North Shore Soap Factory – SarahRuthSeeks

North Shore with Charisse

The North Shore is a route I was very used to taking friends along to do, but this time we used the Shaka guide and we stopped at a couple new to me places. According to many I do the route backwards… but it’s my favorite way to do it.

So you start with Dole plantation and see all the pineapples. I liked my dole whip, Charisse did not. Crazy, I know.

Then you get up to the North Shore and see some turtles.

We stopped for a sandwich at a local fave, called Waialua Bakery. I remember only being mildly impressed myself but I may have bought the wrong thing.

And a stop at the North Shore soap factory! We had a great conversation with the worker- we talked about sustainability and they’re working on shampoo bars but apparently it’s a tricky recipe to master.

Then drive along the shore and basically sightsee. Maybe stop for shopping or foodie spots. Then we went to a new-to-me spot, which is a location where Forgetting Sarah Marshall was filmed. It’s called Kawela Bay Beach Park. There was a giant Banyan tree. I weirdly don’t have a picture of the bay. Oh well.

I weirdly don’t have any more pictures from this day, usually I’m beyond exhausted at this point, but regardless it was a good day adventuring around the Oahu perimeter as usual!

Uncle’s Ice Cream Factory Tour

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.