For lunch we got Banan, her first Acai bowl so far, and I was super proud I remembered reusable bowls.
Later that day we went and got massages (we were late due to Lanikai construction backup) and then to MCBH. I showed her secret beach and we went to another submariner’s house for dinner (She has base housing on MCBH.) She has the cutest 3 month old, Maeve. Not pictured to protect privacy, per usual. It was nice meeting her.
On Monday afternoon we received word one of our friend’s submarines was leaving. We headed to go watch at Missing man monument, except after waiting an hour we found out we’d be waiting another 45 minutes, so we left before we saw a submarine. But, we didn’t leave before seeing this wicked cool ship. The USS Germantown (LSD 42)
It was HUGE.
I found the contact information for the Ombudsman on the internet and sent her the pictures. This boat is stationed in Sasebo, Japan.
We then headed to Diamond Head to find parking for a yoga class and took a short walk to see the Diamond Head Light house up close and personal.
And then went to the diamond head lookout and saw some surfing, cool wave patterns, and pretty shoreline.
We went and relaxed at the LÄ“’ahi Beach Park for a bit before Yoga started. I don’t have any great pictures of the actual yoga, or the full park, but imagine people in a grassy park doing yoga and extremely picturesque palm trees. I was still hurting from the hike fall, but I did my best. The sun set while class was happening and I was a bit distracted that I wasn’t able to take pictures. All the same, it was a peaceful class and I was happy to explore a different part of the island.
We stopped for a quick bite to eat at Kalapawai on the way home. And by that I mean she bought a salad and we both bought an ice cream sandwich. (I ate real food I had at home first!) It was DELICIOUS.
After Dole Plantation, we parked in Hale’iwa and shopped the main strip. I was impressed by the quality of the stores. I thought it would be your typical, sea side, t-shirt shops. There was like, one of those, but the rest had great items from ocean gear to clothes to house decor to jewelry. I could’ve spent a lot of money, but I ended up only buying a book called “Surfing animals alphabet” for a friend’s child. We did a first pass through the stores and made mental notes of what we might like to return to after seeing everything.
We stopped at Stonefish Grill for lunch, it was conveniently at the end of the strip, and I had a crab cake salad that was PHENOMENAL. Erin was well pleased with the steak poke. Thankfully, at the beginning where we parked there was a general store, and I bought a SD card from there to hold me over.
After lunch, we worked our way back through and committed to some purchases (after taking some time to mull them over). Then we made our way to Laniakea beach, which is known for turtles. This is a very narrow, picturesque bridge you have to pass through to get there. Some cars choose to wait for you to go through before attempting.
There’s street parking and I was excited we were able to grab a spot. I told Erin not to get too excited, I didn’t know how often turtles were actually there. Either it was our lucky day or they love this spot, but we must’ve seen at least five turtles on the beach and another five in the water. In this next picture alone, you can see three.
This whole day was the epitome of Hawaii, but this certainly was a highlight.
There were a ton of fun to observe eating and letting the waves just take them back into the water and push them back up. I loved this stop.
Since Sunday was her only full weekend day here, we decided to make a day out of visiting the North Shore. We started by going all in at the Dole plantation and doing the train ride, garden, getting dole whip, and pineapple maze.
Well, we actually started by running into construction on the main highway there and having to take a detour. I was really nervous we’d need to go the long way around, but it was a short portion and we got on the highway a bit later. It was a bit serendipitous because we encountered a couple rainbows. (Erin believes this was all part of the plan 😉 ) (p.s. these are all Erin’s photos from her phone, RIP SD card)
I swear the plantation opened at 9am, so we aimed to leave the house at 8am. I was having a slow morning, and then there was a detour, so we ended up arriving at 9:15am. Which was perfect, because Dole doesn’t actually open until 9:30am. We were first in line for the train, which can have waits up to 2 hours. It was pretty rainy in the morning, but again we timed it perfectly up to this point to be in the car or on the train. Later it rained when we were in the garden for a bit.
The train lasts about 20 mins. Here’s us in the garden in front of a full blossomed hibiscus plant.
I would say if I were to go back with Brian, we do the train and dole whip and call it a day. Each activity costs money. They have a combo pass and I think it was $23, but not really necessary to get the full experience. The dole whip was SO GOOD. I think it has been under hyped. I definitely will be returning just for dole whip.
Fun things we learned: Pineapples don’t ripen any further after being picked. It can take almost two years for one plant to produce a pineapple. Dole bought the island of Lanai to grow pineapple.
So happy I knocked this off the bucket list, even if my SD card crapped out while taking pictures.
After the eventful morning, I came home, showered off the mud, took some ibuprofen, and headed to the airport to get my friend Erin who is visiting me for the week!
This was my first time picking up a visitor, so I asked a friend on the hike what the deal is with getting leis. Turns out, there’s a whole section of the airport dedicated to this. I left a little early to scope it out, and found the lei stands. I had pictures… but, well, they’re gone. I picked out a traditional plumeria. I missed the entrance the first time and ended up turning into to the parking garage, but finagled my way to a close parking lot and grabbed a lei. When I left, the lady didn’t make me pay which was very kind.
So, I welcomed her with a lei and we were on our way for our first stop… poke! We tried “the hibachi“. I think this is way better than foodland, and it sells them in “mini” bowls, which is helpful for smaller capacity stomachs. I got thai chili and some other flavor. Erin got citrus. Both were delicious.
