Rainy Days

Unfortunately, the weather has not been on our side lately. For the past three weeks, the weather is nice and sunny during the week, and once the weekend comes, it gets cloudy and rainy. There isn’t too much to do in Oahu that is indoor, so it has really put a damper on things. We lucked out the day we went surfing. It was cold in the morning, but got warmer and sunny eventually. Surfing was hard–you had to really focus on balance the whole time. I really struggled with that, and the first few sets I didn’t even bother trying to stand. But the last couple tries, I stood for 3-5 seconds, and that was good enough for me. I did end up getting very bruised from this, but we had such a great time that I would definitely do it again.

I also included two more meals I had over the past few weeks. At the Rainbow Drive-In, I finally tried the Hawaiian dish called Loco Moco. It was rice, a beef patty, gravy, and egg on top (I got a side of macaroni salad as well). Overall, it was good for the few bites, but it was such a heavy dish that I couldn’t finish it. I also tried two different acai bowls at Jamba Juice recently, both of which were delicious (not sure if you can make a bad acai bowl).

Over President’s Day Weekend, we initially had two big activities scheduled: a zip-line course, and swimming in a shark cage. Saturday, we headed to the North Shore to zip-line. The bus took the route there that heads around the east coast of the island, and we got some amazing views of the ocean from our seats. The weather held up for the most part, but during our three-hour tour, we were getting sprinkled on off-and-on. We went to Keana Farms Climb Works, so throughout it we got to see all of the different fruit trees below us. I only slightly injured myself once, so that was a win for me. It was a really fun activity, and the last zip-line we did we were allowed to hang upside down, which was exhilarating. We got on the bus and got home easily.

The next day was probably the worst day of this trip so far. We got on the bus at 7:30 am, and when we were a little under halfway there, we received messages that the shark-cage tours were all cancelled for the day due to lightning. Regardless, we decided to continue to the North Shore and visit the shops there. The weather wasn’t looking good from the beginning, but there was no rain. So we walked around for a couple hours and I bought some cute necklaces. I also got probably the best shave ice I’ve had so far at a shop called Anahulu Shave Ice. They put in such a big scoop of ice cream, and ever since I started getting condensed milk on top, I can never go back. I got pineapple, passion fruit, and mango flavors. It was cheap ($2.50 for a medium) and had huge portions. This was probably the highlight of that day, because after that everything went downhill.

It began to downpour on us as we were searching all over the place to find the right bus stop. Google Maps was telling us a bus would come that doesn’t actually come, so we stood around in the rain until we saw a bus arrive that displayed it would go to Honolulu. We got on this bus at 1:45 pm, freezing cold and wet, and began our trek back around the east coast. About an hour and a half in, the flooding started. We reached a point along the rocky coast where a cop had everyone stopped and turning around. The bus was too big to turn around, so we had to go through the flooded area. The driver informed us that he would have to turn around and take us back to where we began, and then we’d go a different route back to Honolulu. He also told us to pick up our feet off the ground, because the bus would probably start to flood. We looked out the window and it looked like we were on a boat ride the water was so high. In horror, we saw the water begin to come in through the front door of the bus. We eventually turned around a little ways down the road, and began to make our way back to the same town we had started at. We reached an area close to there, and the driver let us out to use the restrooms (it had been a couple hours since we got on). He then sent us to a different bus that would take us on a direct non-stop route to Honolulu. We got to Honolulu a little past 6 pm, and then had to wait another 30 minutes for the next bus to take us to our apartment. It was still pouring at that point, and we were still damp and freezing. We got back to our apartment at 6:45 pm, and we nearly cried tears of joy. We avoided the bus for a few days after that traumatic 5 hour bus ride experience (it should have taken less than 2 hours).

Even the following weekend, it was still rainy. I did get out to Makapu’u again, this time to hike the short trail to see the lighthouse (I had only a video of the lighthouse). But the beautiful blue crashing waves never fail to amaze me.