Oahu Day 6 & 7
On day 6, which was August 22nd, it was Autumn’s 27th birthday! We had planned to spend the majority of the day with my Aunt Cindy, who was back in Oahu for another day of adventures. We woke up early and dropped Kellyne off at work and headed towards Cindy’s hotel in the center of Waikiki. Cindy was staying off the water at a hotel that had great parking. With plans of eating dinner at a near by restaurant, Cinnamon’s, we parked and walked over to the restaurant. Cinnamon’s has a couple locations and a few years ago, I had one of the absolute best breakfasts I’ve ever had at Cinnamon’s. This location is quite different than the one we had tried first in Kailua, but both locations have fantastic food.
After we finished eating, we were planning to go on a hike in Lanikai, called the Lanikai Pillbox hike. It’s listed as an intermediate hike and supposedly has some amazing views. Another name for this hike is the Kaiwa Ridge Trail. Cindy stated this was an absolute beautiful hike and it wasn’t too hard. I didn’t look it up. That was a mistake. Let me say this, if you hike and aren’t afraid of heights, this hike shouldn’t be an issue. I don’t hike. I am terrified of heights. I struggled. To start off, it took us almost 30 min to find parking, which was almost a mile away from the hike’s starting point. It was also hot and humid. When we finally made it to the start of the trail, there were ropes hanging down with a very steep grade that you have to use the ropes to climb up the hill. I was tripping.
As we kept on, Autumn and Cindy were pushing on. I was about to have a panic attack at the amazing view but also very very steep drop off that we were climbing up. But it really was an amazing view.
I had to call it before the last steep climb, I really don’t do well with heights and it was far too hot for me. So, Autumn and I will be hiking more locally until we’re able to build up the endurance and stamina for such hikes, but as far as the heights thing, I may just need to be more prepared and pack some Xanax. I did tell Cindy and Autumn to go on and I would chill until they got back, but we ended up all turning back. Notes for the future, go super early, don’t eat a big breakfast like we did (even though I wouldn’t have changed that because it was Cinnamons), be more prepared and investigate the hike thoroughly before agreeing to go. But, I am super glad we went, it was again, gorgeous. And makes for a great story about how my Aunt almost killed me.
We were going to go snorkeling on the beach, but instead we went back to Cindy’s hotel and swam in their pool to cool off and enjoy the afternoon. We went and picked Kellyne up from work while Cindy caught her plane ride home. Once we got back to Kellyne’s we tried to find a place to go to celebrate Autumn’s birthday dinner. Now the thing about Autumn, she hates to pick where to eat. So after a hot day, I decided we should check out a local sushi joint, Sushi Bay, that was a Kaiten-zushi style. Kaiten-sushi style is conveyor belt style, which is sushi on small different colored plates that come around on a conveyor belt. We invited Kellyne’s roommate and were off to wait, as it was a small restaurant.
The next day was our last day and we had to make the most of it. So after waking up early, we tried to make it to electric beach, which was supposed to be the best snorkeling in the area. We showed up and saw tons of people out snorkeling so we had our borrowed gear and were excited. We got geared up and out into the water… which was a narrow opening as there were rocks on the left and in the center, and on the right was a loading dock style area which concrete. The waves were intense. We watched a few people come in who said they’d gotten there hours before, and we were there before 8:00 am. Apparently it was much calmer at that time to go out and it picked up quick. So we timed our departure out to the ocean and we got out about 50 feet and I struggled with my snorkel gear letting water in. I checked on Autumn and she had turned back with the same issue. Frustrated and disappointed, we called it. The equipment we borrowed wasn’t fitting us properly and we struggled to a point where it wasn’t safe with the waves. We turned back and went back to Kellyne’s.
After we packed up our stuff, we wanted to grab something fresh and something cool, so we went for ceviche. We had lunch at Barrio cafe and it was a pleasant surprise. After we finished up our lunch we went on a hunt for a few souvenirs and T-shirt’s for us as we love to get a shirt wherever we vacation. After an afternoon of minimal adventures, we went and picked Kellyne up and were off to the airport. Sadly the last day was quite anticlimactic but that was in part with bad luck for our snorkeling and necessary loose ends needed to be tied up before our departure. It was a packed trip and a hopefully we’ll be back soon to explore everything we left out.
