Brian and I had a whole Saturday with nothing to do which is quite the unusual event. After weighing our options we decided on an adventure to the North Shore. We started at Green World Coffee Farm which I’ve heard a lot of great things about but since I don’t really like coffee didn’t feel the need to check out. Brian loves coffee so we stopped. I got a iced mocha, a newly found coffee ish love of mine, and it was delicious. Brian got a blueberry latte for kicks and wasn’t a huge fan of blueberry. We also had a coconut turnover.
I would imagine they have tours or discussions normally as they had a coffee plant garden out back and a grinder inside but we didn’t experience that part.
Next stop was Laniakea to try to find turtles… and we didn’t see any (a miss for a second time…womp). Then to the Pillbox hike. It was a pretty steep ascent but very dry so it was easy. Overall I was unimpressed, not really a great view and the hike wasn’t very picturesque… but glad to knock another one off the list and gets some activity in.
Then we started our foodie tour… first stop a garlic shrimp truck. Giovanni’s is the “famous” one, however when we tried to go they were closed that day… so we ended up at Hono’s which is also highly rated. They are in a food truck plaza? I guess? You could pay $2 to park, it was pretty full by the time we got there and it was opened/closed as people left.
The options were garlic or spicy garlic… I asked how spicy it was and they said medium. Well, for the record, medium to them means get ready to cry… it was SO HOT. The flavor itself was delicious if you could get past the fire. Whereas Brian got the plain old garlic and I thought it was meh. Also, by the time we ordered it was so busy it was going to take 45minutes. There are some small stores nearby so we went and visited HE>I which is a Hawaiian based store who’s branding is centered around God is greater than I. I bought a sticker for my water bottle and an awesome shirt with mountains, water, and sun.
Stop two was a Mahuka Banana Bread. I bought banana bread and some cookies. I a little regret this stop-I didn’t realize these guys are the ones often at our local food markets and I ended up with too many desserts from the weekend. Oh well! On our way into the parking area, we had to wait for a peacock to cross the road… yup. A peacock.
Then, last foodie stop, was Ted’s bakery which is a famous pie bakery and reminds me of the Pie version of Mike’s pastries in Boston. I bought the Chocolate-Haupia cream pie, lilikoi cream pie, and chocolate chip macademia nut cookies. My favorite was the lilikoi cream pie.
I am very grateful Brian was willing to chauffeur me around to these places. We then meandered around the island back to home and relaxed the rest of the day, we earned it!