I took one look out the window and immediately fell in love with the North Shore of Oahu. This is by far my favorite part of Hawaii that I have been to so far. After Thursday night I couldn't wait to get back on Friday.
Friday morning we woke up to another beautifully sunny day in Honolulu. We went down the street in Waikiki to have breakfast at Hiking Hawaii, a cafe that also leads hiking and camping tours around Oahu. They had delicious acai bowls and breakfast sandwiches.
After breakfast we headed right up to Haleiwa on the North Shore. One thing that I had been looking to purchase on this trip was a new swimsuit that didn't cost a fortune. (How can such a small piece of material cost SO much, anyway?!) I was getting down on my luck, until I noticed on Thursday night at dinner that the swimwear store next door had changed their 50% sale sign I saw earlier in the day to a 75% sale sign after closing! So we stopped back there on Friday morning. I had great success and got two new swimsuits for a great deal. What a way to start the day!
Next, we drove farther up the shoreline just past Haleiwa to have lunch at Farm Cafe, a roadside restaurant owned by Mel, a guy that is helping Will get the plantings going and will continue to help once the trees are in the ground. While we were there, Will talked with Mel about the land that he toured yesterday in Haleiwa as well as Mel's participation in the video the Terviva guys would be filming the following week as a part of their grant application. We shared a bite to eat made using ingredients from the farm right behind the restaurant!
Along this stretch of road there is a small body of water separate from the ocean, but just a stone's throw away. It is surrounded by grassy land, and looks flooded like a farmer's field after a really rainy summer. You would never know it, but in this water they grow shrimp! And along the roadway are several shrimp trucks. They take shrimp right out of the water, cook it, and serve it up! Talk about fresh!
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| Yummy garlic shrimp! |
After lunch we couldn't wait to get to Waimea Valley. We went on the short one mile walk to the waterfall and got right in. Swimming in the waterfall was an amazing experience. It was refreshing to be in fresh water and out of the salt water for a bit. It was also very challenging to stay close to the bottom of the waterfall. It was what I imagine swimming in an endless pool would be like.
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| Sitting in the waterfall! |
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| Beautiful botanical gardens. There are a lot of endangered species of flora in the gardens. |
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| Will picked some flowers for my hair : ) |
We went back up the shoreline, away from Haleiwa, to get a pizza from a food truck. We took it to eat at the beach that overlooks the Three Tables - Shark's Cove area where we snorkeled Thursday. While we ate our pizza and watched the sunset we also saw what we could only assume was a vow renewal ceremony (such a sweet little family!) and paddleboarders paddling by.
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| Paddleboarder under the sun. |
Once the sun was down we drove along the eastern shore of Oahu, also know as the windward shore. We stopped partway through the drive for a moonlit beach walk before we took a highway that cuts through the rainforest to get us back to Honolulu.
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