Fifth Day - Monday, November 5th
As usual, we got an early start but without a well-defined plan. We finished off some fruit and
yogurt in the room for breakfast. Then just wandered around the Village a while. While waiting
around, I stepped onto the balcony to check the weather and the beach activity. Actually, I did
that probably every day. This time I took a photo of what we could see of the beach from there.
I did have to lean just a bit to see around the pillar next to us. This other photo is from the
pool area. The red circle is our room.
The surf on Waikiki beach was nothing like I had expected to see in Hawai‘i. There were
usually a few surfers trying but the waves rarely exceeded three or four feet so the interest
level was understandably low. This shot from the Hilton Beach, just off the Yacht Harbor, is
probably the best we saw on the south side of the island. The storm clouds should give a pretty
good idea of what was driving it. We learned that this was fairly normal and the real waves are
always on the north side of the island. We also heard several times that there was to be a major
international surfing championship on O‘ahu in a week or so and most of the world's hotshots
were already on the north shore practicing. In spite of the continuing rain forecast, this was the
day we determined to drive around the north side and maybe see some really good surf and surfers in
action.
Before heading north, however, we gave the weather some consideration and explored the beach
some more. This is the breakwater protecting the swimming area off the Hilton Village taken
from the far west end of the beach. For some reason, this area seems to be less used than the
others even though it probably has the nicest sand. The other photo is peeking through the
construction fence toward the Hilton Lagoon. We couldn't go in there as the was some kind of
construction or repair going on. There not being
much activity, we went through the Ft. Russy Park between the Hilton and the hotel next door
again. There really is some interesting and quite different plant life in Hawai‘i. I got
a few photos of some of the more unusual ones. I shot this one in the Village while Judy was
inspecting something in the background. We took a lot more pictures of the plants and flowers
on the last day and, if there are some good ones, I'll post them then. After an hour or so it
appeared that the rain was not going to be a problem so we got the car and headed north.
The route was H-1 again past Pearl Harbor to H-2. But first, between the Hotel and H-1 was a
Chinese seafood house that I guessed must be owned by a Chinaman transferred from Pittsburgh.
Maybe you had to live in Pittsburgh a while to get that inside information. By this time I was
getting pretty good at navigating without getting off-course too badly. H-2 heads north up
through the high central plain between the Wai‘anae mountain range on the west and the
Ko‘olau range on the east side of the island but nearer the west range. This was our
first time to see the Wai‘anae mountains and I think they may be higher and maybe even
steeper than the Ko'olau. Anyway, they are really impressive. For some reason, I don't seem
to have any photos of that part of the drive. Shame on me for that oversight.
The scenery on the west side of the island is so different from the east that, if you didn't know better, you could think you had landed on an entirely different island. There is a whole new set of trees and a lot of what seems to be almost flat land. Well, it is relatively flat although we did climb quite a bit over the plain before descending back down to the waterfront. The mountains even look different somehow. We followed H-2 to its end at Wahiawa, near the west center. At that point we got on Highway 80, which turns into Kaukonahua Road. It runs right near the base of the mountains and fairly rapidly down to the Weed Circle where it joins or becomes the Kamehameha Highway and continues all the way around the north point and down the east side back to where it ends at the Pali Highway. We took it all the way.
The Kamehameha Highway is just a typical two-lane road and traffic was pretty much bumper- to-bumper most of the rest of the trip. Also, nearly the entire area is populated with one little community after another, at least until halfway back down the east side. Few of these little towns are of any size. All lie right along the beach, with the obligatory public access, of course, and most are only a couple of blocks wide. Depending on the location, the side of town across from the water is either near jungle or mountains. Many of the houses are little more than shacks but some can be pretty colorful, particularly in the larger communities. Even so, the median price for a house on O‘ahu is still $640 thousand. Surely this area is the low side of that median.
Right after we reached the waterfront on the Kamehameha Highway, we came to Hale‘iwa, a significant resort area of some years ago. We found a quaint area of shops and eateries and stopped for lunch. After finally getting my leg straight enough to walk we found the "world famous" Koko's for lunch. I had a very nice chicken pesto sandwich and, on Chuck's recommendation, Judy had a plate lunch. Prices here were much more reasonable than in Honolulu. I think the total, including drinks was about $20. The plate lunch was a huge pile of wonderful pulled pork with sides. We had two more meals back in our room from the pork that she couldn't eat. This was an interesting place. We ate outside on the boardwalk. There were several of what certainly appeared to be tame chickens wandering about, apparently waiting for people to drop something to eat. For some reason, I didn't get any pictures. As we sat there, eating lunch and overlooking the highway, there must have been at least 20 stretch limousines pass by, going both directions. I don't know whether they were transporting professional surfers or wealthy tourists or what.
