We saved the North Shore for today so we could go up there on a weekday (for some reason we are always there on crowded weekends). It’s an easy walk to the rental car – although the building is under construction so the Enterprise office is a little hard to find between all the scaffolding. But we do find it, and are in the car and out pretty quickly.
First stop on our way is Foodland in Pearl City for Poke for lunch. The traffic is horrible over here, so it takes a while – but we have all day, and night really. We sail at midnight, so no rush. We’re finally back on the road and up into North Shore in about 30 minutes. Our first stop is the Haleiwa shopping center for the restrooms, and then just to stretch our legs as we walk around the complex.
Back in the car, we wander through the North Shore, watching the waves and perusing the multitude of food trucks now situated every where on the side of the road. There are so many more up here now! But, we’re just looking – we have our lunch already, so no need to buy any overpriced garlic shrimp plates!
We get all the way to the Waimea Valley park, where we’ve not been before. There’s an admission charge though, so we decide to just peruse the gift shop (and buy Ed a shirt), and then go and look at the Heiau (a place that captures spiritual power) on the side of the parking lot. It’s dedicated to Lono, one of the four principal gods of ancient Hawaii, who ruled agriculture and harvests, among other things.
It’s getting close to lunch time, so we reverse our direction and head back along the North Shore, passing the Banzai Pipeline, which wasn’t very active, and stopping at Shark’s Cove for a look out along the rugged coast (along with the new planting on the bluff overlooking the water).
We find a perfect spot for our Poke picnic a little ways up the road. It’s a gorgeous day, and with the North Shore breeze (read: wind) it’s nice and cool, even in the sun. Lunch is very enjoyable, the Poke excellent – as always – and the location couldn’t be better. Except for our luncheon companions – pesky, aggressive chickens and roosters that we continually have to shoo away – especially when they jump up on the bench across from us! Welcome to Hawaii!
Instead of heading back into Honolulu right away, we take a detour out to the end of the road through Waialua to Ka’ena park. The drive up passes through “cowboy” or Paniolo country , which is very rustic and run down and you can really believe you are in another world out here. You used to be able to drive out past the end of the road, if you had a 4WD, which of course, we don’t. But now it is gated and a sign says you need a permit to go out there. Which is fine – we weren’t planning on it anyway. This was actually where they filmed LOST, and the fuselage was out there for a while, but it’s long gone now – so no need to even hike the road. But it’s great scenery – hilly and lava strewn, as well as that great surf along a narrow strip of beach – all making for good photos. If you don’t mind the wind that is!
We passed a glider place on the way out to the end of the road, and we decided to stop there to just take a look around. There are a few people there getting ready to go up, so we’re in luck. We get to watch the preparations and one of the flights. We also meet a couple from North Carolina, outside of Charlotte, who come to Oahu every year for a week or two. They are adorable –and the wife is really not a happy camper about going up in the glider. She asks us another couple what it is like – and the woman answers “do you like roller coasters?”, to which NC girl says, “No, I’m deathly afraid of roller coasters”, and the first lady then replies, “well, it’s nothing like that!” Too funny! But bottom line, the 2nd lady said she loved it, they had done it a few times and couldn’t wait to go up again.
NC girl is still fretting, especially as we watch the first lady who went up do acrobatics. Wow! Now that was wild. It looked great, particularly because we were standing on the ground. We end up leaving before the NC couple goes up. So, we hope she did all right.
Back down to Honolulu, we make a pit stop at the Costco to buy macadamia nuts (cheapest place around – and they are still $3 a can), phew. We gas up the car there too, then head back to turn it in. We spend the rest of the afternoon just hanging out, going to the muster drill where the video has no sound, so it was a very relaxing drill. LOL. Then back in our cabin where we are greeted with this great rainbow across Waikiki.
We also were offered to eat in Murano for half price, so that’s our evening plans, as we wait to sail to Maui at midnight.
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