Hawaii
Piled in the car with Lee family first thing in the morning for snorkeling at Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve, one of the most famous places in Oahu. Tons of colorful fish means you need to make a reservation days in advance, less you risk waiting hours and hours for the next available timeslot, and to be fair the reservation system is a much-welcomed addition to reduce the prior overcrowding.
Nearly two hours of snorkeling in the sun and waves was time well-spent, although lousy rental gear definitely detracted from the experience (protip: don't forget your snorkel and mask at home). The walk uphill isn't bad at all, and we did lunch down the road at the same plaza that Original Roy's Hawaii Kai is at. Turns out at the other end of the shopping center there is Paradise Poke, with some award-winning poke as well as a very tasty galbi plate and garlic noodles, and if we had had time, one of Oahu's two Costco locations. Being teenagers, AJ and BK walked across the parking lot to Raising Cane's instead for fried chicken... *shrug*
Afternoon was spent at Pearl Harbor National Memorial, where we went to the USS Arizona Memorial to pay respects to all those who gave their lives on board not only the USS Arizona (BB-39) but afterwards on December 7, 1941, as well as the rest of the war. In this day and age, a reminder that we are all Americans despite our diverse ethnic backgrounds was pretty poignant.
While we had plenty of time to see the USS Arizona Memorial, sadly it was a bit too tight to see to the aviation museum, tour the USS Missouri, or tour the USS Bowfin (submarine museum) this time around. Clearly should go back as it's been many years since my last visit. Instead, at 5:00pm when they closed, we hopped over to Honu Bakery for their internet-famous animal themed cupcakes and fruit-decorated baked goods. They were more pretty than anything else, although the fruit thing we got as well as the panda choco cupcake were pretty good; skip the bear choco cupcake as it's too dense.
Managed to avoid ruining our dinners with the pre-dinner snack. Restaurant XO is one of the ambitious XO Restaurant Group's plans to have 25 to 50 restaurants of a variety of types operating with innovative cuisine, and what feels like a Thai-Korean-Japanese fusion here mostly succeeds. The feel is a little upscale but not too upscale, as they manage to make an otherwise plain rectangular space work well with wood tones and dim lighting, and the frequently changing menu is ambitious. A few items, such as the "shooters" (of baked salmon, waygu A5, seared foie gras, or ikura), are a bit silly in name, but overall we were pretty happy with the first half of the meal. The second half was a step down in execution, but overall, both in quality and the amount of food, we were pretty happy, and this was the first dinner in three days we didn't feel disappointed by.