Driving Around Oahu

We headed east. We drove all along Waikiki beach, looking at the Prada and Chanel shops. Lots of pretty hotels here :) Then we were down around Diamond Head Crater. There were lots of markers and signs for a marathon which was taking place tomorrow. Soon we were down to Hanuama Bay at 11:00am. The parking lot was open!! This is the place that they say you have to get to by 8am in order to snorkel there! Unfortunately I was still feeling sick, and our car was chock full of stuff. They tell you never to have anything in your car when you leave it in a parking lot. So we drove on past.

We turned north here and headed north along the Kalanianole Highway. The landscapes are beautiful in here! We were looking for the Byodo-In Temple. We got up past the Valley of the Temples and turned around. There had been no signs for it. We finally went into the masoleum complex - and there it is! So if you're looking for the Byodo-In Temple, go into the masoleum area and you'll find it in there.

This replica of a 900 year old Japanese temple is GORGEOUS. I took SO many photos here. It's only $2 to get in, and extremely peaceful. There is a big bell you can ring, the large Buddha statue, and the koi ponds. There were black swans and tame birds to hand feed. We had a ton of fun here; my camera had run out of batteries, though, so all of the photos are on Bob's camera.

Finally about 3:30 we left here, planning on going north to where 830 and 83 meet and then head south again. Unfortunately, we soon were in Kaawa :) So we decided to keep going north and do the full island circuit. The coastlines and landscapes were just beautiful in here. By 4:00 we were at Punaluu. We passed by the Polynesian Cultural Center, and at 4:17 we were at the Turtle Bay Resort, the northernmost point in Oahu. Gas was $3.35/gallon up here. We hit Sunset Beach where tons of surfers were out in really large waves. We sat on the shore for about 20 minutes, watching them surf. It was really cool, they were doing back and forth movements, going into curls, and having lots of fun. We left here about 4:40.

By 4:51 we were at Haleiwa, turning south to head back towards Honolulu. The central part of the island sometimes looked like African savannah - tall grasses and flat landscapes. We passed coffee plantations and the Dole pineapple plantation. At 5:09 we were at the Wheeler Air Force Base, and by 5:30 we were back at the airport. So you really can tour the entire island in very little time! There are also bus stops EVERYWHERE so it seems you can pretty much travel the entire island by bus.

At the airport they said we couldn't drop off our bags until 2 hours before the flight because the bags had to go through a special agricultural check and that station wasn't manned until then. So we decided to head west for a while. We saw Pearl Harbor and a beautiful sunset. Then we headed down around towards Kapolei. We got caught up in an evening Christmas Lights Parade so we tracked down an Outback where we could see the car from the booth. The salad there was SO much better than any of the salads on the cruise ship. Depressing but true! The steak was about halfway between the low and high end steaks we had in the specialty steakhouses on board (i.e. not as good as the filet mignon, but better than the other steaks).

The parade done, we headed back in towards Honolulu, to check in.

Photos from the southeastern corner of Oahu

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