Hawaiian style

Part II: Kashi family trip to Hawaii

When we got to Hawaii, it was so much warmer and humid than we expected. It was a nice warm though and good to be back in good ol’ USA (even if it wasn’t on the mainland). The first thing we did... ? Got to a mall and ate some Taco Bell. Was that so wrong? Actually, just looking at the picture kind of gives me a stomachache. We've definitely gotten a new perspective on American meals after living in Japan. Everything is so absurdly massive! But it was fun to gorge on fast food and giant sodas.



We stayed in Waikiki in Honolulu which seemed to have fairly recently turned into a manmade tourist area. There were tons of hotels and restaurants along the beach and malls and mini malls. A lot of the shops were big name brand shops, very catered to Japanese tourists. Some shops even accepted Yen. The beach was beautiful though, calm blue water and Scott and my mom skipped some rocks there.



Scott and I were pretty jetlag so we left the planning to my sister. She found a bunch of tours and sites for us to see. So the next day, we were up early and off to an Eco tour. A local guy named Dominic was our tour guide and he walked us through a little jungle and to a bunch of beautiful viewpoints and beaches. I wish I remembered his stories better, but most were about how superstitious the Hawaiian are and that the royals believed in keeping their bloodlines pure so there was a lot of brothers marrying sisters and hence, most locals are related to some extent so they often call each other, “cousin” because chances are, they probably really are.

We also got to swim at a beautiful beach along the way. The water was a pretty light blue and the water was incredibly calm. So calm that we were just floating on our backs and letting the waves bring us back to shore.



My mother also has a cousin living in Honolulu so we met with them for a lovely Dim Sum lunch. My sister and I grew up with their daughters so it was a nice reunion. We also got to meet my cousin’s new twin baby daughters. They were so adorable!


My cousins surf (I guess you kind of have to when you live there) and luckily we got to fit in a surf day with them. I always thought that if I tried to surf, it would be in Hawaii because the water’s so nice and not as frightening. Yeah! It came true! Scott did a lot better than I did and caught a wave and stayed up for a while on his second try. I did ok, but I did more of a kneel with only one foot on the board. It still felt great having a wave underneath you and pulling you out to shore. Can’t wait to try it again!


We did one last tour at a Cultural Center which was set up kind of like Disneyland with different Hawaiian tribes in each section. They showed us dances, foods, and music from each tribe and then we moved on to the next area. We felt a little strange having these young kids sell out their traditions to us tourists, but then we found out that the money from the tours goes directly to the tuition of the tour guides that work there and attend the Mormon college next door. In any case, we got a huge buffet dinner with Kalua pork and yummy fruits (though I got hives from my mango smoothie!), and an amazing Luau show to end the night. You gotta do a luau, right?


Another successful Kashi family trip, great to spend time together and be in America for a bit!

P.S. I took a ridiculous amount of pictures, more of which are on my flickr page if you care to dive in.