Hawaii Island Hopping | The New Grand Tour

I began a tradition of taking our college graduate daughters on a trip a few years ago. (I think we gave Danny money for Lasik surgery — buy Danny, get that PHD and, we’ll take you somewhere cool too.)

I took Heidi to London and Paris back in early 2003 and April and I went to New York City when she graduated a few years later.

Hayley graduated with a Bacherlor of Science degree in Nursing from Loma Linda last year. Her first priority was getting a job, but we knew after she got a few months in, we’d like to take her somewhere as well.

Last year at our annual girls weekend, we went to Catalina Island (see prior post). While I was making plans, I saw that the Catalina Film Festival was taking place while we were there. Part of the festival was a crazy scavenger hunt — kind of like the Great Race but on foot.

I know one thing about my daughters and this is it — they’re hyper-competitive. I knew they’d have as good of a chance as anyone of winning any prizes that were to be had. And, they didn’t disappoint.

Sarah and Heidi were on one team and April and Hayley were on the other. Of the top three teams that went on to the final round, two were “Team Todd”.

The final round included eating a large egg with a pretty well formed bird fetus in them — with wings, feathers and beaks. (I don’t know what they’re called but I understand they’re eaten in some Asian countries.)

Hayley just bit into this egg and chewed and swallowed away — the whole thing. And then picked the one lucky key of many to open the final lock.

Anyway, one of the prizes was four nights stay at the “Modern Honolulu”. The other sisters all thought that this would be nice for Hayley’s graduation trip.(And they let me have the other sweet prizes.) I just want to say thank you to all of them for being so loving, generous and supportive.

Anyway, I got to thinking that four days in Honolulu wasn’t enough after all the time, cost and trouble of actually getting to Hawaii. So, I found a week long “Island Hopper” cruise to add on to the trip. The die was cast.

We got a nice lei greeting when we arrived at the airport.

Our room at The Modern

We spent almost every afternoon either poolside or on the beach…that was a priority!

On our second day, we started our day off with banana pancakes at Boots and Kimo’s — just like Barak, Michelle and the girls....

We did the Pillbox hike and then headed up to the Polynesian Cultural Center for a great day of canoe rides, singing, dancing, crafting and a fun luau.

The Dole Plantation — riding the train, touring the gardens, and, of course, Dole Whips.

We went to Pearl Harbor, the Punch Bowl and ate at some amazing local places, thanks to friends and Yelp. One of my favorites were malasadas from Leonard’s….sort of like donuts but without a hole and much hotter, fresher and decadent!

Getting on our cruise ship in Honolulu took at least an hour (they could learn a lot from San Pedro where red caps take your baggage almost as soon as you walk up). But, we had a great room with a large balcony. Our first stop was Maui. We rented a car and drove the “Road to Hana”. There were some beautiful views and great stops, but, the road is so harrowing and it took so long, I’m not sure I’d do it again. And the Seven Sacred Pools where we were hoping to swim a the end of the road were closed due to rain — boo!

Hayley and John in front of the Taro paddies at the arboretum.

Many of the highlights of our trip involved food — mostly food trucks, roadside stands, and other “non-5 Star fare”! We avoided chains except for one night at Duke’s on the beach in Kauai. And I’m still drooling over the coconut shrimp appetizer & sauce we had there. (I wonder if that dish would taste as good in Huntington Beach?)

This bench was at a cemetery along the Road to Hana. (Little did I know at this time that before the vacation was through, I’d get news that my father was on his deathbed.)

We were going to swim at the black sand beach but ended up having a heck of a lot more fun watching other people getting knocked down by the wicked waves instead.

On our second day in Maui, we went to the top of Haleakala crater and then rode bikes down the mountain back into town. (John and I accidentally rode into the wrong town, but luckily it was closer to our ship anyway. The guy from the company we rented our bikes from was happy to pick us up and drop us off right at the boat.) This was actually one of the best parts of our vacation and would recommend this to anyone spending time in Maui!

We spent two days on the Big Island of Hawaii. We went to Volcanoes National Park. Lucky for us, it was one of the first days in years to actually see flaming lava bubbling up in the crater by day and burning and flowing down the edge of the island by night.