We decided to tour the island of Oahu by car. We headed to breakfast really early and then went to pick up the car. We started from Waikiki west towards Hawaii Kai (the wealthy area) and went counter clockwise around the island. Our first stop was Diamond Head.
Diamond Head was about a mile walk up STEEP steps/pathways to the top of a dormant volcano. The view up there was amazing though; you could practically see the whole island, it was beautiful.
Next, we tried to stop at Hanauma Bay, but as soon as we crested the hill the parking lot was full and they do not allow any more people in the bay until it clears out somewhat. We had to put our snorkeling on hold for now.
We continued on around the island with stops at Sandy Beach and then MakaPuu Point and Beach, the latter of which was our favorite of any beach we have ever been!!
Great aerial shot of MakaPuu Beach, from the Point.
This beach had the clearest water and the sandiest bottom. I was shoulder deep in water and I could see my toe nail polish!! There was NOTHING to step on, nothing slimey, it was awesome. It also had some fantastic waves.
Michael Phelps, eat your heart out!
Jeff and I played around in there for a while and decided we’d have to move on or we’d never make it around the island before the day was over. We were starting to get a little hungry, so we decided to stop at Panda Express. Oh yes, there are freestanding Panda Express restaurants in Hawaii. We took it to a local park and ate as we overlooked some random bay with sailboats. It was pretty.
We next went on to Lanikai Beach. This is consistently rated on of the top beach in Hawaii, and I think America. It certainly was a nice beach – very quiet, clear water, clean beaches. It was a little too calm for us though, we were looking for adventure and big waves, so we were off shortly after arriving. From there we drove along the coast until we got to the Banzai Pipeline on Oahu's North Shore.
"Banzai Pipeline" in the summer.........placid.
This apparently is where all the surfers go because the waves here are the largest around . . . in the winter. We showed up and there wasn’t a surfer in sight and you could barely tell the water was moving. No waves whatsoever. We later learned that the big waves are in the winter (the waterfalls too apparently). It was a nice beach though. We then tried to see one of the many waterfalls on the island, but upon arriving we were informed we would only see plants because the waterfalls dry up in the summer. Ah well, back to the hotel . . . or so we thought.
Driving home we noticed the Dole Plantation off to our right. After an abrupt stop and U-turn, we made our way to the parking lot. It was 5:20 and they closed at 6pm, what else should we do besides get lost in the largest hedge maze in America. After the ticket lady gave us the stink-eye for wanting a ticket (apparently it takes 45 minutes to get through this maze and she didn’t want to wait around for us to finish) we were off. They give you this card and you’re supposed to hunt for these various stations to stencil in different figures and then find the exit. We felt like we were on the Amazing Race running around this place, getting lost, splitting up when we came to forks in the road and then calling each others names trying to find each other when one of us hit a dead end. After awhile we had to cheat because this thing was intense. Finally we made it out at 6:08. There wasn’t a soul left in the place. So we let ourselves out and headed back to the hotel.
The 2 acre Dole Plantation Pineapple Hedge Maze.
By the time we got back to the hotel it was rather late so we decided to look up places to eat and settled on Hula Grill. It was outdoor seating on a second floor of a hotel and it over looked the beach with tiki torches and the whole nine. Kim stepped out of her normal food box and tried some kind of “foofey” fish called Opah. It’s not really foofey, but it was new. It was a great view and the weather was nice. We did a little more strolling on the town and window shopping and then it was back to bed.
We next went on to Lanikai Beach. This is consistently rated on of the top beach in Hawaii, and I think America. It certainly was a nice beach – very quiet, clear water, clean beaches. It was a little too calm for us though, we were looking for adventure and big waves, so we were off shortly after arriving. From there we drove along the coast until we got to the Banzai Pipeline on Oahu's North Shore.
"Banzai Pipeline" in the summer.........placid.
