Go Big Island: Thanksgiving in Oahu

Aloha everybody! I hope everyone had a pleasant Thanksgiving and that you were all able to reflect on how lucky you are.

Tam and Michael on Crouching Lion trail, above the town of Ka'a'awa

We certainly were lucky and had a lot to be thankful for, because we spent our Thanksgiving (and its corresponding week) on the beautiful island of Oahu with the one and only Mr. Michael J. Gerard and the lovely Howard family.

On the morning that Rachel, Tamarah, and myself left Hilo to fly to Honolulu it was a lovely sunny morning, the first we'd seen in Hilo in about 3 weeks. When we arrived in Honolulu, it was raining, and we were entirely unsurprised that the universe would do such a thing to us.

View of Waikiki and Honolulu from top of Diamond Head Crater

We'd rented a car for the first 4 days of our stay on Oahu (which has the wonderfully apt nickname "The Gathering Place".) It is perhaps needless to say that we were entirely stoked to drive a car younger than ourselves for a little bit, with the bonus of it not being entirely overrun by cockroaches. We were thoroughly delighted when  Enterprise gave us the option to rent a litle red Nissan. I was saying that we should nickname our rental car "Miss Red" or something, as she was a proper car, in contrast to our dear "Lil Red," whose name more accurately represents her more ghetto characteristics.

The three of us arrived in Honolulu a good three hours before our dear friend Michael was to arrive, so we took Miss Red on a little spin into Honolulu where we met up with Tamarah's sister Jess, who lives in a little town near North Shore called Ka'a'awa but works as a pilates instructor in Honolulu. Jess living on Oahu is what brought the four of us (Tam, Rachel, Michael, and myself) and Tam's parents to the island for Thanksgiving. Jess brought us to Leonard's Bakery, the legendary home of malasadas on Oahu. Malasadas, for those who don't know (I didn't know) are Portuguese donuts and they're DELICIOUS. Rachel and I ate far too many and felt kinda sick, but it was worth it.

The one and only Michael Gerard

As I've mentioned in past posts, we are often struck by a sensation on the Big Island that we're not actually still in America, as the Big Island has a very particularly Hawaiian culture. This was not the case in Honolulu. Honolulu very much feels just like any other big American city. I felt like I was in a Californian city, really, and the others had to put up with me saying "This part of the city reminds me of LA," or "This part of the city reminds me of San Diego," every few minutes as we drove.

When we were finally able to pick up Michael at the airport it was an exciting reunion indeed. We were all super giddy and there was a lot of smiles and comparing tans (upsettingly we were only marginally more tan than Michael was, and he'd been essentially living as a shut-in student/waiter in Colorado while we were sunbathing on beaches in Hawaii. But I guess we can't really complain about such things too much.)

After the airport we met up with Jess again and sampled some free alcohol at the grocery store, purchased some alcohol at the grocery store, and then went to a beach just in time for sunset. The neighborhood the beach was in was really rather odd...it was full of mansions that were entirely abandoned. The huge houses were rife with graffiti and broken windows. We looked over the fence at this one glorious house right on the beach that was aglow with lights and abuzz with whirring hot tubs, and obviously empty. Jess told us there was a room in that house just full of bath tubs, for whatever reason. Rich people sure can be odd and wasteful.

The busy busy busy ocean at Waikiki

For dinner we thought it would be fun to check out Chinatown; I had it in my mind that Honolulu's Chinatown would be similar to San Francisco's, which is awesome, as both cities have a steady history of Asian immigrants. Unfortunately we all found Chinatown to be rather underwhelming. It kind of just felt like any other part of the city except for slightly more paper lanterns and a dash more Chinese restaurants. Nonetheless we had a delightful dinner at a fairly authentic Chinese restaurant. Our waiter warned us a couple of times against ordering certain things on the menu that we wanted, saying in so many words "white people don't typically order such things here." Despite our waiter's protests we ordered what we wanted anyways (because we're 'MERICANS,) which included the fine delicacy of cold jelly fish. It was alright. A little too chewy for my taste.

We were going to go dancing after dinner (because, as is probably obvious by now, we like to dance but don't have the opportunity that often.) However, we're now old people and are tired by 8. Also, Mr. Gerard lost his ID somewhere in LAX during his long voyage travelling stand-by. So we settled for getting cocktails (well Michael didn't,) then heading to Jess' (and her boyfriend Ryan's) place, which is about 45 minutes north of Honolulu for some good sleepy time.

