Little Black Guidebook

via: John in LA

Oahu, a tropical wonder of beach and sand, mountains and jungles, but it can also be the land of uber-big tacky hotels and tons of tourists.

Hubby will be there for four days of Army training with just a few hours here and there to do more than stare out the window at the rainforest.  Given more time, I’d go with him and do things again like sea kayak or scuba dive. Oahu is everything you’d want a tropical paradise to be, with enough to see and do here to keep you busy for a lifetime (duh people live here for just that reason), but between cosmopolitan Honolulu anad the mountain ranges of Ko’olau there is still an incredible diversity of things to do, even with just a short amount of time.

Here is the little list that I made for him to take with (after jealously whining about the injustice of being left behind).

Stroll through the Botanical Gardens

The 1st time we went to oahu we went to the Foster Botanical Garden, but it was fall time. Now it is Spring and Hawaii’s amazing collection of sweet-smelling flowers and treeswill be in full bloom. Its right downtown and only takes an hour or two to go through.

Bishop Museum

This museum took me all day and for most people it will take at least half a day, especially if you have kids, but you can time it to go just in time for one of their one hour topic specific tours and be in and out in just over an hour. Even if you do not have kids, this is a must-see on your vacation. Originally founded by Princess Bernice Pauahi, it contains a great collection of Hawaiian and Pacific artifacts and a huge science adventure center where they actually make lava as one of the displays.

Nu-uanu Pali Lookout

Honolulu traffic is hell, it once took me 2 hrs to go 3 miles. So why not go a little out of the way on your commute (yes rental car is pretty unavoidable for business trips as the bus system is so slow). Take about a half hour drive from Waikiki to the Nu`uanu Pali Lookout which has a great view of the windward side of Oahu and Kaneohe Bay.

Hawaii’s Royal Palace

Take a unique tour of the only royal palace in the United States. Built in 1882 for King Kalakaua, Iolani Palace takes only about an hour to see and is just a short walk from the State Capitol in downtown Honolulu. http://www.iolanipalace.org/

Pearl Harbor
He went to Pearl Harbor on a family vacation with his parents once, but with military I.D. its super easy to see the U.S.S. Missouri simply by driving yourself and not waiting for the shuttle bus. Both the beginning and end of World War II are memorialized forever at Pearl Harbor today in the form of the U.S.S. Arizona and the U.S.S Missouri. To save time you can drive to the Missouri yourself with military I.D. and see the U.S.S. Bowfin real quick. Tickets to the Arizona are timed so if you only have an hour or so to stop by you’ll have to get there early or skip it.

Historic Mission Houses
The Mission Houses were the original headquarters of the Sandwich Islands Mission, a group of New England Christian missionaries who arrived in Hawaii in 1820. It takes less than two hours to quickly peruse all three buildings. http://www.missionhouses.org/

Hike Diamond Head
Located on the southeast coast of Oahu, not far from Waikiki, Diamond Head is one of the world’s best-known volcanic craters. The view from the 760-ft. summit is well worth the climb. The steep trail to the top is mostly paved and includes two sets of stairs. One is 99 steps, the other 76 steps. They lead to a 225-foot tunnel (bring a flashlight) and end with a spectacular view of the island’s west side. This is also an excellent spot for whale watching during the winter months. While the park service suggests you allow 1.5-to-2 hours for a leisurely hike; the hike itself, round trip, takes less than 30 minutes for an in-shape Army guy.

Panels of Hawaiian History – Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii

Pearl Harbor Memorial – Honolulu, Hawaii

We walked downstairs to the lobby and got in a van driven by a local surfer-boy. He rolled-down the windows and turned on the radio for the short 1 hour drive East from Waikiki beach. We drove-up through the mountains and the radio died as we popped into a tunnel and sat in silence for a few moments before popping out on the other-side to a view of the ocean meeting the mountains.

The small town of Kailua on Oahu’s East Coast is full of surfers like our van driver. In the summer the windy coastline allows them to kite-surf and in the winter the increased waves on the North-shore drive the scuba divers to the East side of the island in search of wrecks and whales. That morning our surfer-boy was taking us on a sea kayaking tour to look for Honu (Green Sea Turtles) and other marine animals in beautiful Kailua Bay while visiting the Mokulua islands.

