Oahu - 2013

Oahu

This year I was determined NOT to miss out on Murphy's (the Hawaiian Irish pub near Waikiki that was featured on Diners, Drive Ins and Dives) so we planned to spend two days on this island.  















First we went to visit Pearl Harbor and learned that sequester hurts!  Because Congress can't get its act together, the Nat'l Park Service, which operates both the visitors' center AND the memorial  (but not the boat ride between the two - that's the Navy's job since it is active naval waterway) had to shorten their hours.  ARGH!

Then, finally, the much anticipated lunch at Murphy's.  I'm happy to report - IT DID NOT DISAPPOINT (and I would actually go as far to say that a visit to Honolulu is not complete without stopping there!)  The food was fabulous (we each opted for one of the meals highlighted on the show but pretty much everything looked/sounded delicious!)  

While we were savoring the last bit of dessert, the owner (Don Murphy) came out to introduce himself to us!  WOW!

The view from the hotel - downtown Honolulu.

That night we were staying right on Waikiki at the Outrigger Hotel and we had an opportunity to catch up with a former co-worker of Gerry's who's since moved to the island.



The next morning we headed off to visit the Dole plantation,  Another train trip around the plantation (hey, what can I say?  I'm the product of two railroaders!  Besides we were traveling no camera other than our cell phones so we figured we'd at least get a photo of the two of us out of the deal!) 

And then...because it was getting on to lunch time (and try though we might, you really can't live on nothing but pineapple), we decided to head over to Disney's Aulani Resort to check things out there.

I expected to hate - I actually sort of WANTED to hate it (because who could afford it?)  But, as with all things Disney, it was FABULOUS!  We had one of the best meals EVER there!  I found the restaurant to be lovely (overlooking what I'm sure is a man-made "Disneyesqe" picture-perfect lagoon), the food incredible and surprisingly affordable, the pools fun and active - I kept looking for the catch.  Okay, I didn't have to look too hard - the rack rate for those rooms is pretty steep.  I'll have to find a steal of a deal so I can actually stay there but until then, it's a really nice to visit and have lunch!

Gerry had the "blue plate" special - they should have called it the "blue TRAY special" as it was HUGE and included five entrees!

Mattias would love this water play area!!!

Afterward, because it was on our way to return the rental car, we stopped to visit the National Cemetery of the Pacific located in the Punchbowl Crater.  It is really quite a moving memorial to all the soldiers who served in WWII.

From there we made several non-successful attempts to return our rental car (Did you know that if you don't find your exit, the freeway automatically takes you to  the entry gate to Hickham Air Base?  They don't have much in the way of INTERSTATE FREEWAYS on this island we couldn't even handle that!)  

~Aloha, tw