This apparently is where all the surfers go because the waves here are the largest around . . . in the winter. We showed up and there wasn’t a surfer in sight and you could barely tell the water was moving. No waves whatsoever. We later learned that the big waves are in the winter (the waterfalls too apparently). It was a nice beach though. We then tried to see one of the many waterfalls on the island, but upon arriving we were informed we would only see plants because the waterfalls dry up in the summer. Ah well, back to the hotel . . . or so we thought.
Driving home we noticed the Dole Plantation off to our right. After an abrupt stop and U-turn, we made our way to the parking lot. It was 5:20 and they closed at 6pm, what else should we do besides get lost in the largest hedge maze in America. After the ticket lady gave us the stink-eye for wanting a ticket (apparently it takes 45 minutes to get through this maze and she didn’t want to wait around for us to finish) we were off. They give you this card and you’re supposed to hunt for these various stations to stencil in different figures and then find the exit. We felt like we were on the Amazing Race running around this place, getting lost, splitting up when we came to forks in the road and then calling each others names trying to find each other when one of us hit a dead end. After awhile we had to cheat because this thing was intense. Finally we made it out at 6:08. There wasn’t a soul left in the place. So we let ourselves out and headed back to the hotel.
The 2 acre Dole Plantation Pineapple Hedge Maze.
By the time we got back to the hotel it was rather late so we decided to look up places to eat and settled on Hula Grill. It was outdoor seating on a second floor of a hotel and it over looked the beach with tiki torches and the whole nine. Kim stepped out of her normal food box and tried some kind of “foofey” fish called Opah. It’s not really foofey, but it was new. It was a great view and the weather was nice. We did a little more strolling on the town and window shopping and then it was back to bed.
Honolulu, Day 4, Thursday
We slept in today, didn’t even set an alarm clock. We were one of the last one’s to show up for breakfast. It was awesome. After breakfast we had about an hour or so before we needed to meet our bus for the catamaran ride so we headed down to the beach. After moving twice because either there were too many rocks on the ocean floor or too much seaweed it was getting close to when we had to leave, so we made our way back to the hotel, changed, and were on our way.
The Makani Catamaran. a $1.8 million vessel.
The bus arrived and it ended up really being a small van, driven by none other then the captain of the catamaran himself, Captain Jon. We were the only people he had to pick up so we chatted it up on the way to the marina. He was a really neat guy to talk to. He actually built the boat we were going to sail on. He said he moved to the Caribbean for a year and him and 25 Rastafarians built the catamaran. Then, they all sailed the ship from St. Croix through the Panama Canal and then up to Hawaii. What an awesome trip.
"Pal" He was totally intimidating!
After a short detour to pick up his dog “Pal”, a miniature pincher, who snuggled right up on Kim’s lap, we got to the dock. We boarded the vessel and were off. This was probably one of our favorite activities on our whole trip. The three crew members were very funny and very accommodating. The views from the boat were simply amazing. Drinks were cheap, the food was great, everything about it was perfect. There were only about 20 of us so we got to interact with the captain a lot while he sailed. It was a lot like being out on a friends boat for the weekend, it was really neat. I think I took about 100 pictures.
After we got back Captain Jon drove us back. This time, however, we had another family with us and I think the dad was a little drunk because he was talking really loud, making asinine comments, and being generally annoying. Captain Jon dropped us off first, we thanked him, and then wished him luck on the rest of the drive. He rolled his eyes with a smile, said he’d need it, and was off.
We got back to the room and gave our good friend from college a call. Garrett had just moved to Hawaii about a month prior. We hadn’t seen him in a very long time, later we guessed it was probably 5 years, so it was nice to meet up. After rendezvousing on the street we headed over to Dukes for dinner. The food there was great. We had a few drinks, ate, chatted away, and then decided to stroll for a bit to find a bar. We settled on a place that looked neat from the outside and it turns out it’s the bar the cast from Lost frequents when they are filming. We had several concoctions served in coconut mugs and figured it was quitting time. After all, we had a big day of sleeping in ahead of us.
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