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Diana Visit recap

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Diana, my MOH, came and visited me for a week! We had a lot of fun adventures, I’ve already posted about two separately (Hula and Kuliouou hike). Most everything else I’ve already done but I wanted to document the trip anyway. She worked during the day during the week, so we stuck to afternoon adventures.

I picked her up from the airport late Sunday and of course had to get her a lei!

Monday we did my fave intro-to-Hawaii hike, Makapu’u

Tuesday we went for a walk and got shave ice… no photo evidence that I have.
Wednesday we did Diamond Head and Manoa Falls. Manoa falls was a trickle (it’s been very dry here!) compared to when I did it with Jess.

Thursday we snorkeled in Lanikai

Friday we made our way up and around the North Shore (Dole plantation train ride and Dole Whip, the coffee “farm”, Laniakea the turtle beach etc). I tried the famous “sweet lady” dessert, which is like a Hawaiian version of apple pie. Warm taro dessert with haupia (coconut) ice cream. Along the way, we took a detour and stopped a Laie point. It’s so beautiful, a new hidden gem for me.

Saturday we hike Kuli’ou’ou and got Leonard’s malasadas after with a quick pit stop at the Halona blow hole, then got pedicures and headed to Waikiki for Hula. Sunday we walked around Pearl and I dropped her off at the airpot.

It was great to have her keep me company-Brian was away while she was here. I might be at the point where I tell my visitors to just take my car and go do things… but it was good for me to get out and about!

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Waimea Bay

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We’ll all be planning out a route

We’re gonna take real soon
We’re waxing down our surfboards
We can’t wait for June
We’ll all be gone for the summer
We’re on surfari to stay
Tell the teacher we’re surfin’
Surfin’ U.S.A.

Haggerty’s and Swami’s

Pacific Palisades
San Onofre and Sunset
Redondo Beach L.A.
All over La Jolla

At Waimea Bay

Surfin’ USA Beach Boys

We didn’t go surfing, but my friend Jess swam 2.3 miles! The picture above is all the swimmers lined up at the start. Here they go!

While she was swimming another friend, Raquel, and I hung back at the beach. I read “Oona out of Order” and sunbathed.

And she made it! It was really hard to identify her, all swimmers look the same. But we got her. The last stretch you have to get your land legs back and run up this sandy hill.

I’m glad I had this free day to join and support her and now I feel like I can finally say I’ve “experienced” Waimea Bay. It was very calm today, but it’s certainly not usually like this, I think it gets wavier over the winter.

We saw a honu (turtle) “crossing” the finish line! It was cute. Here’s the bay from a walking path back to the car.

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Ehukai Pillbox Hike and North Shore Adventure

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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!

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Second time is definitely not the charm (so far)

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Now that Brian’s back, I’m trying to slowly get him to do things. Friday after Thanksgiving was supposed to have big North Shore swells, so we took a chance and took Jess with us to go watch. We stopped at Laniakea in hopes of seeing turtles, but it looks like the trend is either big swells and no turtles or small swells and turtles.

The beach was way busier this time around and there were a lot more opportunities for pictures.

Jess is a big fan of boogie boarding and appreciated these guys for making it look badass.

I think I’m making this experience out to be less exciting than it was. I really loved going back. I think the waves weren’t maybe quite as big, but really what difference does an extra two feet make when they look gigantic.

Brian slept while we were there. It’s kinda just how recuperating goes. I was thankful to have Jess there and surfers to keep me occupied.

Then we took off and tried to find turtles further down the coast where I thought my Aunt had said they saw a lot, but we didn’t find any. Then we took off for Dole Plantation, strictly to get Dole Whip (no touristy other parts). If you recall, last time I went to dole I didn’t get any camera pics because my SD card corrupted. I was successful this time!

I tried the chocolate coating this time around and that was the wrong choice. I think I’ve just been lucking out picking the right choice the first time! That doesn’t mean this was terrible, I just don’t think Chocolate is a good match. I think the fruit topping is, though.

I guess overall this was a great day, except we went on an adventure for turtles and didn’t see any.

The Dole Whip was amazing, as usual, and I just made the wrong choice.

There wasn’t a lot of traffic and we were able to find parking relatively easily. I hear this can be rough, but both times it has not yet been… it might be a benefit of COVID or timing, unclear which.

Maybe my expectations are just being set too high. Anyway, stay tuned for another post about the second round being not so great.

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Hale’iwa shopping+Stonefish Grill+Laniakea Beach

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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.

You are supposed to stay 10ft away, but there were a lot of people who definitely weren’t. We stayed off this coral/rock, because it was super slippery anyway and I was still recovering from my butt fall. The pictures are very cropped, I am pretty confident we stayed 10ft away. This is a picture of the beach where you can see the section of reef/rock and how much space there is between the ocean and sand.

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

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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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The post you’ve all been waiting for- North Shore!

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I frequently get asked if I’ve been to the North Shore yet, and the answer was no until yesterday! The North Shore of Hawaii is known for its giant waves, sunsets, turtles, and agriculture. I finally took the trip because it was on my bucket list, and also because I wanted to go on a hike but had no one to come with me. When I searched hikes on AllTrails, I found one that was paved inside a botanical garden that ended at a waterfall just off the North Shore. I figured that was the safest option to do solo, so it worked out I could do that and explore the North Shore a bit!

The North shore takes a little over an hour to get to. I set off at about 7:30am, the botanical garden opened at 9am and I wanted to get there early and eat breakfast.

The ride isn’t incredibly impressive, but you do pass through a lot more agricultural fields out there. The funniest part was when I was coming down over a hill getting close and I saw the water, I was in awe of it and so excited, as if A: I didn’t expect to see water again and B: I haven’t seen beautiful water practically every day. It just felt different!

My first stop was Island Vintage Coffee (courtesy of a quick google search for breakfast). It turned out to be in this really touristy plaza.

I tried the fresh mango and peanut butter sandwhich… it was SO GOOD. And Guava juice, which was super fresh, like the orange juice we get at Fisherman’s when we visit Brian’s family in CA.

There was this fun historical protestant church across from the coffee place.

Then I headed toward Waimea Valley. The entrance fee is $10 for Kama’aina (Hawaiian resident) or military. Not bad for peace of mind about safety.

The grounds were so, so beautiful. It felt like I was walking through a jungle. It looks like they are still repairing some paths, but this is a good example of what it generally felt like.

I’m not entirely sure if these were all the known kings of Hawaii or… but they are big on teaching about Hawaiian culture and history.

There were some replicas of structures that would’ve been found on the land. There were also a couple sites of ancestral dedication.

There were a million flowers, and it was hard not to stop to take a picture every five feet. Here is some flower spam.

They are also big on restoring native species and do a lot of work to regrow them.

They had a whole path/grove just for palms.

I have no idea what month it is because we live in perpetual summer. If you ask me, I think it’s still August. But this reminded me of fall!

Some pretty foliage…

Fun plant name.

And finally… the waterfall! You can swim in it, but I decided not to… it seemed to be more hassle than reward, and I didn’t want to leave my nice camera alone.

I am going to start a second post with the rest of my day… spoiler alert it involved the ocean.

I spent almost two and half hours at this place, I was not expecting that! I could’ve spent more.

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