The next day we woke up and had a delightful breakfast of eggs and toast with lilikoi butter (which is SO GOOD, like pudding,) and enjoyed the lovely view that Jess and Ryan have from their porch--Ka'a'awa (the little town they live in) is nestled right in between the ocean and the sharp, ragged, jungled mountains of Oahu.

Tam, Michael, and Rachel beach bouldering

After breakfast we journeyed further north to Waimea. It was raining when we first got to the beach so we took a quick detour across the highway first to checkout Waimea Falls Park, or at least as much of it as we could without paying. They shot a lot of movies there (including Jurassic Park, and supposedly somehow Lilo & Stitch.) When the rain let up we went to Waimea Bay Beach Park, where there was (to our pleasant surprise, especially Michael's,) some bouldering spots right on the beach. You can take the kid out of Colorado but you can't necessarily take the Colorado out of the kid. There was also a pretty large rock out in the water that we could jump off of into the waves below. Overall I would definitely recommend this spot, it was super cool (there were also some trees in the parking lot that looked straight out of Lothlorien.)

We got some groceries at Foodland, the North Shore's seemingly predominant grocery store chain, then went back for a quiet evening at Jess and Ryan's, where we made some stir fry and watched "My Neighbor Totoro" which was SO delightful.

Tamarah looking fly, buried in the sand

The next day we decided to adventure even more around the northern part of the island. Our first stop was at the Dole Pineapple Plantation. Again, we didn't want to pay to actually go into the place and have a tour, so we did what we could for free. They actually have the largest maze in the world at the plantation (in the shape of a pineapple,) but it was closed, which was a big bummer. We learned what we could from the information placards about the growth rate of pineapples and the history of Dole (which conveniently left out all of the practical indentured servitude of Hawaiians at both the plantation and the cannery for nigh a century,) and fed some ginormous koi. I chose to feed the koi on the periphery, farthest from the feeding platform, as I am a socialist at heart. We spent a fair amount of time in the extensive gift shop, then left, all feeling a little bit grosser from the experience (or at least I did. To be honest I was a bit pessimistic about the whole thing.)

Sunset at Haena State Park

After the plantation we went to have lunch in the historical town of Haleiwa, which was small and pleasant. As with everywhere else on the North Shore, there was a plentitude of food trucks in Haleiwa. We went to this parking lot that had about 8 food trucks, and had lunches as diverse as a crepe, a po boy, and a Philly cheesesteak.

During the afternoon we decided to check out Haena State Park, which is home to the western most point on Oahu. We actually didn't make it out to the western most point, but still enjoyed our terrifically muddy hike and the marvelous sunset.

The following day (which was a Tuesday) we went to Honolulu for the day. We decided to go ahead and allow ourselves to be tourists for the day. We started out our day of Honolulu tourism by hiking Diamond Head Crater, a fairly ostentacious geological formation right outside of downtown Honolulu. It's the result of a quick and violent volcanic eruption that happened long ago. The crater was used by the military in the past (it is a rather magnificent strategic vantage point of both the sea and the city.) I slowly became convinced during our time there that the military still operates there, but as a means to cover-up extraterrestrial activity/remains (the whole place reeked of "X-Files" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind.")

We had an absolutely lovely lunch at South Shore Grill. It was simply made American food (burgers, tacos, burritos, da kine...(: ) For whatever reason we were all over the moon about the food we ate there. I would definitely recommend it.

Michael & Rachel climbing a banyan on the beach

During the afternoon we decided to bite the tourist bullet and headed to Waikiki Beach, one of the most famous beaches in the world. It had long been built up in my head as one of the most luxuriously tropical and perfect beaches there could possibly be. What we found was, to be honest, a fairly typical urban beach. It was absolutely packed to the gills, both on the beach and in the water. I don't want to say it was an unfortunate experience, however. We all still enjoyed our time there quite a lot. Rachel and Michael climbed a banyan. Tamarah got buried in the sand. I took pictures.

We walked the streets along Waikiki, waiting for Danielle and Mark (Tamarah's parents) to fly in from Colorado. We were quite amused at the insane consistency of ABC Stores (typical tourist knick-knack and convenience stores) on every. single. corner. We fancied the idea of watching the sunset and drinking cocktails at the Royal Hawaiian (the second oldest hotel in Hawaii, built in the 1920s, I believe.) However, we weren't allowed into the Royal Hawaiian, so we just watched from the beach, which was still very nice.

