LAST DAY IN HAWAII - EAST COAST TOUR

We woke up to a beautiful clear morning - it had been raining a lot the day before.  We decided to drive to Diamond Head.  We had breakfast at Eggs and Things.  Kind of a big breakfast.  We got to Diamond Head park at about 9:30.  This wasn't a unique idea - even the place to wait for a parking place was filled up.  We were told to go away and come back another time.  I guess for us, that'll be another Oahu trip.

From there we drove around to see Hanauma Bay.  First, the bay itself is gorgeous.

Hanauma Bay seen from the parking lot.

Charlie just before we snorked

Me too

An Hawaiian white egret - another parking lot bird

Beyond the parking lot was a ticket office, a store, and a restaurant.  We weren't permitted to walk down the hill to the bay until we had seen a 9 minute video about preservation of the corals and sea life.  At the bottom were showers, changing stations, life guards, places to rent snorkeling equipment, and best of all - the bay itself.  Charlie's hip is very sore, and since my operation 20 years ago, I've really had trouble snorkeling.  We decided to give it a go anyway, and rented fins, snorkels and masks.  Wow!  Am I glad we did.  Somehow, I was able to breath through a snorkel without problems (first time in years) and Charlie, although a bit slow, was able to use the fins.  Snorkeling in Hanauma Bay is like snorkeling in an aquarium.  We saw Convict fish, Trigger Fish, Parrot Fist, lots of others as well.  Our problem this trip was the weather.  When we got to the bay itself, although it wasn't particularly cloudy, it was misting rain.  We snorkeled for about 2 hours, and I got cold.  When we went onto the shore to "warm up"  misty clouds began to pull off other clouds, like cotton candy.  It was getting wetter, and darker.  We opted to leave - but I definitely plan to return.  What a wonderful spot!!

By the time we got back to the car it was full on raining.  We stopped at Halona blow hole - but it was too wet to appreciate.  We drove on around the east coast.  We drove to Waimanolo Beach.  We drove along a suburban street.  Each little road perpendicular to it said, "beach access".  What a gorgeous beach - even in the rain.

Me - apres snorkeling on Waimanolo beach

From there we drove to Kailua.  We had a bit of trouble finding the beach.  We did find the center of the small town of Kailua and a marine base.  Eventually we found the beach.  Another beautiful spot - but it was teeming rain here.  We found a group of guys that were parasurfing.  At least one was.  The rest were sitting with their equipment getting drenched.

This guy was tearing around with that sail on his surfboard!

His buddies hiding from the rain

We continued our damp journey to Kaneohe Bay.  Not really for swimming but very picturesque.

Above Charlie is standing next to our lime green Kia.  It was easy to drive, and easy to spot in parking lots.

Some scenery along Kaneohe Bay.

We drove back to Waikiki.  I was chilly, but our silly hotel had barely lukewarm water.  At least I got the salt off.  We went back to Cheeseburgers in Paradise - oddly not as good as last night.  We then went to the Moana Surfrider hotel along the beach for some wine.  Back to the hotel -

We flew home on Sunday - Charlie's birthday.  Lovely trip - ready to go back!

OAHU - SECOND FULL DAY - AQUARIUM - DOLE PINEAPPLE - SHOPPING

It was drizzling in the morning so we decided to walk to the Honolulu Aquarium - less than a mile from our hotel.  Glenn and Krysty really know their stuff!  

Walled swimming along Waikiki 

Common myna - seen all over Oahu 

Pacific Golden Plover - again - very common on Oahu

The aquarium is small but very informative.  They explained how the managed to keep jellyfish and sea horses alive in their tanks.  Cool bit of info - jellyfish tanks are rounded - I guess so the jellyfish won't get stuck?  break apart?

We had lunch at Marukame Udon.  We had avoided it the night before because of the lone line to get in.  The line is worth it.  They hand make the udon noodles, you have a choice of different kinds of soups or salads (with udon of course).  They also had various toppings, a few sushis (we tried spam - it is Hawaii), and some tempura.  Really a great place.  Only in Japan and Hawaii - too bad.

