Oahu – Page 6 – SarahRuthSeeks

32nd Birthday!

November 14, 2021 1 Comment

Wouldn’t be a proper birthday without starting with a sunrise walk!

I had to do a little bit of work, but then I took a half day and mid afternoon Jess picked me up for our grand Birthday adventure! We started with a hike to Likeke Falls with the grand plan to loop to Old Pali Rd or go back down and up Old Pali. At one point, the path splits and you have to follow the arrow to the right to find the falls.

The trail was not muddy, but sometimes this can be a disadvantage because there’s nothing to dig into and it ends up being slippery. Between the roots and rocks we made it without falling.

0.4 miles in and we made it! Really quick hike. I specifically chose this because I knew it was relatively easy and I wanted a low risk, high reward hike for my birthday. November is supposed to be the rainy season, but we haven’t received much, so the falls were pretty dry, but SO beautiful.

I chose my attire so that Brian would be there in spirit.

The water was cooler than ocean water, but pleasantly refreshing. The rocks weren’t slippery at all, which seems strange from what I’m used to in New England. Decision time, go down and find Old Pali or cut across? We decided to cut across because the trail was actually stone lined. The path itself isn’t an official trail in all trails, though, so we were going a bit into the unknown. I actually also decided to try my micro spikes on the way back (down is slipperier). Let me tell you, after putting those on I felt like Spiderwoman. Which is great because that was about to come in handy. Soon after stones the path became overgrown with leaves.

I know this picture doesn’t reveal much, but see how the path disappears in front of the tree? It’s a very steep uphill there. Hard to get good footing to get a picture, so just use your imagination. This is where my spikes really came in handy.

Little did we know we had to go down a very steep decline.

I learned that really leaning back on your way down so your feet are more horizontally planted and having cleats makes you feel like you can do anything (don’t worry, parents, had I slipped I would’ve merely landed at the bottom, unlike some Hawaii hikes where I would’ve landed 5K feet off a ridge).

Thankfully after this decent we were right on Old Pali, and now you can see pictures of it!

After this point, there’s a little shortcut to the left you’re supposed to take to get back to the parking… but we ended up walking all the way down to walk back up again. We also came across a father and son harvesting start fruit from a tree (the father is taking this picture). They let us each take two home.

Next we headed to get pizza at Pizza Mamo in Chinatown. I’ve heard a couple people recommend this place, and the real reason we went was because it was near where I wanted to get my cake. We parked at this lot and paid, but the receipt didn’t print… on point with Hawaii. Retrospectively we should’ve found a meter.

Anyway, we pre ordered the pizza leaving the hike and it was ready upon arrival. We originally tried to eat outside, but the sun was scorching us. So we moved inside, but then the guy told us about this place with a courtyard next door that would let us sit there. Turns out it’s a really cool Mexican bar place called Encore Saloon that we decided we’d love to go back to.

The pizza flavor was DELICIOUS. I am personally a thicker crust fan. We also worked up an appetite from the hike, so it was extra delicious. Chinatown was interesting… there was a homeless man outside PizzaMamo that was yelling a lot. But there were all these little hidden gems of restaurants. It was relatively quiet. We’ll definitely go back.

Then we made our way to Slice by HB Baking. I have had my eyes on this place for a while. Go look at their Instagram! They are ice cream cakes of complete decadence. Jess wanted to get two slices, but I encouraged us to start with one, and she ended up agreeing with me. This was pumpkin pecan ice cream, some fall flavored pound cake, and banana pudding with the best whipped cream frosting I’ve ever had. 11/10 would go back here.

Finally, as if all that wasn’t enough, we made it back to Lanikai in time to fit in some snorkeling.

And even got a birthday honu! (It was really cloudy for some reason today, and the sun was behind clouds, so hard to see)

I was in my pajamas by 6pm. I’ve been joking about how this sure beats any rainy November New England Birthday 😉

Not pictured/documented are the communications on a variety of platforms I received and the presents I opened.

