#chansinhi2017

[bjoyful]

Day 9

Travel Day

It was time to go to the Big Island! After a pretty slow and relaxing wake-up and playing KHux and then packing all our stuff back up, Tim and I drove back to Honolulu (which took about an hour) to meet Christine for lunch and drop off our rental car. Michael was going to meet us, too, but something came up so he had to pass. We chose a place in Chinatown called Scratch Kitchen & Bake Shop, which wasn’t really Chinese at all. It was pretty American with particularly amazing brunch options, like pancakes and breakfast sandwiches.

Tim ordered the milk ’n’ cereal pancakes; I got this “brunchwich” thing that had an amazing sausage burger patty, egg, cheese, a brioche bun, and some salad and taters; and Christine got a different sort of “brunchwich” that was also filling with the same sides as mine. We had good conversation over lunch, then walked over to the same ice cream place that we tried to go to after dim sum last week - Wing Ice Cream.

Wing was open this time, boasting several interesting flavors including “Pizza” (literally pizza-tasting), “Dirty Diaper” (chocolate swirl, chocolate cookies, and vanilla ice cream), and “Chococado” (chocolate and avocado). The guy who runs Wing Ice Cream, Miller, is a skinny eccentric dude with rainbow dyed hair and hipster glasses. He’s not a people person - very curt and doesn’t know how to greet people with a smile - but he sure knows how to get his ice cream flavors right. Choy got watermelon mint, which legitimately tasted like watermelon and mint together. Tim got coconut kona coffee, so I shared with him and it was great! We finished it very quickly, then headed off to drop off our rental car at Hertz.

After dropping the car off, Christine took us back to her house, where we relaxed and mobilized and rubbed our sore muscles until it was time to go to HNL.

It was a weird sort of feeling, knowing that a chapter of our vacation was done but our vacation was not yet finished! I were sad hugging Christine goodbye. She is a a wonderful island hostess.

Waiting for our flight was luxurious as we had our books and phones to occupy us, as well as a bunch of snacks. 

Time passed quickly, then it was time to board! Our plane was a bit more ghetto than the previous one, but it didn't matter because the plane flight was a short one.

The Big Island

Landing at Kona Airport was like something out of a dream and a distant memory. Stepping off the plane onto the outdoor ramp and walking down the stairs to an outdoor airport, I was engulfed with nostalgia. There they were - the three statue hula girls that I'd seen so often as a little child. I followed Tim in a trance to the Hertz rental car shuttle, and stayed in a trance watching the sun set over the ocean horizon from the Hertz office.

As beautiful as it was, the sunset was also swift. We decided to have dinner in Kona, 20 minutes south of the airport. The restaurant we went to, Mi’s Italian Bistro, was nestled in a quaint, bustling tourist shopping area right on the water that I also remembered vaguely. Mi’s is on the second story, and we sat on a patio overlooking the ocean. It was pretty even though it was also completely dark and you couldn’t really see anything. Tim and I both ordered some pretty fancy plates (I got pork scallopini with garlic mushroom gnocchi and Tim got ahi steak with risotto), which both were quite delicious.

It would’ve been nice to walk around, but we were both tired and wanted to get to the Hilton Waikoloa, so we left pretty quickly, intending to come back here later.

We drove the rest of the way to Waikoloa in darkness, but you could make out the black silhouettes of lava rock alongside both sides of the road.

When we arrived at the Hilton Waikoloa at 10:30pm, the lobby was TEEMING. I kid you not, we are amidst peak family vacation season, smack dab in the middle of scores of families! We waited a good 15 minutes for the Hilton Honors lady to check us in. With a smiling face - she reminded me of Dani Decena - she told us that because we’re Hilton Honors, we’d get either 1000 HHonors points or we could choose to have free continental breakfast throughout our stay here. “Free breakfast would be great!” said Tim quickly. HHonors Dani beamed at us and continued, “Okay! AND, because we’re currently remodeling our dining hall, we’ll upgrade you to the full buffet until July 4th!” Tim and I looked at each other, delighted. Free breakfast buffet for 3 days straight!

We hopped on the next crowded train to our room at the Palace Towers. The front desk concierge who checked us in told us that all the Palace Tower rooms had been newly renovated, and that  even though we weren’t able to get the ocean view upgrade for our room that we had asked for, we’d have a beautiful stay.

She was right. The room was awesome. The bathroom was in a separate partially walled off area entirely, along with a walled off closet section, with a large area for a sink and tons of counter space, and the toilet and shower in another separate room. All this is important because it means that the hallway noise is completely blocked off by this area, and the rest of the room is peacefully calm. IT WAS GREAT! The bed and pillows were also the most comfortable bed and pillows I’ve slept on this entire vacation.

Exhausted, we knocked out after ooh-ing and ahh-ing over our nice room.

[bjoyful]

Day 8

The North Shore

I woke up happy today - we were going to the North Shore to our next Airbnb stay.

