Hawaii – Haleiwa (Monday – Day 5)

Woke up to a pretty sunrise this morning. The water was calm and the sky was looking pretty clear. After morning coffee (North Shore Kona Macadamia Blend – yummmmm!) on the lanai, we suited up to do some snorkeling and settle in for our beach day. Hahahaha. You know what they say, make plans and God laughs. We did snorkel, for an hour or so. We saw quite a bit of fish but the water was so rough and murky we didn’t get any good pics or video. Drying off and just enjoying the moment for a while, we just vegged.

Remember that shrimp truck Bob wanted to go to yesterday? The one that was so crowded? With all those long lines? Yeah. We decided to hit that up for an early lunch today so we could beat the rush. Leaving our chairs to hold our spot, we packed up and headed into town around 10:30. The clouds seem to hang around the mountains anyway, but they were encroaching on our shoreline as well this morning. By the time we got to town it was no longer looking like a beach day. Nabbing a parking spot towards the beginning of town, we started walking towards the shrimp truck browsing shops that interested us along the way. We went into a couple of art galleries that had some amazing pieces. Wyland has a gallery here that we walked through – he’s got some neat stuff too.

It was about noon by the time we made it to Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck. The smell coming from this area is unreal. There are a number food trucks here but there are only lines at Giovanni’s. It’s actually a bit pathetic. We kind of felt sorry for the other trucks. Thankfully, we were early enough to beat the crowds. By the time we left, though, it was crazy. We split a Scampi plate knowing we were going to get a shave ice at Matsumoto’s before coming back to the condo. Ima tell you somethin’ … That was the best damn shrimp we’ve ever had. Heavens to Betsy, we should’ve each gotten a plate. The garlic was potent. The Colonel has nothing on Giovanni. That shrimp was finger lickin’ good (yes I did lick my fingers – I wasn’t wasting any of that goodness)! Hoping to get back and get some more before we leave on Thursday.

Walking through town I was fascinated with the mimosa trees all over the place. Now I know we have mimosa trees at home but I haven’t seen any like these. They are HUGE!! I have no clue how old they are but they made for beautiful shade trees lining the streets and parking lots.

A couple of t-shirts may have been added to our collection during the walk back to the car. Have you ever heard of Red Dirt Shirts? We hadn’t. Pretty cool shirts. They are either died from red clay or lava rocks. We continued to work our way back to Matsumoto’s for shave ice (I really want to say shaved ice – that makes so much more sense to me but that’s not what it’s called). Once again, we got lucky with the lines. There were only a few people ahead of us but when we left with ours (we got the tropical flavor) the line wrapped out the door. We found a spot and enjoyed our first shave ice of the trip (and this selfie was somewhat respectable)!

The weather had not improved at all. In fact, it had gotten worse. By the time we stopped at the little store to pick up a bottle of wine (shhhh, don’t tell anyone) and a fresh pineapple it was full out raining. Bob said, “you know the game’s on, right?” Since we couldn’t do anything else, we drove up the street to Haleiwa Joe’s for a beer and watch a little bit of the game (Redskins vs Steelers – Redskins got creamed by the way, 38-16). We watched the first half there and the second half back at the condo. Well Bob watched and I started working on journaling. It wasn’t pretty.

About 5:00 I fixed us a snack plate (cheese & crackers, fresh pineapple and papaya) and opened a bottle of wine. We enjoyed that out on the lanai until it looked like the clouds were thinking about maybe possibly parting for a colorful sunset. About 6:00 the birds started coming in for the night again and sang themselves to sleep. That is just so cool.

The sunset wasn’t bad and it held promise until those rain clouds closed in and blocked the big orange ball. We did end up with some color in the sky although it wasn’t much.

That’s it for today!