In preparation for Australia, we decided to enjoy a short holiday in Hawaii over New Years break to relax, test-drive my new camera, and prepare Westley for the ocean. We were lucky to catch our Southwest flight to Honolulu and avoid the thousands of cancellations due to weather, but instead suffered a 3-hour wait at Hertz to get our rental car. The delay made us miss our boat tour at Pearl Harbor, but we were glad to make the last standby group to visit the U.S.S. Arizona memorial. Exhausted, we settled into our AirBnb in Waikiki after slurping hearty udon from Tsuro Ton Tan along with some mango sticky rice and sugar cane juice from street stands. On Friday, we drove early to queue in line for our 7am timed entry to Hanauma Bay, where both Melody and Westley overcame panic to snorkel among the colorful reefs. We celebrated with hot malasadas from Leonard’s bakery truck, followed by porchetta and hapa fried rice from Mud Hen Water, then returned to Pearl Harbor to watch a documentary, visit the exhibits, and buy the B29 Superfortress that Westley was eyeing. After relaxing at the condo and assembling the toy bomber, we returned to Tamafuji for a crispy tonkatsu dinner. On NYE, we awoke even earlier to revisit Hanauma Bay, where we found fewer fish and more ankle scratches on the right side of the bay. We recovered with another round of malasadas before spending the afternoon with Jeff’s family at Kapa Hale at the Kahala mall followed by ShareTea boba. The dinner line at Marugame was surprisingly short, so we filled on udon on the way to the Honolulu City Lights display before bedtime. Our alarm woke us just before midnight to enjoy a perfect view of the Waikiki beach fireworks from our balcony. We managed to find a whale watch cruise on New Year’s Day, which gave us only brief glimpses of a mother whale and her pup while Westley kept busy with coloring. Afterwards, we went to Ala Moana for tan tan ramen from Goma Tei and mochi hot dogs from Mr. Cow, then brought poke bowls back for dinner. We checked out on Monday to embark on the Manoa Falls trail, where we trudged through rain to survey ferns, bees, and snails, which left us hungry for kalua pig, squid luau, and chicken long rice from the Waiahole Poi Factory. We were glad to order ahead, which saved us time to enjoy a Sweet Lady (haupia ice cream & kulolo taro dessert) on the way to the airport, where the IASS lounge gave us a chance to refill and recharge for the flight home. It was tough landing at midnight and returning to work next morning, but our trip was short and sweet, as we prepare for our trip to Australia.