The four of us on Waikiki

It was decided that we'd just meet Mark and Danielle back at Jess and Ryan's place. It was a very happy reunion for the Howards, and pleasant for Rachel, Michael, and myself as well. We transferred sleeping arrangements to the place that Mark and Danielle had rented. At first we were under the impression that we would all have our own rooms, which we frankly didn't like the idea of. Luckily it turned out that all 4 of us were to share a room that had 3 beds. Separation anxiety was averted for the time being.

On Wednesday we woke up reasonably early and headed over to Shark's Cove for some snorkeling (Michael was pretty keen on getting some snorkeling in during his time in Hawaii, rightly so.) Shark's Cove was this pretty neat shallow cove protected from the crashing ocean by a naturally ocurring wall of rocks. For such a shallow and small pool there was actually a surprising amount of marine life. Certainly a lot of sea urchins, some eels, a couple schools of large silver fish, even some humuhumunukunukuapua'a (the state fish of Hawaii.)

Tam and Michael on Crouching Lion

Rachel had to get the rental car back to Enterprise at the airport so we weren't charged for an extra day, and on her way back to Honolulu she dropped Michael, Tam, and myself off at the "trailhead" to the Crouching Lion Trail. The trail is actually, technically, illegal to hike on, so there wasn't a real trailhead; it was more just a gap in the tall grass off of the highway that led into steep, muddy jungle. The trail was certainly an exciting hike, and was really quite beautiful. The scramble uphill through the jungle ends when you get to an old bunker of some sort, and from there it's just a steep (STEEP) climb along the ridge of the mountain right above Ka'a'awa. I am not quite as physically fit as my cohorts, but I still found it to be very enjoyable (I just used the ole line "Oh you guys hike ahead so I can take photos of you" quite a lot, to give myself a breather now and then.)

That night we had a spectacular dinner of Eggs Benedict and hashbrowns, prepared by Danielle, Jess, and Tamarah.

Tam and Michael on Crouching Lion

The morning of Thanksgiving we woke up very early to get Rachel, Tamarah, and Michael to a Turkey Trot race in downtown Honolulu. The race was 10 miles, and the winner was not who got in first, but whoever predicted their finishing time the most accurately before the race started. While those kids were off running the streets of Honolulu, The Howards and I had a pleasant breakfast at LuLu's Waikiki, which we finished just in time to see the racers finish.

After the race we returned to The Howard's rental and finished up the preparations and cooking for the Thanksgiving feast. Danielle and Jess did most the cooking, but Rachel and Michael made some fabulous sweet potato dishes and Mark made some yummy pumpkin pies. I barely contributed anything and was a complete moocher. As is customary at Thanksgiving, we went around the table and shared what we were thankful for (although we all had to think of things that we were thankful for other than the baseline "friends and family.") We ate rather early, around 2 pm, and we spent most of the night sitting around the table and talking to each other about things going on in the world: we talked about the Syrian refugees and the CERN hadron collider and the discovery of Homo naledi, and it was all quite intelligent and engaging. Rachel had a second Thanksgiving at a family friend's, the lucky duck (turkey?)

The rockstars after running 10 miles!

Friday was the last day on Oahu for both Michael and myself. Jess and Ryan took the whole gang on a very nice hike in a place called Ha'aula. The hike consisted of traipsing through what Oahu had to offer in ways of montane forests. There were plenty of Norfolk Pine, which are invasive but rather lovely looking--it gave the place the feel of being in a prehistoric jungle. After the hike they took us to La'ie Point,  which was a point of rock that led out away from the island into the tumultuous sea. We were surrounded by giant grey crashing waves. There were a handful of small islands right off of the point, and we learned that La'ie was believed to have been a very mean and very large lizard who the folklore hero Maui had slain. The islands were chunks of the lizards head, petrified in the ocean.

The 4 of us at La'ie, with a lizard head chunk in the background

The rest of our day priamrily consisted of lounging around until we were frantically trying to get me to the airport on time (Michael's flight was 7 hours after mine.) I don't know (in a detailed sense) all that Rachel and Tamarah did without me for four days in Oahu. They watched a surf competition at Sunset Beach, did some more hiking, got yelled at by a guy for trying to hike the legendary Staircase to Heaven (likewise an illegal hike,) soaked in the sun. I returned to the farm and read Vonnegut and wrote things.

I am sure happy to have them back with me.