Tag Archives: beach

Last Actual Day For Reals

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 playedΒ 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. πŸ˜›

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!

Last Full Day

I find writing super easy, and photo editing and organizing difficult so I have a ton of photos to deal with, but instead you get more writing. πŸ˜›

We didn’t have much of a plan this morning, but started with breakfast made in our kitchen. We talked a bit and decided to go Stand-Up Paddleboarding up the river in Hale’iwa bay. A quick drive, and an illegal parking spot (which we didn’t notice until we got back), a conversation with a dude who’s job it was solely to rent us boards and we were paddling our way up the river.

The river was brown and murky, and I didn’t really want to fall in it. Which is rough, since SUPing is a very balancey activity. We paddled about a half hour up the river, saw a giant turtle with a barnacle on his back and then paddled back.

I suggested that we drive back to Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck (about a half hour away) and then try to find one of the Lost beaches nearby. The shrimp wasn’t as good the second time, it felt less like it was assaulting my mouth with garlic and more like it was a good heavy helping of garlic. When all you want is to be slapped in the face with garlic…

The beach was called Papa’iloa Beach and it’s the location of most of the beach filming on Lost after half way through the first season. They started filming on Moke’leia Beach, but apparently the winter storms threatened to flood the set (which is actually outlined in an episode) and filming moved. We found the beach and walked down to it and started hiking. It was apparently about a 15-20 walk down the beach.

We walked about 5 minutes before we came upon 3 girls throwing green stuff into the water. Miranda cried out and at the edge of the rocks in the waves were 8 turtles all swimming around trying to get at the green stuff. 8 large turtles. In one area. Miranda quickly stripped down to her bathing suit, and convinced me to do likewise and we were in with our snorkel camera. The waves were kind of rough so we had to be very careful to stay out of their way, and keep our footing. But ho-man, 8 turtles.

As we walked along the beach, we found another turtle sunning himself on the beach. And a few more in the water. We’d found the Kingdom of Turtles!

After 15 minutes Miranda decided she wasn’t interested in continuing to walk. I was in the middle of a good, solid, obsession, and wanted to keep going. We compromised, with her stopping to photograph some more turtles and we continuing on along the beach. I walked for another 20-25 minutes and came around the corner to find Hale’iwa Beach Park. If the film set had been near that park, my directions would have said to come from that direction…I turned around, having failed, and took a bunch of photos in case Miranda recognized the locations at all.

When we got back I asked her to drive. I’d been hiking for near 1.5 hours, in bare feet along the sand. My feet are throbbing right now, and telling me that they didn’t like what I did, but that they’ll forgive. Eventually.

We came back and had a shower. And moisturizer.

Dinner was at Breakwater, which got good reviews in our Big Blue Book but mediocre reviews in our book. The garlic fries were a $3 addon where the cook seemed to sprinkle garlic powder on them. (in truth, they were tossed with olive oil, garlic and garlic powder, but compared to Giovanni’s where they practically give you an entire garlic bulb with your order, it was lackluster. Miranda’s fish and chips arrived and she wondered about tartar sauce. I pointed at a sauce in a bottle on the table, and we both tried it and were sure it was either chipolte mayo or thousand island… we were told it was the tartar. It was no tartar I’d ever tried. My own meal was pleasant and unremarkable. Although I did end up eating my fries with the “tartar” instead. πŸ˜›

Back at the home I walked the slackline a bit and Miranda lay in a hammock and read. We watched the sun go down while I wrote the last blog post and she continued to read.

Tomorrow we have a few options, but they depend on when we have to be out of this place. And also how various muscles stand up…

Day 5 and a half…

We woke up again and had eggs and bacon. Packed up the car with 2 surf boards from the place we’re staying at and drove up the street to a beach called Castles. When googling Castles Beach, you see a beach further south down by Kailua, which is about a half hour drive away. But these guys had directions to a beach that sounded good, so we made the trip.

Once there we found a beautiful beach that was entirely ours – not a single other person was on the beach. Partially because it’s a weekday and this isn’t a huge tourist area, but also because it’s raining and cloudy out. We tried to surf, but our own lack of skill combined with our tiny little boards foiled us. I couldn’t even stand up, and I think it was mostly because it was pretty thin and unstable for a newb like me. We had a great time anyway, swimming around in the water – much warmer despite it being miserable out. πŸ™‚

We had lunch at North Shore Tacos, which we now highly recommend. The food was delicious and we’re thinking we might go back again…

Now we’re hanging out and getting ready for a wedding. In the rain. >.>

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Cozumel Snorkel Tour

 

 

A few photos from our day in Cozumel!

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Cruise ships docked. Most of the people on our tour were from one of these.
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Miranda and her new bestie. Apparently this girl had been on a cruise ship with her family and family in-law for a week or more…I’d crave someone new to talk with as well. (<3 you guys!!)
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He cheated, he carries fish food around with him. πŸ™‚
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I was trying to swim down, but my breathing isn’t good enough. This is a photo on the left-middle of a group of medium-sized fish. There were a few such groups around the reef!
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This guy was swimming around me for a while.
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The view from the Cozumel ferry. (Looking at Playa)

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A rough day in paradise

We woke up with a plan – scope out a car rental company then head to Akumal beach for some snorkeling. It didn’t work like that.

Several weeks ago we bought Mexico SIM cards. We like data, instant translation and maps, as well as email and other phone related things, so we buy data when we travel. I found a place online, awesome. When we get here though, they don’t work. In his defense, the guy I bought them from is on email and phone every day trying to help get this sorted, but it’s hard since he’s there and I’m here. So this morning we find our cell provider directly and try to get it fixed.

Our Spanish is busted. His English is entirely limited to technical items. Together, we try to figure it out. We left a while later, assured that it would work.

(It’s not working still…)

We found lunch at a place called La Fogon (roughly). Miranda had a quesadilla con pollo, and I had a torta con chorizo y queso. Ground chorizo and melted cheese on a bun…yum!

We decided to go to Akumal anyway, despite it being 2 pm. As recommended by my aunt, we got into an unmarked white van, gave the driver some money and hoped for best.

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These colectivos are all over the place, replacing any form of public transit. $3.50 each to go down the highway a half hour, not bad. But you may have to remind them where you’re getting off…

Once at akumal, we had a long walk ahead of us. Miranda has been tracking her steps and I think we got 4000 of them here getting lost on our way to the beach. A friendly Summerland, BC resident pointed us towards the badly marked beach.

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We didn’t go swimming. Too late in the day, we needed a locker and couldn’t find one and I forgot my swim trunks. Stupid…We’re calling it a scouting mission, because now we’ll have an amazing day there when we go “for realz”.

Back to town to a place called Los Aguachiles. Food was pretty good, but still not fantastic. I’m on a search for the best ceviche, and she for guacamole…

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Tomorrow morning I’m up early to go diving. 120 feet into The Pit, followed by two nitrox dives at Dos Ojos (two eyes). Unfortunately, because of the Great Cable Fuckup of 2014, you’ll have to wait for those photos, but I expect they’ll be spectacular!

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