Unfortunately, it’s more of a lunch place, so we might need to save it for weekends when Brian is back, or I bring home some to store in the fridge.
I showed her the apartment and had her settle into our guest bedroom upstairs. Then we had reservations at Lulu’s in Waikiki. It’s been on my to-try list. We were fortunate enough to have a mutual friend, Evan, come eat with us. Before we got there, we took a stroll down the main strip. Erin has been here once before and the memories were coming back to her. Waikiki was as busy as ever, it seemed.
The deck of LuLu’s overlooks Waikiki beach. I parked in the zoo parking lot and found a spot with relative ease.
I think the food was just ok, but my drink, the “guavalicious”, was incredible. Waikiki is always an adventure, and this night was no exception. There was an anti vaccination passport protest/rally pretty much right outside. They also chose to test the Tsunami warning… at 7pm on Oct. 2nd, which was very odd because it’s usually in the morning on the first of the month in Kailua. Then there was some live band somewhere, it felt like right downstairs. Anyway, Erin had another friend from grad school that was also in Hawaii and met us for a quick drink. They connected because Erin posted a picture on Instagram that she was here. Social media is such a funny thing.
Anyway, I thought it was on OK experience. Not my favorite Waikiki hangout. Glad we got Waikiki out of the way for this trip.
Well, after 10,000+ pictures, I finally had an SD card fail. I had a very eventful Saturday and Sunday morning and all my pictures are lost to a small, broken data card. I’m asking around if there are any tech geeks I can bring it to recover pictures… but not holding out hope. So, use your imagination and google internet pictures.
I decided to organize a hike for KOSC. I picked a really awesome, unique hike called Old Pali Rd. A section of the hike journeys over an overgrown highway (I am unsure the history there, honestly.) It’s supposed to be haunted, which is fitting for October. Logistically, there was paid parking at the entrance, which is helpful to avoid our cars being broken into. All of this set my expectations way too high for how the day would go…
First, we arrived at 8am, but the parking was definitely on Aloha time, and didn’t open until 8:10am ish. Not a huge deal, but caused me some concern and confusion.
The start of the hike was really cool, walking on the old pali road highway was so fascinating and easy going. However, we did go with a gaggle of kids… I mean there were at least 15 of them. I think the ratio of adults to kids ended up being 1:2. I am all for kids on hikes, they are so fun and bring a sense of innocence, but it can be logistically challenging to keep a group together. A few adults started off and ended up way ahead, and I was bringing up the rear after the huge group of kids and parents. After going underneath the actual, existing pali highway, the groups went different ways (without knowing it). We went left, and the other group ahead went right. I wasn’t really paying attention and didn’t realize the group ahead, who had done this hike before and I trusted, had split off. I was initially intending on going right and should’ve known to be more attentive. Well, going left ended us at a lookout… that you can easily drive to and I drive by probably twice a week. Going the other way, I would’ve ended at a lookout a little higher that I haven’t been to. It got really muddy and slick, and on the way I slipped and fell right on my tailbone. I’m still in a bit of pain today.
I am pretty upset with how it went even though I know I shouldn’t be. Everyone got out and explored which is really the goal. But, personally, I would like to go back, do it a lot slower, take pictures, and go to the other lookout. I was really disappointed I got hurt and felt gypped.
I think that moving forward it’ll be helpful to really scope out the hike beforehand, but it’s hard to do that without enough friends to go with. I also am throughly convinced that shoe spikes and hiking poles are just going to be part of my outfit. I don’t understand what it is about me and my balance, but I’m not clumsy until it comes time to slippery surfaces. Everyone else seems to do it so easily except me.
So, just imagine an old highway with tons of overgrowth, looking like you’re going through a jungle… and it’ll just be like I have a picture of it posted!
Here’s a historic picture. And a couple more good pictures of current pictures here.
I’m behind in blogging. Been a crazy and tiring week.
Bunco is a dice game, described by wikipedia as “housewife’s drinking game”. It’s very easy to play. Tables of four players take turns rolling three dice. You get a point if the number on the dice matches the value of the round you’re playing, so starting with 1, if you roll a one you get one point, two ones two points, three ones three points. If you roll no points, the next player rolls. You’re on a team with the person across from you, and the round ends as soon as one of the head table teams hits 21 (they ring a bell so everyone knows to stop). The team with the most points at your table, wins. Then, you move on to the next round, 2, and repeat when the dice values match 2. This repeats up to round 6. If you roll three of a kind, you get bunco which is 21 points if it matches the number round you’re in, or 5 points if it’s any other set of numbers except 1. If you roll 1s, “snake eyes” your points clear and you start from zero (unless you’re in round 1, in which case it’s a bunco). Winners rotate tables (unless you’re at the head table). If you get a bunco, you get to wear a lei. You keep track of your mini buncos, buncos, team wins, losses, various stats…and at the end you get prizes for all sorts of things.
They hosted in O’Club, the officer’s club on base. This a new friend of mine, we carpooled together. She actually reached out to me about it which encouraged me to go. (Fun, life in Hawaii tangent, she had a cockroach in her car, so I drove)
It was a lot of fun, mostly because there is zero skill involved so I can’t really get mad at winning or losing. I think it’s kinda hard to socialize, because it’s so fast paced. All in all, I’d definitely go again.