Aulani Trip Day 3, Feb 2, 2013 (Saturday)

Shopping day!  Lisa and I had one or a few things in mind that we wanted to bring back from Hawaii.  Kudos to Tim and Seth for being the ones who didn't really have anything specific that they wanted to buy but they humored us for a marathon shopping day.

Since before we had arrived at Aulani, while I was doing my usual pre-trip research, I had stumbled upon the very long thread on the Dis Boards about the exclusive (and expensive) Aulani Dooney & Burke purses. There they were in the gift shop at Aulani and I had been admiring them since we had bought our refillable mugs on the day we arrived.  I was torn between the white crossbody purse vs the brown leather one.  The designs on the purses were adorable and it was great getting to choose that one "right" purse from all the ones in stock.  I finally decided on the brown leather crossbody bag and started the shopping day off with a bang taking advantage of our DVC discount which brought the bag down to just under $200.  This was by far the most that I have ever paid for a purse but this was special and will be reserved only for use while traveling - especially when we come back to Aulani in August with the kids and extended family.

We filled our mugs with coffee figuring we could just get something to eat at the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet. After just a couple of wrong turns (a theme throughout our Hawaii vacation - the street names are, well, hilarious and our google maps was oftentimes confused), we made our way to the parking lot outside of Aloha Stadium.  It wasn't actually as busy as I had imagined for a Saturday morning and we parked pretty close to the swap meet.  It wasn't really a swap meet, of course, but more like a flea market.

The swap meet was HUGE and actually was 2 layers deep.  We walked the entire outside loop and were too pooped out (and hungry and a little hot) to make a 2nd loop on the inside.  A lot of tents were very repetitive - t shirts, junky souvenirs, etc, but every once in a while we stumbled upon a really cool vendor and picked up some nifty things.  We chose some t-shirts from the very first tent we came upon - they were 5 for $20 and were pretty decent shirts so we got the kids some for our return trip in August.  Lisa bought and shared some of the cute teeny (and sweet) bananas we had seen before from one of the vendors. A guy was selling HUGE avocados for just $6 so I bought one to take back to the resort.

Lisa mailed a coconut home and Seth picked up some car stickers.  We also bought some Hawaii made peanut butter - one was mango and the other was coconut - both were DELICIOUS.  That vendor also sold flavored honey and we picked up a small jar of coconut honey.  I regretted not buying a huge loaf of Hawaiian bread but made a mental note to be sure and buy some in August when we are staying in a Grand Villa at Aulani.  I could just picture breakfast each morning in our Grand Villa.....macadamia nut pancakes with coconut peanut butter and coconut honey, hawaiian toast, all-you-can-drink-coffee.  Yum yum yum.

Our next destination after lunch was the Ala Moana shopping center so we navigated to a Japanese restaurant via Open Table literally right across the street from the mall.  Between Open Table and Yelp, we found some really great places to eat in Oahu.  Shokudo was an energetic, trendy little Japanese place.  Best way to make us happy?  Good drinks and good sushi!  This place had both.  I had the lychee vodka soda - very good and I'm not the biggest vodka fan.  Seth and I shared sushi:

Lobster Dynamite Roll

California roll w lobster dynamite sauce

Kusaikudasai roll
Spicy tuna roll w albacore tatami and garlic butter, garlic chips, balsamic vinaigrette

Red Eye Roll
 Spicy tuna and cucumber wrapped w tuna and green onion

James was the waiter for the table next to us and was hilarious - he convinced us to try the restaurant dessert specialty the honey toast.  It was really good but BIG.

When we got done with lunch, we walked across the street but it took us a little while to find an entrance into the shopping center.  We had to walk into the parking structure to find an entrance.  While Tim stopped at Starbucks, I wandered into the Shirokiya store and found Hawaiian Red Shrimp aka "Super Shrimp" in small self-enclosed aquariums.  These little guys were so fun to watch scuttling around in the water and were already packed up ready to take home, that I bought a set - a small bottle with sand, shells, and a "tree", the teeny red shrimp were vacuum sealed in a plastic bottle with brackish water, and a mix to make more "brackish water".  I'm happy to report that the little guys did make it home in our luggage and are now sitting on the windowsill in my house.

The Ala Moana shopping center is a really really nice shopping mall - mostly open air with a ton of very high end stores.  Lisa disappeared into the Versace store.  Seth and I wandered around for a while and went into a shoe store called Island Sole where Seth found and fell in love with a pair of shoes by Sanuk.  He swore they were the most comfortable shoes he had ever worn and wore them right out of the store.  I picked up a pair of nice sandals as well.  I also picked up a new charm for my bracelet at the Pandora store:  a sterling silver happy fish to remember our Hawaii trip and also because my maiden name in Chinese is a synonym for "fish".

Speaking of fish, the center had a courtyard with a couple of pools with the biggest koi I've ever seen.  We stopped for a bit to watch the children playing near the koi fish and noted how some of the fish were almost as big as some of the children.

We had dinner reservations at Alan Wong's Pineapple Room - again, made through Open Table.  I had read somewhere about Alan Wong - a very famous Hawaiian chef with several restaurants throughout Oahu.  We couldn't get reservations at this main restaurant but since we were at the Ala Moana center, I made a reservation at the Pineapple Room located right inside Macy's.  It was a little odd to be eating in a nice restaurant inside of a department store.  They had a tasting menu and it was nice that not everyone at the table had to have the tasting so we enjoyed the tasting menu w wine pairing.

FIRST COURSE
Island Ahi TartareYuzu Caesar, Capers, Parmesan CrostiniSauvignon Blanc, Mohua, Marlborough, New Zealand, 2010

SECOND COURSEHo Farms Tomato & Watermelon SaladHawaii Island Dairy Goat Cheese
Hawaiian Vanilla Li Hing Mui Dressing
Chardonnay, Alpatagua, “Reserva”, Casablanca Valley, Chile, 2011

THIRD COURSEMiso Braised Short RibAn Assortment of Vegetables from the Farmer’s Market

DESSERT DUOMichelle’s Waialua Chocolate Bar & Kula Strawberry Tiramisu

We headed back to Aulani after dinner and called it an early night again.  We did a lot of walking - I wish I had remembered to bring my Garmin watch.