Wednesday - North Shore

Our big outing for the day was to drive from Ko O Lina to the North Shore of Oahu.  We drove on H1 to H2 and then the Kamehameha Highway....so now we have driven on all of the Interstates in HI :)  The folks who live in Honolulu say that they are going to 'the country' when they go to the North Shore.

We passed the Dole Pineapple Plantation and through an agricultural area  with beautiful mountain views on the western side of the road (the back side of the mountains behind Ko O Lina that we see every day (but there is no road from one side to the other).  Once we hit the north shore the road followed the coast.  We stopped at Waimea Bay Beach Park which is one of most dangerous surf beaches in the winter.  Today it was calm and quiet with a line of teenagers who climbed to the top of the rocks and jumped off (at least those with courage did that.  We watched one boy take several tentative steps and back off - then he actually did a back flip off of the rocks!

Then we drove to the turnoff to the Bonzai Pipeline to watch the surfers.  This is a gorgeous beach with strong surf and currents.  Lots of surfers to watch and medium size waves.  Carson and Nick had fun playing on the beach and chasing some waves.

We really enjoyed being there and could have stayed much longer but had places to go and things to see :)  So we continued down the highway (one line each way ) to the turn off to the Turtle Bay Resort.  I had been told how luxurious it was and that they had public parking and a public access beach where green turtles could often be seen.

We had lunch in a beach side outdoor restaurant where the views were lovely but the service poor.  The burgers and beer worked for us since we were hungry!  Then we walked down to the beach (lots of rocks, very clear water with what looked like good snorkeling on the right side of the beach.  No turtles to be seen.  Ellen and I walked around the property and decided that we were really glad that we were staying at Ko O Lina.

We decided to pick up shrimp for dinner at Romy's Shrimp Hut (we had been there on our last trip and loved the large, farmed shrimp that this area is known for)

We headed for the H3 to go home so that the Fioris could experience the magnificent mountain views.  On the way we passed a Leonard Junior's truck and had to detour to pick up Malasadas (portugese filled doughnuts) as a requisite treat.  They cook them while you wait and fill with your choice of fillings.  We had been introduced to Malasadas by my friend and classmate Clementina on a previous trip and have to have our 'fix' whenever  we're on Oahu.  Everyone enjoyed them - the Fioris had chocolate; Art and I had cinnamon - Mike thinks they are a cross between hot jelly donuts and funnel cakes....yummy!  

It started to rain shortly thereafter and rained all the way down the east coast but cleared in time for us to enjoy the beauty of the H3.  Then we ran into Honolulu typical traffic on the H1 and had a slow drive home where it had obviously rained hard in our absence.  Dinner in tonight and an early to bed evening after a fun and tiring day.