Day 7 – Compromise

Waking up today we wanted to do different things. I wanted to hike, Mike wanted a beach. So over our morning coffee we made our plan.

We compromised, I got my mini hike in and Mike got his beach walk in. We went to Kawela Bay on the North Shore to hike the trails around Turtle Bay Resort then sit in the beach at the bay. This was a repeat visit for us, but one we enjoy. We know we could get away from the crowds and well those type of people that annoyed us yesterday. We did get in the water, but not for long, it was chilly water.

After this compromise of the morning, we didn’t need to do anymore compromising. We pretty much wanted the same thing for the afternoon, lunch and a nap. We made our farewell stop to Honolulu Beerworks for lunch and beer.

We did make one more stop, Off the Hook Poke for dinner to go. We needed to get our last poke fix in! After that is back to the rental for landry and a nap till sunset.

We went down the street to a little park we like for our last sunset of this trip. It was undramatic, but calming, somewhere there is a metaphor for life, but I can’t come up with one yet.

It will be bittersweet to say Aloha tomorrow morning as we depart. Our plans for our next return are undecided. Not sure which island we will land on in 2020…

April 13, 2019 0

Day 5 – Old and New

Today we did our standard drive to the North Shore to revisit old spots and find new spots to enjoy.

After breakfast of croissants, yogurt and egg veggie scramble we ambled out the door before 8 a.m. to head to the north shore, via the east coast route. As we drove along I snapped a few drive by photos.

Our first repeat visit was Heeia Pier. In 2013 there was a great little food place at the pier, but sadly it has closed. Still a lovely pier to walk down and view the bay and mountains.

Our next stop was just down a bit, Heeia State Park. We’ve driven by a few times, but have never stopped, today we changed that.

We decided to stop at another new to us beach park close by, Laenani Neighborhood Park. What a sweet little gem of a park, no real beach, but the views were great!

It was getting close to mid morning snack break, so off we headed to one of our favorite beach parks to have a snack at Kualoa Regional Park. It was rather windy there today, so we had to hold the snacks down for dear life.

From here we drove along, well Mike drove and I did the touristy thing of stick the camera out the window and snap pictures.

We did a repeat stop at Hukilau Beach, but didn’t walk it, still recovering from yesterday’s five hot miles.

We continued on, stopping at a macadamia nut farm in Haleiwa, picking up a few bags and then returned to Haleiwa Alii Beach Park for a few more photos and to make a lunch time decision.

We decided to return to our favorite store, The North Shore Soap Factory (we only use their soap, btw, it has been nine years) and the try Poke for the People in Waialua for lunch. A fb friend’s cousin’s poke shop, new to us!

After that we had once last stop to make on the North Shore, Mokuleia Beach to see if any kite surfers were out. Yes they were, just entering the water around 1:30 p.m. We love to sit here and watch them.

We returned to Waikiki with a stop at Waikiki Brewery in KaKaako, we prefer this spot over their place in Waikiki, more locals, less touristy. Though to be truthful, today’s beertender wasn’t the friendliest. However I was able to enjoy their Pink Boots Beer and that is what mattered.

After the long day of visiting with old and new places, we returned to the rental to rest and make a plan for sunset viewing. We decided on doing Ala Moana Beach Park, another old favorite of ours to view the majestic Diamond Head and the sunset.

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It was a lovely day of mixing the old with the new.

Aloha!

April 11, 2019 0

Oahu Day 3 – Art

Art comes in many forms from man made to nature made, today we experienced it all.

Our day started with an early morning breakfast of eggs with greens, banana and croissant. The greens were all local, purchased yesterday at the farmers market. Great way to start the day.

We gathered our gear after breakfast and drove the east coast of Oahu to Makapuu Lighthouse. This was our second time doing this walk. Our first time was December 2015 and the top of the lookout was under repair, so it was great to have a view from the tippy top of the trail. 7:15 a.m. was a perfect time to arrive at the trail. The gate had just opened, so parking was available and the sunrise hikers had already come down. We had an easy stroll up, not having to dodge people either going up or coming down. Mother Nature has truly created a work of art on this coastline.

After completing our jaunt, we drove over to Kailua Beach for a stroll and to get our feet in the sand and surf. Once again another piece of stunningly beautiful art created by Mother Nature.

After our beach stroll we sat around people watching. After a time we were famished and headed in to Kailua for lunch at Nalu. The food here was delicious and I would eat here again in a heartbeat.

