Eric in his natural state
As our body clock was still on LA time, everyone was wide awake by 7am. After finishing up our spam and eggs in our room, and checking our emails, we went straight to the Pali lookout. By that time, the weather was cloudy rainy. Pali was okay, not really a “MUST SEE” for me. The scenery was great, not as beautiful as the one in Diamond Head in my opinion. My friend told me that the winds are so strong in Pali that you can actually lean forward facing the cliff and the winds will stop you from falling. That is a very stupid idea given that the winds can be sporadic and just one loss of wind will let you fall off to your death in no time. Nonetheless, we made most of Pali by taking “myspace and friendster-worthy” photos of ourselves.
Dole
Word of caution: we did not find a single toilet there and me and Eric needed to go, REALLY needed to go. Out of desperation, me and Eric “golden showered” the tires of the mustang. That was intense…and pungent. After the Pali lookout we proceeded to the Dole plantation, the home of the largest maze in the world. Upon entering the driveway, we’re greeted with this big country-style structure which houses the souvenir shop and a cafeteria selling all kinds of pineapple-based food and delicacies. My favorite would be the pineapple covered with chocolate, much like a bon-bon. That was DELICIOUS! We also got a pineapple cake that definitely satisfied our sweet tooth. I didn’t remember that much happening on our Dole trip except for that sweet lady who heard Toffee singing in Tagalog and declared how sweet it was to be serenaded by such a beautiful song even though she didn’t understand a word.
North Shore and the mermaids
Awwww. We drove up to North Shore but we made sure to stop by Kua Aina for their world-famous burgers. They were huge, fat burgers and they were just perfect. I got a 1/3lb burger with bacon and cheese with French fries. The works! We proceeded to the North Shore only to find that there was a surfing competition which means there was a plethora (taray plethora) of delicious eye-candy surfers with their surfboards and washboard abs! After settling in and eating our burgers, we headed farther west where we swam and lay on the beach. After a nice long nap and a short swim we decided to drive around and take a scenic tour of the northern part of the island. Back in Honolulu, we dropped by Costco to finish our pasalubongs.
Yumen Ramen
This was a marvelous idea as we bought those macadamia chocalates 6 in a box for 12.99 (ABC stores are such a rip off). For dinner, we hit this Jap restaurant near the Ala Moana center. The name escapes me right now, but they had really authentic, delicious ramen with gyoza. I’m not really a fan of ramen but that one was really good, the fried rice really helped. After that we went to starbucks for a nightcap while doing some people watching. “The tourists here are way different from the Vegas tourists. They seemed to be more wholesome” I commented. Aside from the regular cool breeze and my increasingly glowing tan, what was very refreshing for me was that the place felt safe and yes, wholesome. It’s like your problem escapes you, you can’t help it. This was a tiring day and enough to get us acclimated in the culture of Hawaiians which I think, is unlike any from the rest of the world.
