Waimanalo 7.29 – 8.2

We usually spend part of our trip with Dallas’s classmate, Billy and Ging. We’ve stayed with them in California and Hawaii, even before Makai was even born. Makai has known them since he was a baby and LOVES staying at their house with Damien, Hoku and Ka’eo. On this trip, unfortunately, Ging and Damien were in Seattle for the week, but we were able to hang out with them for a few days when they returned to Hawaii.

The kids have grown up on the beach. It’s just a couple blocks from their house. I think Makai was there every day!! This time he loved learning to body board with Uncle Billy and Dallas. Last time we visited there were a bunch of portuguese man o wars. This time there were far less, but Dallas did get stung once!

We drove to Honolulu to go to a barbecue at Nalani and BJ’s house. Makai mostly hung out with Kanehoa and Kula’ilua, watching TV and playing games! Dallas’s classmates Shannon and Keoni.

Won the best aunty award by taking Hoku, Ka’eo and Makai to McDonald’s for lunch (20 pc nuggets!) and then later taking them to Dave’s Ice Cream in Waimanalo.

We were on Oahu, but I seemed to have a Maui theme going on!

Shima’s is the local Waimanalo grocery store that I like to stop into. Their poke selection is insane!!!

Billy and Ging have a great backyard and we spent a lot of time relaxing, playing, eating, shooting basketball and doing archery out there.

Ging and Billy and especially Hoku, really enjoy gardening. In their yard there are so many tropical fruits growing! Banana, taro/kalo, breadfruit, coconut, pineapple, dragon fruit, mango, papaya!!!

The family dog is a pharaoh hound mix named Sandy.

Billy and Ging are not coffee drinkers, but there is a cute cafe a few blocks from their house. Each morning I took a relaxing walk to the Kalapawai Cafe to get iced coffee and then took a relaxing stroll back home.

Ging and I had a nice dinner out at Roy’s Goen. It is nice to connect away from the kids and husbands!

Ka’eo’s birthday was on our last day of vacation. We all went to Fishing Farms Hawaii to fish for tilapia. It was so much fun. The kids loved it! When we got 4 larger sized fish, we gave them to the employees to cook for us! Damien, Hoku and Ka’eo were so into it. I think Makai was a bit grossed out!

After lunch we went to another area to catch prawns. There were a ton of animals over there just hanging out!

After all the birthday fun, we went home and showered and headed off to the airport! Crazy thing was that we saw Steve and Amy and their kids at the airport headed back to O’Hare! They were visiting family on Oahu. Crazy.

Hawaii 2019 Day 19: Our Last Full Day

We went to breakfast at the family house. This being our last full day of vacation, of course this was when Makai finally started warming up to our Korean relatives! To them, Makai seems so well behaved, a “gentleman” is what they told Kathy.

 We all went to Salt Pond Beach together one last time – Liz, Jordan, Mahea, Caroline, Jose, Grace, Dallas, me and Makai. Grace had a little body board and Makai had a ton of fun using it.

We spent a lot of time relaxing that day. And also some time packing. We had to leave the next day 🙁

We had plans to all meet up for dinner, but I was getting restless, so I took Makai to Talk Story Bookstore, which I always like visiting in Hanapepe. Then we met everyone at Kukui’ula for dinner at Eating House 1849.

Kathy and George LOVE Eating House 1849 and celebrate every event there. This was our last dinner together. The food was great, as always. I had a couple fancy drinks. One of the aunties tried my mai tai, proclaimed it to be too strong and then ordered one of her own!

We found out on the trip that Uncle Sang loves ice cream. After dinner, he treated us all to ice cream! There was a woman singing and we all ate ice cream and listened.

Hawaii 2019 Day 11: Mom’s Night Out

In the morning Dallas, Makai and I went to the beach. We stayed for a while and Damien joined us for a bit, but there were a lot of the portuguese man o war so after a while we went home. I felt like we were really taking our chances not getting hit with one! It was a gorgeous morning though.

Last time I was staying in Waimanalo I went to the Waimanalo co-op and saw some cool local things for sale. I went again to check it out and got some earrings by Maile Girl Designs.

Ging and I planned a girls night out. We left all the kids with Billy and Ging and headed to Kailua to get manicures and pedicures. Ging knew someone who knew someone who was opening a wine bar in Kailua. It was opening night, so we headed there next. D’Vine Kailua Wine Bar was very unique.  I’ve never seen this concept for wine where you load a card and then swipe to drink whichever of the 32 wines you want to try. We had a fun time trying all kinds of different wines while eating the charcuterie plate for 4, for just the 2 of us.

Before going home, we went to a restaurant nearby that had outdoor seating and two spots open at the bar. It was a really nice night, so we decided to go in. The restaurant was called Goen and it wasn’t until we sat down and got menus that I realized it was one of Roy Yamaguchi’s restaurants. We split his classic miso butterfish and had one more glass of wine.

Hawaii Day 18: Mother’s Day

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Makai wanted to see “the lightbulb house” so I drove him to Kilauea Lighthouse. The preserve wasn’t open so all there really was to do was to park, look, and leave. It was a long drive just to do that!

