Typing this from my desk at home, so hopefully we’ll get some more photos and videos going shortly…we’ll see what the afternoon brings.
We woke up early and drove into town for another recommended breakfast place called Kono’s. Their logo is a pig riding a surfboard. We both had a breakfast burrito, which was excellent, although Miranda regretted not realizing that she’d gotten the kalua pork burrito instead of the bacon burrito.
We drove to a nearby beach that was said to have excellent snorkeling called Three Tables. When we arrived there were a ton of families swimming around, more than we’d seen anywhere yet. This was some pretty good snorkeling, better when you get closer to “the tables”, with lots of nooks to look into and lots of big fish to check out. The downside is that the surf was somewhat kinetic, and I didn’t want either of us swimming close enough to the wrong side of the rocks to be pushed around on them. We swam for a bit and then came in.
Back at our place, we packed our stuff up for the last time and said our goodbyes. This was a great place to stay. It had mediocre reviews on AirBnb, but the fact that it was right on the ocean made up for any perceived faults. Unless you needed A/C and restaurants right outside your door instead.
We drove back into Hale’iwa an had North Shore Tacos again, confirming their status as the best place to eat on the island.
Then we got started on a long drive. We’d showered and didn’t want to get wet and dirty again, so we planned to drive the rest of the island today. We drove along our little road until it ended in Ka’ena Point, the western most tip of O’ahu.
From there we drove down the middle of the island from Hale’iwa, and found our way on the H1 a massive highway of 4 lanes and a speed limit of 55. Considering every road I’d been on recently had been 25, this was a big deal. Unfortunately, there is no road connecting the island at Ka’ena Point, so we drove all the way down to Pearl City and then back up the western coast up to Ka’ena Point…from the other side. On this side the waves were pretty big, getting on 4-6 feet tall in some places, and we watched a few surfers who actually knew how to stand up and navigate a wave.
We drove back down the coast (with a pit stop or two in the middle) and ended up near ‘Ewa Beach and watched some more surfers as the sun went down.
Had dinner at Big Kahuna’s Pizza and Stuffs, there was no pizza. We had pizza sandwiches. And then had a frustrating drive around the airport area trying to find a gas station, with no luck and just returned the car as is. I think we lost $5 in the deal, which I consider just fine.
At the airport, it was empty. It took us 4 minutes to go through security, and we were first in line for baggage drop. We played a few games, rounding out Yahtzee out to 6 games with me being the overall winner for the weekend. Roll Through the Ages we played 7 games, but couldn’t find a sheet for one of them so only scored 6 and Miranda was the overall winner. Lastly we played Forbidden Island, which is a co-op game and I’m considering myself the winner for having convinced Miranda to play it with me. 😛
We got on the plane around 11:30, First Class. We’d upgraded our seats for $150 each, which was worthwhile for the leg room and extra recline. We both slept, but it was a horrible sleep. I woke several times and looked up to see the flight attendants having a conversation with a passenger right in front of me…like…I’m trying to sleep, shut up, sort of thing. The last time I woke up I decided to just leave it and read. I asked where we were in the flight, and she told me that we had just started to descend. O.O 5 hour flight, apparently I slept for it.
We landed in Bellingham, easily grabbed our stuff and got on a Quick Shuttle to Vancouver really quickly after getting some food. Fell asleep there, broken only by the border and the next thing I know we’re getting off at 12th and Cambie to grab a car2go home.
Now the cats are needy, I have a billion photos to process and a lot of other things that need doing and…hi!