Hawaii 2015 Day 4 Part 2 - A Nice Assortment Of Stuffs

Well, ugh, September's going like a runaway train as usual and then some (more on the "and then some" when I'm good and ready and a little less swamped). I had a fabulous Labor Day weekend, hope yours was good too. I had a paddle and a swim and a tugboat race, there are a gazillion pix from the tugboat race that I just haven't had a chance to go through, so in the meantime, hey, how about another afternoon on Oahu?

Day 4 still, so woulda been Tuesday afternoon. I'd had a nice morning hike, I had a belly full of teri steak burger Buzz's style, which means basically a bunful of marinated, kiawe-wood-smoked steak (don't anybody clue them in about how usually "burger" means ground beef, OK?). I had wheels, I had some money, I had snorkel gear, and I didn't have to be anywhere at any particular time, so the afternoon was just free to flow the way it flowed - any trip should have some time like that, right? Ended up being a lovely smorgasbord of an afternoon - little of this, little of that, little of t'other. 

I started with a stop at Lanikai Beach, reputed to be one of the most beautiful in the world. I'd heard snorkeling was pretty good here, so I'd decided to come check it out.

It is pretty, isn't it? And the sand is maybe the softest, finest sand I've ever felt anywhere. Mmm.

The problem with beautiful fine sand like this is that it doesn't take much wind and wave action to stir it up into the water. Beautiful beach, nice coral, good numbers of fish but visibility just wasn't good.

Fortunately this one honu decided to swim close enough for me to see, but after he went on his way, I decided to hele on. I left Kailua and headed for the North Shore, picking up the Kamehameha Highway in Kaneohe.

First stop was at He'eia State Park. I'd actually stopped here with thoughts of more snorkeling, Kaneohe Bay is good for that. Didn't find a promising place to get into the water (didn't look too hard though) but I was excited to see the He'eia Fishpond. This is a HUGE traditional Hawaiian fishpond that got taken over by invasive mangroves after the walls were breached in a flood in 1965, but it's been largely restored through the efforts of the not-for-profit group Paepae o He'eia and a whole lot of local volunteers. I had actually hoped to come volunteer here during my visit, I thought that would be a really fun, interesting, and maybe even moderately useful way to spend a morning, but they weren't having a work day while I was here. I made a small donation instead but I was delighted to stumble across it in my unplanned ramblings.  

Also enjoyed seeing this shed sheltering traditional wooden canoes in various stages of construction.

Puakea Foundation

Next stop was a totally unplanned one, just to grab a quick photo of the Hygienic Store. Then, back on the road.

For all of about twenty seconds, at which time I spied a sign on the side of this truck that proclaimed "HULI HULI CHICKEN". Remember when I was talking about the kiawe tree and how the wood is the key to the flavor of the classic island fundraiser, huli huli chicken? Well, huli huli chicken really is mostly sold as a fundraiser, so to get the real thing you have to find a school or a church that's doing it, which I hadn't done this time. BTW, if you're wondering about the name, "Huli" is Hawaiian for "flip over" (yes, when your canoe capsizes, it hulis). When an organization does a sale, the huli huli chicken company comes in with giant grills that are filled with kiawe wood and enough chicken for all the chickens people have ordered in advance plus extras for drive-ups drawn in by the smoke. The marinated chickens are put into these big frames with handles to cook, and when the cooks are ready to flip them, they yell, "Huli!". Hence, huli huli chicken! I was delighted to find a roadside stand selling the stuff. 

Mike's has grown into a pretty big compound with tarps and tents and tables and at least one very ballsy chicken. She better hope they never run out of chicken...

Chicken and kalua pig plate with two scoop rice and mac salad (woohoo!). Onolicious!

I gave the chicken some rice. Chicken would've been weird. 

Heading onward once again. Sun was getting low in the sky as I arrived at Shark's Cove in Pupukea, but there were still people out so I decided to join them. Third time will have to be the charm for a really good snorkel here, this time the light wasn't going to last for long and last time I'd locked my car keys in the trunk, which actually turned out to be lucky because otherwise I would've fried 'em in the drybag fanny pack that turned out not to be dry (this time I had a proper waterproof case that fit in the non-dry drybag nicely and that worked great) but it also meant not as much time as I would've liked. This is a lovely snorkel spot in the summertime (wintertime this is all big crashing waves).

Sea urchin - had to be really careful coming out later 'cause these guys are everywhere and it was getting pretty dark, but I made it ok.

four-spot butterflyfish, oh I really do have to make a proper visit here next time I come!

NOT THAT GUY AGAIN! This was actually a joke shot for Tane - when we'd gone to Hanauma Bay I was really shocked to see some guy snorkeling around with one of these ridiculous things - and then I was in hysterics 'cause he turned out to have ZERO sense of spatial awareness and somehow for a minute or two, wherever Tane tried to swim, da buggah was just always in her way. So I absolutely cracked up AGAIN when this guy is lining up the perfect selfie with sunset at Shark's Cove, so I took this and posted it on Tane's wall that night with the caption "Guess who was at Pupukea today!". Not the same guy but still funny. 

And here's the sunset without selfie-stick guy. Prettier this way, yeah?

Farewell to Shark's Cove. I will be back!

After this it was dark so I decided to head on back to Lulu's place, bypassing Haleiwa.

And by the time I got back to Kapahulu Avenue I discovered I had enough room for one malasada.  I posted this shot on facebook with the caption "Malasada Moon" - click the photo to see the moon better! 

Lulu had warned me that Leonard's has gotten wildly popular and there's always a line. Wasn't too bad this night though and I had my malasada (and a mini pao doce for later consumption) pretty soon.

Malasadaaaaaaah! And that was the end of another great day.