We were obviously in surfer haven but there was no surf and, therefore, no surfers to be seen. We leisurely made our way through Waimea, Sunset Beach, past Turtle Bay Resort and around the northernmost tip at Kahuku Point, stopping along the way several times at beaches that looked promising for surf watching. Still, we never saw surf over a couple of feet. There were a few kids on boogie boards but nothing resembling a professional surfer. Where we stopped, there seemed to be little for photographs and while on the road, it was just not practical considering the traffic. I did not take out the extra insurance on the rental car either.
I had failed to bring along my bottle of Aleve so we stopped at a little pharmacy in La‘ie
for more. I believe it was there or possibly in Hau‘ula that we stopped at a park along the
road and Judy wandered the beach for a while where she found a coconut. My knee would not let me
get down to the beach We also met a couple from England there. And I thought we had a long plane
ride.
Not long after the beach, I believe it might have been on the edge of Punalu‘u, the traffic
suddenly and literally came to a dead stop. Now I have been in traffic jams before but this was
the congestion from hell. We actually sat there without moving as much as a single inch for well
over half-an-hour. As we were beginning to get a little low on fuel, I soon turned off the car
which, of course, meant no more air conditioning. Fortunately, it was pretty cloudy and fairly
cool by then so it was tolerable. Finally, as quickly as it had stopped, the traffic started moving
again. I have no idea how many cars were backed up behind us but, about two miles later, we
finally discovered the cause. One lane of the road was completely blocked at a bridge by a crane
and some other heavy equipment. Reading the newspaper later revealed that the heavy rains had
blocked the canal at the bridge with a bunch of debris. Without proper canal drainage, the
expected coming rains would likely flood the town so clearing it was crucial. The main problem
was the highway workers directing traffic. Apparently they had no clue how to keep things
moving and were letting traffic flow, one way at a time, for 30-45 minutes each shift. After
getting past the bridge, we found cars lined up for at least 2-3 miles on the other side.
By this time, it was raining a little and clouds were filling in more heavily all the time. Since
we were low on fuel too, I decided to alter my original plan and get back to Honolulu. I had wanted
to follow the beach the long way around Diamond Head and through Waikiki again but decided instead
to take the shorter Pali Highway back to H-1 and the city. We proceeded on through Ka‘a‘awa
(I had to throw that in just for the unique spelling) with a little more urgency than before. We did,
however, make a short stop in a park at the Kualoa Point. Mokoli‘i Island, commonly known as the
Chinaman's Hat, is just offshore there and it, along with the mountains reaching right down to the
beach formed scenery that we just had to photograph and enjoy for a while. Unfortunately, the rain
started and the mist and haze was too dense for my little camera to cut through it so we got no more
photographs except for this one of a little red-headed bird that Judy tried to take. The little bugger
decided to leave just a she pressed the button. I tried several shots of the same kind of bird back
in the Village without any success.
Soon thereafter, the Kamehameha Highway turned inland just a bit toward H-3 and the Pali Highway. H-3 ends near Pearl Harbor so I did not want to take it. The Pali Highway, just a mile or so farther on, ends probably four miles closer to the Hilton near the center of the city so it seemed a better choice. A couple of miles before H-3, we would have crossed the Likelike Highway which we expected to be another narrow two lane road. Instead, it was a full four lane freeway, just like the Pali. Since it was closer to us and ends only a mile or so west of Pali and we had yet to drive it, we decided to go that way instead. We got yet another set of scenery in the bargain although it did rain most of the way. For some reason, it is impossible to keep the windshield cleared of fog in an afternoon Hawai‘i rain.
We made it back without incident and refilled the gas tank. Surprisingly, the price was $3.11 per gallon, only a few cents more than at home. We were pretty well used up by then and I couldn't walk anyway so we made a couple of sandwiches from part of Judy's leftover pork from Koko's and went to bed early again. Tomorrow we had to get started extra early to beat the crowd at the Arizona Memorial.