And also hungry for a workout. Well okay, first I was hungry for some real food. So I ate our last bit of Honey Nut Chex and sliced up a banana with it. Then we packed up our stuff and checked out of Pililaau. Goodbye, Pililaau, with calm Poka’i Bay and its beautiful little baby waves!

It was going to be an hour-and-a-half-long drive up north, but we were well-rested and excited to see the rest of the island. Driving up the middle of the island was almost like heading to Half Moon Bay or Monterey - you see highly residential areas slowly disappear and more trees and farmland. It was really pretty. We also passed by the big army base, Schofield Barracks, which looks like any recreation area with some condos except it has a big chain link fence and barbed wire running all around it.

We got to Haleiwa and it looks the same as I remembered - quaint little shacks on a two-road highway advertising surfing lessons and shrimp and shave ice. Lots of trees. And you can see the ocean through them every so often, furrowing slightly with small waves - nothing like the waves that it displays during the wintertime. The sky was actually pretty overcast and some rain came down on us as we made our way up and around the coast towards Kahuku, which is past the northernmost point of Oahu.

Crossfit Ko’olau is a tiny little gym in Kahuku. It’s maybe about a third of the size of Crossfit Reason, with even lower ceilings (hint: you can’t do bar muscle ups inside). We walked in a little early, at about 9:55am and there was a class going on. A friendly blond girl named Tessa (Tara’s sister) was coaching, and there were a couple guys doing accessory stuff too, outside of the class. One of them looked over at me and said, “Hey, Choy!” I grinned and waved.

Tom and Tara McBride, Christine’s awesome LDS (Mormon) married friends, arrived soon after us, and Choy arrived soon after them. We all introduced ourselves and I could already tell this would be an awesome group to hang out with.

We decided on doing the first Regionals workout:

1200m run

then

12 rounds for time

4 strict HSPU

8 C2B pull-ups

12 air squats

Oh boy, was it spicy. And Tara did it Rx’d, with a 24-lb. weight vest. What a beast! Fortunately we all made it through the workout, then hung out at the gym goofing off. I stood in front of the fan drinking Fitaid for a good long while, it was so hot. Everyone did a bit of accessory work, and then we got ready to head to lunch and then the beach by hosing off using their cool outdoor shower-head-hose thing. Tim and I also snapped a picture with Choy, Tara and Tom, and Tara’s sister Tessa and her boyfriend.

A Very Vegan Lunch

Tara and Tom suggested we stop off where the shrimp trucks were at this cute farm-fresh place called Kahuku Farms, where you can get various very vegan plates of food. The stand (it wasn’t a building, but rather a little shaded stand with surrounding picnic tables and various planter boxes of flowers) wasn’t too crowded but did look like it was a favorite eating spot. They had taste samples of lilikoi butter and mango jam, and also some samples of honey mango body butter, which I made very good use of. Tim decided he needed protein (and rightly so), and headed to the shrimp trucks to grab lunch and bring it back to eat with us at a shady picnic table by the stand.

The veggie pizza + side salad that Choy and I shared was very clean and healthy, so I enjoyed it after eating so much unhealthy Hawaiian food. For active people, it maybe wasn’t the ideal meal without a good amount of protein, but it still tasted great because of the workout. We also shared an acai bowl topped with lilikoi butter, and THAT was an absolute winner. We all talked about Crossfit, then Tara and Tom shared about what it was like to run Crossfit Ko’olau, and Tom shared his experience of the L3 exam, which sounds like a doozy.

Throughout lunch I kept an eye out for Tim, but the line for the shrimp was ridiculously long and he didn’t end up getting his food until we had all finished and were ready to head to the beach. So Tim brought his shrimp with him, and we hopped in the car and followed Tara and Tom to one of their favorite beaches, Gas Chambers. It’s a secluded beach and no one was there - we found parking then walked a ways down the road, then cut in past some modest beach houses using a very nondescript shady pathway. You can see the water from far up the path, and it looks amazing already.

We were quite a group laying our towels out and sunscreening up on the beach - Tim, me, Christine, Tara, Tom, Tessa, Tessa’s boyfriend Neil, and Tara’s cousin Xander (short for Alexander). Tara & Tom (TnT <- that’s their Instagram name) brought two spike ball sets so we teamed up and played a couple games on the beach, diving like crazy. That was SO fun. It felt like beach volleyball but maybe less tiring, but still pretty tiring, so after we played we all dove into the cool ocean, washing the sand and sweat off in an instant. What a great feeling.

TnT and Xander had to head out, so me, Tim, and Choy went back up to our towels to dry off and hang out with Tessa and Neil. We sat on the beach relaxing and soaking up the sun. I looked at my coral cut, which didn’t look that bad anymore, and was pleased, until I realized that my bandaid had fallen off when we were in the water. I hoped that it wouldn’t choke any fish or sea turtles like you hear about in those ‘Save the Ocean’ ads.

