Day 2: More beach, more pool
Our arrival day was cloudy and grey, but the next day was much, much nicer:
We went to AMA AMA for breakfast, because I thought it would be a nice way to kick off our first full day at Aulani. Dot had the Hawaiian bread basket, which she very much enjoyed, and my husband had the Japanese breakfast, which he said was very good. I was excited to give Loco Moco a try; the server suggested I substitute Kalua pork for the hamburger, which was a good idea. It was tasty, but there was more gravy than I like and it was very salty.
After breakfast we headed back upstairs to change for the pool, but Dot was having such a good time playing hide and seek that she didn't want to leave the room. I was getting a little annoyed that we went halfway across the Pacific Ocean to play the same games we would have at home, but then I figured, hey, it's her vacation too. Finally, though, we were able to get everyone changed and into the pool.
A note about the pool chair situation: the week started out crazy busy (on a Sunday) and it got progressively easier to find pool chairs throughout the week. There were never any pool chairs directly by the pool in the shade, but we found a corner we liked by Keiki Cove (the little kids' splash pad) and we could usually at least find one there.
First we tried the lazy river. We grabbed two rafts and floated along, but it was too cold for Dot to enjoy it. She wanted to go into the hot tub afterwards, which was a popular choice as all the hot tubs were filled with kids. But it was cute, she kept saying, "Ahhhhhhh." After that we went to the main pool and splashed there for a while.
It was then time for lunch, so we went to Mama's Snack Stop and got fish and chips and coconut shrimp. Really good! We then got some shave ice. Dot wanted "pink" flavor, and I got Li-Hing Mui (sour plum), guava, and mango. I also got the condensed milk on top, which sounds a bit gross but turned the shave ice into a really nice ice cream. I heard a woman complaining in the elevator that she got orange and vanilla flavor to make it taste like a creamsicle, but it didn't work. She should've just gotten orange with condensed milk on top!
We played in the pool for a while longer and then it was time to shower and get changed as my husband and I were headed for a night out! The babysitter arrived with lots of great toys for Dot to play with, and my husband and I went over to Roy's.
This, without a doubt, was the best meal we ate all week. I had trouble deciding between the macadamia nut crusted fish and the special so they made a combination plate for me. Everything was fantastic. Highly recommended.
We had booked the sitter for six hours but that was a little bit ambitious. We finished at Roy's around 10, and went for a walk around the Four Seasons and on the beach path at Ko Olina, but everything was closed. It would have been nice to have a bar at the hotel open a bit later. But we were pretty tired anyway so we headed back to the room.
