FRYE FAMILY: FRYE FAMILY TRIP TO HAWAII 2024

We left our house on Tuesday 1/9 at about 11:30 a.m. to fly to LA and then onto Oahu, Hawaii.

driving to the airport

shuttle

lunch/dinner in LAX

Landed in Honolulu at about 9:30 p.m. Hawaii time (they are 3 hours behind). Got our rental car and drove to our hotel - DoubleTree Waikiki. It was a good spot.

WEDNESDAY 1/10

Woke up by 6:30 a.m Hawaii time and decided to hike the Diamond Head Crater. We hit Leonards before the hike to try their Malasadas, a portuguese donut. I liked the plain ones, we got plain and custard filled, we liked the chocolate custard one the best. Then Shawn dropped us off at Diamond Head Crater. We didn't have a parking reservation, so he had to go find a spot on the street. He ran to caught us. The views were incredible. After the hike, the kids were a little hungry so we stopped at DaCove Health to get a couple of Acai bowls to split. We went back to the hotel and changed into our swim suits and then walked to the beach. It was kinda windy but it was sunny. The beach is so crowded and so many hotels at Waikiki. After a few hours we came back to shower and get dressed. We at dinner at Goofy's (a place dad had eaten at on a work trip). I had excellent Mahi Mahi. Then Cruz, Alegra, and I walked to the beach for a sunset picture and then we met up with dad and Lexi at all the crazy and fancy shopping area in Waikiki.

Starting our day out together - love family trips

Leonards

Diamond Head Crater Hike

DaCove Health for Acai bowls

Waikiki beach time!

We came back to get ready, play some cards and go get dinner. We were starving by 5 p.m.

Goofy's for dinner

Sunset on the beach

Shopping in Waikiki

THURSDAY 1/11 - My 49th birthday!

We woke up pretty early again Hawaii time. We walked to Sunny's Local Grind for breakfast burritos that were yummy. We decided to walk about a mile through the shopping district to get to the better part of the beach. This beach had more waves for the kids to play in. The kids boogie boarded but it was too windy for them to surf. We walked back to our hotel after a few hours and had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and split a couple of açaí bowls that Lexi and Shawn ran to get from Goofy's. Then we drove to Pearl Harbor. We had a 3:15 boat scheduled to go check out the USS Arizona (sunken ship) but the power had just gone out at Pearl Harbor so the people told us we should probably jump on the earlier boat. It was very sobering to be at the Memorial. Unfortunately, we couldn't watch the movie but we talked about the importance of Pearl Harbor. It all worked out because then it started to rain when we were leaving Pearl Harbor. We drove up towards the North Shore. It was raining and there was a fair amount of traffic. We went thought this fun town called Haleiwa. It was raining but we still around to some fun small surf stores and did some shopping. We had a hard time finding a place with indoor seating - as we were cold and wet from the rain. We finally found a little pizza joint called JAX. It had really yummy pizza and salads. We continued our drive to the Turtle Bay area and checked into our AirBnB at about 8 p.m. We were all pooped by then.

Sunny's Local Grind - Waikiki is city-style, but the one nice thing about that, is we walked everywhere

better waves

Lunch in our hotel room, packing up, and checking out

Pearl Harbor

Haleiwa Surf shop

Dad getting a facial treatment from Fernando in Haleiwa

Dinner at JAX, we had to squeeze in the tiny place, but it was warm and felt good to be inside on a cold, damp night. Lexi had had it at this point!

FRIDAY 1/12

Shawn and I got up before the kids and walked around the Turtle Bay resort area that was close to the condo we were renting. When we got back from our walk the kids were up. We ate some cereal at the condo and then headed out to do the Ehukai Pill Box Hike. It was muddy, jungly, and beautiful. At about a mile up there was an old bunker with a great look out at Sunset Beach and we could see the Pipeline wave from there. It was sunny but pretty windy, so no surfers were out. I loved that hike because there were hardly any people on it. The North Shore was just so much more relaxed and kinda country feeling. The kids said that was more what they were expecting Hawaii would be like. After our hike, we walked across the street to look at the waves at Sunset Beach. They were huge but the wind was messing them up so no surfers were out. On the way back to our condo to change into swim suits we stopped at a place called Banzai Bowls, which had some yummy acai bowls we shared. After changing we drove to the other side of Laei to meet the kids surf instructor Andy. We met him at Punalu'u Beach. I had called 808 Surfing that morning and setup a lesson for Cruz and Alegra. The beach we met Andy at never got very deep so it was kinda interesting surfing. Cruz and Alegra were both able to catch waves with Andy's help though. It was a 2 hour lesson. After the 1st hour Alegra hit her nose with the surf cord and kinda had enough. Lexi decided she would give it a shot. She listened to all the instructions Andy had given the 2 on the beach, so she was good to go. Lexi got right up when she went out there. Shawn was able to walk way out in the ocean and almost be next to them to take pictures. He stood out there the whole 2 hour lesson. It wasn't super warm and it was windy. At least the sun would come and go from behind clouds. I am so proud of all of them! After surfing there was a Shrimp Shack food truck across the street that we grabbed some coconut shrimp, steak, and mozzarella sticks to share. Then we stopped in Laie to see my friends Cheryl (my old roommate) and her husband Chris and Charisse (Cheryl's sister who I went to Jerusalem with), who I haven't seen in probably 30 years. The Goo family have been a staple in that area even back to when my mom was at BYU Hawaii. Their grandpa had a market called Goo's (their last name). Cheryl and Charisse just lost their dad about a week ago, which is sad. After our visit, we stopped to check out some little street side shops and food trucks right in Laei, tried a coconut. After, we came back to the condo and the girls swam in the community pool, even though it had started raining. Then we went out to get dinner. On our drive to a dinner place we stopped at Ted's Bakery to pick up some of their famous chocolate haupia pie, carrot cake, and a strawberry thing. We ended up at a food stand area kinda across the street from Shark Cove area. Cruz and I got food from a Mexican Food place, it was ok. Shawn and the girls got burgers from 7 Brothers, which looked tasty. We came home to eat our super yummy desserts!

