Hawaii Day 8: Oahu’s North Shore

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Makai and Damien love to hug and play. Damien said he doesn’t ever want Makai to leave. He says we can stay forever and when we said we have to go home some time, Damien said we can come back any day and stay with him. Luckily, his parents agree! Makai smiles and laughs when Damien plays with him. Even when Damien is playing on his own, Makai watches and smiles at him. Especially when Damien does his crazy dancing :). Hoku has a crazy dance too, but as far as his interaction with Makai, he is a little less interested. Also, he is younger and doesn’t understand “be gentle with baby!”. But Damien is older and gets it. He’s very good with Makai.

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Later on Dallas, Makai and I drove to the North Shore to visit our friend Hoku, who is Dallas’s classmate from Kamehameha Schools. We went to Hoku’s friend’s house to pick up his daughter Ina, who is 13 years old. She was practicing her skating. I remember the weather was just perfect as we sat at a picnic table in the shade and talked and ate some pupus and drank some beer. Makai went on a swing on the swingset for the first time.

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We headed over to Hoku’s house, which is directly across the street from the beach which is around Waimea Bay, Pupukea, Rocky Point. There was a nice shady spot in the sand where we set up camp. The beach has a lot of reef, but a perfect opening where we can go swimming. The water was SO perfect.

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The house behind us, directly on the beach, has a rope swing and when the owner came out we got permission to use it. Ina took turn after turn on the swing. It looked like so much fun! Hoku had to take photos and videos for Ina to post socially on Snapchat and Instagram. At one point she liked a photo I took, so she used my phone to post it on Instagram. When I got my phone back I saw that she had also taken this “selfie” while she was at it :).

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Makai still wasn’t a huge fan of the ocean. He did like the sand, though, and played in it a lot. At one point he fell face forward and got a really nice sand beard!

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Makai was getting tired but wouldn’t go to sleep. Dallas took him down by the water and was holding him while standing in the ocean and Makai miraculously dozed off. He is asleep in all of the photos above.

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After a couple hours we headed back to Hoku’s house to hang out for a while. Makai loved the outdoor shower and went au natural! Soon it was time to head back to Waimanalo.

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We drove along the North Shore and the windward side of Oahu. I’d never gone this way and it was a really beautiful drive. Just past Turtle Bay, near Kahuku, we started to spot some shrimp trucks and shrimp shacks. I passed one or two and then pulled into Fumi’s because I wanted to check it out and didn’t want to miss my chance. I’d always heard about the North Shore shrimp trucks but had never been to one. Fumi’s served their shrimp plate-lunch style. There was a pond out behind the stand and that is where the fish are farmed! I guess we caught them at just the right time. I’ve read things online that say they have long lines, but when we were there, we were the only customers. Food was good, but more expensive than I was expecting.

As we continued to drive past Fumi’s we passed a TON more shrimp trucks and shrimp stands. I guess I shouldn’t have been so concerned about missing my chance to try the North Shore shrimp!

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Back at “home” in Waimanalo, we grilled with Billy and Ging and the kids. Ironically, they had shrimp to grill! But I was fine with that, since I love seafood. We also had grilled corn and zucchini and asparagus. After we put all the kids to bed we stayed up playing music and drinking more local beer. I think my favorite beer of the whole day was the Vonu, from Fiji. I’m assuming that Vonu means turtle in Fijian, since Honu means turtle in Hawaiian.. and there’s a turtle on the label.