Honolulu Day #2 (North Shore of Oahu)

Easter Sunday, March 27 

With a kitchenette and a coffee maker, it was easy to fix breakfast and eat as we were getting ready for the day. Also, while I had wifi, I took time to download the Gypsy Guide Oahu Full Island Tour to my iPhone. The app was going to be our tour guide for the day!

Our first order of business was a stop at Walmart to pick up a few food items. We didn't want to mess with a cooler so we drew upon Bob's backpacking experience and bought foil packets of tuna and a package of tortillas. (If you are looking for insights into fine dining experiences in Hawaii this is NOT the blog for you!) The prices were better than the little Food Pantry grocery store by the hotel, but still higher than what we pay at home.

Finally, on the road...and on the correct route, the Gypsy Guide kicked in and would periodically speak up and tell us about what we were seeing. We also relied on the app to get us to our first stop of the day...the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific...better known as the Punchbowl Cemetery. The cemetery is located in the crater of an extinct volcano and is the resting place for members of the U.S. armed forces, including many who lost their life in the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

This aerial photo (from online) makes it clear why the cemetery got the name "Punchbowl".

One of the many unknown graves from the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The cemetery was quiet and very peaceful when we were there on Easter morning...we were among just a handful of others visiting at the time. A large tent was set up and filled with chairs so a funeral or some special event must have been planned for later in the day.

Near the entrance to the cemetery were beautiful flowers and also a view of the city of Honolulu.

Leaving Punchbowl Cemetery, we took the twisty, curvy road up Tantalus and Round Top Drive to get to Pu'u 'Ualaka'a State Wayside Park. From an overlook at the park we had the most amazing view of Diamond Head, Waikiki and the whole city of Honolulu.

Diamond Head.

Honolulu Airport runways.

Our goal was to get to the north shore of Oahu but we made one more detour first...to the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet. The meet is only held on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays so if we were going to go, today HAD to be the day.

Admission to the swap meet is $1 per person and offers hundreds of vendors selling every type of Hawaiian merchandise you could ever imagine (although most was made in China!) We walked and walked and walked and still hadn't seen but just a portion of the booths. Prices were cheaper than what we had seen in the shops in Waikiki (such as the ever present ABC Stores). I bought a bracelet and flower hair clip for my granddaughter, a beach cover-up and flowered dress for myself and also a multi-strand shell necklace (which I thought was a bargain at $5!) . Although I didn't try and haggle over the prices, I learned that showing an interest in an item and then hesitating on a purchase usually resulted in a price "adjustment" by the vendors. In spite of the large number of vendors, the booths started to all look alike after awhile.

Where had the morning gone? It was after noon by the time we left the swap meet and we hadn't even begun our journey to the north shore!! Using a combination of the Gypsy Guide app and Google Maps, we left the Aloha Stadium and started on our way.

After leaving the Honolulu metro area, our Gypsy Guide suggested we should pull in to the Dole Pineapple Plantation (we were doing a clockwise tour around the island). We weren't particularly interested in the touristy stuff there, but it made a great spot to have a quick picnic lunch and use the restroom. The line to purchase the famous Dole Whips was insanely long and didn't even appear to be moving so we bought pineapple smoothies at another spot inside the visitor's center. I can recommend them as a delicious alternative!

Someone seemed to be attracting the chickens...again!

As we made our way up the coastline, we stopped periodically as the Gypsy Guide would suggest. The North Shore is famous for its large surf (especially in the winter months) and we saw lots of surfers out enjoying the waves. I had fun setting my camera on the fast burst mode in order to capture some of the surfers in action. Doing so also helped me get some great "wipe-out" photos as well!

Sporting the t-shirt he won in the Celebrity Dance Competition on the cruise.

Oops.

Surfers at the famous Banzai Pipeline.

Surf's Up, Dude.

Stopping at a shrimp truck was one of those authentic Hawaiian experiences I wanted to enjoy. The Gypsy Guide alerted us that there would be multiple trucks after we rounded the north point on the island and the trucks were parked right by the ponds where the shrimp was farmed. Bob and I shared a plate of garlic shrimp ($13) which we ate at the picnic tables next to the truck.

Following the Kamehameha Highway down the eastern side (windward side) of Oahu we came to the town of Laie near the Polynesian Cultural Center. By driving through a residential neighborhood we were able to reach Laie Point which has a view of a beautiful sea arch with waves crashing around it. We stood there for quite some time watching the surf and the fishermen who lined the sandstone cliffs along the shoreline.

The flowers appeared to be a memorial...most likely for a life lost on the cliffs.

Continuing the drive down the eastern side of the island...

Ka'a'awa Valley near Kualoa Ranch

Big birds and little birds.

Mokoli'i (Chinaman's Hat)

Our route took us by the Pali Lookout, but that was something we decided to save for another time. The day was getting long and we were ready to head back to our hotel. The sun was sinking low as we were driving into Waikiki so the guys dropped Laurel and I off at the beach to photograph the sunset. They drove on to the hotel to park the car and then walked back to meet us.

We weren't the only ones trying to get the perfect sunset photo!

Zoom a little...crop a little...and it looks like we were the only people on the beach!

I'm sure some people would cringe at the thought, but dinner was a can of ravioli that we had bought at Walmart along with some left over salad from the farmer's market the night before. Fine dining it wasn't, but we were tired and eating in bed in front of the TV was exactly where we wanted to be!

Tomorrow...a somber visit to the Arizona Memorial and an afternoon at the beach.