Early in November, we went to Hawaii to attend our niece, Tammy's wedding. It was another family reunion for us, Ngo's family. There were five siblings and families from Denver, two from Los Angeles and us from Durham coming to the special event.
We all stayed in the Waikiki area to be near the wedding venue at Julia Cafe, downtown Honolulu. We shared a (Waikiki Bayan) condo with Peter and Amy for a week. It was a great location, close to a lot of tourist attractions and only a short walk to the beach.
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A visit to Pearl Harbor USS Arizona Memorial.
Entrance to the USS Arizona Memorial. |
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| Pearl Harbor. |
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| With Minh's family at the "tea" ceremony. |
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| Cafe Julia courtyard. |
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| With Tien and Nhung. |
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| With Hoang and Mary. |
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| With Nghia and Hong Dao. |
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| The bridemaids. |
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| The bride and groom, Tammy and Koa. |
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A beautiful evening to enjoy.
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The day after the wedding, we explored the island's tourist attractions. Our first stop was the Dole Plantation. The tram tour narrated the hisory of the plantation and gave us an enjoyable visit through this well maintained gardens. We did not forget to stop at the gift shop for souvenirs and their famous pineapple ice cream at the end of the visit.
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| The tram tour. |
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| Garden tour. |
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We have to take this picture. - Now - With Amy in 2024.
Then-- With Jeani in 2018.
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Among the beautiful bromeliads.
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In the evening, we chartered a boat for a sunset cruise out of Waikiki/Ala Wai harbor. It's a beautiful evening and the sunset was awesome. It rained a bit every now and then. But the cruise was very nice and fun, just what we needed to enjoy a relaxing time together.
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| On aboard - Waikiki (Ala Wai) harbor. |
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Honolulu skyscape with the famous Royal Hawaiian Hotel.
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| Approaching Diamond Head. |
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Hoang, a happy cruiser.
 | "Almost" sunset in Waikiki.
 | Calm sea and gorgeous sunset.
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 | With Khoi, Hoang and Tan.
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Sunset in Waikiki. |
First stop on our next day's agenda was the famous Byodo-In Temple in Ahuimanu, at the foot of Ko'olau Mountain.
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| At a scenic look-out with Ko'olaus mountains in the background. |
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| On the way to Byodo-In Temple. |
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Byodo-In Temple.
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Huli Huli chicken for lunch along the road.
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A quiet local beach along the coast.
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A stop on the (northern) coast drive.
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A leisure beach walk.
And relaxing. |
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Honolulu sunset from our hotel balcony.
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The island of Oahu is also famous for its hiking trails. We like to try one of the easiest and shortest trails not too far from Waikiki. Thus, we chose to hike the Makapu'u Point lighthouse trail in Waimanalo.
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| Peter, a happy "tourist"- on the way to Makapu'u State Park. |
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The "lighthouse" trail.
 | View from the trail head.
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| Ready for the hike. |
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Scenic shoreline and beautiful view along the hike.
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and paved paths.
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| The Makapu'u lighthouse. |
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Hikers on the way back, exhausted but happy to survive the hike.
We were very happy to meet up with Jeani and Marvin our last day in Honolulu. They picked us up at our hotel around 10:00 for a full day of eating, sightseeings and catching up with our latest news. We had a great time with them in 2018 when our ship pulled in to Pearl Harbor and look forward to seeing them again. As always, the Koshis are very generous with their time and hospitality. They are wonderful friends and we had fun to spend the day with them.
After having lunch at Marvin and Jeani's favorite Japanese restaurant, we stopped by their favorite bakery next door.
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We got a variety of the desserts from this decadent display.
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| At Kaneohe - Nu'uanu Valley lookout. |
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| The Koshis' garden and pond. |
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| Their pet tortoise, Darwin. |
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| Marvin on the balcony, overlooking Pearl Harbor. |
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Enjoying a beautiful Hawaiian sunset with our very special friends.
A fine Vietnamese cuisine wrapped up a wonderful and memorable day. |
Mahalo, Jeani and Marvin for a great visit. It's so nice to see you again. We hope our next visit will be sooner than six years!. Anytime you want to get off the Island, you can jog over to North Carolina to see us. Wouldn't that be awesome.!! Until we meet again, aloha...
