Wedding Adventure - Day 7 - Hawaii

We decided to spend Thanksgiving driving around the island since we figured it wouldn’t be too busy. Apparently the local Honda clubs had the same idea as their were dozens of little ricer Civics and the like driving along the North Shore as we headed towards Haleiwa. We drove through town and through Walalua (home of the soda works and some great root beer) to Mokule’ia Beach Park. We walked in the sand for a bit and took in the view (and watched some skydivers at the nearby Dillingham Airfield) before moving down the road to Army Beach for a few minutes.

We had the goal of reaching Ka’ena Point which is the westernmost point on Oahu and is famous for having some of the largest known waves in the world. However, the paved road ends about two miles from the point and only a rough dirt trail leads the rest of the way. We put the Jeep into 4-wheel drive and headed down the very rough and irregular trail. We had to go very slow since there were all sorts of ruts and holes in the road, and our rental Jeep, not intended for off-road use (explicitly forbidden in the rental argreement), wasn’t equipped with good all-terrain tires. It was such slow going that after several hundred yards we pulled off the trail to pose the Jeep overlooking the crashing sea. It made for a great picture and although I’m sure the view from the point is spectacular, it wasn’t worth the effort and time.


We got back in the Jeep and drove down to the south shore and through Honolulu. We took H3 up into the ridge separating the south and east coasts and through a long tunnel. The tunnel popped us out high above Kane’ohe on the east shore of Oahu. We wound down through a few short tunnels before we were at sea level and could see the road coming out of the tunnel high above us. Quite the feat of engineering.

We stopped for lunch at Kualoa Park on Kualoa Point on the east shore. The park was very nice with many families out having Thanksgiving picnics. We grabbed a bench and had a lunch of sandwiches and leftover Hawaiian pizza. Several cardinals flitted by to enjoy our leftover crusts. We walked along the beach that was sheltered by Mokoli’I Island (aka Chinaman’s Hat) and like all the others, it was picture perfect and not very crowded.

After lunch we continued on to Kahana Beach which is near Kauhi’makaokalani (aka Crouching Lion Rock). It was also very pretty, a beautiful sheltered horseshoe bay.

Our final stop was at the Foodland in La’ie where we bought some beach towels and reef walkers so we could make better use of the beautiful beaches.

After another sunset from the balcony, we decided to order room service instead of going to the somewhat pricey Thanksgiving buffet. I had the spaghetti and meatballs again while Amy opted for the Ahi Tuna. We spent the evening reading in the room while the waves grew bigger and bigger in size outside. It was a very relaxing Thanksgiving.