January 5th

Saturday, January 5th, 2019

Good morning from the North Shore!

Emma had a free day today, so we decided to rent a car for the day so we could drive a loop around the rest of the island with her. However, we splurged a little and did something different than the last time we were here – we rented a convertible! No, not a mustang, a mid-size Mini Cooper, but it was marvelous.

We stopped and had breakfast at a local diner and then made our way up to our favorite beach (pictured). While it was a tad cooler there than other beaches in the area, it is also very very quiet. We made up half of the people on the beach this morning.  It felt nice to be in a quiet area after being down on Waikiki on a Friday night.

The rest of the day we hopped from beach to beach; there was a surfing competition going on at some other great beaches, so traffic was crazy and parking was a bit impossible which was a bummer, but we still enjoyed the drive.

It feels good to be back!

 

May 26th

Saturday, May 26th, 2018

This magical place has made me say “wow” so many times today.

I mean, when your day starts out by swimming with sea turtles, it’s hard not to be in awe of God’s creation.

Yep, sea turtles.

Before we left yesterday, I had been thinking about the animals that would be here to photograph. Sea Turtles were at the top of my wish list, but honestly didn’t expect to see any. Not only did we see them, but they came in so close!

By law you must stay at least ten feet away from them, but they were so curious! I was giggling with glee, folks. An experience I will never forget that is for sure.

But let’s rewind.

Hawaii is five hours behind central time, so Paul and I woke up at 5am, bright eyed and ready to go. We showered up, packed up for the day and went into town in search of coffee. Right across from Jerry’s Pizza was a local shop, so we stopped there.

Remember how I mentioned the chickens that were in the median in our drive last night?

Evidently feral chickens is a thing on the north shore. They are EVERYWHERE. Including the parking lot where we stopped for coffee this morning. We were the only people in the parking lot, and as we got out of the Jeep, they came out from under bushes, parked cars, everywhere and came toward us like we were going to feed them.

I quite enjoyed it.

So then we hit the road, found a pull off where we went down to the beach and met the sea turtles.

Pure magic.

Then we basically beach hopped the rest of the day. We drove along the entire north shore to see what each beach looked like, how wavy it was, what was around for food, parking, etc. It’s amazing how the beaches, weather, and the surf change depending on where you are on the island.
It was so so lovely. No agenda, no rush, no expectations.

And then driving home from Pounders Beach (BIG waves there, hence the name), there was an amazing burst of color as the sun set.

Top: Beach view of Pounders
Middle: Locals body boarding on waves for scale
Bottom: Paul enjoying the waves with the busted body board he found (ha!).

We’re hoping to beat the crowds and go to a popular snorkeling spot tomorrow morning. We’ll see what the morning brings!

May 25th

Friday, May 25th, 2018

We made it!!!

It’s rare that we get on our desired flight on the first go, or without any problems. But today, things went in our favor. Paul and I did get on the nonstop from MSP to HNL, and not only did we get to sit together, we got an exit row!

Eight and a half hours later, we’re on the ground in Honolulu, getting our Jeep.

On our way out of town, we swung by a Walmart for supplies, and bought some snorkeling gear. Snorkeling is a must for me on this trip, and I can’t wait to try it!

We made it to our AirBNB on the north shore, a cute little shack with an outdoor toilet and shower, and we love it! Perfect for what we need, in a great location. Pictured is the “patio” out of our front door.

And evidently, chickens just roam the streets here. A hen with chicks was in the median at a roundabout.

If this is a normal occurrence, I’m going to really like it here.

After dropping off all of our stuff, we had to head to the ocean. Paul had recently worked with a flight attendant who has a condo up here, so she gave us a tip on the best small local beach to hit up, so we went to check it out.

This is when it hit me that we are in Hawaii.

Truly incredible.