Early risers that we have been so far, we walked the three blocks to Waikiki Beach and went for a morning swim. I get why visitors flock to this stretch of soft sand and calm waves. The water temperature was very mild and the sun was not super strong early in the morning. What a refreshing way to start one’s day. On the way back to the hotel we stopped at Lawson Station convenience store for some breakfast musubi (I’m obsessed) and karaage chicken. Hans’ onigiri had curry pork and was quite tasty.
Our late morning was quite frustrating. The Thrifty car rental office downtown had bad reviews online but since it was the most convenient location I booked a two-day rental with the hope that it wouldn’t be so bad. Yikes. Our pick-up time was at 9:30 AM and we didn’t get to the front of the line until 11:30. The best part was having to wait outside of their lobby in a mall hallway, which was under construction (repairs from the flooding last month). The crew disassembled an entire set of metal scaffolding while we waited. But enough complaining…
We hopped into our Ford Mustang, pre-paid for overnight parking at a nearby garage, and got going up to the north shore of the island.
Even though I was very annoyed by losing several hours this morning, I think that we benefited from arriving at Poke for the People between lunch rushes. This small poke shack had exactly what I have been looking for in terms of ingredient – it was so good!
Our next stop was Matsumoto Shave Ice, an institution here on O’ahu. Hans reconciled with his teenage memories of surprise beans in his shaved ice and willingly elected to add them to his POG-flavored (passionfruit, orange, guava) order. I got the “tropical” flavor combo of passionfruit, mango, and guava, azuri beans, and sweetened condensed millk. I totally get the hype. I enjoyed the shaved ice much more than I expected. Their gift shop had a small stack of colorized reproduction vintage photographs and I bought one from the 1930s.
The remainder of the afternoon was spent driving the circumference of the island. We stopped for a quick swim at Pupukea Beach, which was very close to an area known for it’s winter Banzai Pipeline surf waves.
Even though the ocean was quite calm today, the steeply-sloped beach made for some bigger waves and a stronger current. I grew tired quite fast and had to take breaks on the beach. Hans stayed out longer but within an hour arriving we decided that we’d had enough. This was our second swim of the day, after all.
This picture is a little bit deceptive. Past the sand in the foreground is quite a large hill that gets you down to the shore. Once you're in the water the bottom drops pretty fast. You can see how this area gets a lot of big waves during the winter. The tiny dark speck in the middle is Hans!
When we were done with swimming we continued our drive around the rest of the island. I needed a break from driving and we stopped to stretch our legs at Kualoa Regional Park. One thing that I'm really appreciating about Hawaii is the large number of state or regional parks and how many of them have decently-maintained bathrooms.
Once we were back at the hotel for the night it was nice to use our complimentary coupons for their on-site restaurant. We ate a decently chill dinner and then had a pool-side cocktail.
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