6/10/2016 Friday
The flight to Hawaii was pretty quick, less than 5 hours and we arrive in the beautiful island of Oahu. Since we took different flights from my brother and parents, we had to wait for them. Their scheduled flight was supposed to be 20 minutes after our arrival but unfortunately, their flight has some maintenance issues and was delayed for about 2 hours. So, we stayed at the airport to wait for them.
Once they arrived, we took the shuttle to pick up our rental car. One tip for the shuttle car: check in online so that you can skip the line at the rental car.
We booked a full size car and was upgraded to a Jeep free of charge which was pretty cool. We drove to Chinatown to have some lunch since it was too early to check in our hotel.
We went to Fort Street Cafe (1152 Fort St. Mall, Honolulu, HI 96813) as it had good reviews in Yelp but unfortunately, the cafe was closed since the owners went on vacation. So, we had lunch at the Korean restaurant next door which was pretty good as well.
After lunch, we walked through the main business district till we reached Iolani Palace which is the only royal palace left on American soil. Then we walked to the State Capitol Building which is right behind the Palace. The large pool of water that surrounds the building symbolizes that Hawaii is the only state in U.S. which is on an island.
Across from the street is the King Kamehameha statue, we saw a lot of people there and there were a lot of leis on the statue. We were wondering what was the occasion and found out later that the next day was the 100th anniversary of the King and there was going to be a parade.
Afterwards, we walked back to the business district to Chinatown. We went to the Maunakea Marketplace and check out the stalls there before walking back to the parking garage. By this time, it was late afternoon and we started driving to our hotel which is in the heart of Waikiki.
We checked in to our hotel and after putting our luggages, we took the kids to the pool as they were waiting all day to get into the water.
I also want to wish my parents a very Happy 40th wedding anniversary. I am so glad that all of us can join this celebration in Hawaii. This will be a very memorable memory for all of us.
After the swim, we went back to our room to change and while we were there, I heard a loud noise and realize that it was the weekly Friday fireworks from Hilton Hawaiian Village. Our room was facing the place where the fireworks are being set off, so we had a good view of the fireworks on the balcony.
We went to the main street of Waikiki and were amazed at the crowd. It turns out that there was the annual Pan Pacific Festival which was started today and ending on Sunday. The street was closed and there were many food stalls and performances.
We started our day with some hiccups but towards the end of the day, it was a blessing as we get to join the festival and see the performances. Later, we went to a famous Japanese Udon place named Marukame Waikiki and had some udon. The cool thing about this restaurant is that they make their noodles fresh and you can watch them while you queue up for the food.
We had the Ontama udon which had an egg and the Niku udon which had beef in it. I personally think the food is just okay and was surprised at the huge crowd and long queue. If you like beef, then I suggest that you get the Niku udon as that is their most popular udon and the best one that we tried. After getting the noodles, there is a long display of food that you can choose and put it on a separate plate so that it doesn't get soggy. There was fried shrimp, fish cake, chicken, vegetables, etc. The kids picked the fried chicken and I tried one. It was one of the worst fried chicken that I ever had. Now I miss Popeye's fried chicken!