Ehukai Pill Box hike

Inside the bunker

Sunset Beach

Acai/treat break at Banzai Bowls after hiking

Surf Lessons

Chris and Cheryl

Stopped to get a coconut drink and shop at a shop/food truck area in Laie

Swimming at the condo in the rain!

Dinner at food trucks near Sharks Cove

Ted's Bakery dessert, yum!

SATURDAY 1/13

Alegra, Shawn, and I were up early and did our little loop walk around Turtle Bay Resort. When we came back to the condo we had breakfast at the condo. Then we drove to Sharks Cove to try and snorkel but the waves were too rough so we looked for shells instead. Then we drove a little further down the rode and pulled over at Laniakea Beach to see if we could spot Sea Turtles. We ended up seeing a bunch in the water. Alegra was the first to spot a little head poking out. That was super cool! Then we drove into Haleiwa to get famous shaved ice at Matsumotas. We were there at about 10 a.m right when it opened so there was no line. We shopped a bit more in the town, which Lexi was not a big fan of, but she did put up with it. Right outside of Haleiwa we stopped at a Macadamia Nut Factory. We then headed back towards Laie and got some lunch at the food trucks/shops in Laie. We got food from Raised By the Waves and it was really yummy. Then we got to the Polynesian Cultural Center at about 1:15 (it opened at 12:30) I am glad we weren't too much later. We used all our time to visit all the countries represented at the PCC. We had such a fun afternoon there. We paid for the package that got us entrance tickets, food at the buffet, and the evening show. The dinner was o.k. but he live music was really nice at the buffet. The kids were pretty tired by the time of the night time show but I am so glad we stayed. All the different dance styles and the fire show was so amazing!

There were about 10 turtles in the water

checking out the turtles

Matsumoto's Shaved Ice in Haleiwa

Macadamiean Nut Company outside of Haleiwa

Lunch at Raised By The Waves

Polynesian Cultural Center

Dinner and the night show!

SUNDAY 1/14

Shawn and I went for our walk around Turtle Bay. When we got back to the condo the kids were up and we decided to go get breakfast at Ted's (the place we bought the yummy dessert from). Breakfast was yummy too. Shawn got an omelet, Cruz and Alegra got cinnamon rolls, and Lexi and I got a breakfast sandwich. We love Ted's, not super healthy but good. Then we went to Wiamea Falls hike. We got there a little before it opened at 9. I had heard it got crowded so I wanted to beat the crowds but when we got to the falls, it was still chilly out and the sun hadn't come out over the mountains. Cruz and Lexi did get in and swim up to the falls. It was a really beautiful area. After the falls, we drove across the street to Waimea Bay. Luckily it was our first non windy day and the waves were big but not too big. Cheryl told me at that bay they can get up to 30 feet high. They were actually perfect boogie boarding waves. Cruz spend most of the day in the waves on a boogie board. The condo we stayed at had 2 boogie boards and 4 snorkel gear for us to us. Rebecca, David, and Heath happen to be in Waikiki at a work conference and they were able to get away and come to the beach with us that afternoon for an hour or so. It was fun to see them and play with Heath. Rebecca and Dave had stopped in Haleiwa on their way to the beach so they grabbed Acai bowls from Nalu Health Spot for the kids to share, as they were getting hungry. We had a nice long beach day and it was not windy and perfect temperature, so it ended up being a great beach day. We parted way with the Jacksons at about 5 p.m. and we joined the beach traffic and headed to Haleiwa (it was only 4.4 miles from Waimea Bay but it took us 30 minutes with all the beach traffic). We decided to get Jax pizza again because we loved it so much. Then we came home to pack and get ready to leave in the morning.

Ted's

Waimea Falls

Waimea Bay

Jacksons (3 of them) in Hawaii with us

Jax in Haleiwa

Pretty Sunset on our last night!

MONDAY 1/15

We left the condo at 5:30 a.m. to drive the 50 minutes to the Honolulu airport. We left at 8 a.m. Hawaii time and flew to LAX and then had a bit of a layover. It was an all day travel day. We got to our home by 10:30 p.m. Utah time last night!