My No Bandwagon Vacation, Destination: Hawaii

Meet the 4 guilty parties of the No Bandwagon Hawaiian Vacation of 2009:

From Left to Right: Ms. Contextual Strategist, Ms. Dole Pineapple, Mrs. Fish, Ms. Handholder

What makes a No Bandwagon Vacation:
All parties must be within their mid-20s. Agenda must include going out, some relaxin in the sun, funny jokes, and some pondering of how wonderful it is to get away from the everyday humdrum of life.

For my Hawaiian no bandwagon vacation, I had the pleasure of going to the island of Oahu for 6 days and 5 nights. Through the fabulous finding skills of ms. dole pineapple, we managed to get a cheap flight and hotel package and scored a partial ocean front view at the Marriott Waikiki Beach.

While most of the plan was to get some Vitamin D, we managed to fit some activities in here and there:

• Hanauma Bay Snorkeling

• Surfing at Waikiki Beach: "Stand in front of my belly, don't worry I'm not trying to touch your butt," Tony the surf instructor.

• Drive to the North Shore, seeing the Banzai Pipeline

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• Germaine's Luau (which was highly discounted due to Ms. Dole Pineapple's ability to dissuade the "COOL" timeshare saleswoman)

• Late nights out on the town: the W and Oceans 808

And on to my favorite part: the FOOD
in Waikiki we were lucky to sample: ( I will later supply my Yelp reviews of my favorites, but for now I have italicized them)

• Ono Hawaiian Foods - authentic Hawaiian food with kahlua pork, beef stew, taro leaf wrapped around chicken
• Sansei Restaurant - sushi
• Blazin' Steaks - $6 entree plates with large portions
• The Beachhouse - amazing scenery outlooking the ocean at the Westin Moana Surfrider Hotel
• The Tiki Room - chill bar with live singer and food appetizers
• Haagen Dazs - enough said
• Sushi King - reminds me of home sushi
• Puka Dog - hot dogs with a whole new twist with toppings such as lilikoi, papaya; think of hot dogs catered to those with a sweet tooth, featured on Anthony Bourdain's show

in North Shore my favorite foods of the trip included:

• Giovanni's Shrimp Truck - the infamous truck with plates heaping full of shrimp
• Matsumoto's Shaved Ice - shaved ice brought on a whole another level with the sweet flavors of lilikoi, melona guava to your ordinary strawberry, lemon, grape for those who like to play it safe

We love Hawaii!!! I will have to go back. Aloha!