September 27-28: View from our Balcony

With the exception of dinner at Jimmy Buffet's, both September 27 and 28 were fairly uneventful. Thus, we felt it would be great timing to share these two epic photos with y'all we took from our balcony.

The first is a lovely night shot of Waikiki and the second is a dramatic shot of a rain shower. Surprisingly, the rain passed by us. We didn't get one drop at the Village. I was so excited to see the double rainbow too. According to a waiter I was eavesdropping on, double rainbows appear at least once a week on Oahu.

Overall, the weather was wonderful in Hawaii. Sometimes the clouds would completely abandon the sky and we would get small "sun showers" [small rain droplets without a cloud in sight]. Hawaii truly is a magical place!

September 25: The North Shore Waves will take you Down.

JD and I ate breakfast at the Wailana Coffee House, per usual. Lindsay had invited me to hang out with her, Kent and Luke for the day on the North Shore since JD had to work. Lindsay picked me up and we made a stop at their house (which was beautifully decorated) to pick up Kent and Luke. We stopped at Turtle Bay first.

Can you see the turtle??

We saw a few turtles coming up through the surf but no monk seals lying on the shore like Luke and Lindsay had seen a few days prior to that. We also went to a small Farmers Market where I bought coconut pineapple jam, guava jelly and biscotti bites. This was also the location where I had found my childhood favorite, sugar cane. I’ve been on a great search for it since my dad and I cut it up and enjoyed it when I was a kid. There are fields and fields of both sugar cane and pineapple in Hawaii; thus, you must entertain your tastebuds with both during your stay. JD never tried it but maybe he will next time.

Next Stop: Waimena Bay. I’ve never witnessed such massive waves! The brave swimmers looked like periwinkles; buried by the waves, then grasping for air as the waves retreat from the shoreline. Here is raw video footage of the waves...

And finally, the stop I’ve been anticipating all day, the infamous Hawaiian shaved ice. Oh. My. Goodness.

Matsumoto’s

serves shaved ice for $3.50. This includes three flavors, ice cream at the bottom, a holder for the cone and shaven ice stacked at least eight inches high. I knew I had to take JD there.

As wonderful as everything was, it just wasn’t as special without JD there to enjoy it with me. I couldn’t wait to take him there. It was an early morning and late night for him at work. I went ahead and scheduled our dolphin encounter for the next day, thinking JD had the day off but he called me right after

Sea Life Park

closed to tell me that he did have to go into work the next day.

I called the next morning and the staff was very helpful. After explaining the situation to them, they rescheduled our swim for September 29th, and they waived the rescheduling fee because of the work predicament. Wahoo!