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Published: July 17th 2009
Me at the Byodo-In Temple
I loved this stop on our drive. It's a place of peace & tranquility.Finally...a full day with a rental car to tour the entire north shore of the island. I'm stoked. Alex, Gloria, and Sabina picked me up around 10am and our first destination was just down the street: Leonard's Bakery. It's just across the street from Safeway, and I've been tempted to stop, but have yet to do it. Apparently, malasadas are quite popular there, and you've got to try them at least once while you're here, so we did. We grabbed 1/2 dozen, 3 chocolate filled, 2 custard, and 1 haupia. They're really just sugar donuts filled with cream, and I'm not sure what the big deal is about them, but it didn't stop me from eating two of 'em. (keep this in mind as it won't be the only dessert stop of the day)
Next we took the H1 up to the Pali Overlook. This would be my third time there, but it never gets old. The view is incredible, and the strong winds feel so invigorating. From there, we drove through Kaneohe to the Valley of the Temples. This one I was super excited to see. The main destination is the Byodo-In Temple, which is an exact
Me
a fun picture replica of a temple in Japan, built here to commemorate the first Japanese immigrant who came over. Viewers of the show "Lost" will recognize this temple as the sight were Sun & Jin were married (just seen this past season when Jacob came up to talk to them after the ceremony).
Once you step on to the property of the Temple, the pace slows, people begin to whisper, relaxation and peace take over. It's gorgeous. You hear the birds chirping, the breeze blowing through the trees, the musical sound of the gong being rang by guests, and smell the fragrant scent of flowers and incense burning. If I had a yoga mat with me, I could spend the entire day here in peace and introspection. Eh..maybe another time. For now I walked the property taking it all in. The koi fish pond is crazy...the fish are gigantic and they follow you on the surface with their mouths open. Seriously! Pecocks also roam the property and there was one on the balcony, but he never spread his feathers while we were there.
Back into the car and up the road, we pulled over at the park next to Chinaman's
Giovanni's Shrimp Truck
Lunch stop...famous for their peel and eat shrimp Hat. Been here, done that...so I took a few fun pics and was ready to move on. Our 5th stop was the town of Lai'e. It's a small town heavily populated by Mormons. Who knew? There's a BYU college there, a giant Mormon temple, and also the Polynesian Cultural Center, which I still haven't decided whether or not I'll be taking this day-long excursion. We stopped only at Lai'e point to see this rock formation that has a giant hole in the center of it. It was formed when a tsunami crashed into it and knocked the hole into the rock.
Time to eat; our 6th stop was the famous Giovanni Shrimp Truck in Kuhuku. The shrimp trucks are really popular with the tourists when heading to the north shore. This one is probably the most famous. It's just a truck that sells shrimp plates with rice and there's outdoor bench and picnic table seating...nothing special at all, but many say it's their favorite stop on the north shore. They serve three types of shrimp: scampi, spicy, and garlic & lemon. I ordered a half plate of the scampi which was 6 peel & eat shrimp and one scoop
Ehukai Beach
otherwise known as the Bonzai Pipeline when the surf's up in the winter of rice, and I traded a few of mine with Alex so I could taste the spicy too. It was all pretty good, though I think $13 for a full plate is totally overpriced.
Next, we passed by Sunset beach and stopped at the beach famous for its incredible 20-30 foot surfing waves - Bonzai Pipeline, or Ehukai Beach. I absolutely loved this beach! It's huge, and desolate (since the big waves are only here in the winter), and gorgeous. I hope to come back here to spend a few hours sometime soon. We took a few pictures, but quickly continued on to Waimea Beach, our 8th stop. Finally it was time to hit the water! The sand is especially hot here Jen, I noticed that too...but it's such a fun beach. I love the jumping rock, although this time Alex did the jump and I refrained. While lying on the beach, we saw dolphins jumping far out in the ocean. I've never seen dolphins in the ocean before, so I couldn't get enough of it. In fact, there was a stand up paddler out there pretty close and I think he kept jumping off his board to swim
Turtle Basking at Turtle Beach
They've got a transmitter on this guy to track his movement. Interesting.. with them. Well, at least that's how it looked from the shore. I was sooo jealous. Finally, I climbed onto my boogie board and paddled myself as far as I could. I got maybe halfway, but my boogie board is a Walmart special, so cheap that it barely works to float on, never mind sit on. I did see the dolphins jump a little closer, but again, I remembered that I was in the ocean, not a lake, and that I really didn't want to get that far out in the water, so I headed back to the shore.
We packed up our stuff around 5:30pm and began making our way to the final destination Haleiwa. On our way we stopped at Turtle Beach to see if we could see any turtles. I think you can always see turtles at turtle beach, but we were lucky that the best times are in the afternoon. We saw one feeding right on the shore, and another one was basking (well...that's what they called it) in the sun. He had a transmitter glued to his back and signs around him that explained he was one of the 20 or so turtles that
At the "Lost" Beach
All I need for this perfect day is to find Sawyer or Jack they monitor. Seeing these turtles up so close is so cool! I'm dying to go back to this beach and really try to snorkel with the turtles. There's always people in the water. I want to be so brave too!
Stop #10 was in a small little neighborhood just off of the freeway. It's the sight of the "Lost" beach, the beach where scenes from the show are filmed. I feel like I recognize it, but I just don't know....I guess I have to check the first season again to be sure. By now it was close to 6:30 so we quickly finished the North Shore tour in the town of Haleiwa where we hoped to get to Matsumoto's Shave Ice. Unfortunately, it was closed, so we went next door to Aoki's. I'd been to Aoki's the first time, and I thought it was great, but I'm bummed that I didn't get to try Matsumoto's which is more well known. (And this would be dessert #2 for the day) So this time I decided to branch out again and try something different. I ordered mine with vanilla ice cream and sweet beans; not sure what sweet beans really were.
Aoki's Shave ice
for the second time Eeew! I'm pretty sure they're black beans. Like Mexican black beans! At least that's what they tasted like in my ice cream. For sure I won't order these again. They made even my ice cream taste bad. Note to self: stick to the shave ice flavors and vanilla ice cream on bottom.
7pm and we were finally headed back to Waikiki. It was a bit of a drive and by the time everyone was ready for dinner, it was already after 9. We decided to head to Duke's...it's a sure thing....food's great, inexpensive, and hopping atmosphere. (still not eating chicken from this week's gross experience)...this time I ordered a turkey sandwich with bacon and tomato. It was good, though the bread was grilled and coated with butter, which taste's great, but I really would prefer not to eat being on this healthy kick and all. ha ha! as I order my third dessert of the day: the Hula Pie! Molly and I had it when we went to Kauai and it's indescribable, but I'll try. It's a huge slice of cake/pie with oreo cookie crust, macadamia nut ice cream, covered with hot fudge and whipped cream. Are you salivating?
The rocking chair at the Moana Surfrider
finally! rocking on the porch at my favorite hotel. Sabina and I shared it and yes finished it.
Walking back towards their hotel, I couldn't pass the Moana Surfrider by once more without finally planting myself on one of those cool rocking chairs on the porch. I now have my photograph that I've been talking about for so long. Our long day had finally come to an end. I had an awesome time and a pregnant hula pie belly to show for it.
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Heather
non-member comment
So weird to read your blog and see pictures of my Carlson buddies - so glad that you have had entertainment. The large rock with the hole in it was at the end of the street where we rented the house for the U2 concert - I really liked that area. Also, the shrimp truck - yummy I could eat there for days. It makes me happy just thinking about it. Good to know that you are enjoying yourself, holding down the fort here and yes, your neighbors have gotten crazier over the summer.