Because of the time of year, the economy or maybe just sheer luck our group tour included just the two of us and our guide. There was another group with another company on the water that morning with 20 something kayaks to one guide. They had to go at the pace of the slowest kayakers and we quickly outpaced them, tacking on a trip to Popoia Island, a dedicated sea bird sanctuary on the way out to the Mokulaa Islands.

Once we reached the Mokulaa Islands and finished our lunch our guide turned to us and said, “Ok, now its time to jump off a cliff.” Now if you knew me personally you would know the fear that struck into the bottom of my heart. Falling and heights are some of my worst fears. But I’m trying to make life an adventure so I let him guide us on a hike around the island, climbing hand over hand along volcanic rock and barely clinging on at times. We reached a little cove with a rocky-ledge and sat down to take a break. The ledge was too high up for me to imagine jumping from so I sat there watching the waves and resting up for the hike to my inevitable jump. I’m sure you can imagine what happened next. We stood up to keep hiking and our guide asked: “Are you ready to jump?” “Say what?, huh?” I turned to my husband and said: “You first.” Without blinking he went for it, taking away my excuses, so I jumped.

Back on the beach we threw on our snorkels and found some sea turtles to watch. Even if you don’t feel like jumping off of a cliff you should stop baking on Waikiki and see more of this amazing island. If you want to hang with the same amazing surfer dudes that we did you should look up Hawaiian Water Sports.

All prices include life-vests, paddles, snorkel, seats, backrests, dry-bags, lunch, and transportation to and from your Waikiki hotel. $99 4 Hour Group Tour if you book online, about $30 more each if you book in person. If you’ve had experience kayaking before you can rent out a double kayak without a guide for just $39 a day + $10/day for a snorkel set. For us, that was a little too much adventure for our first time sea-kayaking, but we would definitely try a rental if we did it again.

Uploaded by mrtwism

If you look at the tagline for this blog you’ll see that it is about making life an adventure. To me making life an adventure means that I do things that are sometimes outside my comfort zone. In Hawaii this meant trying scuba.

I swam in high school and snorkeled before, but had never tried scuba. I didn’t want a big group class, but I didn’t want to spend too much either. I ended up finding a structural engineer on sabbatical who is a professional scuba diver and under-water photographer in his new-found free-time. He teaches through Deep Ecology on the North Shore of Hawaii.

Deep Ecology is a full-service, five-star PADI Dive Center and a National Geographic recognized dive center, located on Oahu’s famous North Shore in historic Haleiwa. In addition to the classes they give they participate in environmental activism activities such as turtle rescues, ghost net recoveries and the creation of the North Shore’s first marine sanctuary.

Our intro to scuba class was held at Shark’s Cove on the North Shore. (so named because of the shape of the rock formations in the caves not because of the number of sharks) There were a bunch of other classes out there that day, but most of them were groups of 6-8 whereas ours cost no more and was just the two of us and the instructor. Also, they were all out of the water before us and didn’t go as far away from the shore. Since we weren’t held back by whoever was the least comfortable in our class we got to progress a lot further in our class, learning a few extra skills including confined diving in a lava cave with sea turtles.

After our class we chatted with our instructor about life on the North Shore, being an engineer in Hawaii and got a lunch recommendation. If you’re ever on the North Shore of Oahu with a hankering for Mexican look up Chollos Authentic Mexican. They have the best nachos and margaritas. I would drive the hour from Waikiki just for their nachos. Hubby loved their mojito as well.

I will admit I freaked out a little bit before getting used to it. But looking back it was one of the most amazing things I’ve done in a long time. We saw so much wildlife and a totally different view of our world. If we get another chance to go back to Hawaii we’ll definitely try and do our Open Water dive certification in 3 days.

Cost $109.00 for 1/2 day of scuba. $20 for lunch.

Hawaii Packing List by lisetiffner

I can’t post our itinerary here ahead of the trip because hubby reads the blog. The first three days will be just us, then we have an Army Family Programs event and then he has his Army commander’s conference. He’s so stressed about the Army part that he doesn’t have time to think about the vacation part so I am surprising him and planning everything. We leave tomorrow night and I am super excited. Right now in Alaska the leaves are yellow and the temp is in the 60s so it will be nice to warm up.