Mai Tais, Dry Tais, and Pink Champagne

We enjoy an occasional fruity drink, especially if well decorated with orchids and fruit kabobs. Here are some of our favorite places on Oahu for tropical drinks.

The Mai Tai Bar at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Waikiki is a great spot for any drink. The menu is a rainbow of tropical refreshment in blues, reds, greens, oranges, and pinks.

The Royal Mai Tai is gorgeous with its orchid-fruit-mint salad on top. The Pink Palace (the hotel's nickname) is a pale pink blend of light rum, coconut, and pineapple. For those who have had their fill of fruity hooch, the hotel has its own private label pink champagne. It's not on the menu, but they always have some on hand.

WARNING: Don't be tempted to try every drink on the menu in one day.

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United Flight 81 LAX to Honolulu

Even the pretzels taste exotic on the way to Hawaii. That first sip of Mai Tai on the plane as you're getting used to everyone saying "Aloha" and "Mahalo" just tastes so good. Some people actually start relaxing right on the plane! United uses a bottled mix by Trader Vics. When they have time to garnish, this Mai Tai truly stands up.

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House Without A Key at the Halekulani Hotel in Waikiki

A very special Mai Tai. Diamond Head. Sunset. Jeff Au Hoy's steel guitar is a friendly docent leading the tour of the lilting world called Waikiki. Imbibe.

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La Mariana Sailing Club in Honolulu

A collection of cast-off vintage Tiki icons from yesteryear, this shrine is a paean to a cringe-worthy side effect of U.S. colonialism. That said, it is a kitsch utopia, unparalleled in the Sovereign Nation of Hawaii.

We love their Mai Tai for the generous float of dark rum.

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Our Vacation Rental (North Shore)
With a little homework, we usually find a vacation rental with a great view of the sunset. We have a tradition of making our tropical masterpiece every day right before the sun goes down. Then we sit back and marvel at the beauty of it all.















Every vacation rental on Oahu boasts the presence of a blender in the list of amenities. The supermarkets have handy packets of frozen coconut milk, exotic tropical fruit juices, and really good fresh fruit. Fresh local fruit is available at roadside stands and farmers markets. With a full palette of creative options we often go nuts.

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Dry Tai

After a few nights of tropical blender drinks or Mai Tais at the local resort bar, the cocktails start to feel sticky and taste cloying. That is why I invented the "Dry Tai." Here is my recipe:

Pour 2 jiggers of light rum over cracked ice in an old-fashioned glass. Follow with 2 ounces of pineapple juice. Squeeze the juice from 1/4 lime and stir to combine. Top with a float of 151 dark rum and garnish with a wedge of fresh pineapple and a small tropical flower.

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ONE LAST WARNING: As any fan of "Lost" already knows, the DUI laws are strictly enforced on Oahu. Don't drive drunk.

Leeward Oahu - The Best Restaurant In Makaha

At the end of Farrington Highway on the Leeward side of Oahu is Keawa'ula Beach. Some maps refer to it as Yokohama Beach. It is very beautiful and quite worth the road trip to get here.

Our trek started at Sunset Beach and brought us through Central Oahu to Farrington Highway near Pearl Harbor. We then headed west. At Ko' Olina we realized we were hungry and started looking for convenient roadside eateries. As the road curved north we came upon a few towns with few restaurants. A McDonald's here, a Chop Suey shop there, but we were not yet hungry enough to settle.

As we drove past the Taco Bell in Makaha I began to salivate. A couple miles out of town we realized that we just left the last comestible possibility behind us. I was just about to burst into tears from fear of hunger when Dan turned the car around. The group was very quiet as we pulled into the parking lot of Taco Bell.

"Drive-thru or eat - in?" Dan asked.

"Eat - in." was the unanimous and instant, but somber response.

Ordering was frustrating. The crew had one obstacle after another. The young woman in front of us had her credit card declined. Ouch. The food seemed to take forever. After we sat down and opened up all the wrappers we fell into a reverent and delicious silence. It was good. It was really really good.
















Note: If you decide to make the trip just know that there are poor people on this side of the island. Many of them are homeless. I've looked at job postings and real estate prices on Oahu and it only takes a minute on a calculator to determine why there is poverty here.