Monday, June 3
Our 4th day already!!! Can’t believe it. I am suddenly so thankful we have a long trip planned because I kind of cannot imagine if we had to leave already in a couple days.
Yesterday was a little… wonky, at first, but ended up all working out to be a great day in the end.
It was a good example of how important it is to plan, but stay flexible! We had to “pivot” from my original (loosely penciled in) plan of exploring the Windward Coast (eastern) coast of Oahu.
After a lazy morning on the balcony, we did set out in the morning for the eastern Windward coast, beach chairs and towels in tow. The eastern coast is supposed to have some of the BEST and most beautiful beaches for swimming.
However, there has been quite a lot of wind these last few days. Not really where we have been exactly, but the forecast has shown 20-30 mph winds “locally” in certain parts of the island. I saw the wind was E/ NE so I was concerned we’d have wind on this east side, but decided to try for it anyway.
Well, when we arrived (after a ~40 minute drive…), it had clouded over and was indeed super windy. We parked at Kailua Beach but found this:
Beautiful! Nearly empty! But also, really rough, windy and almost chilly with the clouds.
We were like, ok, need a plan B. The boys really wanted to body board and this just didn’t look like the right place. We figured all the beaches on this side would have a similar weather pattern going on, so we decided to drive to the opposite side- the North Shore.
Unfortunately, this was now another 50 minute drive away. Boo. But it seemed the wind should not be hitting that side, just given the location.
I had originally planned we’d do a whole North Shore day on Tuesday, not Monday, but oh well.
On the plus side, this allowed us to drive the stunningly beautiful H-3 highway across Oahu!
The drive actually went quick and wasn’t a big deal. Added some unexpected time, yes, but we still made it over there by noon or so. (*I was a teeny bit annoyed by the wasted time but was like, it’s ok, we’re on island time..).
We swung by the Dole Plantation which has tours and you can get Dole whips there and I think has a train ride for kids and a big gift shop, but I guess no one wanted any dole whip right then so we just kept going.
Hale’iwa
We made it to the little North shore town of Hale’iwa and decided we should now get some lunch before hitting the beach.
The big thing in this area is shrimp food trucks! So I suggested we do that.
Parked in a lot and walked to the main food truck lot which was bustling and busy and really neat! They had Hawaiian music playing and it was nestled under a bunch of trees with picnic tables and a bunch of different food trucks.
I had read that Giovanni’s was the most popular shrimp truck, and apparently other people had read that too because they line there was like 5:1 to the line at the other poor trucks. Haha.
Ivan and my dad got in line, and Ethan and I ran across the street to another McDonald’s for a couple (cheaper) drinks. There were trucks selling smoothies and shaved ice etc but Ethan said they were “very overpriced” (lol- it’s true- some of the smoothies were like $10-13) and he just wanted a blue slushie from McDonald’s. Haha. (We will definitely get shaved ice another time!)
Some of the other trucks:
We got several big shrimp and rice platters to share-garlic butter and of course Ivan and I got the hot and spicy one.
It really was delicious!!! I enjoyed this. 🙂
There were a bunch of chickens just milling around:
We also got this big tropical fruit platter from a different truck and all shared and tried the various fruits. Some were familiar, like mango and coconut and pineapple, but there were a bunch of new ones too!! So good.
After lunch we were finally ready for beach time. The boys were getting antsy!
North Shore Beaches
The North Shore is a long stretch of tons of different beaches. In the winter this is where the surf gets crazy huge and the pro surfers live and train up here. But in the summer it’s relatively calm so a good time to visit.
I had bookmarked all different beaches to check out, but in the end, we basically picked this one that had good waves for body boarding and stayed there all afternoon!
I didn’t know much about this one, but it was close by and we were kind of like, ok, it’s getting later and let’s just pick a place for the love of God! It worked out to be a great choice.
Apparently we unknowingly were at a mostly “local” beach where lots of beginner surfers come to practice. We had fun watching lots of young local kids paddle out on their boards…kind of blew our minds, actually, how some super young looking kids just swam out REALLY far, alone, into the deep water with their surf board hooked on their ankle!! 😱 They must start young and have to be very strong swimmers even at like 7-8 years old.
It was less busy earlier in the day and then more and more surfers showed up as the afternoon went on.
The rest of us just lounged on the beach all afternoon! My parents alternated between up under the shade of some palm trees and the beach.
My mom took a little photo shoot for me. LOL! Just kidding… I would be the most awkward swimsuit model ever. 😆😆
The photographer ☺️:
We stayed here all afternoon until the sun set after 7. It was just beautiful.
Asher especially really got the hang of the body board thing, and was brave enough to paddle out by all the other surfers and body boarders.
He was out there for a LONG time. I went in for a little bit, too!
But I loved the views better from this beach! Again, so pretty.
Here are some of my favorite scenic shots:,
More people gathered closer to sunset but it still was far from a crowded beach.
I love the selfie with Ethan:
And this one is sweet 😍:
Sunset!
