Advertisement
Published: July 28th 2009
July 22-24 I am tired. Yesterday was a long, full day of activity and today I slept it off and didn’t leave the house until after three. I didn’t have much in mind to do, just take the bus over to the Blaisdell Farmer’s Market before my Wednesday Niketown run.
The farmers market was pretty small, but still there was tons of great stuff like fresh baked breads, organic vegetables, fruits, jams and spreads, and flowers. I bought my first apple bananas (smaller version of a banana that tastes pretty much the same, maybe a little sweeter?) and some fresh hamburger buns for dinner tomorrow night.
With still about 30 extra minutes on my hands before having to be at Nike, I ran into Ross in search of a yellow shirt or sports bra. Tonight’s run at Niketown was a “support Lance run” where everyone would be wearing yellow. I didn’t bring anything yellow, and there was nothing impressive at all in Ross, so I was resigned to show up in what I was already wearing: green. Well…it’s the next closest color in the rainbow right?
At Niketown I ran into a new friend, Pete, who I had
Koko Head Stairs
You can see the trail of stairs leading up the mountainmet on Saturday and had talked to a little bit. He’s a high school English teacher in Santa Monica who is out here vacationing for a few weeks. We ran the 4.6 route together tonight in the most fantastic cool, breezy, rainy weather. It was one of the strongest runs I’ve had this summer; I felt great! Once we got back, we exchanged numbers and made plans to meet up sometime over the next few days for happy hour.
Still feeling on top of the world from the run, I walked back towards home and stopped for dinner at the Rainbow Drive-In. I’ve heard a lot about this place, and I walk by it every single day. Totally affordable and popular with the locals, I wanted to make sure I tried it at least once before leaving. Not sure what to order, I settled on Mahi-Mahi (fried - like EVERYTHING else here), a scoop of rice, and a scoop of macaroni salad. I can say for sure it was a far from healthy meal. The fish was good…and the macaroni salad was too, although I’m not sure I’ve ever had anything with so much mayo in it! One stop
Koko Head Stairs
looking up from the bottom here may just be enough for me, however, I am a little tempted to go back to try the Loco Moco (a local favorite of rice, hamburger, egg, and gravy…I think).
The next day was equally uneventful. I took the bus over to the Ala Moana center and then walked to the beach across the street. Sadly, it was an overcast day, and I spent a few hours just lying out and reading at the beach. I’ve wanted to see what Ala Moana Beach was like - it’s at the very far end of Waikiki, and is popular with the locals (very few tourists at all). It was okay, definitely not the same beautiful view or soft sand as Waikiki, but it’s a great escape from the traffic. While there I tried my first open water swim, but I was surprised to find that I didn’t enjoy it very much. I think I still prefer laps in the pool over the salty, rough ocean water.
My only real plan for the day was a late dinner with Bill. I said I’d make it while he was at Frisbee practice…hamburger, rice, and corn and I even made a special
1048 Stairs
only a thousand stairs to climb, how bad can it be? stop at Cold Stone for an ice cream dessert. My only request was that he cook the hamburger when he got home since I really don’t know what I’m doing. So around 8:30 I boiled the corn and the rice and prepared the hamburgers for Bill to cook up when he returned, which I figured would be 9:30 at the latest. 9:15 comes, 9:30, nothing…9:45 still not home. By 10pm I was so disappointed; I made my plate and cleaned up the rest. Then I hear him come in. “Hey…what’s up,” he says just strolling in casually from practice. I couldn’t really look at him I was so frustrated. He got right to work on the hamburger while I went downstairs. All I can figure is that the loneliness was finally hitting me; I cried. It’s just that I’ve been here for two months…for the most part.. alone…and I’ve gotten to the point where the little things are sometimes all I have to look forward to. Yeah, it’s just dinner, but to me, it was the only thing I had planned all day long. Once I realized why I was so emotional, it was easier to put behind me. I
joined Bill back upstairs for dinner and we watched the movie Kite Runner and enjoyed our ice cream.
Friday morning I woke up early and motivated. I went for a 6 mile run around Diamond Head and then packed my backpack for the day. I took the bus to Hawaii Kai determined to hike the Koko Head Stairs then relax at the beach afterwards.
From afar, the stairs don’t look too bad. How difficult can it possibly be to hike 1100 stairs? I wasn’t too worried. I set off at a brisk pace, trying to stretch my short legs from one railroad tie to the next, one step each. Soon I was huffing and puffing and needed a short break to breathe. I looked down and saw the number 400 painted on the railroad track. Okay, I thought to myself, I’m already over a third of the way there! Continuing on, the climb became steeper and the breaks more frequent. The best part of the climb was a stretch of maybe 200 feet or so of railroad and steps that went over a gorge below. I could see the drop underneath as I crossed above and it definitely
Sandy Beach wave
see the person at the top of it? made my heart pound a bit.
By the 700th step I was finding it more and more difficult to continue the climb. 800…okay getting close. 900…I thought I was going to puke. Really. The final 140 steps were extremely slow. 10 at a time, maybe. It was such a crazy feeling to see the top of the stairs and the mountain just 20 steps above and yet it seemed to take so long to move up those last 20 stairs! Finally I made it! I wish I looked at the time it took me to climb it. I’m guessing it was somewhere around 20-25 minutes. The record: 9 minutes! And I thought I was in decent shape!
From there, I walked a few miles down the freeway to Sandy Beach and crashed in the sand. I was really excited to find a ripe, juicy mango lying on the side of the road. It’s one of my little pleasures found in Hawaii…fruit trees everywhere. My favorites are the mango trees and it was the perfect treat for the beach. Sandy Beach is extremely popular with the locals for its hard crashing waves and great bodysurfing. These waves were absolutely
The Pacific shoreline
along the highway as I walked down to Sandy Beach incredible. Massive! I spent an hour or so just lying out, resting and watching. I never got in the water here; it’s just too scary.
By 5:30 I caught the bus back home, determined to make the most out of my Friday night despite being exhausted. I showered, got dressed, and walked down to Duke’s to get a drink. As expected, Duke’s was packed and finding a seat at the bar was not going to happen. Luckily, I met two guys, Sam and Dan from Australia, who invited me to join them at their dinner table, which made for a fun hour.
Afterwards, I hooked up with Tiffany who was just finishing her shift at Duke’s and we decided to go next door to Cheesecake Factory for drinks and pizza. It wasn’t the most eventful Friday night, but it was great to get out of the house and enjoy the night out!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.108s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 5; qc: 52; dbt: 0.0574s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Holly
non-member comment
DANG!!
These are some of the best pictures of the trip- in my opinion!! And those stairs are totally gnar bar (That's Daniel slang). You put me to great shame. Frick no I wouldn't have set foot in that water...those waves are out of control