I obviously missed having my best friend with me, and communication has been rough/non existent the last week or so. But he managed a couple Happy Birthday emails (in case one didn’t get through).

Here’s a throwback to our probably third date? We went for mimosa flights for my birthday at Friendly Toast in Cambridge and made it a tradition… well sort of… until COVID ruined it.

Let me start by saying that every year I feel loved on my birthday, and I know that that’s what matters. And that this day was GREAT. I had such an awesome time. This is just a reflection on them in general. The past couple were a bit tough, I think because I was hoping someone would’ve planned or done something for my 30th (they didn’t) and there were quarantine shenanigans (I actually had a nice lobster dinner that year, so actually that was great). I don’t know why it feels like I’m missing out on something… I think because I see “all” these people on social get parties planned for them, or surprised, or have something special, and it makes me feel like no one cares to go through the extra effort for me, and I don’t really get why. Ever since I lost my last best friends to weird circumstances, I feel like I haven’t been able to truly find that again (Brian is not much of a celebrator, nor was their family growing up, so it’s something I have decided not to expect from him). So I have no “bestie” to do things like that that seemingly everyone else does. Anyway, I’ve always just owned my birthday celebrations, because when I don’t I’m disappointed. I was sad Brian wasn’t there to experience these things with me, but it was the perfect day otherwise, and God has filled the hole with a new friend who was thankfully down for my crazy plans for the day. I’m not sure what I feel like I’m missing not having someone that would plan a party for me, but I think it comes down to social media and just how high expectations get set, and maybe feeling like I still don’t quite have a bestie. Again, this is simply a reflection and not meant to say I don’t feel like I’m loved or that I didn’t have an awesome day, because that’s certainly not true. My 32nd was a blast and I don’t think anyone could’ve planned it better/done anything to make me enjoy it more, and I felt completely loved. So I’m not sure what this dissonance is really about, but I’m sure it has something to do with social media. Anyway, here’s to hoping year 33 is a little less tumultuous.

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North Shore Waves

November 9, 2021 No Comments

A friend of a friend is in Hawaii (this seems to happen a lot) and she wanted to go see the waves on the North Shore because there were 15-20ft swells. So, we ventured up there last Wednesday. We stopped at my favorite Acai bowl spot, Hale’iwa bowls for a quick lunch, and then tried to view turtles at Laniakea. Turns out that during high tide and high swells there isn’t much room left for turtles, so there weren’t any out to play.

Then we ventured up to Sunset beach where she was told there would be a lot of surfers. However, on our way there we passed a beach park that was really active. We kept going anyway, but there was next to no one at sunset beach… so we backtracked to that busy beach and found street parking. This turned out to be the Bonzai Pipeline beach (also known as Ehukai beach). There were still only two surfers and two boogey borders and a ton of spectators. But, the waves were super impressive and fun to observe. The surfers are really far off from shore, so even as good as my zoom lens is, these are cropped which adds to the blurriness.

The surfers that were there did not surf a lot… there could be a million reasons why, but those first few pictures were a lucky grab from basically right when we sat down. So I took probably a million pictures of the waves, trying to capture the essence just right. Here are some pictures of just waves.

The white thing on this one’s head is a helmet.

This gives you better perspective of just how far away they are. There is still a lot of sand you don’t see.

Here’s a boogey boarder.

The waves created so much splash mist it looks like it’s raining.

What a sight to see. 10/10 recommend experiencing this once in your life. The swells don’t come often right now, I keep checking to see when the next one will be and it won’t be until well into November. I’m hoping Brian can make one day work, it’s just outstanding to watch. Glad Anna was there to push me to go see this one!

I recorded some video and captured good waves, you’ll see a boogey boarder at 30 ish seconds in.

