Hawaii – Day 0

I hadn’t planned to blog this vacation, but a few people asked for updates, so why not. The plan is certainly to have an adventure, with Kylie and Jett joining the four of us. We have seven nights on Oahu, and lots of things planned, so we shall see how it pans out! We have tried to organize everything ourselves, so a lot depends on us.

The 4am alarm clock sounded rude but we efficiently got everyone and everything in the car. It was a tight fit but we managed and were on our way to the airport.

The trip to and through the airport was largely uneventful. Coffee and food perked us all up, though we’d forgotten how unpleasant the airport dining experience can be. It’s best to have a plan, which we didn’t.

After a 3.5 hr flight to LAX, a 2 hr layover then a 5.5 hr flight to Honolulu, we landed in Hawaii! It was weird to not go through customs after such a long flight. Picking up our ultra-stylish rental minivan was also very smooth and we were soon on the road.

Oahu tourist accommodations are dominated by Waikiki. However, the busyness of that area is not our style and we found a vacation rental on the North Shore above Pupukea, away from the crowds and closer to some of the attractions. The one-hour, very scenic drive from the airport seems to have validated that choice. The kids kept ooing and ahing about the scenery. We got to the house at about 4 pm, so allowing for time zones, the journey was 17 hours total.

The house is very clean, comfortable, and airy with 3 spacious bedrooms. It is the lower floor of a two story house, but purpose built as a vacation home with the owner living in the top half. Hawaiian law, in an attempt to prevent complete vacation-home domination of communities, does not allow vacation rentals unless the owner lives on site. However, we have not noticed the owner yet, so it’s not an issue. This area is the hotspot for surfing in the high season. They have gardens with lots of fruit and birds that I will post about later.

At the bottom of our road is a surprisingly-well stocked Foodland , but also with the high prices we were expecting. Local foods are cheaper, and that is what we have come for, but that will take some work. But today, it was just about getting through the first day.

Next door were some food trucks which provided an early dinner. They looked good.

We were loving the vibe with it being so close to the beach.

I must admit it was somewhat disappointing. The food was OK but expensive, but these trucks are in a very touristy spot. The garlic shrimp was yummy but messy as it needed peeling. The burrito/nachos/tacos were good too, but we realize we are spoiled by Houston food. It is Bailey’s job to find us the coolest places to eat, and she is on that mission for the rest of the trip.

The chickens that roamed around the picnic tables kept us entertained.

Having eaten, but still fighting jet lag, it was time to cross the road and check out Shark’s Cove, where we will be diving and snorkeling.

It was a challenging climb down to the tide pools on sharp rocks in sandals. Fortunately no one fell. We enjoyed the beginnings of the sunset.

We tried sitting on the rocks but they were so sharp. We noticed some surfer dudes in their trucks and jeeps, overlooking the bay and the sunset, so we followed their lead and moved the minivan for a comfortable view.

We headed back to the house and had a quick “history lesson.” This is how our guidebook describes the mottled history of the islands. The first humans are believed to be Polynesians from New Zealand in about 500 AD. The first westerner was Captain Cook in the 1770’s who unfortunately brought disease which decimated the population. The island’s ideal climate contributed to their damage, with all its sandalwood being stripped and sold to China in the late 1700s, and then crops like sugar and pineapple were introduced which led to lots of land being cleared and local crops surpassed. New England missionaries arrived from New England around 1820, and while they tried to outlaw the hula dancing, they created a written form of the Hawaiian language to aid in Bible translation. The Hawaiian king tried to pass laws to prevent foreign land ownership, but the opposite happened with five wealthy foreign plantation owners becoming very powerful and controlling. The king gave Pearl Harbor to the US as a port, and the hoped-for protection. At the end of the 1800s, the plantation owners, with the help of US marines, staged a bloodless coup, ousting the queen. The US president was unable to persuade congress to give Hawaii back, and the islands became a US territory, governed by Dole, as in the pineapple…. (We will see Dole’s side of the story when we visit his plantation). With Dole in charge, plantation development grew, along with the immigrant worker communities from a wide range of nations. They made the Hawaiian language illegal. However, they struggled to compete with other low-cost locations, so looked to develop tourism. By 1941, there was a strong tourist trade but the hotel scene was still relatively undeveloped. On Dec 7th, that all changed with the Japanese bombing, and immediately the US government took control of the islands away from Dole and the plantation owners. The islands became a state in 1959.

While the tourism continues to increase and an untouched Hawaii becomes ever more elusive, there were three great improvements. First was the embracing of the language in schools when it had nearly died out, and second was the celebration of hula dancing and Polynesian culture. Finally, as tourism grew after the war, the cuisine was mostly European-influenced using jet-lagged imported food. 12 local chefs got together to work with local farmers and revolutionize the local food scene, which we will enjoy!

So, that was day 0. Jet lag is causing me to write this in the morning after a great night’s sleep, despite no AC but with the wind coming through the windows and the sound of the trees and a rain shower. Today is surf lesson day. Bring it on!

This page is linked to from my Hawaii-Oahu home page.

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