Although the alarm clock was set for before 6 AM, Scott and I were already awake when it went off because of the five hour time difference. We are very basic in regards to our coffee demands and preferences and had a bit of a learning curve figuring out the fancy and elaborate Nespresso machine in the Airbnb. It produced little squirts of espresso one expensive pod at a time and we had to get creative to get it to produce enough go-go juice to fill our mugs for our predawn walk to Kailua Beach. Mugs sufficiently filled and Google Maps deployed, we headed out.

It was a 15 minute walk through a residential area to get to Kailua Beach, and despite it being dark still we enjoyed seeing all the different trees and tropical plants. We got to the beach, ditched our shoes and walked at the water’s edge. It was cloudy and overcast that morning so the actual sunrise wasn’t much to revel in but we enjoyed our stroll, stopping along the way to get a lay of the land. Because we had done such thorough research leading up to our arrival we were able to suss out various landmarks in the distance: the “Mokes” which are two bird sanctuary islands off the coast and the Ko’olau mountain range, both of which we were planning to visit in the upcoming days. Along our way we found a washed up bottle on the shore, but sadly, there was no message in it. Kailua Bay is a popular spot for windsports and we watched various iterations of wind sportsmen enjoying the wind and water in the bay. We wandered all the way up to Lanikai Beach before turning around and heading back to our apartment.

Our plan for the day was to take Karen up to the North Shore to get the car she would be using. A pony club family had generously offered one of theirs for her to use for her stay. We collected Karen and drove to Kalapawai Market, a cute and popular market and breakfast/lunch spot that Scott and I had passed on our morning walk to the beach. We got our breakfast sandwiches and coffee and took them to Kailua Beach to eat so Karen could see the beach and the bay.

We decided to take the Kamehameha highway, the scenic route that ran parallel to the ocean to get to the North Shore instead of the “interstate.”¹ It took longer but was well worth it, as it offered nonstop scenic views of the mountains and Pacific. It was a great way to get our bearings and become acquainted with Oahu. We found the pony club car family’s home and got a little tour of their incredible estate that was perched on a mountain overlooking Waimea Bay where we would be snorkeling later. Now that Karen had wheels, we parted ways and Scott and I headed off to continue exploring.

Lunch was at Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck, an iconic spot in Haleiwa town, and we had their signature scampi plate. It was both messy and delicious. Thoroughly stuffed, we washed off as best we could and headed to the first beach of the day, Sunset Point Beach. We enjoyed watching surfers in the distance and Scott took a quick dip into the water before coming back to lay in the sand. (The sand that was still attached to his body when we got back into our rental car was the first pound of about 50 pounds of sand that would be deposited in the car during our trip…)

Our next stop was to Sharks Cove in Pupukea to snorkel. It is an ideal snorkel spot (when the waves are tame) because it is a natural tidal pool and is fairly protected from the famously huge North Shore waves. We enjoyed the snorkeling as well as seeing the waves crash against the wall of coral which created impressive cascading waterfalls of water down into the tidal pool. We picked a good day to visit because when we passed by this spot several times later in our trip it was closed due to high surf. Utilizing another signature play from the Scotty B: American Adventure Boy Playbook, Scott and I had brought our own snorkel gear with us and we were thankful that we did because it made it easy to just pop into the water for a few minutes here and there. Had we rented gear it would have been more hassle and we would have felt obligated to spend several hours doing it to get our money’s worth.

After snorkeling we headed to check out Waimea Falls but only made it to the ticket booth. It was $25 to walk the .75 mile paved trail to the waterfall and there were several tour bus groups that had just been dropped off. Deciding that this wasn’t really our scene, we turned around and headed back to the car. (On the road into and out of the park Scott was complaining about all the speed bumps and I told him that they were there to help protect some of the endangered birds that live in this park. He of course hadn’t noticed the road sign explaining this and said something to the effect of “Well, they shouldn’t have been there.”)

Continuing on, we passed a sign for “Organic Fresh Coconuts” and were intrigued. We stopped in and for $10 were given a fresh-from-the-coconut-tree coconut that we watched get macheted out of its outer husk, then drilled into, have a straw inserted, and then handed to us to drink the coconut water out of. The proprietor, a native Hawaiian and professional coconut tree trimmer, explained that these were older coconuts (although “picked” earlier this day) and that the water would have a slightly fermented taste to it. Scott and I shared it and both enjoyed it. As we drank it he shared that the street that we were on had some of the highest dollar real estate on the North Shore and some famous actors (Christian Slater) and musicians (a guitarist from Metallica) have houses here. The next step was to hand the coconut back over to him and he would split it and harvest the flesh out of it for us. He did this and bagged it and sent us on our way. We both ate a little but decided there was something about the texture that wasn’t super appealing. Its consistency reminded me of fish although the taste certainly did not. We agreed that we preferred the coconut water and dried coconut.

Next order of business was to find an alleged “Pineapple diorama kiosk” that Scott had read about online. It supposedly was an exhibit that showed pineapples in various stages of growth and was located near the Dole plantation. (We were personally invested in this since Brooke planted a pineapple two years ago and we have watched it grow. We are anxiously waiting for it to produce a pineapple.) It eluded us despite Scott valiantly searching several roads. We finally gave up and carried on our way and found a coffee/smoothie/ice cream spot.

While we waited for our smoothies to be made we wandered around their gift shop which was interesting and had information about the coffee industry as they grew their own coffee at this location. I have a new appreciation for coffee now; I really had no idea how involved the process of growing, harvesting, preparing, and roasting the beans actually was. As we mosied around the shop I was also very intrigued by the wild chickens that roam around everywhere on the island. There was a flock here at the coffee shop and they would just stroll in and out of the building, pecking the ground for food, ducking under counters, and just in general making themselves at home. Scott would soon come to grow annoyed by my obsession with the wild chickens of Oahu.

We got our fruit smoothies and carried on, this time hitting the more direct, but not as pretty, highway to head back to Kailua. We found a Mexican restaurant in Kailua (yeah we did) for dinner. It was a great first day in Oahu!