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Haunama Bay Snorkeling

October 9, 2021 1 Comment

Haunama Bay is a state park and Nature Reserve. It is THE most popular Hawaiian tourist attraction (based on no polls but my rather my personal opinion). It’s been on my bucket list, but it’s logistically difficult to achieve, even for a local. You have to reserve tickets, which become available two days in advance. They only allow 1000 guests per day and are only open Wed to Sun. The parking lot is small and fills up quickly and costs $1 for military/local or $3 for tourists. The actual park is free for Military/local or $25 for tourists.

My friend and I hopped online a little before 7am, her on her phone and me on the computer. I had heard the trick was to aim for an off time, like 11:10am or 12:10am, so we tried those. I ended up getting us two tickets at 12:10AM. If you are military/local, you can go in any day without a reservation between 7a-8a.

The parking lot is small, so Erin and I headed over early to make sure we had time to hover for parking. We didn’t have to, and instead enjoyed walking the park a bit and enjoying the beauty of it as a whole.

Anyway, on to the fun part. After watching a 20 minute video putting the fear of God in you that you might be swept out by riptides and that you need to know how to swim, you make your way down a long pretty steep driveway to the bay. The fish were HUGE and there was a wide variety, so I saw a few I hadn’t seen in Lanikai. I could not believe how big they were, and then how close they’d get to us! The bottom left I didn’t capture fully because he was actually too close!

Erin realized she had heard the name of the Hawaiian State fish somewhere before (pictured top right, the Humuhumunukunukuapua’a fish) and it turns out it’s a song in High School Musical 2. As a going away present, she bought me a small fish identifier card. I don’t have it with me, but when I get back maybe I’ll label the fish above.

We had an awesome time.

It was definitely murky because we’re getting into rougher water season and it was high tide. So I guess in the future I’d like to pick a calmer day, but it’s hard to be choosy with the logistics as they are. Here are a few miscellaneous pics from the adventure.

I think this next one puts into scale just how much reef there was to explore.

Afterward, I was evaluating the pros and cons of Lanikai vs. Haunama snorkeling. I definitely would go back to Haunama, especially with Brian, but I have to say that for the logistics as easy as they are in Lanikai, we have a great advantage. However, it is highly photogenic, especially with two beautiful ladies.

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Pillbox Hike redeux

October 7, 2021 No Comments

People of good enough health can’t come to Hawaii and not do the pillbox hike… so we did the Pillbox hike! I think I was a bit more nervous this time because of my recent fall and I didn’t have my pack mule (aka Brian) there to help. I definitely was a bit more careful this time, or last time the path was different and easier? I remember making fun of the ropes the first time thinking they were completely unnecessary, then using them a lot this time. Anyway, the views didn’t disappoint!

For lunch we got Banan, her first Acai bowl so far, and I was super proud I remembered reusable bowls.

Later that day we went and got massages (we were late due to Lanikai construction backup) and then to MCBH. I showed her secret beach and we went to another submariner’s house for dinner (She has base housing on MCBH.) She has the cutest 3 month old, Maeve. Not pictured to protect privacy, per usual. It was nice meeting her.

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USS Germantown to Yoga

October 7, 2021 1 Comment

On Monday afternoon we received word one of our friend’s submarines was leaving. We headed to go watch at Missing man monument, except after waiting an hour we found out we’d be waiting another 45 minutes, so we left before we saw a submarine. But, we didn’t leave before seeing this wicked cool ship. The USS Germantown (LSD 42)

It was HUGE.

I found the contact information for the Ombudsman on the internet and sent her the pictures. This boat is stationed in Sasebo, Japan.

We then headed to Diamond Head to find parking for a yoga class and took a short walk to see the Diamond Head Light house up close and personal.

And then went to the diamond head lookout and saw some surfing, cool wave patterns, and pretty shoreline.

We went and relaxed at the Lē’ahi Beach Park for a bit before Yoga started. I don’t have any great pictures of the actual yoga, or the full park, but imagine people in a grassy park doing yoga and extremely picturesque palm trees. I was still hurting from the hike fall, but I did my best. The sun set while class was happening and I was a bit distracted that I wasn’t able to take pictures. All the same, it was a peaceful class and I was happy to explore a different part of the island.

