On Saturday I did another KOSC hike. Only one person showed with her husband… I’m getting a little frustrated by lack of attendance. All the same, I LOVED the hike! It’s paved the first mile or so and decently steep. You work your way through a thick tree mangrove and get to the swing about 1.8 miles in.
After climbing and another three tenths of a mile or so there’s a clearing with a view into a beautiful valley.
This hike is only accessible through a small base that has a military hospital called Tripler. This means less hikers and plenty of parking without worry of being broken into. Here’s a photo of the pink hospital.
We went just over two miles in, but the elevation was 950ft. It made for a short and sweet climb. The wind was nice but borderline gusty at times and I wouldn’t have wanted to do any ridge walking (thankfully we didn’t need to)
This hike has been on my list for a while but it’s a bit intimidating… it’s 1000ft climb up an abandoned tramway on the side of a crater. I was nervous for a lot of reasons, heights are not my strong suit to begin with and then you add the issues I’ve had with long COVID… anyway, I finally at least felt confident enough to try.
And try we did! I say we got 90% of the way there. I almost turned around twice before that… so I did push through a couple mental blocks. However, this time I started to really get worked up thinking about how I might get down with wobbly legs. I did end up sitting my way down for a bit of the steepest parts.
This next picture might give a glimpse as to why I might’ve felt a little nervous, ha.
We did still manage a great view!
You can see just how close we got… I am slightly disappointed, but again I’m so happy we ended on a positive note, and that I listened to my intuition. Now I’m at least more familiar with the intensity.
Surprisingly I’m not nearly as sore as I thought I might be today. Grateful to have friends in support of adventures!
I don’t have any evidence of the deliciousness of the food to share, but I went to dinner with a couple friends (Caitlyn and Mindy) to GOEN and thought it was DELICIOUS. I loved the eggplant appetizer and the shrimp scampi I ordered. Both very delicious and had great company!
Here’s a post purely to document waterfalls created by a rain shower over Kaneohe! These are a sight to see and so unique to our side of Oahu. It was still raining when I was taking the pictures so it was a big hazy, but it’s the best you can get!
I captured these when taking Jess’ family to see the gardens. It was a bit disappointing it was raining, but they wouldn’t have seen this if it wasn’t! Hawaii is so different all the time, you can go back to the same place multiple times and get very different experiences, it’s amazing.
I’ve talked about Uncle Joe’s ice cream sandwiches before and how delicious they are so when KOSC planned a trip to the factory to tour I jumped at the chance to skip out on work and go visit. The owners were so generous and humble. They started 9 years ago selling at one of the many markets in Hawaii and they went wholesale and make 5k sandwiches a week out of a small space on the North Shore. They are expanding to Las Vegas, so you may have a chance to try them in the states, but for now they are exclusive to Oahu. You can imagine shipping ice cream from Hawaii is very, very logistically difficult.
We were offered their mini ice cream sandwiches to try (which aren’t available widespread yet!) and some water; we didn’t even pay for the tour. It was pretty amazing to watch nearly everything be done by hand! The tours are done off-the-record; you can give them a call to set one up. The commissary (base grocery shopping) offers their sandwiches, so we are lucky! They said their best selling is cookies and cream, but their lilikoi (passion fruit) is the one most asked about.
This little plaza is a conglomerate of eclectic shops and includes the North Shore Soap factory. A few of us hopped in to check it out and the soaps smell SO good. I didn’t buy any.
Finally the food truck, Banyan’s, was there and I tried the chicken sandwich with grilled pineapple and onions on a taro bun… it was AMAZING. If I haven’t said this already, Hawaii is pretty famous for its food trucks because land/rent is so expensive. Taro is a very popular potato-esque vegetable that turns everything purple.
It was about an hour drive from my apartment, so it was an adventure that I made the most of. Will have to figure out a way to stock my freezer for when my family comes.
After our ATV adventure we visited a macademia nut farm outlet…? I am unsure where the macnuts were actually harvested… if on this land or…? However I took home a couple bags of macnuts that I haven’t seen at target. Honey roasted and cinnamon coated… both so delicious.
Next we went to Waiahole Poi Factory to grab lunch. This has been on my bucket list because it’s authentic Hawaiian food. It’s VERY hole in the wall, as are most of the best places in Hawaii.
I got a beef luau and kalua pork plate. The beef luau is made out of taro leaves and beef, it looks like spinach soup but it’s actually very flavorful and it was my favorite. I thought the kalua pork was good and more Hawaiian than the usual style you’ll get. The poi was just meh, I’m not a huge fan, but had to try because, well, it’s a poi factory. There was haupia (coconut flan essentially) and a tomato salsa.
I’m not sure I’d go here again for food, but I will certainly be returning to try their desserts, which seemed to be the more popular order by everyone there. Great for an authentic Hawaiian food experience!
