Happy New Year 2022, & Living The Dream!

Arrived Honolulu on the 23rd via SJC/SouthWest, and boy, saved us 💰💰💰 with the free 2 checked bags deal.  Flight was kinda cramp (plenty of legs space but almost full flight) and all 4 of us sat apart from each other; alas, we were all aisle.  Ride from Kalakaua Gardens shuttle was smooth, and SUPER SLOW.  Since it's a senior home, the driver was a senior too, so driving BELOW the speed limit, SIGNIFICANTLY BELOW, and the trip was almost 30 minutes (vs less than 15 mins for me who ain't familiar with the roads in O'ahu at all!).  By the time we reached home, it was almost 23.00 hr HST, so we all went to bed after showers.  Thankfully Pam our realtor has left us air mattresses, bed sheets, towels, food and water so we were able to survive that night and for the next few nights...

The next day we went to Hawaii Kai Town Center and Koko Marina Center.  I knew that Costco and Safeway were closed; Pam drove me there when I went for a one day Honolulu trip several weeks ago.  Imagine my utter surprise when we were at KMC - all the food, and stuff, and LEONARD'S BAKERY food truck!  We had plate lunches at FatBoy's - Kalua Pig, Kalbi, Loco Moco and its special Poke bowl.  They all tasted delicious, but best of all, under $10 each for mini size (the equivalent of additional portion of regular size in SFBA).  Regular size at FB is about $3-4 more.  We also had all the creme stuffed Malasada @ LB's - kids had Chocolate, and we had Coconut and Creme (we tried the regular sugar and caramel coating, without creme filling several days later, also very yummy).  Then kids had shave ice at Koconuts where Obama ate back in 2008.  We then went to check out Henry J. Kaiser HS and it was big.

Oh, I forgot to mention - I rented a Prius for $80/day + $10 insurance/day from Turo via a host named Jennifer.  Small issue with the vehicle, but it's definitely pricy due to the age and condition of the vehicle.  I had to rent it that way since there's no car rental agency here in Hawaii Kai, and I had no way to drive to HNL to pick up rental, and Turo was the only way to have host dropped off and picked up vehicles from your home if you required.  Now that I've my own vehicles, I'll definitely cancel my membership there!)

Christmas day we drove to Aulani, and the kids had a blast revisiting all their favs from several years back.  Since we didn't have wristband, we were unable to enjoy any of its rides.  We visited the shops and walked around, but kinda upset that wifey wouldn't buy me an Aulani exclusive Hawaiian shirt for $30 (1/2 off from $60).

Between Christmas and New Year we mostly went shopping for household stuff at Daiso (Pearl City & the one close to Waikiki), Walmart, Longs, Walgreens, etc.  We were caught off guard on Sunday that Honolulu downtown's Marukame Udon was closed so we had to go to the Waikiki location.  Boy it was a long line up for 45 minutes, and we had to pay for street parking!  Fortunately, parking was NOT too expensive and I was lucky enough to get one relatively quickly (about 15 minutes) and very close by.  Keko'a wish of eating at Marukame Udon has been fulfilled.  Having said that, we'll probably go to the Honolulu location again because I remembered that it's supposed to be a little bit cheaper than the Waikiki location.  We also obtained our library cards so we could (and did) borrow books like kama'aina without having to pay for the library cards!  We also tried out SingMaTei in Ala Moana Shopping Center thanks to A. Charles and sure enough, its food was yummy and cheap (about $11-12), especially Hianese Chicken (we went there again on Fri 31st because H.C. was available during weekend only, for $16.95).  Look Fun was great and yummy too!

Finally, our belongings have arrived, and so were Titan XD and LEAF.  There's a very slight damage on the front license plate of the LEAF but I let that go.  We'll soon get our Hawaii State DL but will keep our CA plates until next year because we just paid for them and Hawaii allow out-of-state plates until their expiration if owners choose to.

It's been raining since New Year's Eve and will continue so for the next few days.  There were so many boom boom boom from 🎇 but I can imagine that if the weather was clear, it would have been 100X boom boom boom!

Oh, and 🎅🏻 came and gave the kids each a box of Hot Wheels Premium Garage Set Nissan GT-R!  ❤️

Last but not least...chickens!  (Outside of McDonald's in Hawaii Kai Town Center.)