Hiking up the Ridge

Not far from Martha and Tony's neighborhood, there is this ridge you can hike up. It's a couple of neighborhoods over from theirs.... You drive through the neighborhood(s) until you get to the top and there is an entrance to the Trail. You check in at the guard station on the way up the hill. It's interesting..you're in this really nice neighborhood, with some spectacular houses and then all of the sudden you are at the top and you can access the trail.

At first you are thinking "Oh, this will be a breeze...because it's not very steep, it's just a wide dirt/mud (depending on recent rainfall) trail.

After a mile or so you can feel it getting steeper and you can look back and see the city skyline. It was cloudy on the day we went...which turned out to be a blessing in disguise....because it wasn't too hot! The view was not as nice...but that's okay.

 When we got to the first set of steps we saw a dog....followed by a group of 5 young people heading down. We asked them how the trail was  ans they said they had no problems along the way and we should get to the top no problem...so that was encouraging.

                  That tower on top way in the background is where we wanted to get.

there were some ropes as the trail got a little steeper...just to help you pull you self up...or on the way down to keep your balance so you didn't tumble down

The clouds really started moving in at one point...we thought it was going to rain...but it didn't. After  a few minutes the clouds moved out again...that was kind of cool. (literally...hahah)

It was really narrow in a few places...I just tried not to think too much about it and walked fast. Funny...last time we did this hike John got a little nervous...this time he was fine...I was the one who got a little freaked out.

the top!

 

looking over to the other side of the island-a little sunnier there

Then...it was time to go down again...John took this picture of me heading down...kind of cool when you see the narrow dirt trail that goes on and on.......

see the green dot...me

We were up there for over 3 hours...and when we finally got to the bottom we were kind of tired. We passed a few people on their way up...there was one group in particular that I can tell had absolutely NO idea what they were in for....hahaha. but that's okay...neither did we the first time we hiked it.
That evening while we were soaking in the hot tub back at the house we spotted some whales swimming by...kind of a fun way to end the day.

A little bit of sight seeing

While we were in Hawaii we did just a little bit of sight seeing. John was not at all interested in going anywhere that required waiting in line with a mob of people; which ruled out many of the usual spots. That was fine with me...it's not fun going somewhere if the person you're with isn't interested...hahah One thing he DID want to do is go out to the North Shore to see some big waves. We've never been to Hawaii during "big wave" season and he was hoping we'd get to see some good surf.
The forecast called for a 14-16 ft swell the week after we got back from Maui; so we made a plan to head out one of those days.

It was interesting to get to the beach and see all the activity...tourists, locals, photographers, surfers...and of course the waves.

But...let me back track for a minute. Our first stop on the North Shore was a small shopping plaza. We decided to eat here...because I liked the sign. It's true...I didn't even look at the menu...I just saw the sign and said "Let's go there." Maybe I should have taken a minute to read the menu...since the specialty was pork ( the sign should have be a clue...hahaha)...sandwiches, sides of pork sausage, etc....and I am not a big fan of pork. I managed to find a breakfast special that included bacon...I do like bacon...and it wasn't terrible; after all what can you really do to scrambled eggs.

We had a little "friend" under the table hoping for one of us to drop some crumbs. I may or may not have slipped it a treat  :)
While I poked around in a shop next to the restaurant, John popped in to a bar in the plaza...known for it "legendary margaritas". No...he wasn't getting a drink...he was going to say "Hello "to  a friend of a friend. Turns out she was out of town...but John passed on the greeting from our friend Duane, back in Indialantic. Then we were off to the beach...first stop..Waimea Bay.

                                I liked all these buoys hung on the trees near the parking lot.
we stayed for a few minutes to see if anyone was catching any waves...there were only a few people out...so then we headed down the road to Sunset Beach.

From the beach they don't seem that big...then you look at the face of the wave relative to the size of the surfer...and you realize they're bigger than you think.

There are a LOT of people out in the water...it's got to be hard to catch a wave and stay out of every one Else's way!

This makes my heart beat faster...look at that set lining up...get past one and you have to immediately prepare for the next one....that scares me!

I was perfectly happy watching from up on the beach hahaha

Also spotted out there was this group on some sort of raft/inflatable, we watched them paddling out and then they caught this wave...John zoomed in on them to get the picture

They were so happy to have caught that wave...they were all waving their paddles and hooting.
It was cool to watch them and the other surfers who caught good waves while we watched. There were an assortment of photographers scattered around the beach...hoping to get  "the shot of the day". We were armed with our camera phones, my new camera and my older camera....we took pictures on all the devices....that's why they all look a little different depending on angle, zoom, etc.
Before we left we tried to take a "selfie" on the beach...without much success...hahaha but a young lady walking by offered to take our picture for us. Thanks!

When we left Sunset Beach we headed up to Turtle Bay. We had made a tentative plan to spend a night there, but decided to just stay for lunch and then head back to the house.

We sat outside and had a light lunch. It was funny to see everyone taking pictures with their "selfie" sticks and go-pro devices....we got into the spirit of things and took a picture of our delicious dessert.

It was really good...banana, strawberries,ice cream and bread pudding drizzled with sauces.
We walked around a bit and then headed back to Honolulu.

the bay out back...we met a young couple from Ohio, on their honeymoon. We took a picture of them...they took one for us.

We drove back a different way they we did when we were heading in to town. It was a nice drive through more rural parts of the island. Not a lot of traffic on the road....we stopped at a couple of beach breaks to look at smaller surf spots...just slowly made our way home.

On another day...we drove to the west side of the island to checkout Disney's Aulani Resort. One of our good friends is a Disney "Imagineer" and he had done a lot of work on that property, so we wanted to go check it out. We weren't interested in staying good thing...prices aren't cheap! but I was curious to see what it was like.

nice lagoon!

view of hotel when you are coming back from lagoon area...pretty nice! The pool looks like a lot of fun.

Like all Disney properties...all the attention to detail really makes the place; these are just a few of the things that caught my eye. The Hawaiian art work, the beautiful setting, the design and all the landscaping, etc, sets the tone. We didn't check out the rooms...we weren't interested in going on a "tour" to see the Disney Vacation Club offerings....but I'm sure everything is very nice. It was worth checking it out.