It’s been a few weeks since the last post.  I am happy to report my absence is due to being in Ko Olina, on Oahu.  We arrived on Tuesday and are having a fabulous time.  We have a one bedroom condo with a fully stocked kitchen.  While we are not cooking anything extravagant….the balcony table and the West facing view compete with any 5 star restaurant in the world!  Sometimes “where you eat, matters as much as what you eat”.  The fabulous sunsets coincide perfectly with dinner time.  We are keeping the food simple.  We are taking advantage of Costco’s semi-prepared food. We dressed up a Costco take and bake pizza and made two meals out of a Costco roast chicken.  Dave grilled steaks one night, and we had a fabulous shrimp salad another.   Ko Olina is close to a town called Kapolei.  It is a newer town filled with numerous fast food restaurants.  We are saving our dining out dollars for a couple of splurges, when we get to Honolulu the last two nights of our vacation.

Friday, we set out for the North shore.  We had a fabulous lunch at Cholo’s in Hale’iwa.  We had the best grilled ahi; mine in a taco, Dave’s in a burrito.  Big chunks of fish, so fresh and cooked perfectly.   The grilled beef tamale was fabulous as was the homemade salsa.  To top it all off, the service was perfect and attentive. After lunch we headed North to the Bonsai Pipeline.  If you have ever seen a surfing competition, this is probably where it was filmed.  It is the home of Vans Triple Crown of Surfing competition.  The biggest waves hit in November and December.  The lifeguards are some of the best in the world.  This is not a tourist beach and the lifeguards will kick a novice out of the water in a split second.

 

From the beach, we headed to Waimea Valley; an 1800 acre cultural and nature park.  There are over 5000 native and exotic plant species.  A mile walk leads you to the site of Waimea Falls, a 45 foot fall that drops into a pool you can take a dunk in.  Life-jacket required and provided on site.  Many movies have been shot here including Joe Versus the Volcano, George of the Jungle, Lost, Ride the Wild Surf, and a few Hawaii 5-0 episodes.

We stopped in Hale’iwa on the way back “home” for a shave ice from Matsumoto.  The place has been around since the 1920’s and is listed in every guidebook and tourist magazine.  It was packed when we were there at 3:00pm on a Thursday.  I cannot even imagine what it’s like on weekends.

 

Until the next post….Aloha