While in Kailua we had to drive one street over to Lanikai Brewery. We each enjoyed a beer and conversation with the beertender. Today we had a good experience Kailua, we decided this town is for us when it isn’t high tourist season.

We left here and started making our way to a new poke market that opened recently in Manoa, Off the Hook Poke. We were about 2 miles from this market when I read a Facebook post about Honolulu Beerworks tapping a sour for today only, well until this Saturday when they celebrate their 5 year anniversary. You know what we did, diverted our car to Honolulu Beerworks. Here true craftsmanship created a work of art, in a delicious tasting sour.

After enjoying this work of art, we walked around KaKaako to enjoy the PowWow art, created by some very talented mural artists. We only say a small fraction of the many that are painted throughout this neighborhood.

We then returned to our regularly scheduled destination, Off the Hook Poke Market in Manoa. We were picking up dinner at this tiny place.

We finally headed home late afternoon and were so tired, we crashed until sunset, skipping dinner. Mother Nature came through again with a stunning piece of art.

Our art today was both man-made and created by Mother Nature. It truly was a beautiful day. Aloha

April 9, 2019 0

Day 13 – Oops, Busted

Disclaimer: Falls is located on private property, government property and can be considered trespassing. Hike at your own risk or do it the legal way and get a permit from the water department.

So the day started out typical for us, breakfast, coffee with a view, make a plan.

The plan go for a waterfall hike (little advice don’t hike on a social media day called Waterfall Wednesday). We decided on Lulumahu Falls off of the Pali Highway. We packed our gear.

25 minutes later we were at the trailhead along with a group of military moms hiking with their littles and a few other people. The conga line started and we followed.

At the first muddy part, Mike remembered the blog post we read that mentioned a work around the muddy part, but it might involve going on some other government land. Sure no problem, we’ve done some hikes here that are somewhat kapu and this is just a work around. We get to the path below a reservoir when we see a worker in a bobcat, we crouched down pretending to tie shoes, to late, spotted and with a stern hand gesture was told to go back. Oops, we had to go back and continue on the path that led through the mud. Oh well what’s a little mud? Really this allowed the mom’s hiking group to get well ahead of us.

The trail was bamboo forest, water crossings, rock scrambles and mud sliding fun.

We were well rewarded once we reached the falls, they were magnificent. We had a good group around us, minus the one guy hogging the waterfall for the mom’s pictures. Once he left,we were left with a respectful group, taking pictures of each other, just enjoying the time there.

After we had our fill and as obnoxious groups started showing up, it was time to head back, following the mom conga line. We spent a total of an hour and half on the trail and it was 2.7 miles.

Once at the car it was time to clean off the massive amounts of mud caked on us and figure out lunch. Well you can guess where we ended up, why do I even bother to mention it, Honolulu Beerworks, our brewery away from home, really we go for the awesome food.

After lunch we stopped at Safeway to get some yogurt and some fried chicken. Advice if you go to the Safeway on Kapahulu Ave, park at the parking garage. The views of Diamond Head are amazing!

Once we picked up our items, we returned to the house to rest, do a little research on next summer’s trip (don’t ask where yet, still trying to figure it out), have dinner and clean up.

Then it was off to sunset watching and Mother Nature put on a very nice display for us. So maybe we got a little stink eye today, but it was worth it. Only one full day left for us…

August 16, 2018 0

Day 11 – Recovery, Limbo and Cashing in Our Chips

Wait a minute, are we in Las Vegas or Oahu? Sounds like we had a wild night last night and continued the party today? But no, it was all about the hike.

Today Mike needed a recovery hike after his race yesterday. The plan called for a short hike, with views and fairly easy. Well we found just the hike, Pu’u Ma’eli’eli Trail in Kaneohe, right across from Valley of the Temples.

Of course, first things first, breakfast of french toast sticks. When we travel, we prefer to eat breakfast at our rental, of course at times it comes with some obstacles we need to overcome, such as having the right kind of pans and bowls. We figure it out and make do with what we have, laughing along the way.

After that we packed up our gear, loaded the car with our supplies and our donor’s thank you boxes. First stop was the post office to mail out the packages (Monica Jo and Mark, if you are reading this, yours aren’t sent yet).

Then off to park in a shopping mall complex to walk to the trailhead. Stunning views of the Ko’olau range as we walked to the trailhead. This trail had some steep sections, with little windows out to see the views. If it wasn’t dry this trail would be a mud fest in wet weather. We lucked out today with a dry trail.

