Adventures with Abigail

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I went to the island of O’ahu, Hawaii in March 2021. This is my story.

I landed in Hawaii in the afternoon and went over to enterprise to pick up my rental car. My sister was working for the same company at the time, so I got 55% off! I was able to get a convertible mustang for the price of a compact economy car! It was aaaammmaaazing! This was the only trip I took that overlapped her employment with enterprise, but man, isn’t this the trip you’d want to overlap? Anyways, after picking up the car (which was a white convertible mustang, the sign of the tourist on this island), I see a rainbow as I’m driving away. How beautiful. I don’t think I saw another one until I left.

Note about “the Rona”: Yeah, I woke up one morning in December, saw an ad for Hawaii and thought, “I HAVE to go.” I remember frantically watching Hawaii’s government website in early March about the covid numbers and the restrictions. The week I went to Hawaii was the 2nd week the restrictions had been lifted to the 2nd tier. They were doing week-by-week checks and changing the restriction tiers based on the previous numbers. It was a wild time, and very difficult to go to Hawaii (which made for a less crowded experience at least). In my photos, you might see people in masks. Hawaii required masks in all public places, including beaches and hiking trails, if you were closer than 6 feet to people not in your party.

I found a VRBO just outside of Waikiki (so it was cheaper) in a lovely older building with a very slow elevator. The bed was sooo bad, but the shower was outstanding and it had a great view. The building didn’t have parking, so I had to pay $20/day to park across the street. Of course once I had my stuff situated I headed straight for the beach. After a lovely stroll along the beach, I found a cute little burger joint for dinner and had a touristy drink with a slice of pineapple over the top of the glass.

The next morning I went to do the Diamon Head Hike. This is a very popular hike for visitors, and they have “a whole thing” set up at the entrance. The path is packed dirt, and it rained the previous evening (not surprising since March is the end of rain season) so it was a little muddy in places. There were lots of lookout points along the way to take photos of

After the hike, I randomly happened upon a ramen place and decided that sounded good for lunch. Boy, was it good. It was great. Probably top 10 meals I’ve ever had! I had a Poke bowl to start and then a Spicey Ahi Don Ramen bowl. I’m so disappointed that I don’t remember the fish or the base of the Poke bowl because it’ll be so hard to find again. After that amazing meal, I headed back to the apartment for a wardrobe change then headed to the beach for the inaugural swim.

This was not my first time in the pacific ocean (that would be Sept 2019), but this was the most significant time. The water was cold, but relatively calm. All the sand at the Waikiki beach is imported, so it’s basically perfect. I’m sure I ate dinner after, but I have no memories of it (that ramen really outshined anything else).

The next morning, I drove up the island to the north short to meet a surfing instructor. I think I was nervous because I took absolutely zero photos or videos during the surfing lessons. The photo below is the beach we met at, but he said the waves today weren’t good at this beach so we drove down the road to another beach that had good waves. The next beach did have good waves (maybe 3 feet), and we hopped right in. What I say next may seem really obvious, but it wasn’t to me. Surfing, the activity, is almost all arms! I was only able to do 4 laps before I was just tapped out. Thankfully I didn’t have to get myself into the wave (instructor would push me into them), but I did have to paddle myself all the way back out to the starting point. My chest was sore, too, from laying on the board. Apparently I wasn’t tired enough because after the hour long surfing lesson, I went on a pill box hike that was in the area. It was very muddy and pretty steep, but had a pill box you could actually go inside (instead of just see in the distance), so it was worth it.

Alright, this next part is a little embarrassing. There’s this place that all the websites say you gotta go to if you make it to the north side of the island, Ted’s Bakery. I had forgot about it, and had lunch elsewhere. When I drove past it later, I made the split second decision to stop anyway. They are known to have great mac salad, so I got the mac salad. It really was very very good. So good, in fact, that when I couldn’t finish half of it I couldn’t bring myself to throw it away. So I put it in the middle console of the car to save for later, and then took the long way back to the apartment….in a convertible….while it was beautifully sunny. When I got back, I put it straight into the fridge, but a few hours later when I went to have a bite it tasted funny (a bit sour, maybe). I didn’t think anything of it, but only had a few bites because it wasn’t as good. Later I headed over to the Ala Moana Center to find a Poke bowl for dinner. Nothing was as good as the one from that Ramen place.

The next morning was scuba diving time! We did two dives, the first down to 40 feet, and the second down to 60!! Now, when a GoPro says it’s rated for 60 feet. It just means it’s not going to break. Not that it’ll work. The following images are the only quality pictures I have from the scuba trip. The second one is a blue fish. The GoPro capture button was pressed down by the pressure and snapped a whole lot of garbage before eventually turning off. Ya live and Ya learn. I did see some cool stuff like a turtle cleaning station for sharks. I saw an eel in a cave. On the second dive, we went down to 60 feet and swam along a giant pipe that became a reef. That was cool. The water felt amazing (though I was wearing 2 wet suits).

After the scuba diving session, I decided to finish my drive around the island and went around the southeast tip. Remember that mac salad? Yeah, I was reminded of it too when about 24 hours after I had that second tasting I started feeling real bad. I spent the rest of the day in bed with the worst stomach cramps of my life. It’s so sad this happened because before I loved mac salad, and now I can barely look at it.

The next morning I still wasn’t feeling great, but I was feeling good enough to not miss the Kualoa Ranch ATV tour. I also stopped nearby to get a photo of the hat island. Very classic Hawaii tourist photo.

I was pretty beat after that ATV tour, so I just stopped at a cute little market on that side of the island and got some Taro rolls before heading back to bed. Thankfully I back to functioning the next day, so I went to the zoo! It was a solid zoo and had a very photogenic tree. They also had these very loud Howler Monkeys. Little did I know that I’d be woken up by these same sounds a year later (see Costa Rica)

That evening I had a VIP table at a Paradise Cove Luau. They served lots of great food (including mac salad, which I’m heartbroken to report I left untouched). The venue was beautiful and the dancers/singers were great.

The next morning I drove up to a place called “Shark’s Cove” to do some snorkeling. I did have a fun time, but I also encountered some sea urchins and got a little spooked. There was some Shave Ice across the street that made for a delicious morning snack. Checkout the timelapse of Shark’s Cove?

After Shark’s Cove (no sharks spotted, btw), I drove up to the Dole Plantation. It was pretty touristy/gimmicky, but I enjoyed a Pineapple shaped Hedge Maze. I bought some artwork from a local artist, and then watched a “how to pick and cut a pineapple” demonstration. That was super useful, and I still use this knowledge today!

For my final day in Hawaii, there was only one part of the island that I had not been to (that I could also drive to, the NE tip of the island is a 4 hour hike, only). I drove up the east coast and stopped by the Pearl Harbor Museum/Memorial to learn a little about that. I mostly just explored this coast that was way less touristy that the rest of the island. I saw plenty of Hawaii Sovereignty flags, too.

Literally as I’m driving to the airport the next morning I see another rainbow directly in my path. How crazy is that?

O’ahu really was a great island and I had a fun time. I was able to fit everything I wanted to do in the week trip, but it was a little fast paced. I do plan to go to Hawaii in the future, but I will be island hopping next time. That wasn’t really feasible during this trip due to covid restrictions. Anyways, lovely trip. 10/10 will do again.