After a good amount of basking in the sun - and noting that we were all getting a little sunburnt, we packed everything up and said bye to Tessa and Neil, and Christine, who had to get back to coach a 4:30pm class.

Tim and I headed back to Waialua to check into our Airbnb. It’s a quiet little town right on the beach, and our studio room was very quaint and decorated. We made a pasta dinner from our leftover ingredients and played HoTs with friends, then went to sleep.

[bjoyful]

Day 7

Kailua

Today was a rest day, so we slept in. When I woke up, Tim was already awake again sitting at the dining table. It was a calm day for the ocean outside, and the wind had died down a bit. We collected all our quarters and took a quick walk over to the on-sight laundry room to do our laundry. I had some Honey Nut Chex cereal with a sliced banana, which has been my (delicious) staple breakfast for the week.

This was going to be a fun day, as we had planned to hang out with Michael Fujimoto in his hood at noon and then attend a local Hawaiian theater production called Happily Eva Afta in the evening.

We played KHux/HotS until it was time to head over to Michael’s place. It was about an hour drive, but a very beautiful one. There was a little bit of traffic, so we arrived at Fuj’s house at about 12:20ish. His neighborhood reminded me of Foster City/Redwood Shores, in Auntie Eleanor’s area. A quick tour showed us the whole house he grew up in. It was sparsely clean in the common areas, with a modern kitchen and lots of natural lighting and space. Also, the carpet was really soft. Everything was pretty neat. Michael showed us his old room, full of little AYSO soccer trophies and pictures of little Michael. It was really cute. He had a ton of collectible Star Wars items as well, some from the 1990s even.

We sat down to eat lunch at the dining room table after helping ourselves to the Korean plate lunch food that Fuj had picked up for us. It was a delicious combo of BBQ meat (chicken, short ribs) and rice, gyoza, and kimchi sides. Fuj brought out his old yearbooks for us to look at, and we laughed at cute little pictures of him, Wyland Luke, and some of our other Biola HI friends from HBA. After lunch we just hung out and talked, chilling on the couches in the living room.

Since we had some time before Michael had to go assistant coach at the HBA cross country practice, we decided to drive and pick up some malasadas. Fuj drove us in his car, giving us a quick street tour through his town. It was a cute, very white-washed town with plenty of shopping and newly remodeled buildings with coastal architecture: white or tan walls and light green, teal-ish roofs. We each got one malasada and took them back to Michael’s place to eat.

We also got to meet Fuj’s dad, who is very much like Michael himself - super chill, pretty Americanized, and friendly. He asked us if we were running with Michael that afternoon and we said no, we wouldn’t be able to keep up. “You guys do Crossfit, isn’t that supposed to be even more intense than long distance running?” We laughed.

When it was time for Fuj to go to xc practice, he dropped us off at Ala Moana mall for about an hour and a half. Tim and I walked around, then got tired because we were carrying our computers, and sat down at Honolulu Coffee Company to use our computers. Tim also got some tasty herbal tea, which was nice and warming, because the AC was blasting and I had forgotten my Piper shirt in our own car.  I hoped I wouldn’t regret it too much later (but I did).

Fuj met us back at the Ala Moana food court, where we scarfed down a quick dinner (Fuj and I both got Sbarro and Tim got poke) before heading off to Kaimuki High School for the play.

Happily Eva Afta

Kaimuki High School was a pretty typical looking high school - not grand or anything. It’s found at the edge of Waikiki and very close to Diamond Head. Parking was easy to find and there wasn’t a terribly long line for the tickets. Fuj covered both Tim and me.

We also got great seats too - for opening night, it wasn’t too crowded. But it sure was chilly in there! I shivered a bit and remarked about the temperature. “Do you want the towel that was in Michael’s car?” Tim asked. I was hesitant on making anyone go back to the car for me, but Fuj insisted on getting it, and I decided I didn’t want to be miserably cold for the entire play, so Fuj ran back to the car and brought back his towel. It was the best decision made that night. I would have been an icicle for the whole play if I didn’t have that wonderfully warm bath towel.

The play itself was more than engaging and enjoyable. It was spoken in Pidgin for the vast majority of the time. It started with a narrator, Uncle something (I can’t remember his name), who loves telling stories and fairy tales, and a little girl who loves listening to the stories, but also chiming in to add to them. He starts with telling a normal story, but a surfer guy joins in on listening to the story too, and with the girl and surfer guy chiming in, random fairy tale characters keep getting added into the story and everyone has their own problems they need to resolve. It’s hilarious and it’s all in Pidgin, so it’s awesome. The music was also pretty great, too! I would say it was as enjoyable as any live show/musical at Disneyland.