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At the lighthouse: This was the first time I ever saw a no drone zone!

(null)For lunch we drove to Kukui Grove in Lihue. While we waited a few minutes to get into Genki SushiMakai walked into the Deja Vu Surf Shop, went around the backside of the bikini mannequin, and said “There’s a booty, Mom! A booty!”

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Yum Yum Genki! And yes, that is a photo of Makai making his best Genki face! I wanted to buy Makai a Genki Sushi tshirt but they didn’t have any. They gave him a balloon instead.

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After naps, we got all cleaned up for dinner and took a few family photos.

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(null)For Mother’s Day we went to dinner at Roy Yamaguchi’s new place: Eating House 1849. The food was fantastic. We sat right by this big window that looked into the kitchen. It was like a dinner show to watch them prep everything.

All mothers got complimentary chocolate soufflé for Mother’s Day. Then if you’re like us you go downstairs to Lappert’s for complimentary second dessert. We did not stop at Lappert’s in Hanapepe on the way home too… So full. Dinner was amazing!

Hawaii Day 2: Kauai’s North Shore

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On our second day in Hawaii, Dallas and his dad started to get to work on the deck they were going to rebuild on the house. We were staying in the house that his dad built and that Dallas grew up in. So, the deck was really old and needed repair.

After starting to tear off some boards, they needed to get going. Dallas and his parents were going golfing with Larry, so that left Makai and I do do what we wanted. The golfing was at The Prince in Princeville and I hadn’t been up to the North Shore for years, so I decided to go up with Makai too and then meet up after golf.

Makai was still a bit off from the travel and time change and he actually slept for the entire hour car ride. I was so so so thirsty and didn’t want to wake him so I went through the McDonald’s drive thru in Lihue just to get a soda. And I couldn’t resist a haupia pie! Note the other local favorites on the menu: Local breakfast sections with Portuguese sausage and spam, McTeri burger, Saimin.

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My first stop on the North Shore was in Anahola at Ono-Char Burger. I was hungry for lunch and had been wanting to try this place out, since it was one of our recommended North Shore restaurants when we got married, even though I’d never even been there!

Since it was my first visit to Ono-Char, I kept it simple and got a cheeseburger, a half order of fries and a soda. It sounds stupid, since it’s in the name, but the char was great. I thought it was interesting that the cheese was shredded cheese, but whatever, it tastes the same. It was great! I want to go back now and try some of the other kinds of burgers!

Ono-Char has outdoor seating next to the building and Makai and I found a shady picnic table to sit and eat. Me, the burger, and him, a bottle. While I finished eating, he sat back and watched some chickens and roosters run around. I also was talking with a local haole lady who was married to a local Chinese guy and was going on about how cute Makai is and how cute hapa babies are in general! She also thought Ono-Char Burger was the best burger on the island and since she’s so right about hapa babies, then I’ll have to agree with her about the burger too :).

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After lunch I wanted something sweet so I drove to Princeville to visit Lappert’s and get my favorite ice cream ever. We don’t really give Makai sweets at all, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity for his first ice cream to be Lappert’s, so I gave him just a tiny taste. I think there was more on his face than in his mouth! I love the Kauai Pie ice cream, but I didn’t want to give Makai coffee ice cream, so I got the Heavenly Hana, which is dark chocolate ice cream with a marshmallow swirl and chocolate covered roasted almonds and white chocolate covered macadamia nuts. Yumyumyum. As we were enjoying our sweet treat, a little local girl was sitting with her mom nearby. She came over to say hi, looked at Makai and said “Your baby has a big head!” to me! No kidding, really, kid? 🙂

We walked around Princeville Shopping Center a bit and people kept saying Makai was so cute and commenting on his big cheeks! I couldn’t believe how much attention he was getting. Everyone was so friendly and open (and it was just the beginning, which I didn’t know at the time. Later on, people were literally stopping their car to tell us our baby is cute!).

We tried to stop by Ching Young Shopping Center, just to walk around and take a look, but it was so so so busy that we couldn’t even park anywhere. I remembered when I went with Cousin and Rob and Sarah, but it definitely was not that busy.

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So, finally, we went to Hanalei Bay where Makai got his first real, close up glimpse of the ocean. Well, he probably saw it from the house in Waimea, but it’s a bit distant. I couldn’t deal with the stroller and his stuff and the sand and water just then, so we just picked a grassy spot in the shade in the park and relaxed for a while. Then a funny thing happened. Some Japanese tourists walked right up to our blanket and were speaking to each other in Japanese and pointing to Makai. One of them knew English and asked me basic questions like how old he is and what is his name. And then they all spoke to each other some more. I have no idea what was going on. It was probably about six people crowded around our blanket. Mostly women. I think maybe a couple men. And then some of them started taking photos of Makai! One wanted to hug him, but I kept him close! It was time to go anyway. Dallas and everyone were done playing golf.

