we arrived on o'ahu at 8 pm to pitch-black, warmth. just as much as i enjoy stepping out of ted steven's int'l after a trip away, taking in that first breath of alaskan air (because it DOES smell different than anywhere else, promise), i do love the smells and sounds of the islands. those certain birds with their sing-songy tune, a dozen different floras; i heart hawai'i. so much.
as we made our way to the north shore, and once we were on the kamehameha highway, i knew what was just beyond the houses to our right. but benji - he had no idea the sight in store for him the next morning. before we fell asleep to the crashing waves, i had checked the sunrise time. i didn't want to miss it because i knew we had an unobstructed view right in our back yard. sure enough, 7:08 am, i was not disappointed.
good morning, ka'a'awa.
nothing compares to the pacific, sweeping over your tootsies.
we rented a simple bungalow from a newly retired couple. this was the perfect place for benji and i to sleep off the sunshine and rest up for our next daily adventure. there was an outside shower (heaven) and it was so peaceful you could hear the lizards crawling on the wooden lawn furniture. i could have spent a month here. ok, like 3 months. ok, so i would have liked to stay until may... it was a dream to spend 6 days here with my best friend.
in 2009, i visited the dole plantation with my mother, jb and a girlfriend. ever since, i have been craving their pineapple frozen yogurt, and it was just as delicious as i remembered it! benji ordered a massive sundae, which he could not finish, but it was the perfect fuel to tackle the garden maze.
upon our entry, we overheard a father with his 3 kiddos say, "new record! only 2 hours and 10 minutes!" to which ben and i looked at each other, and almost in unison said, ummm, yeah, we're not walking around in this heat for 2 hours! ha! we found 4 of the 8 secret stations and that was completely fine by us.
pretty pineapple fields
after our dole visit, we continued around the north shore to the fun and funky town of hale'iwa. we grabbed lunch at breakers and people-watched for the better part of two hours. i sipped on my arnold palmers while benji attended to some work from afar. i snapped this picture in hale'iwa, in the middle of our lunch date.
{i'm blogging as dylan takes her 3-hour snooze, and jackie "rests" nearby on the sofa. in the middle of his movie, he walked over to check on me and asked,
mama, what is that thing?}
on this adults only trip, we wanted to squeeze in events and such that we wouldn't normally attend with kiddos. one of those was a visit to the polynesian cultural center - located on the north shore, in laie, and just a few miles from our bungalow.
because we had to ability to be sporadic, the husband called to check on the lu'au and evening show. well, the dinner was sold out but there were two seats available for the evening show, with no more available for 5 days. we jumped on it. we were in the 10th row, had an aisle seat and were just giddy to have snagged our these last minute gems.
the show, Hā: Breath of Life, was incredible. the only bummer (according to me) is there was no photography allowed, not even flash-less. i guess it's nice to take it all in and have a night off. but...
i couldn't help myself.
g'night, north shore.
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