By the time the intermission came along I was wondering how everything was going to get resolved, and also rubbing my arms and legs under the towel to stay warm. Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Snow Babe, two Hawaiian royal siblings that both needed to find true love in order to break a spell (one of them had been transformed into a gecko and needed a kiss to change back), an evil queen, 3 good fairies, 1 bad fairy, 6 menehune, 6 dancing princesses, two shoemakers, and more were all running around crashing into each other.

But the story did get resolved at the end. We left the theater before it got too crowded and stepped out into the wonderfully warmer air. On the way back to the car we walked by a giant toad who was croaking on the side of one of the classroom hallways.

Fuj kindly took us back to our car, and we drove the long 45 minutes back to Waianae, washed up, and crashed into bed.

[bjoyful]

Day 6

Party Wave

I am loving this vacation because of all the sleeping in that comes with it! I’ve slept in every day until at least 6:30am. Or 7am. Tim has been beating me out of bed for some reason - he’s gotten out of bed bright and early pre-7 o’clock consecutively the last couple days, which is impressive.

We had made plans for Christine, Shelley, and Shelley’s friend Cherisse to come over to Waianae and surf with us, but when we looked out the patio door we didn’t really see any waves out there. It was pretty flat. But the tide was rising still, so we just prayed and hoped that their long drive out to us would be worth it. In the meantime, Tim and I ate breakfast and relaxed.

When the girls finally arrived (about an hour later because they got stuck in traffic), Tim and I decided not to walk over to West Oahu SUP and rent boards there. We instead rented a couple Costco Wavestorms from the Pililaau front desk, and it ended up being even cheaper but just as good, so that worked out pretty well. We headed out to the water and looked at the small little bumps flowing up and dissipating, and decided to paddle out anyway.

Thankfully, it did happen that there would be an occasional good swell, and when that happened we would freak out. The first good swell that came around, I was madly paddling haphazardly angled and wasn’t on the wave straight. I nosedived.

The only problem with surfing in Poka’i Bay is the reef. It’s really shallow and if you fall, you need to fall flat or else you’ll jam into the reef. For the majority of the time I’ve surfed there, I’ve always fallen flat and have been fine. Unfortunately, there’s always a first, and this first good swell was it. I fell sideways off my board and didn’t realize that my right foot was aiming straight down. I struck reef with the top of my foot. It only hurt a little initially, so I got back on my board and paddled back out, foot stinging a bit. I grinned ruefully at Tim and Shelley. “Well, that didn’t work out.” Then I glanced back at my right foot and realized there was blood streaming from the reef cut. “That’s probably not going to stop bleeding,” said Shelley, who had plenty of experience with reef cuts. “The lifeguard probably has first aid,” said Tim. I paddled back in sadly.

I won’t say it was a piece of cake walking my board back up the beach through the sand. It wasn’t the easiest to gingerly slip my Rainbow slippers back on (especially since the cut, still bleeding, was right under the slipper strap), or to make it to the outdoor shower to rinse it off, then walk some 400 meters to the lifeguard tower (actually it was probably farther than that but who’s counting?).

The lifeguard was a friendly local and greeted me with, “‘Sho, I give you one good kine bandaid. Can go back out wit dis kine! Den lata clean it, yeah?” He was so confident in the effectiveness of the bandaid.  I wondered what miraculous bandaid this would be. He went back into the tower and came back out with one of those regular beige cloth Band-Aids, and handed it to me, looking pleased.

I rinsed my foot again (and my slipper, which was now tinted red), dried it thoroughly, and rubbed the bandaid on, then headed back to the beach. It also wasn’t a picnic walking another 400m back, and it was a little hard seeing everyone else out there catching waves, and to miss out on the waves and their company. I sat on my board watching them from the sand, waiting for my cut to clot.

Tim saw me sitting dejectedly and rode a wave back in, then sat next to me on my board and tried to make me feel better. Christine paddled back in and tried to cheer me up too. “Get back out there so I can take some pictures of you!” - and when she saw me look down at my cut - “Don’t worry, there aren’t any sharks around here!” I laughed. I hadn’t even considered that. I had been concerned that my cut would stay open and bleeding in the water. But my foot looked pretty done bleeding, so I strapped my leash back on, picked up my board, and Tim and I headed back out.

The rest of the surf session was flawless. We encountered several decent sets, enough for everyone to catch a few, and Christine even snapped a few shots of us trying to party wave (everyone riding at the same time). I checked my foot periodically and found that the bandaid really was miraculous, staying on fine and protecting my cut. Thanks, brah, I thought to the lifeguard and to God. Christine came back out too and we all had a ton of fun talking and enjoying the water between sets.

Lunch in Kapolei

After surfing, we all decided to grab lunch in Kapolei at Sushi Bay, a highly popular restaurant that specializes in sushi and other Japanese small plates. This restaurant was in a nice-looking outdoor mall, very similar to the OC strip malls we go to to get food. The place was bustling with quite a line, but we ordered our food to go, which was faster, and hung out on the shaded benches outside.

