I don’t think I have any photos for this one either, but I need to have a good scouring of my photo sources to make sure. Later. I have 4 camera-like devices myself, and Miranda, to collate.

This is an easy one to write – we put Ava in the water again in the morning. I wanted to get her in there again before we tried kayaking in any form, to make sure for sure she was ok. This was more of a functional try – we tried out her lifejacket, and her new floaty tube, and her lifejacket with her new floaty tube. Unfortunately for her, the latter looks safest. She’s very small still, and with just the floaty she tilts forward to much. Or maybe just the jacket, depending on how we make this kayak work. We were thinking of pulling her tube behind us (it’s a very lazy river) in the tube.

We did that in the morning because the forecast was for overcast and rain all afternoon, and there were spots of sun that morning so I bolted out into the spotty sunshine. That afternoon, as we packed up for our third trip to Walmart, it was sunnier than ever. >.<

How I can pad this entry? Food.

We’ve been to Oahu 3 times now, and the food here is excellent, across the board. Even the stuff that isn’t great, is pretty great. We have a number of places that are top top top picks that we crave when not here:

• Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck. This place has a massive line-up, even before the open. And the food is super simple – pile on like 20 cloves of garlic, 15 big shrimps and 2 scoops of the whitest white rice you can imagine. Serve. It’s assaultingly garlicy, but man is it good. (I avoided it for now)
• North Shore Tacos. For me, this is quintessential North Shore food. These tacos are amazing, and it doesn’t hurt that at this point they are linked in my mind with enjoying sunshine and reggae with Ava.
• Konos. Or the Surfing Pig. This one isn’t on Miranda’s list, I don’t think, but I really like it. Lots of options for how you want your BBQ pig served to you. Last time we had the breakfast wrap with eggs and potatoes and pulled pork. This time I had a sandwich with bacon and ham and pulled pork. I don’t see how you can go wrong!
• The Sushi Place. I didn’t even know the name until I just looked it up, because there’s only one sushi place up here — Banzai Sushi. Last time we were there we had a King Salmon that was to die for. It was very expensive though. And we haven’t been this trip yet. Soon.
• Uncle Bobo’s BBQ. I mentioned this a few entries back – awesome BBQ, but unfortunately closed for renovations right now, with no mention of when they’ll be back. Their sauce is worth buying a truck load of bottles of and bringing it home.

And a few places we’ve been before that aren’t necessarily top-picks:

• Teddy’s Bigger Burgers. This place is good, but not great. It’s an easy choice though – it’s hard to go wrong with any burger topping choice you could imagine wanting.
• Hale’iwa Joes. We’ve been here twice and I don’t think we’ll go again. Bad service both times (so much so that Miranda has now left a bad review on TripAdvisor) and the food has been mediocre both times. It’s #3 in Hale’iwa in TA, so we’re left wondering what other people see what we don’t. It’s location in the harbour doesn’t have enough of a beach or ocean view to make up for it’s short falls.
• Matsumoto’s Shave Ice. An institution, like Giovanni’s, the line-ups here are lengthy. And it’s good, don’t get me wrong – we’ve been twice this trip alone. But San Lorenzo Shave Ice just down the block did just as good last we were there.

We’ve tried a few new places this trip:

• Beachhouse. This place is brand new to us. It’s right across the street from the beach in between Ali’i and Hale’iwa beach parks. And it looks nice. To me, it reminds me of the Cactus Club in English Bay that’s on the beach, except in a place where you can have an entire side of the building open to the air because it never gets cold enough to close it. Everything inside looks nice and crisp and new. Miranda had a steak sandwich she didn’t super love (to spicy), and I had a Thai BBQ sandwich served on a Taro bun that was pretty good. Wouldn’t go back, but wouldn’t avoid it either.
• Cholo’s Mexican. Mexican food is the food I would choose to eat forever if someone told me I had to pick an ethnicity. The food here was stock-standard Mexican, which in my opinion, is never bad. But I wouldn’t crave it like the top list.
• Chili’s. This place reminded me of Boston Pizza – like a family restaurant mixed with a bar. The food was adequate, the service was only saved because the lady adored our baby (interacting with Ava is bonus points for servers — just do it, we love it — and can save otherwise questionable service)

So far, nothing to add to our top-picks list. But except for Chili’s, which is a chain restaurant and in Miliani, the food in Hale’iwa continues to be worth dreaming about!