Hale’iwa shopping+Stonefish Grill+Laniakea Beach

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.

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North Shore Wrap up

After the botanical garden I made my way to Hale’iwa bowls, a place specializing in Acai bowls. It was definitely the best one I’ve had on island so far. It was fruity but not super sweet.

I got the local bowl. It’s really hard to take a picture one handed with my camera. Apologize for the poor focus.

The parking lot had space for maybe… 10 cars? So it was a little crowded, but the turnover is quick and there was space even though I went at prime lunch time.

I never know if I can drive to my next spot before it completely melts… so I just ate it there. Then, I HAD to find my way to a beach so I can see the big waves. Ha.

This obviously wasn’t it, but it was a protected (from the waves) cove and I saw three turtles just by walking the shoreline. It was Hale’iwa beach park. I did see surfers… so I started walking along the beach toward them.

This is very zoomed and cropped, but I will for sure bring my zoom lens some day. I thought this crew was cute!

I was getting very weary in well doing at this point… it was very hot. There was a little bit left to a beach before I turned a corner. So I saw a couple walking back and asked if there was anything exciting to see around the corner, and they said “big waves” and I said great! And they were right. This doesn’t really give perspective, it’s really rocky so I imagine a terrible spot for surfing… but one day I’ll get a surfer so you can see how big they are. I would not go swimming, that’s for sure.

Looking forward to spending more time in this area!

There’s a category of photography called street photography. Professor Hines is one of my favorites to follow. Essentially you photography cities; walk the streets and capture some cool moment in time. I want beach “street” photography to become a thing. This would be one that I would put in that category.

After this I headed home. I would’ve loved to stay longer, I just knew my energy levels wouldn’t sustain it. I walked something like 5 miles… phew! So fun, and can’t wait to go back. It’s so much the same but so different.

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