I got a short rib musubi and some California rolls, and Tim got an enormous bowl of poke. Everyone else was skeptical that Tim could eat it all. He demolished it.

After lunch we went to a boba place called Hula Boba, where you can scoop your own toppings - mochi, popping boba, regular boba, taro balls, various types of jelly, etc. It was pretty good but was also a humongous size for a regular, in one of those really fat cups.

Christine had to head back to coach Crossfit so we parted ways with the girls.

Ko’olina

Tim and I had talked about going to Ko’olina to visit where my family stayed last time and walk around Disney’s Aulani for fun. Kapolei’s really close to Ko’olina, so we did! It brought back memories from a couple years ago to take the beautifully manicured freeway turnoff for Ko’olina, with perfect grass, palm trees, and bougainvillea covering stone walls. We drove by many grand-looking homes and estates on our way to the resort area.

Everything looked pretty much the same as I remember from last time we came. Everything still had gorgeous landscaping and fancy architecture, and the tribal decorated clay-colored Aulani hotel buildings towered above us. We were fortunate to park at the high-end shopping plaza across the street (3-hour free parking).

Aulani is SO Disney. You can just tell it’s done by them because everything is painstakingly detailed and extremely decorated. You can hear Hawaiian background music as soon as you walk up to the front. I remembered the majesty lobby, and how you can peer out from the patio overlooking the water park that’s located at the center of the resort. Tim gasped when he saw the lazy river and people sitting on inner tubes floating by. We passed by multiple water slides, waterfalls, kiddie pools, and even a manmade snorkel reef with salt water and tropical fish (exactly like the one at Disneyworld).

It was really crowded though, and I was reminded that this sort of experience, though maybe fun, isn’t true Hawaii. What we’ve been experiencing the past week is closer to true Hawaii, and I love it because it’s real.

We made a loop around the outside of the hotel and walked back to the car under shady trees.

By the time we got back to Waianae, it was late afternoon and we relaxed for the rest of the day, eating delicious instant noodles and leftovers for dinner.

[bjoyful]

Day 5

Cowabunga!

Looked outside this morning and the ocean was a calm turquoise. It’s definitely a great day to surf.

Tim and I took a quick walk to find the laundry room on-site and check out the wave conditions so that we’d know what to expect, then suited up, armed ourselves with sunscreen, and walked across the street to West Oahu SUP to rent some boards. The lady who helped us was the same woman from last year. As we picked out our boards, another family came in. The mom and dad looked very mainland/California, along with their three cute kids - two girls and a boy. They weren’t even sure of what boards to find their kids, but all the children seemed pretty excited to get out there. Brave souls. I was the opposite with the ocean, and wish I hadn’t been.

We carried our boards back across the street down to the beach, and suddenly the walk seemed a lot longer. Fortunately we were able to tag team, Tim carrying the front of each board with one hand and me carrying the ends.

It wasn’t firing out there, but they were nice calm swells that weren’t awful to paddle out through. I love this sort of swell. My shoulders didn’t burn and we caught a few nice 1-2 footers off the bat. When you sit on your board and face the shore, it’s an amazing view. All you see is towering green mountains, palm trees, the Pililaau cottages, and the beach. It makes you feel like you’re truly away from everything, or in Moana. It’s beautiful. “Darn,” I said to Tim. “I wish we were able to find a waterproof case for our GoPro. It’d be really awesome right now.”

The same family that rented boards for their children came out too! It was cute to see the grom boy (he had longish blond surfer hair) do his best to catch rides on the Wavestorm he was using. After a particularly good wave which we both hopped on, I asked him if he got up and he said, “Yup! But then I nosedived at the end.” He seemed to be really enjoying himself.

We spent about an hour and a half out there catching rides, then came back in because we signed for a 2-hour rental. As we brought our boards back up the beach, the boy’s mother approached us carrying her iPhone. She said, “You guys looked so cute out there, so I took a few pictures of you both! Would you like them?”

We were flabbergasted. God is even answering unspoken prayers about being able to have pictures to remember this time! The woman smiled some more. “I just remember there was one time I was out there and someone else took pictures of us, and I really appreciated it! Here you go!”

She Airdropped them to me and the shots were quite good, even though they had to be super zoomed in. She was a sweetheart and reminded me of Mom a little.

We rinsed the boards and ourselves off using the beach shower then took them back to the rental shop.

Back at the cottage, we (mostly Tim) made some delicious homemade meat pasta from onions, ground turkey, Barilla gemelli, and marinara. We also used the “Hawaiian Isle Seasonings” salt that we got while grocery shopping, and it really added to the ground turkey.

The rest of the afternoon was pretty chill, just relaxing and staying inside, until it was time to head to town for our massage that we’d booked earlier! I also had a Google Hangouts call with the other Reality LA community group leaders that I had to do right before the massage, so we drove towards Ala Moana, where Tim could find some dinner and hang out until I was done with my call. On the way was a He>i store, so we stopped there quickly to browse. Auntie Kim said she’d cover whatever I got there for my birthday, so I picked out a shirt that read Aloha ke akua - “God is love”. Tim also found a sick tank top that we couldn’t say “no” to.

