North Shore, Oahu

What started out as a drive to SoCal for the football game turned into a longer stay for a Steely Dan clone band gig (Willis on guitar). Then Lacey says she's going to Hawaii to work on a book (!)... and do I want to come along on a $99 companion fare first class ticket! Well...

And here we are on the North Shore at the Turtle Bay Resort with the surf pounding the shore outside our window. We woke up in the morning to this...


The resort is protected from environmentalists by a fierce warrior...


While Lacey worked, I started a series of hikes. First up was a beach walk to Kahuku Point. Walking in sand is a drag, I brought back most of the beach in my shoes... But it was rewarding. First I found the pervasive presence of graffiti... actually the design on the left was pretty cool.


Then I found this sign along the beach...


And, sure enough, I found this monk seal taking a nap. Of course I went up and kicked it awake...


No, I didn't... but I was jealous of its napping ability. Anyway, I finally got around to the Point... here's a shot looking back to the resort, and another of the cove formed by the Point.



On the way back, I chose one of the "jungle" trails wandering throughout the extensive resort property. There's a golf course in here somewhere.


Really... some of the trails follow the golf courses, but the forest effectively hides the trail from the murderous golfers. I did find some little kids entering the trail and warned them of impeding monsters in the deep, dark forest (actually true, some archeologists were using a noisy front loader to clear the foliage and to excavate possible ancient burial grounds).

Hawaii is, of course, quite lush... Here's a few of the flowering and fruiting trees I found.





On the resort property is a WWII historical marker for one of the first radar sites in the US. Now the Opana Mountain site is a very modern installation. Back in 1942 it was just an experimental radar site which actually detected the Japanese planes as they flew towards Pearl Harbor. The detection was duly reported; however, it was assumed the planes were actually American B-17s due to arrive from the mainland at about that time. Unfortunately the quality of radar at that time could not distinguish quantities or sizes of planes.



After a hard day of hiking and book reviewing, I decided we needed a drink. The pool bar had a Mai Tai special for happy (half) hour. They were good... very good...


Semi shit faced at sunset, we walked over to the shoreline for a typical, fabulous, Hawaiian close to the day...




The end...