First Days in Hawaii

Funkycat and Vino had already left on earlier flights to Hawaii. So, Lebron, Antetokounmpo, Cactoose and I met at the airport to start our journey. I was only able to get Cactoose into the Plaza Premium lounge this time, so we quickly grabbed a snack and some drinks to share with Lebron and Antetokounmpo. We boarded our flight and I was lucky enough to snag an exit row seat which meant I had a bit more legroom for the 5 hour flight.

Arriving and Dinner at Zippy’s

The flight was smooth and before we knew it we were in Hawaii! We met up with Vino who arrived a few hours earlier. From the airport we picked up our rental and set out to our North Shore AirBNB. Since we arrived later in the evening our food options were limited. On the recommendation of the car rental staff we stopped at a common late night food stop called Zippy’s.

I ordered the loco moco and what would be the first of many spam masubis. Loco moco is a common Hawaiian dish which consists of white rice, a hamburger patty, a fried egg and gravy. Loco moco is sushi rice with a piece of fried spam wrapped in seaweed. We ordered it to go so we could drive to our AirBNB and eat with Funkycat who checked into the Airbnb earlier in the day.

After arriving and getting settled we had dinner together, and planned for our first full day in Hawaii. After a bit of TV, we all turned in excited for the next day’s activities.

Ke Iki Beach

One of the cool things about the AirBnB we booked was access to the beach. It’s literally a 15 second walk from the front door. So in the morning we decided to check out the beach. The beach itself is quite pretty and somewhat secluded so there weren’t too many people. There is a rocky part on the side of the beach where we spent some time exploring.

Acai Bowls at Island Vintage Coffee

After about an hour we headed back to the house and then to Island Vintage Coffee for coffee and Acai Bowls! Hearing a lot about Acai bowls I was excited to try. I ordered a cold brew coffee and their original Acai bowl. I was pleasantly surprised with how fresh and tasty the Acai bowl was! Adding to it the knowledge that it’s a decent healthy breakfast doesn’t hurt! Its like having a berry smoothie in the morning and I loved it!

Snorkelling at Shark’s Cove

From Island Vintage we headed to Sharks Cove. We bought some cheap scuba gear from the local super market and made our way into the cove to get our snorkel on.

In past trips, I’ve mentioned that I’ve never felt strong in the water and its prevented me from participating in certain activities. So during the winter, I signed up for and completed swimming lessons. It certainly helped as we snorkelled around the cove. While it was fun to snorkel, I’d never done it in “wavey” water and having a bit more confidence from the lessons helped me not panic when I realized how far from shore I ended up. I was a bit scared, but was able to swim myself to a nearby rock. I also realized how tiring swimming in the ocean is. By the time I got back to shore I was pooped! So before heading back I grabbed some poke as a small reward!

Giovanni Shrimp Truck

After showering and resting from snorkelling, we drove out to Giovanni’s shrimp truck in Haleiwa to try this popular food stop. I read about massive line ups for it, but maybe because it was the end of the day we only waited 10 minutes. We ordered a few plates of shrimp to share and brought it back to the house. The shrimp is very good, and while I enjoy garlic shrimp as much as the next guy. I will say that if the line up is any more than the few minutes, I’m not sure if it’d be worth it. Don’t get me wrong the shrimp IS very good, but I didn’t think it was knock your socks off life changing that would be worth an hour long wait.

Ehukai Pillboxes Hike

Cactoose read about a cool hike called the “pillbox”  hike. It wasn’t supposed to be too difficult so we all decided to do it. The way the hike starts is with a long stretch of incline. So while the overall hike isn’t overly difficult, that first part does get your heart going and sweat dripping.

Unfortunately, FunkyCat and Cactoose are a little more capable tackling the incline and charged on ahead. The rest of us were hoping to meet back up with them at the top. However, we encountered a fork in the road and probably took a different route. We didn’t see them again for the rest of the hike and didn’t actually make it to the “pill box” portion of the hike. It wasn’t a total loss, from our vantage point we still got great sunset views before heading back down the trail.

Since there are two vehicles, Lebron, Antetokounmpo, Vino and I headed to the market for supplies before going home. In doing so I still got to catch the tail end of a lovely Hawaii sunset.

It was an eventful first day in Hawaii and we were all pretty tired. Both Antetokounmpo and I planned to jump out of an airplane tomorrow!