Hawaii Babymoon

well everyone was telling us that if at all possible, to take one last trip before the baby comes... so we decided to book a trip to oahu, hawaii. it was a great trip, we got to do, see, and EAT a lot! we also got to reconnect with a few old friends that live out there, which was nice. i havent been there in a while, took me a while to adjust to the slow pace of hawaiians compared to la... people definitely take their time out there. here are a few pics from the trip....

we hung out at a beach almost every day, here are a few we went to:

waikiki beach, way too crowded but a nice beach


didnt get a good pic of lanikai beach, but took a pic of the breakwater near the parking lot


nanci taking a stroll along kailua beach, such blue water!


paradise cove, which is a great beach because its very secluded, and the water is only like 2-4ft deep everywhere so its good for kids. the best part is you can swim with sea turtles here! there were 2 or 3 turtles swimming around in the cove, you can swim right next to them and pet them, although i guess youre not supposed to go within 6ft of them but whatever?


we went to laniakea beach on north shore just to see more sea turtles. its crazy that there are so many there... most of them stay in the water but a couple came up to pose for me...


last beach we went to was sharks cove to go snorkeling, or diving as the locals call it. i was like uhhh... they just CALL it sharks cove right???? not trying to get eaten on my vacation! it was a great place to see lots of fish and even turtles. next time im bringing an underwater camera. there was also a cliff to jump off of, it was maybe 15ft high. me and our friends bf ryan jumped off a few times, the last one is a blurry shot of my front flip although it looks like im just falling in back first.


we also ate a ton of food, oooh boy. its easy to see why some hawaiians get huge... the best things to do are eat comfort food and lay on the beach! here are a few of the local eats we tried...

i wish the 7-11s in california hooked it up like they do in hawaii. spam masubis, longanisa, tocino, sio pao... all we get here are crappy burned taquitos. the spam masubis there have egg in them too, why dont they do that here???


oh man i was on poke overload, so many good places that have so many to try. were gonna have to make a trip back for nanci when she can actually eat raw fish. i felt kinda bad but man it was SOOO GOOD! first stop was foodland, one of hawaiis major grocery chains that carries a ton of poke. it was pretty damn good, and cheap!!!

second place we (err, i) tried was recommended by a local, ono seafood. there are two little asian ladies in this hole in the wall that make the poki fresh right when u order it. i had the shoyu poke and the spicy ahi poki, both were BOMB!!!

last place was recommended by a lot of people, the poke stop. i think this place was actually my favorite. first pic is of sweet maui onion poke, second pic... that is the poke i have been dreaming about since i got back to ca... salmon furikake poke. I WANT MORE!!!


of course we had to try the famous giovannis shrimp truck at north shore. we got the shrimp scampi, which is basically a dozen shrimp and two scoops of rice covered in butter and huge garlic chunks... oh man sooo good! we also tried the spicy shrimp, which i wouldnt recommend its more spicy and not so much flavorful. it was DAMN hot though, we shoulda known when the menu described it as "really hot, no refunds"


im not a pancake guy, but oh man if youre ever in hawaii you NEED to try the the banana pancakes and famous macadamia nut sauce at boots and kimos homestyle kitchen!!!


the rainbow drive in is a really good local spot too. ive always loved loco moco but did you know that they make a version with chili instead of gravy?!?!! too bad nanci couldnt get runny eggs on her chili moco...


cocoa puffs from liliha bakery, open 24hrs...


bacon avocado burgers at kua aina, they put half an avocado in each burger mmm


teds bakery on north shore is also awesome. i guess theyre famous for their chocolate haupia pie but we dont like coconut, so instead we got pineapple macadamia nut cheesecake and banana macadamia nut pound cake... mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm


ive never been big on hawaiian shaved ice from what ive tried in ca, but man the shaved ice at matsumoto grocery store was awesome! the line speaks for itself. ours had, from bottom to top, vanilla ice cream, shaved ice, strawberry and pineapple flavoring, and condensed milk. although the line moves really fast, it seriously smells like a butthole outside... wth???? but still worth it!!!


DAMN IM HUNGRY NOW!!! well besides stuffing our faces, we got to do some other things in hawaii too. something ive always wanted to do was hike to a waterfall... and we hiked to two! probably not the best thing for a pregnant woman to do, but the hikes were two of the easiest ones on the island. next time we will bring bug spray though, we got eaten alive man...

first hike was to manoa falls...

careful nanci!!!

bamboo forest

finally made it to the top! oooooooooh...


second hike was through the waimea botanical garden to waimea falls. this waterfall has a natural lake that you can swim in, pretty cool!


me standing in the waterfall...


nanci with her floaties swimming to the waterfall when the girl there said "what youre pregnant?!?! you cant go up here its slippery!!!" thats her right under the waterfall though, all you can see is her head.


a panoramic shot from pali lookout, this is the windward side of oahu...


view of downtown honolulu from tantalus drive


dole pineapple plantation, which had the smallest farmers market ive ever seen... not exactly like the one on fairfax in la...


it was good to see friends out there too... these are the people we stayed with in pearl city, nancis old coworker alodia and her bf ryan.


this is november, we stayed with him the last time we were in hawaii, and this time we performed together in honolulu and the performance was broadcasted live to a crowd in little tokyo, los angeles (tuesday night cafe). it was so much fun!


we also got to meet up with my old bandmate george and his wife tawny, forgot to take a picture though we were in a rush to get to the airport.

we also tried to take some maternity pictures of nanci, here are a few. we brought a tripod to try to get me in some of the pics but they just looked akward hahah. these were taken at ko'olina beach...


thats about it, i think nanci and i gained 10lbs each this trip, cant wait to go back and overindulge again. thanks for reading, hawaii we will be back soon!!!