We then drove the ~50 minutes back to Waikiki, which put us back there after 8:30 pm. We were all starving by the point, but kind of sand covered and my dad was still wearing a swim suit. Lol! (Looked like shorts, but still.)
So obviously we were not going to be hitting up any nicer restaurants at this point.
We decided to just stop at the Waikiki Buffalo Wild Wings which turned into a bit of a production given some staffing shortages and also some parking confusion that led to a LONG walk from our car to the actual entrance, but we made it and got some food!
Walking back out through this very high end mall where, ironically, the ever-fancy Buffalo Wild Wings is also located. Hahaha! But seriously, I saw like every designer store imaginable in there. Dior, Chanel, Gucci, Prada, Louis Vitton, and on and on and on! It was nuts. Considered stopping in one but figured they’d take one look at me with my Eddie Bauer travel purse and be like, lady you lost? 😆😜
And that was our day! A little rocky start but ended up being our nice, relaxing beach day after all. I was glad to sample the North Shore shrimp trucks, too!!
GRATEFUL KAE 
Few observations: the price in Hawaii seems so over priced, why is that? I don’t remember it to be more expensive than other U.S. cities. Second, your family should to Indonesia, for the beaches and the surfing, I think the boys will love it. Third: your guys have a lot of energy to be doing things until 8:30pm!!! I would have been done by 6pm.
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Well, I am not sure it’s THAT overpriced compared to other major U.S. cities. To be fair, I don’t spend much time in places like NYC or LA either, so I am sure I would find those places to be expensive also, especially nowadays that prices are just up everywhere on everything. Also I think with Hawaii it’s just some supply and demand – it’s a highly popular place, so they can charge more for certain things, and my understanding is that since it’s a far away island it just costs more to get all the food, etc over here. I think it’s just more generally expensive all around than places WE typically vacation, but on the other hand, when I look at how much prices in restaurants etc have gone up even back in Wisconsin, I guess these prices are not that out of line with what I’d expect for an island/prime tourist destination/ big city/etc.
And I’m sure it’s also relative- for people who are used to staying in $500+ a night hotels all the time, they may not bat an eye. Or people who eat at really expensive restaurants a lot. But I think also since our trip is quite long, it adds up and that also makes us feel like- whoa- this is pricey! There are definitely ways to vacation in Hawaii more affordably too- for example we wouldn’t have to eat in those more touristy restaurants along Waikiki area and could only eat in our hotel room, or could get a room with no view or farther from the beach, could choose to not order any alcohol ever at dinner, etc. So some of it is choices too. But we also want to enjoy ourselves…. 🙂
I am sure the beaches in SE Asia are incredible! Totally would love to do that.
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Wow – every picture looks like a postcard!! So beautiful! The excess driving sounds a little frustrating but it really sounds like you ended up at a fantastic location!
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Ahhh, this sounds awesome. I want to know what you were doing on the beach all afternoon while the boys were in the ocean. Were you reading? Napping? Remember I’m living vicariously so I want to know every detail.
Yes, the Florida Gulf coast beaches are beautiful, but they don’t have the waves- the boys would have been VERY bored.
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Hahah mostly just kind of sitting there watching and/or napping!! I brought a book but for some reason didn’t end up actually reading that day! lol.
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When we were in Maui we were surprised by how different the weather conditions could be based on what side of the island you are on. It seems like there are always strong winds on one side but luckily the side we stayed on did not have strong winds! But apparently it changes based on the time of year, so if we went in the winter, we would have stayed on a different part of the island. Phil knew all about it and understood the reason and knew the terminology re: the wind patterns. I don’t recall any of it. Ha. Anyways, I am glad you were able to pivot and still have a great day! I can have a hard time being flexible and needing to change plans and I struggle with wasted time but my dad has been a good influence on me – his motto is “we aren’t late for the concert” which basically means we don’t have anywhere to be at a certain time so just calm down! I’ve commented before about my time anxiety and how I loathe being late. Like yesterday I met up with Birchie (!!!) and we talked about meeting at 3, but work all of a sudden got super busy so I did not leave my house until 3 so that means I got there at 3:20 by the time I parked. I texted her to let her know I was running behind and she did not care. She was sitting on a park bench by a lake soaking up some MN sunshine but I had to like give myself a pep talk about not beating myself up for getting there a bit later than planned. Anyways, all this is to say that I can struggle to drop the time anxiety when traveling but I am getting better at it, especially now that we have kids in toe because they are not great at schedules all the time! 😉
You look amazing in your bikini!!!!!
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Yes, definitely different weather conditions in different places and times! Seems like the weather can be very variable in a short time, too. We have had good weather but some clouds that have just been a little annoying sometimes- like yesterday afternoon we went to the pool and then were planning to go back down by the ocean but then it got cloudy and a bit breezy and while it didn’t rain, it just felt almost a bit cool or like we didn’t really want to go sit by the ocean like that. So that was kind of a bummer. I have noticed that a couple different afternoons, so not sure if it’s common at that time of day or just a coincidence!
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Way to pivot. Looks like an absolutely lovely day (and btw, the bikini looks great – it’s the one you recently bought for the trip and linked in an earlier post, right?).
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