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At times Mike had to do the limbo to get under branches on our way to the trail’s end. Lucky for me performing the limbo was limited, this is the time it helps to be short.

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We reached the end of the trail and took in the views up top of the pillboxes, WWII bunkers built all around the island. It was a bit hazy out, but still the views were stunning.

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The hike was almost 3 miles with a little over 500 feet elevation gain, it took us about an hour and half, including stops to ohhhh and ahhhh.

After the hike we headed down to He’eia Kea Pier to look up to where we hiked and were hoping to eat lunch at He’eia Kea Pier General Store, where we ate at 5 years ago, a few times. Sadly it was closed today, so we had to devise a new plan. Hmmmmm we had chips to use at Honolulu Beerworks for free beer, well that sounds good.

We went back via the LikeLike Highway, the Ko’olau Range is majestic.

First we had to make another cookie stop at Honolulu Cookie Company on Sand Island. We needed more cookies to ship home!

Then we went to cash in our chips at the brewery. We really did have to go to the brewery because on Saturday they released a Pilsner, one of Mike’s favorite types of beers. As we entered the brewery, one of the bar staff remembered Mike had his race yesterday and came over to chat with him about it. Yup we are starting to be recognized, just in time to leave. I was wearing our local brewery, Hanging Hills’ Pilsner tee shirt, so it seemed only fitting I have my picture taken with the Pali Pils beer! After a great lunch, we decided we would need one more return trip to the brewery, so we didn’t cash in our chips, yet.

By this time we were exhausted and needed to do laundry, so back to the house we went.

We put together a quick dinner of Costco quinoa salad and chicken, cleaned up and headed out for the sunset. Once again a huge cloud blocked the actual sinking of the sun, but we did get some nice photos and enjoyed our viewing spot.

So we took a gamble today, that our legs would be up to good uphill hike and the path would be dry. It was worth the gamble and along the way we had a fun day!

August 14, 2018 0

Day 10 – Race Day

The day was finally here, Mike’s 15k race. Up at 4 a.m. out the door by 5 a.m. to walk across the park to the race. He picked up his tracker and we waited. I was lucky enough to be able to bring my coffee.

At 5:45 runners were assembled at the start and promptly at 6 a.m. they started.

As soon as I saw Mike go past the start, I jetted across the park to catch him on the other side, the only place I could see him before the finish line.

After that I went back to the house and prepped breakfast for post race eats.

I headed down to see the finish. I saw the male and female winners. The female is just 14 years old and this was the second time she has won for women, she won last year also.

Mike crossed the finish line at 1 hour 31 minutes, finishing almost middle of the runners once times were listed. Not bad for a non runner, having been a swimmer most of his life.

He wanted to jump in the ocean after the race, so we headed off to San Souci beach so he could dip in the ocean. Perks of racing in Hawaii, a nice float in the ocean after.

Once back at the house, we had papaya boats, eggs with swiss chard and a little bit of the cake bombs we picked up yesterday at Pipeline. We then planned out the day. Off to the beach for a little bit of the morning.

We decided to stick close to home, so we stopped at one of the access points for Kahala Beach. Lovely beach. We did a nice long walk and then plopped down.

Well, we didn’t last long, the wind picked up and pelted us with sand, I was afraid we would turn into sand dunes if we stayed much longer. We gathered up our gear and decided we might try the beach park, it looked empty on our walk, just a wedding going on and not many people.

Well by the time we made it to the beach park, about 40 minutes after our walk, there was no parking available, hmmmmm what to do? Can you guess what we did? We went to lunch at Kona Brewing Pub in Hawaii Kai. We visited here 5 years ago with our friend Colleen after one of our hikes. We had a great meal and good beers. Kona beer is way better fresh than from a bottle shipped to the mainland.

After a leisurely lunch, we returned to the house to rest. The owners set up a hammock and Mike had to try it out for his downtime. He texted me a picture of his view!

After dinner of leftover poke and other grub, we headed over to where our friend is staying on her impromptu trip in a little over a week. We wanted to provide her with some pictures of where she will be staying and the views she will have walking over to the beach.

We then walked down to our beach about .5 mile away. The views looking over to the sunset weren’t spectacular, but we enjoyed them. We sat on a beach and stayed for a bit until a guy sat next to us smoking a cigarette. Well it didn’t really matter, the best part of the sunset had happened, to many clouds to make a stunning one, so we left.

Walking back we stopped in the park to take some artsy photos.

What a fun weekend of events we had. Now time to forget training schedules and just let the mornings happen!

August 13, 2018 0