite far from our starting point.
As Wincy & Winnie had gone to Stussy, unfortunately there were no pictures of this experience. There was a girl on the beach taking pictures for all those taking surf lessons, but she wanted $50 each for the pics, and her pics weren’t that great, so we passed on it.
We then each head back to our hotels, to shower then meet up for coffee.
While all this was happening, Wincy & Winnie were lining up and shopping at Stussy. We had actually gone to the shop the afternoon before, but all they had was small and extra large. Wincy and Winnie arrived at different times, and so they weren’t in line together. Didn’t want to appear as if they were budding, cause there was quite a line up. To Wincy’s surprise, the Stussy line actually continued into an empty retail shop.
It didn’t take long however, and they were both in the shop. Stussy only allows a certain number of people into the shop at any given time, so the shopping experience remains quite comfortable. They spent quite a bit of time in the store, and each walked out with their limit of Stussy Honolulu items, and in the sizes we wanted.
Meanwhile, Me & Michael went to Knot Coffee, to get our morning caffeine dose and continue hurting (from surfing). This was our first coffee in Hawaii, and both went for a Kona blend. But to our surprise, coffee is quite expensive in Hawaii. Michael went for an iced latte, while I tried a Kona pour over. Good, but it’s hard to justify paying this kind of money for coffee daily. If I weren’t on vacation, I don’t think I’d be getting buying coffee daily. My pour over was $10USD
Once Wincy & Winnie were finally done shopping, we met up at Waffle And Berry for a breakfast Açai Waffle platter
Açai and fruits were fresh, waffle was just okay.
After breakfast, Michael & Winnie wanted to take a nap. We saw Udon Yama though, and decided to stop in and share a bowl of noodles. Neither of us had really eaten breakfast yet, and the waffle platter wasn’t really enough.
Just like in Japan! Simple and delicious. Just much more expensive than Japan 😅 On the way back to our hotel, we walked through the International Marketplace, and decide to walk across via the 3rd floor. We hadn’t really checked out what was in the marketplace, and so why not. The 3rd floor of the International Marketplace is different restaurants, including Liliha Bakery. My co-worker had recommended Liliha Bakery for the Loco Moco, but we checked out the bakery and decided to try a couple of pastries. I need to fast forward a bit for the pictures here, as we decided to save these for a bit later when we’re at the beach.
We got an apple filled malasada, and a coco puff. The puff was heavily recommended by all the reviews. The malasada was a bit too eggy, but the puff was great. The reviews didn’t let us down.
Back to the day though, we finally get back to our hotel, and get changed. It’s day 4 of our trip, but we’re finally going to Waikiki Beach
We let Winnie & Michael know where we were setup, and after a while, Winnie showed up to join us. Turns out, Winnie has a pretty distinguishable walk. We were able to spot her from quite a distance 😛
And just as we mentioned his name, Michael showed up too! Surprisingly, we didn’t have any group pics while hanging out in the water. None until we went back to the sand, to enjoy the malasada
Tonight, we had a pretty early reservation for dinner. So after hanging out for a bit longer, we disbanded back to our hotels, so we could shower and get ready for dinner. As we walked back to our hotel though, we saw Maguro Spot was open, and with a good crowd. Naturally, we had to try it. Fortunately, we heard the person in front ask to substitute with sushi rice. We did the same, and this was the best rice we had the entire week! The also had a special on salmon onigiri’s, so we grabbed one of those too
The poke bowl was fantastic! Fish was fresh, and the sushi rice makes the biggest difference. The onigiri though, was the typical hawaiian rice. Could’ve passed on it. After showering and getting ready, off to dinner at Duke’s Canoe Club. This Is a heavily recommended spot, and very difficult to get reservations for. The restaurant is located on Waikiki Beach, and has a wonderful view of the sunset. In order to watch the sunset, we got a 5pm reservation to make sure we don’t miss it. We also got a fantastic table to watch the sunset.
After looking at the menu for a while, we placed our order. We had 4 mains, and added the salad bar option to 2 of the meals. After filling a plate with salad, we thought it might be a better option to remove 2 of the mains, and just have salad bar all around. We hadn’t really eaten any veggies since we arrived in Hawaii. So we stuck with an Ahi Tuna Steak, and a Coconut Crusted Fish, and salad bar for each of us.
Turns out, the salad bar was the better option. Both of the mains we ordered were not good.
After a lot of salad, it’s time for the main attraction. The sun was setting!
Look at how many people were on the beach taking pics of this sunset! To finish off the meal, we got a slice of their signature cake. This was quite delicious.
And as we had another early day coming up, we decided to head back to the hotels to relax and rest for the night.
