downtown | Travels, Adventures, and Leisure

First day we left SFO at 6:30pm, and arrived at HNL at 10pm (40 minutes earlier than expected). Took a taxi to the hotel (next time would take an uber since it’s cheaper and less pressure to pay cash).

Arrived at the hotel / resort (Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Resort, Ali’i tower) at 10:30. Most of the shops in the resort were closed except the general store. So got some chips and High Noons, watches a bit of Pearl Habor and called it a night.

Next day woke up at 7:30am, and got coffee at a place called Lappert’s Hawaii. They also had ice cream. Wouldn’t probably go back for coffee since they don’t have oat milk, or hazelnut. But may go back for ice cream.

Also tried a spam musubi croissant for breakfast. Without the seaweed on top it tasted pretty good.

At 11am, arrived at Pearl Harbor Visitor Center. Put my name in the standby for the Arizona memorial, and got in at the 12:00pm slot. Visited the road to war museum while I waited near the visitor center.

The USS Arizona Memorial i think was worth it. The memorial is above the ship, and you could see parts of the ship penetrating the water line.

After the memorial headed to the USS Missouri using a shuttle (it is on Ford Island). I took the 35 minute guided tour, which I think is worth it to explain the significance of the ship with respect to WWII (took a tour of the bow, surrender deck where the Japanese surrendered, and the kamikaze deck where a Japanese pilot was found dead, but buried out to sea). After the guided tour, the 2nd deck was interesting. Although no weaponry, it focused on how it was like to live on the ship. It had the cafeteria, quarters, chief mess. Also going up to the bridge after was a different experience as well.

A history on the USS Missouri is that it was started to be built in Jan 1941 and finished 3 years later. It served in WWII, Cold War, and in the 80s.

Afterwards (after waiting 40 minutes for the shuttle) headed to the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum. Because of time constraints, zipped by it fairly fast. Notable things I did look at was hanger 37 (start of the muses with Japanese Zero as the main showcase), the plane used in the Doolittle project, Hanger 79 (had planes like F-15a, and also mostly survived the attack.. and has a cool flag hanging in it) and the Ford Island control tower (looks like the movie).

Unfortunately was able to check out the USS Bowfin submarine (was 4 minutes late for the last entry).

One clear message from today: Freedom isn’t free.

Afterwards went to the hotel and caught a quick sunset at the beach at our hotel.

Then we headed for dinner near the Downtown / Chinatown area. Restaurant was called Yohei Sushi. Details can be found here:

https://food.johnmatienzo.com/2025/11/26/yohei-sushi/

Then head for drinks at a Tiki Bar in Chinatown. I will say that Chinatown area at night is a bit sketchy. However bars in it are good. Details can be found here on the bar:

https://food.johnmatienzo.com/2025/11/26/skull-and-crown/

Last stop of the night was at a more whisky themed based bar, also in Chinatown, called EP Bar. Details here:

https://food.johnmatienzo.com/2025/11/26/ep-bar/

Started this day by chilling at the beach. The key part is to get beach chairs, a table and umbrella.

There is food service, so ordered a bunch of mimosas, a pina colada, and some nachos.

After the beach, we tried out one of the nearby pools, and then ate at a restaurant in the resort called Pergola. It’s an outside dining restaurant that had tacos and pizza. The steak taco was good. Margarita pizza was alright.

Afterwards, we headed over to the spa to sit in a hot tub for about an hour. Temperature was not as warm as I’m used to (it was around 37 degrees Celsius).

After the hot tub session, made our way to downtown San Lucas. We stopped by Metate first for food:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2023/02/04/metate/

Then we were planning to head to Mandala for a night out, but ended up going to El Squid Roe (rig hit beside it), since the music sounded better. Definitely had a really fun night there. The music was top 40 mainstream, but her layout was super unique with 3 floors, and a really interesting open concept.

Overall, downtown San Lucas is like a mini downtown Vegas. All the clubs are super open in the front, so at least you can see the lighting and hear what music they are playing. (One site that guided our decisions aside from hearing what music was playing is this one: https://www.10best.com/destinations/mexico/cabo-san-lucas/nightlife/dance-clubs/)

Ended the night again with room service, this time trying the shrimp penne pasta, and chicken tacos. Would get the penne pasta again.