After lunch we drove out to the Dole Pineapple Plantation to see what was there.  The first, and best thing, was a little steam train - the Pineapple Express - that drove around a bit on the plantation explaining the history and some of the plants.  We also walked around a garden with explanations on a phone-like device. Then into their shop.  What a nightmare.  It reminded me of the old Casa de Fruta in Pacheco Pass.  You could buy pineapples and have them shipped back to the States for $70 - great.  You could buy Dole T shirts, magnets, swimsuits, candy, and on and on.  

the Pineapple Express

Pretty Hawaiian trees and red soil - pineapples like iron

Rainbow gum tree from the garden at Dole Plantation

Pretty habiscus from the garden

Brazilian Red Capped Cardinal - it was hopping around the Dole parking lot

We went back to the Ala Moana center and had a coffee.  Then back to the hotel.  That night's dinner - Cheeseburgers in Paradise - we only ate at the finest of establishments.

JANUARY SHORT HOP TO HONOLULU

We had gone to Seattle the second week of January.  I was learning how to use a new camera, and, apparently, managed to dump all my photos.  They weren't great.  I'll need to try again.  We stayed in a wonderful hotel along Lake Washington in Kirkland.  The weather was drizzly, but I discovered that you can get a bus from Kirkland to Seattle for only $2.25 each way.  Much easier than trying to drive.  Charlie worked with Stuart Smith - I toured about.

JANUARY 21

The trip to Hawaii actually began as a possible trip to Boston, Ma.  Charlie was going to work with a colleague there.  "Unfortunately"  the colleague was actually coming to LA.  Charlie asked why were we thinking of going to Boston if no one was there to work with.  Why not Hawaii?  Indeed!  Glenn and Krysty love Oahu, talked a lot about where they had gone, and where they stayed.  We hadn't been to Oahu in years, and followed their advice.  We left on a Wednesday morning, the 21st.  Thanks to Glenn and Krysty's advice, we stayed on the east side of Waikiki.    We landed at 12:30, picked up our lime green Kia then off to Waikiki. Our hotel was OK - not their advice - but the area was great. We got to the hotel by only 1:30 and really hadn't planned on what to do.  Part of the hotel "freebies" was a free pass on the Pink bus.  Its main goal was to drag everyone to the Ala Moana shopping center.  That's what we did.  The shopping center is immense - filled with a strange combination of very high end stores - Neiman Marcus Nordstroms Prada on and on - and Hawaiian gift shops.  We got back to the hotel, walked down to the water (only about 2 blocks away), and had a Maitai at Duke's.  We watched the sunset, and had dinner there.  Back to our hotel.

JANUARY 22
This was the first time I had been to Hawaii in winter.  We decided to see the north shore of Oahu, since there was a chance we'd see big waves.  Lots of crazy surf.

Turtle bay

Our first stop was Turtle Bay.  There were signs all along the road before we got there pleading not to expand commercialization to the northern coast.  After seeing the Turtle Bay resort - I'm in strong agreement.  The only way to the bay was a path next to the main buildings.  Clearly the resort didn't want riff raff on their beach.  With public access, we could have swum.  It was just an odd place.  They had their own golf course.  Later on our trip I looked up how much it would cost to stay there.  Amazingly, as much as the more expensive hotels in Waikiki. 

We continued on to Sunset Beach.  The waves were dramatic - lots of signs to stay out of the water.

Not a problem.  They looked scary.

Along the coast, the next stop was the Banzai Pipeline.  Too much blow out for cool pipes - more crashing waves and yellow police tape keeping everyone out of the water.

Next stop - Waimea Bay - Here were the surfers.  We guessed the waves were 15 - 20 feet, but heard on the news that night they were 20 - 30.  Again, no problem for us staying out of the water.

Surfers in the photo aren't us - no surprise.

We drove as far as the town of Haleiwa.  Really a great Hawaiian place.  We had lunch at Kono's - famous for their pulled pork sandwiches.  

Shopping area in Haleiwa that had Kono's pork sandwiches

A chicken moocher

We got back to the hotel at about 5.  That night on a recommendation from the Hertz Renta Car tour book we went to Seaside Grill.  It's not on the seaside - it's on Kohio (parallel to the main drag - one street up).  Good maitai - nice garlic shrimp.