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We drove over to The Prince golf course and I didn’t know where exactly everyone was so I got out with Makai and went to the club house area. Just inside this was the amazing view (above). Wow! Makai and I sat outside and the host (? I don’t know what they’re called at a golf club) came over and played with and talked to Makai. Nice local guy. The breeze was awesome and it was such a nice day. I didn’t care if Dallas and everyone turned up any time soon!

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… but eventually they did. And they were hungry, so we went to the golf club’s restaurant, which was The Tavern by Roy Yamaguchi, who is a super famous and well respected Japanese chef in Hawaii. (You might know him from his famous chain of restaurants called Roy’s.) Anyway, it was happy hour so we had some pupus that were on special and a few drinks. Dallas’s parents had some errands to run in Lihue, so we took Larry home, since it was on our way anyway. When we got to his house Larry’s wife Eleanor rushed out to meet Makai!

Josselin’s Tapas Bar & Grill

Kukui’ula is a newer development in Poipu on Kauai. It broke ground in 2008, but it’s been a slow go for them. There are super expensive homes, an ultra exclusive, private golf course, and The Shops at Kukui’ula, a shopping center with a ton of stores and restaurants. Oh, and a roundabout was added. As far as I can tell, the shopping center is the only part that’s doing well, the rest is a ghost town. The homes are too expensive and only people who live there can use the golf course and spa. Unless you’re Dallas and you get some family hookups, but that’s another story. Anyway.. last year we didn’t really hang out at Kukui’ula, even though it was just down the street from where we stayed. And we weren’t in Hawaii in 2010, to save for our wedding. In 2009, I remember driving on the roundabout with Dallas’s Aunty Kathy, but we were only on Kauai for one day and so I didn’t see any of it. This is a long way to say Kukui’ula is new to us, even though we visit Poipu almost every year.

Whenever Dallas and I wanted to have a fancy dinner on Kauai, we’d always go to Roy’s. And we swear, because Chef Roy Yamaguchi is from Hawaii, the Roy’s restaurants there are way better than on the mainland. Also, because they get fresh Hawaiian fish and ingredients at the Hawaii locations. We visited the one in Chicago and were not in love, but always have had a good meal at Roy’s on Kauai. Well, of course, when the schmancy Kukui’ula development opened, it included some fine dining options. We read about Merriman’s Fish House and Josselin’s Tapas Bar & Grill but never had a chance to go. We made plans with Paul and Kate to have dinner our first night on Kauai and when they suggested Josselin’s we jumped at the chance.

Chef Jean-Marie Josselin is well known in Hawaii and is one of the 12 founding members of Hawaii Regional Cuisine. I read that at one time he had seven restaurants in Hawaii, including Pacific Cafe in Kapa’a, Kauai. As of the late 90s, they’d all closed and he only had a Las Vegas restaurant. Josselin’s is his re-entry into Hawaii. The goal of Josselin’s is to create tapas-style dishes with tastes from all over the world prepared from local Hawaiian ingredients.

After we were seated, we started out with table-side sangria. The waitress serves your drink from a mobile bar. I don’t know why this is supposed to be impressive, really. It’s not like table-side guacamole where they have to prepare a bunch of things and you can adjust your level of spiciness. She really just asked what kind of sangria you wanted – classic red, lychee, pomegranate, berry-acai or lilikoi – and then poured it from a ladle into your glass. .. but whatever. I drank the lychee sangria and it was good.

Jocelin’s serves all tapas, so we ordered a ton of things to share. The menu is split into four sections: Hand Crafted Tapas From the Heart, Tapas Inspired From Our Local Farmers, Tapas From Our Kiawe Wood Burning Oven, and Tapas Inspired From The Fish Market. We ordered a few things from each section of the menu.

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HAND CRAFTED TAPAS FROM THE HEART


Deep Fried Curried Oysters / Cucumber Sauce


Assorted Poke of the Day

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TAPAS INSPIRED FROM OUR LOCAL FARMERS


Roasted Japanese Eggplant / Goat Cheese Fritter / Chili Basil Vinaigrette

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TAPAS FROM OUR KIAWE WOOD BURNING OVEN


Kiawe Roasted Asparagus / Apple Smoked Bacon / “61 Degree” Poached Organic Egg


36 Hours Braised Pork Belly / Apple Kimchee / Rosemary / Orange / Lehua Honey

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TAPAS INSPIRED FROM THE FISH MARKET


Slow Cooked Butterfish / Stir Fried Vegetables / Soy Mirin Reduction


Seared Diver Scallops / Saffron Risotto / Bay Leaf Beurre Monte

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Some things on the menu we loved and some we were not that crazy about. Nothing was really bad, but we liked some things more than others. We loved the pork belly that was cooked for 36 hours and the butterfish was great too. The eggplant was very small, but that was ok because what we really loved about that dish was the salad. The poke was good, but it was $16 and was literally like four bits, one bite on each miso spoon. It killed us a little that we could have gone anywhere and gotten about a pound of poke for that much. Overall we had a good time even though we were super travel weary. We liked the food and had fun catching up with Paul and Kate. And it’s good to know we have other fine-dining options on Kauai.