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Hawaii – Oahu 2025 Day 1 and 2

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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/

Hawaii – Kona Day 5

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Started off the day by going to Janie’s place, which as I may have mentioned before has an awesome view from higher ground of the water.

We then went to grab some poke (first time) at a new place called Kona Grill house (interestingly enough I didn’t order any red meat, only sea food). Here are the details: http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2020/11/21/kona-grill-house/

After picking up the food we drove to a Kahalu’u beach, where we ate said food (and then NJ and ben snorkled… which Ben mentioned was the best place to snorkel as of Day 8 of our trip). Shortly after, had my first Kona Coffee and Tea experience, where you can read a out it here: http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2020/11/21/kona-coffee-tea/

Shortly after, we made our way to Green Sands Beach, where along the way we drove to the southern most point of the United States!

When we got to the entrance of Green Sands Beach, we met our second off road challenge (and my first time driving off-road!). This one was definitely much more of an experience than the previous day. Not only where there more sudden drops, but there were multiple ways to go (so trying to choose the less bumpy one was sometimes challenging). The secret though (which we found out on the way back) is to follow the paths closest to the only wired fence.

When we got to the beach, we basically had the beach to ourselves (one other group left shortly after we arrived). To be honest, I didn’t think the sand was super green, but Justin was mentioning it’s because of how late in the day it was. We only spent 40 minutes in the water, but I did body boarding for the first time, and got 1 really good wave.

We then headed back to Holualoa (right before sunset), and checked out the Ola Brewery:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2020/11/22/ola-brewery/

After, we went to a bar/”club” called MyBar, which was a reminding experience during COVID times.

We finished if day watching the moon set at 11:28pm at Magic Sands Beach. That one was a first for me, which was really beautiful.

San Diego, Day 3

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Started off the day by heading to Old Town. Old Town is basically a bunch of shops, plus museums scattered around a square.

We started off by heading to this street market (where one person was selling screen shining cloths, and shined my watch for free (it actually did look impressive).

After, we got some caffeine from Cafe Vergnano: http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2019/07/07/cafe-vergnano/

Then we continued to wander around, and headed to the main square, where we looked around at shops, and explored museums.

Around the main square we also did some testing a of hot sauce, and also olive oil. For the big sauce, I tried the mildest one, which was the sweet and spicy. For the olive oil, I tried the garlic one, and also the honey vinegar. Both were great (not that I know anything about either).

After, we headed to this bar in Old Town for drinks: http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2019/07/07/barra-barra-saloon/

After, we headed to Ocean beach in hopes of finding a fire pit we could do a bon fire. Unfortunately our stay was short lived (like 30 minutes) since we could not find a fire pit.

(Adding here the fact we headed to Ocean Beach from Old Town via a Lyft Scooter. Gotta day it was unilateral to Skip in the sense of the acceleration and “breaking” system. So overall I did like the Lyft scooters).

So we then headed to Fiesta Island, and unfortunately also could not find a fire pit there. Then we headed to Mission Bay Park, where we did find a fire pit! After securing a spot, I headed back to the AirBnB to grab some supplies, and also sleep for an hour.

After an hour, I did head back to Mission Bay Park, and we had a great time with the bon fire (plus smores, pizza, alcohol) for a couple of hours.

After the bon fire, we made a pit stop to the AirBnB, and then headed over Spin where we checked out a Mayan Warrior event. Gotta day, the event and club was pretty sick.

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