Oahu

It has been over ten years since I've been to Hawaii. All three times were in the 90's and all three times I was in Maui. Twice with my ex-wife, Michelle, once on our honeymoon, and once with my good friends Jim and Pam for the Y2K new year.

When I think of those times in Maui, I always remember how nice it smelled. Some kind of blossom. I never really figured out which one. The weather always seems to be nice and warm. It rains a bit, but the sun always seems to come out and make a nice day out of it.

For this travel break I wanted to go somewhere Erin could come along. Since she just started a new job, she only had about a week to spare for the break.

Our friend Jamie's dad, Jim, lives in Oahu. He owns and operates the Sunshine Arts Gallery in Kaneohe on the windward side of the island. He also has a vacation house a few miles north that he rents to visitors. Last time he was in San Francisco, he offered to let Erin stay there if she ever made it out.

So we made it out.

Honolulu is a cheap and relatively quick five hour flight from San Francisco. All we'd need is a rental car for the week. Looking online for a car, all we could focus on is "what's the cheapest we can get?" My advice is: don't do that. Go with a car company you have had good experience with in the past. We went with Advantage where the drill is: Their shuttle picks you up and takes you away from the airport to their lot, then you find out the insurance they quoted online only covers pencils and pens, not actual cars. The actual insurance combined with the taxes and fees they didn't mention online approximately double the original quote. Now that you're off in BFE, the notion of even trying to get to another company to get another quote feels difficult, even futile. So you give in.

Somehow we remained nice enough throughout the fleecing for them to offer us a Mustang convertible at no "extra" charge. They must have felt sorry for me and my non existent negotiation skills. But I was stoked for the drop top.

We were starving, so I asked the girl at the counter what she liked to eat around there. She gave us the best culinary tip we got all week. Nico's at Pier 38 in Honolulu. They serve up a mean slab of fresh caught fish. I had the Furikake Pan Seared Ahi with Ginger Garlic Cilantro Sauce. My goodness that was delicious.

After a top-down cruise through downtown Honolulu, and a brief stop at Waikiki beach, we decided to head out of Dodge and search for our host's gallery across the island. Once you get out of the city in Oahu, you're in the country. Jim's gallery is on the side of the highway all by itself. The colorful yellow muraled building was hard to miss.

We arrived just before sunset and got the quick tour of the joint. There are lots of nice island style paintings and photos for sale. But they are also a major framing operation, which seemed to be a big focus for everyone.

Jim had told us the week before that the house was rented the first night we got there, but free the rest of the week. We could stay in a room above the gallery the first night. It was a room filled with paintings along with a futon and a fridge. That worked out just fine.

We felt lucky to have the house to ourselves the rest of the week, where we could cook and relax in style. And that we did.

The house is a few miles north in Ka'a'awa across the road from the shore and is fully equipped with kayak, boogie boards, snorkel equipment, beach chairs. Pretty much everything you'd ever want. Jim was happy to let us use the place. All he asked is that we helped with a few chores to get the place ready for the next renters. I'd say that was a pretty good deal.

It was sure a good thing we had a car though. Because Ka'a'awa ain't near much.

Luckily, Oahu ain't that big. Nothing is more than an hour away really.

I had a feeling that the North Shore was going to be the place to check out, since it's known for its world class surfing. And I tend to like surfing towns.

Pupukea was only about fifteen minutes drive and is home to the Banzai Pipeline, a seemingly endless beach of perfect 10-15 foot tubular curled waves. The stuff really good surfers drool over.

We lucked out, and wandered into the Volcom Pipeline Pro surfing competition that was being televised live. Maybe if you watch some of the footage, you'll see Erin and I spectating from the beach.

The rest of the week we spent trying on different beaches for the best fit, occasionally rolling out a boogie board or a kayak to shake things up.

We enjoyed Waimea beach, which lies at the mouth of a river valley historically populated by the island's original inhabitants. The inland part of the valley is a preserve which offers tours and is home to a flock of awesome (and kind of fearless) peacocks.

Although the best sunsets are probably seen from Waikiki, Turtle Bay Resort was our favorite place to sip a Mai Tai and watch the sun go down. $4 happy hour beers and free validated parking. No too shabby.

Hawaii is pretty expensive by and large, and isn't chock full of fantastic dining. I was hoping for lots of fresh seafood joints, but I wasn't impressed by any place after Nico's, and wasn't going to throw down big bucks for resort style dining.

So we did most of our own cooking and made a number of stops at Foodland, the local supermarket chain. They do have some solid deals in their deli. A big bowl of tuna poke with rice for $5. We saved a fair amount of dough by getting a club card there also. You just have to give them your phone number and you're a member.

One interesting note though. There is a Foodland in Laie which seems to be a Mormon town. There is a BYU campus there. We found out the hard way that they don't sell any beer, wine, or liquor in that town, nor are they open on Sunday.

Now that's devout.

Oahu is great place for surfing and for hanging out on the beach. Without the generous accommodations, however, I'd probably be more likely to spend a bit more for a flight to get to an equally pleasant but much cheaper country.

But this week it worked out well for us.

Thanks to Jim for making our stay so welcome and comfortable.