Holiday in Hawaii, Day 3
Still on East Coast time, I woke up early, and by that I mean really early – 4 a.m. I lay in bed for an hour and then finally gave in to the day. Not wanting to disturb anyone, I played Call of Duty 2: Modern Warfare 2 on the XBOX 360 until I heard coffee cups clinking downstairs, then I went down to greet my family. It would be a day at the beach, and it was a good thing my family members are also morning people, because the good spots at the beach tend to become occupied fast. We were out of the house by around 7:30 a.m.
On this day, the third day of my trip, we were going to the east coast to Lanikai Beach which is about 10-15 minutes south of the Marine Base at Kaneohe.
Grandpa, myself and my grandma at Lanikai beach
The waters on the East Coast are incredibly calm. No waves really at all. And the water is crystal clear enabling you to see directly to the bottom even when the water is at five or six feet deep. The sand on this side is smoother than the sand on the north shore, more like that of the sand in Florida. Coral grows all along the Hawaiian coast, which is really beautiful when snorkling, but it is also very dangerous as it’s sharp and can cut your feet if you’re not careful. It’s easily spotted from shore by the darker spots in the water. Fish and other sealife tend to hang out near or in the coral.
See those two islands out there? They’re about a mile away and during low tide you can almost walk to them. On ocassion, people paddleboard, canoe or kayak out to them, because there’s a lot of coral between here and there. If you were to make it out, you’d likely have a whole island or beach to yourself. Imagine that…
We stayed at Lanikai for several hours. I was the smart guy who put sun screen on my upper body, but not my lower body and when I got home my legs were burned. I’v enever had a sunburn on my legs and stupidly didn’t think they’d burn. Well they did. And badly. Did I mention that the sun in Hawaii is hot? Well, it is. And it feels like it’s right in your face too.
The mountains on the eastern side of the island are more green and lucious, at least during this time of the year, whereas the mountains on the west side have hoardes of cacti. I managed to snap a few photos of the drive home to give you an idea of how beautiful the drive was.
This one's weird in that the wall on the highway was slanted. I was using an iPhone and for some reason everything in the foreground was slanted. The wall itself is actually upright.
I’m not a religious person and that night was Christmas Eve. Because I was visiting family, I did not fight them when they said we were going to attend a church service. I figured I could put up with it for an hour every few years for my family. I managed to keep my iPhone in my pocket the whole time, too.
As is custom with my family, we all open up one gift before we go to sleep. And afterwards, my brother and his wife headed to their home, promising to be back early, and the rest of us went to sleep.
Another little tidbit of information before I wrap up this post, there are three intrastate highways in Hawaii – the H1, H2, and H3. With them you can get nearly anywhere on the island of Oahu. There are two mountain ranges (one on the east and one on the west) and, with the exception of one place, you have to drive all the way around the mountains to get to either side. While the island is only 45 miles from north to south and 33 miles from east to west, and while it would normally only take 20-25 minutes to get from one point to the other, having to go around these mountains can really add up in time. I didn’t mind though because the scenery was gorgeous.
The highways and roads around the island suck for the most part. You might find a few smooth spots, but for the most part they’re bumpy and torn up. This is because the state doesn’t repair them, instead it finds the cheapest contractor and lets them do the work and maintain the roads. As a result, road repairs are cheap. And you really don’t find lines that divide the lanes. Instead you find these round mound-ish bumps that jiggle the car. Heh.