E Komo Mai (Welcome Home) - Day 22
The view from our lounge chairs at Disney Aulani Resort today
One of the wonderful things about being a Disney Vacation Club member is being greeted with “Welcome Home” by the staff of the resort. And what a better place to call home than the DIsney Aulani Resort & Spa in Ko Olina. The first full day of our final week in Hawaii was spent showing Matt and Julie around the resort. I woke up early (just after 6:00am) to be sure to get down to the pool area and find a nice quiet spot near the ocean. Lounge chairs with an umbrella nearby for shade are a premium and the early bird gets the worm! Jimm, Matt and Julie joined me after 8:00am. Julie and Matt familiarized themselves with the resort and then we settled in for the day. We enjoyed the beach, the lazy river, Shave Ice, Dole whip, cocktails and snorkeling. Jimm got more awesome video of sea turtles in the lagoon that I will upload to the photos and videos page after I do some editing. We got some great tips on restaurants from Tasha, our cast member who was serving us by the beach. One tip was to eat at Highway Inn, a local Hawaiian eatery that serves a variety of local dishes including Hawaiian Moco. We decided to give it a try. We all ordered different dishes and while the presentation wasn’t that appealing, it made up for it with the tase. Jimm’s food was literally served on a cafeteria tray from grade school. The Hawaiian Moco was a unique concoction of pork lau lau, served as a moco with beef stew gravy and topped with lomi salmon. Jimm got the lau lau super combo with a side of squid lilau, which he and Julie thought was delicious! I had the Hawaiian Beef Stew served with rice and Matt had the Smoked Kalua Pig. According to Matt, “just a no frills bowl of moist, tender and delicious pork”. This restaurant has been open since 1947 and was visited by Guy Fieri in April 2010 (watch here if you like Diners, Drive-ins and Dives and want to see how they make lau lau). The whole meal was a winner…the combination of taste and price can’t be beat. Everyone left “stuffed like a lau lau”.
Aloha! Deb