DATE: Saturday, December 24, 2022

It’s 5:46am Saturday morning, and I’m a little behind on my blog posts. I might has well take advantage of the quiet time by sitting next to the beach with a Kona coffee and catching up. So far, it’s just me and a nearby wild rooster (commonly seen on the North Shore) in the pitch black. But we’re both looking forward to another sunrise.

After enjoying the sunrise, we started the day heading toward Sacred Falls, which is about a 3 minute drive from our AirBnB (or, as Vivian has come to refer to it as, our “R&B”). Google Maps did its best to direct us toward the trail head, but this one seemed to be off of the beaten path. We were first directed toward a cul du sac in an older neighborhood with a Buddhist temple nestled back off of the road. Zach and Eli pulled up Apple Maps, which pointed us to a different location in another nearby neighborhood, but no luck there. We stopped and asked a local boy doing wheelies on his bike if he knew where the trailhead was, but he didn’t. After a little investigation, we found the trailhead. And the trail was closed. The sign said that it was not accessible due to a rock slide. We’d learned later on that some people were killed on Mother’s Day 1999. Apparently, that’s why the trail was still closed. While we probably could have risked it, we decided to move on.

Moving on to the next on our list was a 45-minute drive to the Makapu’u Lighthouse. It was a nice easy trail, with somewhat of an incline, but the panoramic scenery was breathtaking! There were a lot of people there enjoying the sights.

From there, we headed to lunch. We grabbed some drinks real quick at a Walgreens and headed to Sandy Beach to sit for a few minutes. We also got our first chance to enjoy some fresh pineapple from a food truck that was set up nearby.

From Sandy Beach was a 30-minute drive to Manoa Falls. We were going to see a waterfall today! The trailhead was again nestled back in the back of a neighborhood. It was at the sight of an attraction previously known as Paradise Park, which looks like it was a film location and had a zoo in the past. These days, wild chickens rule the place after its closing in 1994.

The trail to the falls was a fairly easy 0.8 mile hike with some incline along the way, and a little more natural than the Makapu’u trail, but the scenery was amazing! At one point, Sonya mentioned that it was like we were in an exotic land! We replied that yes, we were. She also mentioned at one point that this is what she had envisioned the Garden of Eden looking like. I’m not sure how high the falls are, but it was an amazing sight once we reached the top of the trail.

After the Manoa Falls hike, it was coming up on dinner. Being Chriatmas Eve, we were wondering if places would start to close early. So we headed toward the relatively nearby Waikiki area to find some dinner and possibly do some souvenir shopping. Well, it was hopping downtown. Finding parking was a challenge as expected. We ended up parking and doing a little shopping at the International Market Place.

We then ventured out on search of food. We’d seen a food truck a few blocks back that looked good.

Found it! Blue Ocean. There was quite a variety of food here, and it did not disappoint at all! I got the steak and shrimp kebab. Everyone was satisfied. Another great day on Oahu!