We stopped for a quick bite to eat at Kalapawai on the way home. And by that I mean she bought a salad and we both bought an ice cream sandwich. (I ate real food I had at home first!) It was DELICIOUS.

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Hale’iwa shopping+Stonefish Grill+Laniakea Beach

October 4, 2021 No Comments

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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Old Pali Rd Hike + Catastrophe

October 4, 2021 1 Comment

Well, after 10,000+ pictures, I finally had an SD card fail. I had a very eventful Saturday and Sunday morning and all my pictures are lost to a small, broken data card. I’m asking around if there are any tech geeks I can bring it to recover pictures… but not holding out hope. So, use your imagination and google internet pictures.

I decided to organize a hike for KOSC. I picked a really awesome, unique hike called Old Pali Rd. A section of the hike journeys over an overgrown highway (I am unsure the history there, honestly.) It’s supposed to be haunted, which is fitting for October. Logistically, there was paid parking at the entrance, which is helpful to avoid our cars being broken into. All of this set my expectations way too high for how the day would go…

First, we arrived at 8am, but the parking was definitely on Aloha time, and didn’t open until 8:10am ish. Not a huge deal, but caused me some concern and confusion.

The start of the hike was really cool, walking on the old pali road highway was so fascinating and easy going. However, we did go with a gaggle of kids… I mean there were at least 15 of them. I think the ratio of adults to kids ended up being 1:2. I am all for kids on hikes, they are so fun and bring a sense of innocence, but it can be logistically challenging to keep a group together. A few adults started off and ended up way ahead, and I was bringing up the rear after the huge group of kids and parents. After going underneath the actual, existing pali highway, the groups went different ways (without knowing it). We went left, and the other group ahead went right. I wasn’t really paying attention and didn’t realize the group ahead, who had done this hike before and I trusted, had split off. I was initially intending on going right and should’ve known to be more attentive. Well, going left ended us at a lookout… that you can easily drive to and I drive by probably twice a week. Going the other way, I would’ve ended at a lookout a little higher that I haven’t been to. It got really muddy and slick, and on the way I slipped and fell right on my tailbone. I’m still in a bit of pain today.

I am pretty upset with how it went even though I know I shouldn’t be. Everyone got out and explored which is really the goal. But, personally, I would like to go back, do it a lot slower, take pictures, and go to the other lookout. I was really disappointed I got hurt and felt gypped.

I think that moving forward it’ll be helpful to really scope out the hike beforehand, but it’s hard to do that without enough friends to go with. I also am throughly convinced that shoe spikes and hiking poles are just going to be part of my outfit. I don’t understand what it is about me and my balance, but I’m not clumsy until it comes time to slippery surfaces. Everyone else seems to do it so easily except me.

So, just imagine an old highway with tons of overgrowth, looking like you’re going through a jungle… and it’ll just be like I have a picture of it posted!

Here’s a historic picture. And a couple more good pictures of current pictures here.

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North Shore Wrap up

September 27, 2021 No Comments

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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Honolulu Zoo

September 19, 2021 1 Comment

I became a member of the Honolulu Zoo a few months back and finally made the time to visit. It’s really cheap to become a member, $70 for two years for two adults. Based on reviews, I was expecting to understand why it’s so affordable… but I was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed my day! Thought that sign was kinda cute 🙂 Parking was $1.50 an hour and I heard the lot fills up quickly, but I arrived at 10:30am on a Saturday and there were still spots left.

As with most zoos, the scenery didn’t disappoint and this one is home to a huge Banyan tree. You can see the park bench to the left of it for perspective.

More cool Banyan tree photos.

Ok, last non animal pic for now… the foliage was beautiful and here’s a particularly fun flower.

I’ll tell a quick story then do a photo dump…. My dream vacation is an African safari, so I love seeing any of those types of animals. I had seen on the map there was a Giraffe sculpture, which I thought was funny to specifically call out… and thought there was no actual giraffes at the zoo because of it.

