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Josiah's Hawaii Travelogue 5
May 2014 |
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Sunday - Saturday (May 4th - 17th): Back on Oahu | |||||||||
To quickly summarize, I had a work related meeting on Oahu right after the end of spring semester. Since it seemed like a waste to fly all the way to Hawaii for just one day, and I my parents have the condo in Honolulu, I decided I might as well stay for a a few weeks before continuing on to other areas. However, since I've been here many times before (and will likely be returning here many times in the future), I decided that I should focus primarily on work (mostly on Aurora's Nightmare, the game I'm currently developing) this trip rather than touring. But I'll be doing a bit of touring and, as a result, am keeping a small travelogue. In this entry, I'll be covering my first week here. Random Hawaii Comment: Driving on Oahu |
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Wednesday (the 14th): Hiking Kuliouou Ridge | |||||||||
Since I really don't get any opportunity to do so in Florida, I've been wanting to get some hiking in while I'm here. And now that the weather is more stable (it was raining a bit over the last few days), I decided to get started. For my first hike, I settled on Kuliouou Ridge. It's actually a hike I tried once before with my family (see the entry for the 25th), but we got rained out. Since then, I've been wanting to go back on a day with better weather and finish it. It's a pretty nice hike. You do spend most of the time ascending, but it's not all that steep and you go through a whole lot of different types of terrain, which keeps things interesting. You also spend most of the time in the trees and out of direct sunlight, which can be pretty nice on hot days. Of course, the main draw of the hike is the views. You start out with some excellent views of Hawaii Kai and Koko Head and then, when you reach the end of the trail, you're presented with an amazing view of the island's east coast. I've heard that, on clear enough days, you can see several of the other Hawaiian islands in the distance. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite that clear for me, but I really can't complain about the views I did have and the hike was fun. If you're looking for hikes on Oahu, I highly recommend it. |
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Thursday (the 15th): Aloha Shirts | |||||||||
I don't have too much to say about today, but there was a couple highlights. I took a stroll down the canal that runs roughly parallel to Waikiki. The water is unfortunately rather dirty, but you can see a lot of small fish in it if you look. Most of them aren't all that interesting to look at, but I did spot the occasional larger fish and, to my surprise, a sea horse. I've never actually seen one in the wild before, even when snorkeling. I didn't even know they lived around here. So that was cool. I eventually ended up on a street a little northeast of the end of Waikiki. It's not a fancy area but it's home to a few good restaurants (including a really great poke place, a good ramen restaurant, and a yakitori one I really need to try sometime) and Bailey's Antiques and Aloha Shirts, a store that's famous for its collection of new and used aloha shirts. I'd never been there before and figured I'd take a quick look. To be honest, the sheer number of aloha shirts is a bit overwhelming. The prices vary as much as the selection, running from several dollars to several hundred. It was certainly worth a look and, if you're really into aloha shirts, it's the place to go. |
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Friday - Sunday (16th - 18th): A Hawaiian Weekend | |||||||||
This weekend was filled with fairly typical Hawaii type stuff. The weather was pretty nice on Friday, though I ended up spending most of the day working. But hey, the view was nice. And, come evening, I headed down to Waikiki to watch the sunset and the Hilton's weekly fireworks show. Saturday afternoon I headed down to the beach for a while. It turned out to be a high surf day. On some beaches, that means everyone but really experienced swimmers needs to stay out of the water. Waikiki, however, doesn't get too bad. Playing in the waves was fun, but it left me wishing I had a surfboard to really take advantage of them. On that note, I'd been meaning to rent a board so I headed out on Sunday morning. While the surf wasn't quite as high as on Saturday, it was still really good. It was fun, though I still need a lot of practice catching waves on my own. The real problem is figuring out the best place to wait for the waves. If I manage that, the rest isn't bad, though paddling a board around for extended periods of time still leaves my arms and shoulders pretty sore. Maybe I need to change up my usual upper body exercises a bit... But anyway, I did catch some waves, had fun, and I even saw the surfing pig. Yes, you read that right. Click the link to learn more. Unfortunately, since I was surfing at the time, I couldn't take any pictures of my own. Cool to see though. |
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Thursday (the 22nd): Makapu'u Lighthouse and Some Big News | |||||||||
I'd been wanting to get another hike in before I leave Hawaii, but I had a lot to do so I ended up settling on Makapu'u Lighthouse, a shorter hike that I hadn't gotten around to yet. It's a fairly easy trail. Despite being all up hill, it's not especially steep and the entire thing is paved, making is a fairly simple and pleasant walk through one of the island's more deserty areas. The lighthouse itself is tucked into the side of the cliff. You can't go in it, but you can get some nice views from the top of the cliff up above. You can also climb up a nearby hill to find some crumbling army bunkers and more views. Finally, if you want to explore a bit more, and brought a swimsuit, there are some tidal pools at the bottom of the cliff you can make your way down to. I spotted a few people sitting inside, chatting and watching the waves, but it looks like a bit of a climb. In the evening, I headed down to the end of Waikiki for a festival. It was part of a several day event called Hawaiian May, which seems to have been put together by the Japanese Travel Bureau, which includes a fashion show, among other things. This particular event was a gathering of local food trucks, along with some booths selling artwork, clothes, and the like. There was also a stage with hula, ukulele, and other performances. It was a fun way to kill some time and try different foods and just goes to show that there's always something going on in Honolulu. And that wraps up this rather short Hawaii travelogue...but I'll be starting a new one before long. See, I got some big news today. Remember that meeting I mentioned back at the beginning of this trip? Well, as a result, I was offered a position at University of Hawaii's West Oahu campus, to start a game design program under their creative media division. While my current teaching position in Florida has gone pretty well overall, this position has a lot of cool opportunities, plus I'll get to see my family more often. So, after I return from Japan, I'll be saying goodbye to Florida and making a move to Oahu. But I'll talk more about all of that when the time comes. Expect a final post or two to wrap up my Florida travelogue series in July and the start of a new (and somewhat different) Hawaii travelogue come fall. |
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