THE MORNING: I couldn't sleep well and after the eleventyth time tossin', figured it's stupid to keep doing so. It was somewhere between 5:30a and 6a, the city starting to honk and move. As quietly as possible, lugged a sittin' pillow, my laptop & phone outside to the balcony. We slept with the door open, but drapes partially drawn; I went into stealthy mode. I sat outside, hearing the ocean and seeing the beautiful colors, wanting to deep breathe the moment. The desire to start writing about the trip was huge, but want and execution aren't always synonymous. Instead, could only muster anxiety & guilt, while my fingers typed rubbish. It's a cycle I often face when traveling, like my brain goes into you're not worthy enough to have this joy mode. Yes I am, I retort. And thanks to therapy, realize the pattern now. So I stopped, closed my eyes, and restarted my mental morning routine. Shortly thereafter, Travis woke up and it all washed away. The mean behavior towards myself sunk with one "Good morning {smile}, are you excited!" from my husband. This is why we're married.
THE EATS: We tossed a couple of breakfast ideas around before settling on a place called Goofy's. It's not Disney related, but rather an organic & locally sourced spot with delicious veg options. It happened to be just around the corner from the hotel, which is usually a red flag for me. I tend to experience restaurants either close to or connected with hotels are pretty lame - so I'm wary. Don't show me what I can have back home, show me your flavour hand. It turned out to be quite rad with our bus boy wearing an old Nirvana tshirt.
Post Diamond Head, driving back we took a different route and stumbled across a place we already had bookmarked to visit, Leonard's bakery, a staple for the malasada donut. They are Portuguese by nature, Hawaiian by flavor. Holy fried dough balls, they are some of the freshest, warmest, most incredible food stuffs I've had in a long time. Dude, li hing mui powder anyone?
We drove to the North Shore for lunch at The Beet Box Cafe. If you want great food, served by lovely ladies who love the ladies, this place is purrfect. They're gift cards also feature Lionel Richie wishing you love.
THE HIKING: We trolled up Diamond Head, which is a moderate hour most people recommend. It was an old military defense bunker, that had cut outs for what I assume were for master blaster guns. totally. It was warm, but I was surprised by the lack of preparedness by many others. It's $1 to walk into the trailhead and most people were either way over dressed (regular clothes instead of action pants) or under dressed, wearing flip flops. I wanted to spend my time enjoying the views, not judging their life choices, but it was hard. The hike was breezy, drizzly, hot and calm. The views gave us our first taste of what the Hawaiian landscape has to offer.
As you leave the trail, there is a permanently stationed bus filled with happy ladies, ready to fulfill your shave ice, fresh pineapple in a zippy bag, and cold drink needs. All with a smile & reasonable price. I was quite impressed with how they cornered the market. We finally had our first taste of yummy, fresh Hawaiian pineapple - or at least I'm telling myself that because I don't want to know if you've served me an import. Travis also bought a diet soda, but what he grabbed was the full sugar option. So it was like the natural and refined sugar armies went to battle.
THE AFTERNOON: After our Beet Box lunch, we found a lovely spot called Kaiaka Bay Beach Park. We had sorta pooped around the lagoon near the hotel, but not really. We shed our civilians, loaded up on pasty sunblock, and headed towards the shore. YET NOT before Travis went walking barefoot on what looked like simple weeds, but turned out to be millions of tiny prickley things you could barely see with your eyes. So before beach bonanza, we spent 15 minutes ridding his feet of this things. ...ahhhh amour...
I hadn't been in actual beach water in many, many years. I totally get why people love sea spray in the hair now.
It was so much fun walking along the sand and witnessing local doggies have the best time. They'd run in the water, chasing a bone, retreiving it, rolling around in the sand and repeating this over and over. They looked so fucking happy, it made me happy, and I finally felt relaxed enough to actually forget about worrying.
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