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Oahu travelog #9
Waikiki, HI - Fri, 24 Dec 2021, 6:30pm
We got off to a later start this morning than I'd hoped for (dang jet lag) but we made a pretty full day of it. We hiked two waterfall trails and drove a loop around the windward (east) side of Oahu, doing a bit of sightseeing along the way.
First up was visiting Manoa Falls on the outskirts of Honolulu past the university district. A steep and often rocky trail ascends 800 feet to a viewing area at the bottom of the approximately 200' tall falls. It rained (lightly) off and on while we were on the trip, but we didn't care much. We were properly dressed with sturdy boots, rain jackets (though I never actually donned mine) and hats.
I'm not posting pics from the falls in this blog because I want to get this blog posted. The main reason I generally fall behind several days blogging about trips is the time to takes to touch up pictures for sharing. I'll come back around with pics in a separate blog in a few (hopefully!) days. Edit: blogs posted & reordered chronologically (mostly).
After the hike we were hungry for lunch. We found a well-reviewed bakery cafe called Waioli back nearer to the university. Hawk got mochi waffles, one of their specialties, while I got a cheeseburger— also a special, though apparently less special. Hawk also bought a muffin/scone and we shared a loaf of challah that was another "holiday" special. I quote holiday because it's done in a Jewish holiday style, but this is not a Jewish holiday. It's a Christian holiday (Christmas Eve). I should probably also quote style because the flavor wasn't really even challah. It was... challah-ish?
After lunch we drove up over the mountains, stopping briefly at the Pali Scenic Overlook. It's an interesting view from here, looking out at mountains that are almost sheer vertical, with sides undulating like drapes.
Next up was a hike at Likeke Falls. This trail wasn't as steep as the Manoa Falls trail but it was extremely muddy. Our feet slipped in the squishy mud, often more like really wet clay, several times. We both managed to avoid falling, though. Yay? And the reward was a beautiful, two tier falls of about 50'.
The two uphill hikes sapped a lot of our strength for the day. We could have turned around at that point and driven back to Waikiki, perhaps to lounge at the pool or soak in the hot tub for the afternoon. Instead we chose to make a loop around the windward side of the island. We've got a convertible, so why not. Also, it turns out this convertible can raise or lower its top in about 6 seconds— which is good because we had to do it several times as we drove in and out rain.
As we completed our driving loop home I realized that Hawaii has even more interstate highways than I thought. First, yes, Hawaii has interstate highways. They don't really go inter state, of course; the next nearest state is over 2,000 miles away across the ocean. Heck, they don't even go inter-island. It's tens of miles across open water. But Hawaii's island of Oahu has highways that are funded through the interstate highway system.
For years I thought there was one interstate in Hawaii: H1. When I looked at a map yesterday I saw there were three: H1, H2, H3. Today we discovered there's a fourth, H201. In fact we drove all four interstate highways in the span of about 15 minutes. Crazy!
Well, now we're back at the hotel. We've washed up from a tiring (and muddy) day of hiking. We're going to go down for dinner soon. We're planning traditional Jewish Christmas Eve dinner. Y'know, Chinese.
Waikiki, HI - Fri, 24 Dec 2021, 6:30pm
We got off to a later start this morning than I'd hoped for (dang jet lag) but we made a pretty full day of it. We hiked two waterfall trails and drove a loop around the windward (east) side of Oahu, doing a bit of sightseeing along the way.
First up was visiting Manoa Falls on the outskirts of Honolulu past the university district. A steep and often rocky trail ascends 800 feet to a viewing area at the bottom of the approximately 200' tall falls. It rained (lightly) off and on while we were on the trip, but we didn't care much. We were properly dressed with sturdy boots, rain jackets (though I never actually donned mine) and hats.
After the hike we were hungry for lunch. We found a well-reviewed bakery cafe called Waioli back nearer to the university. Hawk got mochi waffles, one of their specialties, while I got a cheeseburger— also a special, though apparently less special. Hawk also bought a muffin/scone and we shared a loaf of challah that was another "holiday" special. I quote holiday because it's done in a Jewish holiday style, but this is not a Jewish holiday. It's a Christian holiday (Christmas Eve). I should probably also quote style because the flavor wasn't really even challah. It was... challah-ish?
After lunch we drove up over the mountains, stopping briefly at the Pali Scenic Overlook. It's an interesting view from here, looking out at mountains that are almost sheer vertical, with sides undulating like drapes.
Next up was a hike at Likeke Falls. This trail wasn't as steep as the Manoa Falls trail but it was extremely muddy. Our feet slipped in the squishy mud, often more like really wet clay, several times. We both managed to avoid falling, though. Yay? And the reward was a beautiful, two tier falls of about 50'.
The two uphill hikes sapped a lot of our strength for the day. We could have turned around at that point and driven back to Waikiki, perhaps to lounge at the pool or soak in the hot tub for the afternoon. Instead we chose to make a loop around the windward side of the island. We've got a convertible, so why not. Also, it turns out this convertible can raise or lower its top in about 6 seconds— which is good because we had to do it several times as we drove in and out rain.
As we completed our driving loop home I realized that Hawaii has even more interstate highways than I thought. First, yes, Hawaii has interstate highways. They don't really go inter state, of course; the next nearest state is over 2,000 miles away across the ocean. Heck, they don't even go inter-island. It's tens of miles across open water. But Hawaii's island of Oahu has highways that are funded through the interstate highway system.
For years I thought there was one interstate in Hawaii: H1. When I looked at a map yesterday I saw there were three: H1, H2, H3. Today we discovered there's a fourth, H201. In fact we drove all four interstate highways in the span of about 15 minutes. Crazy!
Well, now we're back at the hotel. We've washed up from a tiring (and muddy) day of hiking. We're going to go down for dinner soon. We're planning traditional Jewish Christmas Eve dinner. Y'know, Chinese.
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