Ala Moana was a zoo, like always, but Tim was able to find a nice parking spot that still had reception for my phone. I stayed in the car and hopped on the call while Tim went to look for food. I ended the call just as Tim came back with dinner from HI Steaks (yum!), the same steak plate place we got dinner from a few nights ago. He’d already eaten udon, so he drove over to the massage place as I chowed down. I was fortunately able to digest a little. Red Earth Massage & Wellness was located in the sort of office building you would find a bunch of dentists and insurance agencies and lawyers renting out. It was the most nondescript place ever, but we walked into a low lit, nice-smelling waiting room that had very Buddhist-decor. It was kind of New Age, but the guy sitting at the front desk looked like Maui from Moana. He was the last person I expected to greet us there. He was very accommodating, though, and validated our parking slip and gave us a first-time visitors’ discount.

The massage itself was excellent. It rates in the top 5 massages I’ve gotten in my life (although perhaps I’ve only had about 10 massages in my life). The only thing was that I was really really sore from training with Christine the day before, and I had asked for a Medium-to-Firm pressure massage, which was definitely a mistake. When the therapist worked on my quads, it was somewhat excruciating. Other than that, she rubbed out all of my tightest muscles and I wish I could go back again today.

We were dead on the way back home. It took about 45 minutes to drive back to Waianae especially with the extra road construction that they’re doing at night in Honolulu, but Tim did a great job though he was tired and we got back quite safely, washed up, then immediately tumbled into bed.

[bjoyful]

Day 3

Church and Dim Sum

Both Tim and I woke up at 6:15am this morning, wide awake and ready to go. After playing Kingdom Hearts for a bit, we packed everything up and checked out of our Airbnb room. It was time for church! We were visiting Christine’s church, Bluewater Mission, in Honolulu. It was a great service, especially the worship, and everyone we met there was really friendly.

After the service we went to Honolulu’s Chinatown to get dim sum with Michael Fujimoto. One of Choy’s church friends also came with us. We had a field day with charsiu bao, hom soy ga, jinduy, dontot, and my favorite custard bun, too.

All of us weren’t too full for ice cream, so we walked through the streets of Chinatown - which really did look like a flat, not-crowded version of SF Chinatown - to one of Christine’s favorite ice cream places. Unfortunately, it was closed, so we sadly decided to just go hiking instead. We dropped Christine’s friend off back at church and headed up to Pali Lookout, where the Pali Puka hike starts. I voiced my concerns about easing back into heavy activity and Christine waved her hand. “Pali Puka’s a chill hike, just like 45 minutes. Don’t worry bout it!”

A “Chill” Hike

Pali Puka started with us scrambling up a brick retaining wall into a sloping bamboo forest on the side of the Pali Lookout parking lot. As if that didn’t already smack of sketchiness, a sign just a few steps into the bamboo forest read, “Notice: Area Closed! Do not go beyond the sign.” But Christine (Aragorn) plunged through and Tim (Legolas) followed, so me and Michael (Gimli) all followed suit. At least we weren’t going to have to be facing the King of the Dead on this road. I hoped, anyway.

What a climb! I legitimately felt like Sam or Frodo - either Hobbit - grasping rocks for handholds to pull myself up the steep rocky mountainside. Thankfully, we four were all very fit for the task and we made our way towards the Puka (a small, round opening in the mountain that creates great natural framing for the majestic mountain view). We are all also daredevil adrenaline junkies.

As we climbed higher, the pali (cliff) became a lot thinner in areas, and at times we found ourselves walking on a ridge about 18 inches wide, with a sheer drop-off to our right that stretched more than 400 ft. down. Her steps sure and unfaltering, Christine led the way. She told us a story of a girl who died from falling from the pali. As we trekked up the ridge, I clutched at the unhelpful bushes to my left, which were overcrowding the path. “You’re a nimble Hobbit,” I reassured myself feverishly, and also prayed to the Lord for His mercy.

But I made it to the Puka and so did Christine, Tim, and Fuj. We looked out over the horizon. It was incredible. My hands stopped shaking and I sat there gaping at half the island in awe. The lush green land spanned out to meet the deep blue far off and all I could think of was, “I’m truly in a far green country.”

Once the necessary photoshoot was done, we headed back down. It took a whole lot longer to climb down backwards but it sure was a lot less terrifying knowing that we’d already made the hike up.

Hitting Up Shimazu Store

We rewarded ourselves for completing Pali Puka with some genuine shave ice. Tim, Christine, and I all got regular sizes, but Michael ordered a large, and it was massive. He almost finished it though, leaving just the exact same amount left as I did with my regular. We stood next to the building in the shade, talking.  

