Leeward Side

Aloha!

Today we had to tackle the last bit of coastline we hadn't made it to yet--the Leeward Coast. For those who don't know what that means (I didn't before I moved here lol), it's the southwestern cost after Pearl Harbor and all that. It's supposed to be the drier, more arid side of the island. It was overcast and cloudy here in Honolulu, and by the time we got to the western most tip it was definitely a lot sunnier and a lot hotter!

Our first stop was at Ko'Olina Resort where there are lagoons great for snorkeling. It was a secluded hotel/vacation ownership type place and it was really nice. The snorkeling was cool, a little cloudy until we got farther out. We saw some pretty awesome fish, like a black one with little white polka dots. And we also saw the Hawaii state fish--the Humuhumunukunukuapua`a. I don't know how Jon knew that was the fish, but all I could think of was the song of the same name from High School Musical 2. I hightailed it out of the ocean though as soon as I saw tons of crabs scurrying around on the nearby rocks. Um, no thanks.

Then we headed up the coast towards Ka'Ena Point which is the western most tip of Oahu. We passed several beaches along the way, and a lot of this area seemed to be a lot more run down. There were tents set up everywhere along the beach and areas where people were clearly living in tents, but they had cars and stuff. It was a little scary. We stopped at Ka'Ena State Park to check out the beach because it was super sunny. The waves were huge here! Well not like 20-30 foot waves like the North Shore can see in the winter, but they were probably like 6 foot waves. Definitely too dangerous for swimming. The plan was too keep driving around the point to end up on the North Shore by Dillingham Airfied since we hadn't been by there yet. Unfortunately, we ran into this: Apparently, they haven't gotten around to paving this road yet so we had to turn around and go back. So driving around the island is impossible! I guess you have to hike around it (3.5 miles one way!) and beware of criminals! Well, I don't think there are criminals on the trail, but they'll break into your car.

On the way back we finally, finally, finally went to Target! We went to the one in Kapolei as opposed to the one in Honolulu. It was in an area by the Hawaiian Waters Adventure Park, and was very mid-westernized. It was very open and you could tell the area was just starting to be built up. And there were no parking garages. The only thing that made me sad was there was no One Spot at the Target. They had an Aloha Spot where they just had touristy Hawaii stuff. But it wasn't a dollar :-(

Tomorrow we might finally hit up Hanauma Bay. We've been unsuccessful going 3 times now. Yesterday, we actually made it to the ticket booth but they wouldn't accept pay stubs with our Hawaii address as a proof of residency. You save the 5 bucks to get in if you live here. We'll try again tomorrow. Maybe we'll even hit up an Easter morning Sunrise Service on the beach...well probably not. That's too early when there's no promise of yummy breakfast.

Happy Easter!