World Cruise--Another Day In Paradise

Day two in Honolulu found us taking a taxi after breakfast to the airport to pick up a rental car Bob had reserved a couple days before. On our sea days, I had mapped a drive around the island to see some of the points of interest we had visited before. After our let down at the mall, I’d added a stop at a shopping center that was north of Honolulu and hoped for the best. It showed a nail salon and a barber but no price list.

The traffic was awful going to the airport and the taxi meter registered $50 including the tip that Bob gave. It was half of the cost of our rental car. It took us a while to get out of the traffic and headed north on the highway. We found the shopping center without much trouble and the salon and barber. The money we saved on the nails and haircut covered the cost of the taxi. So far so good.

Our first tourist stop on the way to the north shore of Oahu was the Dole Plantation. The place was packed and we had to park in overflow parking. We’d been here before and taken the tour so we just walked around a bit and enjoyed the free part of it that included a little garden of pineapple plants.

Waimea Falls was a place we wanted to revisit and we drove to where the park is. To our surprise, it was closed on Mondays. What? Should have done a little more research on that one.

Out on the road again, we pointed the car for the north shore beach that is the scene of all those exciting surfing contests. Actually all along the north shore it is like one long beach and even before we got to our destination, we could see the huge waves rolling in. Cars were parked along side the road for more than a mile with surf boards being unloaded and carried down to the shore.

Rather than park where the lot was officially for the beach, we joined the others and pulled into a spot on the side of the road and followed two girls who were headed for the beach. There was an alley way between the houses that allowed access.

The beach was amazing as were the waves rolling in and breaking along the shore. They were so large they dwarfed the surfers and it took a while to see that the little dots on top of the waves awaiting the right moment were actually people on surf boards.

We spent a little time there watching in awe and of course, I had to put my feet in. The water was not as cold as I thought it would be and I almost enjoyed a full body immersion when a wave ran into the shore farther than I expected. I was up to my knees in surf and hoping to keep my balance as the water ran back out and the sand around my feet shifted.

It would have been nice to linger but time was ticking and we were only half way around the island. Lunch was had at a food truck stop where the king of food trucks was Giovanni. Their specialty was shrimp and the truck is covered in signatures of those who have eaten there. We split a plate of lemon buttered shrimp and rice.

We followed the road that goes down the east side of the island and enjoyed stunning views of ocean, beach and lush green mountains. Our next stop was to be the Makapu’u Point light house. I’d taken a good picture of it from our whale watching boat and there was supposed to be a trail that led out to it. What the information should have said was “led UP to it.” We saw the trail leading up a mountainside which I guess led around to the other side for a view of the lighthouse. We drove on.

A quick stop at the blowhole to see that it really wasn’t blowing much and we began to worry that our time was running out. We had to have the car back and grab a taxi to get back to the ship by 5:30. Remembering all the traffic, we decided that we would skip going to see the snorkeling bay at Halona Beach Cove. As we passed by the park entrance, we saw it was closed as well. Does everyone get Monday off?

That left just one place that we weren’t sure we would have time for but it worked out to take just one really quick look at the Punchbowl Crater where the national cemetery is. The graves aren’t marked with white tombstones as they are in other national military cemeteries.

The traffic wasn’t as bad as the morning had been and we made it to the airport with about an hour to find a taxi and get to the ship. The problem arose in getting the taxi. The line for the taxis was already long and there was only on or two taxis showing up at a time. There must have been a lot of arrivals because by the time we got in line, it had almost doubled. We waited a good twenty minutes before a bunch of taxis began showing up and eventually we got one, a good one. He took us a different route to the ship and it only cost $40 including tip. We arrived 45 minutes before the passenger deadline for boarding before sail away. It did give us a little scare though. A little more traffic and we would have been flying to Samoa.