Waianae

It was time to head up to West side to check into our next lodging - Pililaau Army Recreation Center. I was so sleepy on the way there, and my eyes kept closing. Tim has been doing all the driving on this trip, to save money with the rental car, which I really appreciate. We stopped at a Foodland in Kapolei for some groceries, since we definitely want to save money by not eating out every meal this trip.

Pililaau Army Recreation Center is a cute little section of cottages nestled on Poka’i Bay on the west side of Oahu. It’s really close to West Oahu SUP, the surf rental place we got boards from last year. They have a military police guard at the gate fully dressed in ACU checking military IDs. The front desk/check-in office is very modest. It pretty much looks like every government office ever (hint: DMV, post office, county clerk, Social Security, etc.). The cottages themselves are adorable, and ours sits 20 ft. away from the actual beach. They also gave us the one that’s at the very end, so it’s more private and quiet. Love it!

Our two-bedroom cottage that has a kitchen and a living room area, and the AC works great. We’ve encountered some ant trails, so we’re just keeping the food out of reach (everything goes in the fridge). This isn’t the Grand Wailea, mind you, but it’s just as wonderful. It’s like having a beach cabin, or upscale beach camping. And best of all, we’re right by some awesome waves. :)

[bjoyful]

Day 2

Oatmeal and AC

This morning was really wonderful as I was able to sleep in as late as I wanted for the first time in ages. I got up at 8am. Since we slept at 11pm, that was 10 glorious hours of sleep.

We lathered sunscreen on and walked over to a Longs to grab some milk (and face wash, since I’d forgotten mine) and brought back to make oatmeal and eat breakfast on the patio outside.

We’ve mostly just stayed inside and chilled in the room today to relax. It’s been heavenly.

Chan-Choy Time

Christine texted to say that she was on her way and would get to us at 1:50pm. We decided on eating at Shirokiya, the Japanese village walk at Ala Moana mall. It was so great to see her again. She hasn’t changed, albeit gained a few more pounds of extra muscle.

We walked around a good amount of time before any of us could decide what we wanted to eat, there were so many choices - sushi, gyoza, pork buns, bento boxes, seafood, plate lunches, udon, ramen, burgers! Tim finally settled on ramen (no surprise there) and so did Christine (also no surprise). I decided on getting a teriyaki chicken plate lunch; it was kinda underwhelming sadly and I think I should've gotten the katsu/pork karaage that I had been eying earlier, but oh well! It was a great lunch with excellent comrades.

We hit up a positively-Yelped boba place and then Ala Moana Beach Park right after eating. While it was crowded, a little prayer found us a nice parking spot (thank you God) and an empty spot on the beach. All three of us dove into the water. It was so wonderfully refreshing.

We hung out in the water talking for a while then went back to the beach to chill on our beach towels. We had just laid them out to sit on them when a wave so rudely crept far in and completely washed over our towels, legs, and boba drinks! Realizing we weren't safe from the waves, all three of us started digging trenches in the sand in front of our waterlogged beach towel/stuff area. We looked over and saw another family - a man, his wife, and their daughter - doing the same thing. They looked at us and we all laughed. The rest of our time at the beach was dedicated to evading the reach of the waves, digging even deeper moats (the father and daughter did a much better job than we did protecting their area ultimately - I had to take a picture of it, they did such a good job), building a sandman from sandballs that utterly failed, and catching up on life.

Christine had to get back for a game night, so we packed everything up and she dropped us off back at our apartment.

We chilled a bit and by then, it was already time for dinner. Tim looked up an awesome steak plate place on Yelp in Waikiki called HI Steak, which was nicely within walking distance. We strolled over and found it in a small, unassuming indoor food court mall. We ordered a steak plate to share. HI Steak’s garlic butter fries smelled divine, so we got some of those too, then took it to go and ate it back in the room while watching Lego Batman, which ended up being a hilariously funny movie with a pretty generic storyline, but saturated so much with pop-culture references that you didn’t even notice.

Then we washed up and crashed on our pillows.

[bjoyful]

Day 1 Pt III

A Great First Day

It was sweltering outside waiting for the Hertz guy to get our car. Fortunately Tim and I had both changed to Hawaii clothes (tank tops and board shorts of course). And there were palm trees swaying in the slight breeze to Instagram.

Blasting the relieving AC in our rental car, Tim drove us over to Ala Moana (which was 4 minutes away), and we navigated our way through the Friday afternoon masses to Curry House Coco Ichibanya. We did still want to save some of our appetites for Marukame Udon, that world-famous udon noodle house that we went to twice during our honeymoon, so we just ordered a medium-ish bowl of chicken curry to share. Then Tim realized they took cash only, and fumbled around in his wallet for the few dollars he had. He came up a dollar short. The young Asian cashier guy (his face looked a little like Bryant Trinh’s but more round) who was taking our order looked at us sympathetically before saying, “Here, I might have some change.” Then he pulled his own wallet out of his back pocket, took out a dollar, and added it to our payment! Both Tim and I were astonished with his generosity. It pretty much made our day.

