Driving Around Oahu

Today was a day of driving...and driving...and driving...and driving. What, you may ask, were we doing driving all day when we are on this beautiful island? Well, seeing the very same beautiful island we are staying on.  :)  We began our day with a late breakfast at Zippy's, which shares a space with a bakery that had some amazing looking things. I enjoyed my breakfast, and think others did as well. The corned beef hash in my dish was fluffy and light, something I've never experienced in corned beef hash before. Good stuff.

From there we headed northwest to Mililani, where Katy and her family used to live. I would have gotten a picture of the house, but it didn't look all that great, and I get the impression it used to look a LOT nicer.  :)  Once you get out of Honolulu, things begin to look a lot more like some of the suburban, more planned communities I am used to. You know, if the suburban, more planned communities I lived in had beautiful palm trees, amazing weather and were close to the ocean. So, almost the same. :)  As you get further away from the city, things get VERY different.  I was too busy watching the map on my phone to make sure we headed where we wanted to so I didn't nab any pics on our way up to the North Shore, but it's like going through any small town in America, just with loads of people and a bunch of surfers. :)

Before we got all the way up to the North Shore area, however, we made a stop at the Dole Pineapple Plantation. Let me just say, if you ever get a chance to come here, go there and get a Pineapple Whip. My GOSH that is good, and we had some fresh pineapple as well, which is just so much better than what we get at the store back home. Wow. Then Katy and I took Zac, and Mickie took the kids as well, through the Pineapple Maze. Apparently this thing is the largest of some kind and is in the Guinness Book of World Records? All I know is, there isn't much breeze inside this kind of maze so we were glad to find the rare spot with a breeze because it was quite warm there.  The Pineapple Whip was a just reward for our efforts, which took I think 51 minutes or so to get through the maze and find all the secret spots they have you search for.  

After leaving the Plantation and driving along the north side for quite some time, we stopped for a late lunch at the Turtle Bay Resort area, and as it turns out, in a restaurant owned by the same guy who ran the one we ate at the other night. I did not make the mistake of ordering the same food this time, :), but did have a good Butterfish filet, which I guess might also be called Black Cod, if I heard the guy right. I have a pic here of the view from my seat at the table, looking out at the waves, along with some capturing most of our group.

We then went down to the beach to walk around water's edge for a bit (the beach is way too rocky to be that comfortable, but many were enjoying the ocean anyway). The best part, and gosh I wish I had a video of this, was the guy surfing with his dog. That's right. And the funny thing is, his dog would be out on the front edge of his surfboard, and as he began to paddle toward shore as the wave came in, his dog would mimic his paddling. Then as the man began surfing, the dog would stand on the edge at the front and bark the whole way in. He was pretty funny. I didn't catch video because after the second time of seeing this, the dog swam around for a bit, then rolled around in the sand a bunch and headed off with his owner. Sorry!

We continued our tour around the north and then northeast side of the island while we drove on a highway that sticks pretty close to the ocean. Surely the people who live here don't get bored with that, right? The waves are pretty cool to see on that other side, I should add, and Katy grabbed this picture you see on the right of Mokoli'i, also known as Chinaman's Hat. We eventually stopped at Dave's Hawaiian Ice Cream in the little town of Waimanalo. Most had ice cream and a couple had shaved ice. Once we completed that we realized it was getting dark (apparently the sun sets close to 7 or 7:30 here year round; weird, right?) so we decided to backtrack just a bit to Kaneohe and head back down the Pali Highway to Honolulu.

Upon our return nobody was hungry but me for anything much, so I ordered the catch of the day from room service, which turned out to be Opah, also known as Moonfish. For reference, this is what one of those looks like.  Pretty weird, huh? Also, very tasty. I really enjoyed it.

It has been a VERY long day and tomorrow will be even longer as we fly over to the Big Island for a volcano tour and a bunch of other sightseeing that will take all day. We leave super early and get back pretty late. I feel a collapse coming on, but I am buoyed by the fact I found an Apple Store apparently just 500 feet from the hotel, so I have an appointment for Thursday afternoon to get my phone looked at and, I suspect, replaced. Stay tuned for Wednesday night's update on the full day trip. :)