As I neglected to write yesterday’s Day 7 on its actual day, I was up early to write it, writing on day 8 about day 7 was the start to the day. Mike made a nice cup of coffee to get my brain cells moving and then fueled me with a sugary malasadas. Eventually eggs and veggies were cooked to sustain the writing.
Once I hit the publish button it was time to decide on today’s activities. I googled “easy hikes in Oahu”. Mike is still training for Sunday’s race and we both are walking the 5k Heart Walk on Saturday, so an easy hike seemed a good bet. We settled on hiking the Makiki Valley Loop Trail at the Hawaii Nature Center. Most things we read stated dry trail, go left when starting the hike, only 2.5 miles and oh remember that word easy.
First off, we went to the right because a gaggle of kids with a “teacher” was on the trail and they went left, the kids were all over the place and loud. We did the very steep side first, I think I ignored the word “steep” when I read the description.
Halfway up the steep section was the view out. We ended up tripping over another group of kids clogging the path. We got past them and kept going up.
Once up at the top, another group greeted us, they were running all over, screaming and ignoring the teacher. I was ready to take over the control of the kids, but Mike quickly grabbed me and pointed to the new trail to follow and told me to move.
Down we went into a mud filled trail, it stayed this way the entire time. I only went down once, perhaps a record for me on a muddy trail.
Remember the descriptions said “easy”. Yesterday’s hike in the valley was easy, this wasn’t difficult or technical, but it was a step above easy, but below difficult. It was fun and jungly and really that is what matters We had to stop at the clean off station to wash the mud and seeds off of our shoes and legs. Boy did I have a lot of mud caked on me. And this trail wasn’t 2.5 miles, both of our phones pedometers had it at 4 miles.
Hunger set in and we had to pick up Mike’s race number at Boca Bike Shop which happens to be next to…can you guess it? Honolulu Beerworks. So of course we stopped for brews and lunch. We ended up sitting next to a Navy guy who is hoping his next transfer will be to Groton, CT. He is ready to leave Hawaii and head closer to home, he is from Pennsylvania. Our conversations included the bartenders and the next thing you know we are given chips for a free pint.
We finished our lunch, Mike picked up his bib number and off we went to our next destination, coffee, chocolate and a boutique store.
We picked up another coffee for the house at Downtown Coffee in Honolulu, a small roasters. Next stop was Madre Chocolate for me and the gift boxes. Madre Chocolate was next to a little shop selling Hawaiian goods, Owen & Co. I’ve been wanting to go here for a while, so it was nice to finally visit.
We had one last stop to make, Costco. We went to the crazy, hard to park, wedged in Costco, which is always an adventure. We picked up our needed items and headed home.
Once home around 4 p.m. rest time for an hour was demanded by my body. We cleaned up, had a small dinner and headed off to sunset viewing. It was a busy sunset viewing on the beach time tonight. Mike splashed around and I tried to navigate taking photos around people, not easy. Sunset was very lovely, but alas the sun sank and we meandered home for dessert and the writing of the blog.
No catchy title, because today was just a day that happened and we took in every moment of it.