So when I got to a giant field with a Giraffe in it, I kinda assumed it was a statue… and then it flinched… and I STILL thought it was like, robotic. And all these people were taking pictures in front of it, and I was like… well… I guess children don’t really know better.

And then I saw a zebra, and started taking pictures, and didn’t even REALIZE there were two more giraffes until a good five minutes later! And when those giraffes moved I realized they were real.

So I guess my point is my guide on the safari better be good at finding real animals because I’m not AT ALL. Here are some of the other fun pictures and animals I saw.

Here’s some fun artsy things. No, I didn’t even see the Giraffe sculpture.

It happened to be a day the Royal Hawaiian Band was playing, they were really fun to listen to!

It got really hot and I didn’t drink enough water, so I was getting a headache and rushed through some parts toward the end, and kept saying to myself “just one more!”. I will definitely go back.

I stopped at Banan on my way back for a cool down treat/lunch. That honey nut butter is to die for, but is super expensive ($20 for that small jar!)

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Pu’u Ma’eli’eli Trail

September 16, 2021 1 Comment

My new army wife friend agreed to go on a recon adventure to scope out hike logistics for a hike called “Old Pali Rd”. I want to host the hike for one of my spouse groups. We had heard mixed comments about parking etc, so we went to find out ourselves. Turns out you basically drive through a jungle to get to the trail head.

There is parking at a golf club, it costs $10 and they accept the last car at 3pm (they close the gate to leave at 4pm). There is off street parking on the way up, however, there have been MANY car break ins. It’s a weird and annoying thing in Hawaii… there are signs everywhere not to leave valuables in your car. There are many philosophies, like leave your door unlocked and leave money for them to take just so they don’t smash your windows… Anyway, she had just had her window replaced (reason undisclosed) and it took six months to replace, so we decided to play it safe and come up with a plan B. After some discussion, we decided to go to Pu’u Ma’eli’eli Trail. Translated from Hawaiian, Puʻu Maʻeliʻeli means “digging hill.”

This parking is a little better, you park at a McDonald’s (the dinning room is currently closed) and walk down a pretty busy street (think RT. 20) behind the guard rail. Mind you, she had three kids (9, 4, and 2). So needless to say I didn’t take pictures of this part, because I was too concentrated on the kids staying far from cars or the ditch next to us.

When we first started up, it was really steep and muddy and there were ropes to use on the side to help. This is looking down from the top of it. The picture does not do it justice.

There were lots of interesting plants, including wild orchids.

The little one wanted in on touching and feeling the plants.

The foliage was very diverse on our way up!

The kids did really great. It was honestly really helpful to have them slowing us down (Look at this leaf! My foot is stuck!) because I never felt out of breath and my lungs did great. There’s also just an innocence and fearlessness that makes me feel more comfortable.

I absolutely LOVE this next picture. Note the dog tucked into the bag.

Unfortunately, they did slow us down enough and with the slow start we had to turn around before the very top… the pace we were going, if we made it to the top it would’ve been getting dangerously dark to be “sliding” back down that “mud slide” as we called it. We didn’t completely miss the views as there were a couple lookout spots on our way.

We turned around right before a really steep, rooted part that looked like it’d take a bit to get up and down. The kids were understandably disappointed… It’s just that I envisioned us trying to hold phones with lights getting down that first steep muddy slippery part at the beginning and it being really slow and tedious. I hope they’ll learn to forgive me so we can go again. I think they overall had fun, though! We sure got muddy.

This is my friend. She is fearless and strong and a ton of fun to be around.

Unfortunate we couldn’t count it as “done”, but I’m looking forward to going back and trying again. When we got to our cars it started pouring, so I think we made the right decision. We will be back! Here are a couple of me she grabbed.

I’m really proud of myself for doing this. It was my first hike without Brian, who has been my security blanket for the last 8 months of recovery during activities. It took some courage and a lot of ignoring my feelings and fear to not back out. It was so, so rewarding.