We proceeded to devour the curry when it arrived. I don’t know if it was because I was famished, but that was probably some of the best rice + curry I’ve ever tasted.

Since Luke sold us his GoPro Hero 4, we’ve also been trying to find a case and accessories for it here so we can take it surfing and hiking and snorkeling and on other ventures with us. We weren’t really able to find anything nearby Curry House that had GoPro 4 stuff so we headed out. We’ll be back at Ala Moana later.

We checked into the AirBnB apartment that we’re staying in, and it’s pretty much like a nice 2-star hotel without the room service. It’s in a complex called Island Colony right around the corner from our favorite udon shop. They have a really nice pool area with a hot tub, but unfortunately the pool’s under construction. That’s okay, that’s what the beach is for. The view from our room is very building-saturated but you also get a little glimpse of the ocean and you can see the Ala Wai canal easily.

One issue to overcome was the parking situation. If we used the complex’s parking garage, we’d pay $30 a day. Neither Tim nor I was willing to pay that much, so we parked temporarily in a 2-hour parking spot close to the complex, chilled in the room for a couple hours to recuperate, and then headed back out to find a good spot.

According to our online research, if you were extremely lucky you would be able to nab a spot along Ala Wai canal, but the chances of that are pretty low, like getting a spot directly in front of Horton at Biola. We prayed anyway, of course. We then gave it a go and got stuck at the red light to get on Ala Wai Blvd while a line of cars drove by, looking at the long stretch of parallel-parked cars across from us with no open spaces. With low expectations, Tim turned left. Suddenly, right up ahead of us a car’s lights turned on and it pulled away! We had a spot! And an extremely rare, very close one, too.

Praise the Lord. His providence is true to us on vacation and everywhere else. We look back at last year during our honeymoon when we needed dishwashing soap and were going to go buy some, went walking around Hilton Hawaiian Village and found a brand new mini dish soap bottle on the ground smack in front of us. Right after we parked, I took a picture to capture the moment of our amazing spot right by Ala Wai canal. Unfortunately there was a random sad woman also there, who was captured in the photo as well.

We weren’t really hungry for udon yet so we decided to walk around the area (which has a ton of shopping and touristy things and the beach) a bit. I can’t get over how warm it is here. It’s not muggy like SoCal, but still hot and even more humid. The sun shined bright we were walking, and reaffirmed my packing decision that the only long-sleeve that I even brought was my Pixar Piper shirt.

While crossing Kalakaua Ave, I saw two Honolulu Cookie Companys and 3 ABC Stores on the way. They’ve done a lot of new development here, including remodel International Marketplace which is a gorgeous new outdoor mall featuring towering banyan trees, natural-looking ponds and fountains, and flagstone walkways. I was extremely impressed. Tim said it used to look pretty tacky before.

I couldn’t help finding my way to the beach. When we got there, Tim scanned the amount of surfing people in the waves and exclaimed, “It’s a zoo out there!” Yes, Waikiki Beach surfing is way worse and way more crowded than San Onofre. We stood for several moments watching everyone clamor for a ride, and I daydreamed about how we’d be surfing out at Waianae in a few days and there’d probably be nobody else there but us.

We realized that the line was probably getting pretty long at Marukame, so we headed back, and we were right. The line was Disneyland status. I guess that’s the only thing I don’t really enjoy about being in Waikiki/Honolulu, Oahu is that it’s just as densely populated as any other tourist-frequented city.

The wait for Marukame didn’t feel too unbearably long, though, and the food was well-worth it as always. You grab a tray, stand in line and order your noodles, Urban Plates style, then they give you your bowl of noodles and you take your noodles and tray and pick your sides then pay the cashier Fresh Choice style. I ordered cold udon with sweet beef and an egg, and Tim ordered cold udon with sauce, and we both shared some tempura. I was hungry again by the time we got our food and sat down, so everything tasted twice as good.

Pleased with the eats, we headed back to the room, changed into swimsuits and hit up the hot tub and hung out for a bit there, quizzing each other on random geography questions. Tim asked me what the 7 continents were and I had to sit quietly for several minutes making sure my answers were right so that he didn’t make fun of me. When I asked him what the capital of Denmark was, he said, “Bismarck?”

On the way back up to our room from the hot tub, there was a friendly older Korean tourist couple in the elevator with us. They recognized Tim’s cupping marks on his back and chattered to each other about them, then pointed to his biceps muscle, very impressed, and motioned with their hands that they knew he was strong. I grinned to myself and Tim accepted their foreign compliments humbly.

To wind down for the evening, we streamed Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which was a very engaging, surprisingly disturbing film. I enjoyed it because it seemed carry the same relationship to the rest of the Harry Potter series as Rogue One did to Star Wars, even though the story was a bit more confusing.

Altogether an excellent first day on the island!