O’Hana trail is very close to me, but it’s not necessarily a noteworthy hike. It’s meant to be a mountain biking trail and we definitely encountered 8-10 mountain bikers on our journey. The whole loop was 6.5 miles and I have the blisters to show it! It was also 855ft elevation, not nothing! Nicely spread out over the entire journey. There was one ok view and it felt like walking through a jungle for most of it.
Simply put, this trail mostly just “does the job”. I think in any other situation this trail would be great, but it kinda gets trounced by the more spectacular hikes. However, the pluses are proximity, low mud, and length without being super tough elevation. Good to go and bang out if you just need a low stress hike for fresh air. Between this and biking the day before, I am wiped!
**No Sarah’s were harmed in the taking of this photograph**
Kualoa Ranch is a 4,000 acre ranch about 40 minutes up the coast from where I live. You’re probably already familiar with the scenery as it is where Jurassic Park, Lost, Pearl Harbor, Jumanji, and Finding ‘Ohana among others were filmed. Jess had family visiting and they wanted to take this tour and she asked if I wanted to come so I joined!
We took a two hour ATV tour and got to see all parts of the ranch.
We started by passing around the mountains where there was a WWII bunker built into the mountain… seven stories high!
We then ventured into the valley where the Jurassic park scene with all the dinosaurs roaming was “filmed”. Simply beautiful.
Honestly, besides the couple really pretty landscape pictures and fun movie scenes, I thought the tour was just OK. First, we’re not sure if it’s because of the lack of rain or…? But the roads were SO dusty. We were COVERED by the time we returned, and so was all my stuff. This picture doesn’t do it justice, but you get the idea.
You can see it on our faces!
Next, we didn’t really get a lot of “tour” from our tour guide… he mostly just lead the pack. We heard a couple stories of Hawaiian tales and barely anything more than “this was the scene where…” and there are plaques with the same information. Here are a couple more “scenes”.
We made our way around the other side and saw the views from that angle and a few more scenes.
Jess did great driving.
There are all sorts of tours here and maybe I’ll go back if an opportunity arises. But I’d like to have a more informational tour and WAY less dust. Normally shaka power poses are reserved for the top of a hike, but Jess feels that we survived the dust so we earned it.
Every year the Dolphin Scholarship Foundation holds an auction at some of the bases to raise funds. It has been on hold because, well, you know. So this was my first time going to one! The theme was “Rig for streaming, binge binge binge” and the commands pick a TV theme and dress accordingly. We picked Great British Baking show, what I binged when I was down for the count with COVID.
There was a silent auction and a live one. I didn’t end up getting the thing I really wanted, a tour of a local chocolate farm and some chocolate, but I did get some candles. My friend Katie, pictured above, wanted them but she was working and it was starting to get pricey. Since I wasn’t winning the chocolate, I thought why not, and bid on it thinking I’d be out bid and worst case more would be donated. Well, I won! And gave Katie the candles she wanted. I kept a couple good smelling sprays. They are made by a veteran and smell really good, you can find them here.
It was a good turn out and they just stopped requiring masks on base… that’s going to take some getting used to.
The dessert table is essentially a “bake sale” and they asked for contributions. So I baked these monster Levain-Bakery copy cat recipe cookies. I didn’t eat one, but I did take one home with me and THEN ate it, haha. They are so good, and the recipe is done by my favorite baker Bravetart.
It was nice to see other sub wives and I certainly wish Brian had been there. All in all glad I went to support a good cause. Of course, Tiger King made an appearance.
Biking was hard for me pre-covid, so thinking about going for a ride with my lung issues was completely off the table for a long time. My friend Jess has been itching to get out on the bike and it’s pushed me to get my act together. So I finally got the courage to get the bike ready to go for a ride. With Brian and my friend Pat’s help, they filled the tires and lubed the chains and I was off. I decided to start with the 2.5 mile loop in my neighborhood complete with a bike lane. After doing that twice, I was getting bored and mustered the courage to leave Lanikai. I had scoped out the bike lanes through Kailua and set out to get to the first one! It didn’t take much road sharing before I was there. It was a great cruise through the middle of town, but what I mean by middle is it’s geographically middle however it’s residential, not a crazy busy business section. It was lovely! Then that meets up with a really pretty also residential road. I didn’t like that section as much, it was shorter and there was a long light. Lastly, I wanted to prove to myself I could bike to Jess’, so I did that, (mostly no bike lanes) and explored one more road with bike lanes.
I way underestimated my courage and didn’t put any sun tan lotion on my back thinking I wouldn’t be out long. Thankfully I wasn’t a complete lobster, but I was dangerously close to tomato. I am so glad I went out! I can see how this might get boring, but there is a little loop further out I’d like to try. It’s a great way to get my heart rate up that’s not running (my foot has been bothering me).
