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.