Thursday, December 26th
East Oahu
Terri had rented the Sentra through Friday morning so today
was our last chance to get out and see the rest of what Oahu had to offer in an
expeditious manner. We had toured briefly the north and part of the west island
two days earlier, but the eastern part was unexplored. Once again I was
surprised to find out how different each part of the island was. The East side
was a lot drier, and seemed almost a desert in some places. Presumably this was
due to the prevailing winds coming from the north and west, and the very tall
mountains trapping the precipitation.
We
got on H-1 West but didn’t stay on it long because it ended almost immediately
due to a lack of sufficient real estate. Instead it turned into plain Route 72
that hugged the coast. Diamond Head Crater was in our rearview mirror. Maunalu
Bay appeared through the windshield. It looked like one could get out and walk
into a state park and do some nice hiking there, but there wasn’t much
vegetation and the walk was a long one to get out on the peninsula. However,
once you drive past you encounter the treasure of Hanauma Bay, a very popular
beach on the east side. Imagine a very small bay with gorgeous hills on either
side full of the deepest blue water and you’ll understand its popularity. I
really wanted to stop, get out and enjoy it but there was no way. The parking
lot was full and the side of the road for a half-mile around was full of cars.
Instead we kept journeying over an increasingly dry region
where a beach would appear one moment and waves crashing over large volcanic
rocks would appear a few hundred feet later. One memorable spot was Blowhole
Lookout. A lava tube had made its way under the rock. When the waves hit the
rock just right water gushed through it and blew out the other end, emulating a
whale surfacing.
Behind us were fairly sheer cliffs towering a thousand feet
or more. Winds raced off the top of it. Somewhere up there parasailers took
flight. We could watch a number of them sail up and down. I kept wondering why
more didn’t go splat against the cliff! It looked fun but dangerous. And it
looked like they could hang up there forever if they wanted to and never lose
altitude.
A few miles down the road we reached the eastern most part
of Oahu. From here we were surprised that we could look across the ocean to the
east and see Molokia, the closest of the other islands to Oahu. It must have
been an exceptionally clear day. The surf on this side of the island seemed
every bit as vigorous as the north side we had seen a couple days earlier, if
not more. Once again I was struck by the infinite varieties of blue and green
one could see looking out over the ocean.
A marine zoo was our primary destination and just ahead.
Sea Life Park is a fairly small park and certainly no Sea World. It is
affiliated with the University of Hawaii and employs a number of its students
who help maintain life at the park. Terri told me that the park is a non-profit
organization, so the admission fee gets funneled back into the park or is used
for other marine conservation efforts. They protect a number of endangered sea
mammals at the park. But its amusements were slim and its shows were pretty
lame. This is not a park for flume rides or roller coasters. It was all about
the aquatic marine mammals and birds. Admission seemed pretty steep to me: $25 a
person. Fortunately thanks to a coupon that came with the rental car we had one
free admission. The highlights of the park from Terri and Rosie’s perspective
were the penguins and the California Sea Lions.
We saw the latter first. One didn’t discover them by
chance: you could hear them from a long way away. You were encouraged to spend
$2 to feed them some fish, so they spent most of their time howling like mad and
waiting for handouts. (This is so anti-American, don’t you think? Haven’t
they heard there’s a Bush in the White House?) There were plenty of attendees
who were glad to cough up the dough for the opportunity to feed them. The
penguins (from Chile) were Terri’s favorite. She looked envious of the lady
behind the bars who got to feed and play with the penguins. One even came and
sat on the lady’s lap (see picture).
As I said I can’t say too much about the shows. There are
three of them. The best of the three took place in a pavilion and features a
number of dolphins that made impressive jumps and showed some amazing
gymnastics. We were shown how they train the dolphins. The dolphins seemed to
enjoy showing off and the crowd was wild with applause. We stayed just behind
the splash zone.
At
another show the audience was repeatedly squirted with water from giant super
soakers. Fortunately they hit mostly those who wanted to be hit.
The line at the food stand was very long as only one lady
was filling orders. What I enjoyed best was not the sea mammals but looking
outside the park. The park was also positioned with great views of the ocean and
parasailers.
By taking the shows slowly and by going back to see
penguins numerous times we managed to spend about four hours at the park. We
considered going further up the coast, but we had seen much of the north side
already, so we just returned the way we came. We discovered traffic jams coming
home from the beaches on the east side can slow you down considerably. We found
another Foodland and grabbed some more breakfast supplies before finishing our
day trip.
“Cheeseburgers in Paradise” is one of Terri’s
favorite songs by Jimmy Buffet. Wouldn’t you know in Waikiki there was a
restaurant with the same name? Jimmy Buffet didn’t own it but since Rosie
would demand a cheeseburger wherever we went, it seemed this would be a natural
place to eat dinner. It was a popular place for a fancy hamburger joint so we
arrived early to avoid a wait. And while my cheeseburger was darn good I don’t
think it was in paradise. (I doubt the cow would have agreed either.) Maybe it
was in Limbo. However, I can report they offer the best French fries I’ve ever
tasted. I’m not sure how they cooked them, but they were larger, golden brown,
very crunchy and very tasty. So I think maybe it should be renamed French Fries
in Paradise. Sure enough as we left we noticed several dozen people on the
street patiently waiting for a table. The restaurant was crowded and noisy
before 6 p.m. And although it was a burger and fries place it was the first such
place I’d ever been to with a live band playing!
Rosie went back to the condo and parked herself in front of
the TV. Terri and I were trying to get out and do a beach walk every evening, so
off we went into the breeze. We didn’t do that much walking on the beach but
we would walk out on the pier, sit and talk about subjects from the mundane to
the serious.