Taking Myself on Vacation to Waikiki: Solo Trip (Long Post)

Friday 8/12-Sunday 8/15: Museums, Views, Yoga, and The Princess Bride

Last weekend, I took myself on vacation to Waikiki for a solo recharge. Having direct flights on Southwest from SMF to HNL makes this sort of trip so much more feasible! I left Sac around 7:30am and arrived in Honolulu close to 10:30am, giving me the entire rest of the day on Friday to enjoy on the island. 

I was too early to access my room at the Aston Waikiki Sunset, so I left my bags with the Front Desk staff and headed to HOMA (Honolulu Museum of Art). I really love this museum, both for its collection and for the building itself, built around several courtyards. Mr. E and I even have a membership since we visit often enough! I particularly enjoyed two of the special exhibitions: Mauka to Makai, Honolulu Cityscapes of the 1850s and Cross Pollination: Flowers Across the Collection. Two pieces in the latter exhibition particularly struck me, the first because of the variety of colors and flowers and containers, and the second because it so perfectly shows how tulips move and change once they're cut and put into a vase.

At the end of this exhibition was a selection of several postcards featuring works in the gallery. Visitors could select a card, write a message, and drop it into a box on the wall for HOMA to mail. What a great idea! I wrote out a card to my Mom, and it will be interesting to see how long it takes to arrive in Austin.

Once I was ready for lunch, I headed to the HOMA cafe and was surprised to see how busy it was on a Friday afternoon. I decided instead to order my lunch to takeout and eat at one of the tables surrounding the central courtyard, which was definitely the right choice. As I waited for my order, I perused one of Mr. E's and my favorite galleries, featuring contemporary Hawai'ian art. I noticed right away that the gallery appeared to be smaller than before and didn't include some of the additional works that I'm used to seeing. Sure enough, when I asked the staff at the reception desk on my way out of the museum, they explained that the other half of the gallery has been re-purposed for storage, hopefully just on a temporary basis!

I also made a stop in the store to pick up some cards and a small blank notebook for drawing. I hadn't brought my pencils with me, so I "borrowed" one from the supply near the flower postcards to use as I ate lunch and enjoyed the courtyard setting. My seared ahi salad was delicious!

I wasn't very pleased with my attempts to capture some of the creature statues on paper, but I was more successful with the water lilies in one of the side courtyards.

When I was ready to leave the museum, I decided to make a stop at the Safeway on Kapahulu Street to stock up on some groceries for the weekend, since I knew my suite included a fully-equipped kitchen with full-size fridge and microwave. A light rainfall greeted me as I left the store to walk to the hotel! Along the way, I also bumped into the bike food tour that Mr. E and I had done during our visit in April 2021. 

My suite on the 33rd floor had an amazing view of both the ocean and Diamond Head.

I definitely spent lots of time on the lanai during my visit, just appreciating the ever-changing views throughout the different times of the day and different weather conditions. Once I unpacked, I headed off towards Kalakaua Street for a bit of browsing and some additional beverage shopping at an ABC Store. I walked through the lobby of the Marriott Resort and was pleased to see that the Starbucks had returned! The rainbow sign in the middle is a new and very appropriate welcome.

Dinner the first night was sushi from Safeway, Aviation pre-mixed cocktail (why can't I find this in stores near us here in Sac??!!), and taro chips, all enjoyed out on the lanai, of course.

The gradual sunrise over Diamond Head greeted me on Saturday morning. I started off the day with a walk along Kuhio Street and back along Kalakaua and Waikiki Beach. My adventure this morning was a 9am SUP Yoga class with Yoga Floats near Magic Island in Ala Moana Beach Park. My first time ever on a SUP! I only fell in the water once, and that's probably because I modified some poses once I started feeling off balance (e.g. Tree). Other balance poses were fine, such as Crow and Side Plank.

I think the strangest sensation was being in Down Dog and looking through my legs at the water and sky from a totally flipped perspective! After the class, I rinsed off the salt water and walked back to the hotel, stopping along the way at the Reserve Starbucks on Kuhio Street for egg bites and an iced Americano. I was definitely ready for a shower by the time I got back to the hotel!!! 

I spent a couple of hours in the afternoon at the Bishop Museum and particularly enjoyed the special exhibition about The Healer Stones of Kapaemahu. I grabbed a salad for lunch at the nearby Subway once I got back to the hotel and then got ready to go to the Hawaii Theatre Center for "The Princess Bride: An Inconceivable Evening with Cary Elwes" at 6pm. The show included a screening of the film and than a facilitated Q&A session with Cary Elwes. This is one of my favorite movies, and it was such fun to see in a crowd of like-minded fans and to hear some inside stories from one of the leads! The setting was also quite majestic, and the reusable plastic wine tumbler that was allowed into the theatre makes a great souvenir.

I was up early on Sunday morning for my run around Diamond Head. For part of the route, I was following the same path as a 15K race -- that's definitely too far for me to run these days! My 5ish miles was plenty, and I cooled down with yoga in the room before grabbing some breakfast at the new Starbucks along the exterior of the Marriott. 

Today's adventure was a snorkel, turtle, and lunch tour with Hawaii Nautical, and I had to be at the Kewalo Basin Harbor before 11am. I decided that this would be my "taxi-free" day, especially since I had more time and no early or late plans that needed a scheduled pick-up, so I took The Bus both to and from my catamaran tour. So easy! A direct route on Route 20 with a stop half a block from the hotel and another right by the harbor. I'm very glad that I packed my wet suit so that I didn't get cold during the hour-ish snorkel time. Unfortunately, I didn't see any honu, and the water was rather rough due to the winds, so I even felt a bit sea sick during the trip, which is unusual for me with that type of water craft. One of the crew noticed my Hawaii Cat Cafe tank top (from our April 2021 trip) and later showed me a picture of her kitty, Eleanor, that was adopted from the cafe.

I lay down for a bit when I got back to the hotel to get over the queasy feelings. Then I showered and washed out my swim stuff before going for a walk along Kuhio Street to find some dinner. I ended up at the International Marketplace and had some vegan gelato as an appetizer followed by a mixed poke bowl to take back to the hotel. I had time for some more drawing and reading and enjoying the sunset out on the lanai before eating my poke and wrapping up the evening.

My final morning started with another walk along Waikiki Beach, this time with the specific intent to visit  the Kapaemahu stones that I had learned about at the Bishop Museum. The stones are in an enclosed area right on the beach, but I don't know that I had ever really noticed them before and certainly didn't understand their significance and history.

After my in-room workout, I went to a 9am beachfront yoga class with Sunset Yoga Waikiki near the Aquarium. This is another activity that I had done during our April 2021 trip, and this time there were only two of us with the instructor. As we moved through the poses, I remembered that outdoor yoga in nature always sounds better in theory than it is in reality, at least for me... I kept feeling tiny ants and other creatures skittering over me, the big tree providing some cover from the sun kept dropping fluff on me, and the shade just wasn't cooperating with the positioning of my mat. Note to self: Outdoor yoga is much better on a protected lanai with a nice view than on the grass somewhere!!!

I picked up breakfast at Starbucks again on my way back to the hotel, supplemented by the yummy roasted vegetables from my leftover snorkel tour lunch, and had enough time for some final images of Diamond Head before catching a ride to the airport for my 12:55pm flight.

My return flight from HNL got me back to SMF just after 9pm, so I had a little time to reconnect and snuggle with Mr. E and Caly before turning in.

A few more views of Diamond Head for good measure...