Duke, Breakfast & Bellows

The next few days were a bit of a blur. Looking back at the end of our trip, I didn't remember specifics of what we'd done and seen (thank goodness for my visual diary). But my impressions of the next few days could be summed up just like the title of this blog: Duke, breakfast and Bellows.

I'll explain that in a minute. But first - a note for those who are reading this and getting ideas for a future trip to Hawaii. There are two towers at the Hale Koa - the "newer" Maile tower, and the original tower that was recently rennovated. We stayed in both towers and if you have a choice - I'd definitely recommend the recently rennovated rooms. They are MUCH nicer, and have a better "partial ocean view" as well!

Alright, back to the account. Sunday evening we decided to have dinner at Duke's. By all account's Duke's is the quintessential Hawaiian restaurant. The whole establishment celebrates the life of Duke Paoa Kahanamoku - the father of modern surfing. It's extremely popular, so we anticipated a long wait. After putting our names down on their list, we took a long stroll down the beach at sunset, taking pictures and watching the surfers. Then we walked back up the boardwalk and arrived just in time to be seated! The food was delicious, the atmosphere was fun - over all, the experience was well worth the wait!

James, with Diamondhead in the background

James and Duke

Duke

The next few days were pretty laid-back. Our big events involved food - namely, breakfast. American breakfast is something that's very hard to come-by in Asian restaurants. So for most of the trip, we had two meals - a very large brunch, and dinner. (This was also a financial necesity. Hawaii is many things, but cheap is not one of them.)

While he was in town, Jon highly recommended we try Eggs 'n Things. The 45 minute wait was definitely worth it. We both enjoyed a monstrous stack of fruit pancakes. For James, blueberries. For me, banana. They were phenominal. If you're in town, I second Jon's recommendation!

There's nothing better than stuffing yourself full of buttery deliciousness than lounging by the pool all day. Except, maybe, doing the same thing on the beach with friends.
On Tuesday, we headed back up the Winward side to meet Melissa and Savannah at Bellows Beach. Beforehand, we stopped at another delightful breakfast place Melissa recommended. It's called Cinnamon's. I insisted on getting something spiced at a restaurant with that name, so I enjoyed some apple cinnamon pancakes this time. We got some of their signature red velvet pancakes to go for our beach buddies.

By this time, James was getting tired of waiting for me to take photos of all the food before eating it.

Bellow's Beach was by far the most beautiful one we visited on Oahu. The sand was that ideal, soft, golden texture, the water was an outrageous shade of teal, and the breeze helped cool us down after a couple of hours in the sun. Unfortunately, we couldn't go in the water due to jellyfish and a shark sighting... But we entertained ourselves in other ways. Thank goodness for Savannah! One of the highlights of our trip was making her giggle as we built sand castles, played catch, and otherwise folicked in the sand.

I took this picture and sent it to our kids in the youth group to let them know I was thinking of them.

The sandcastle we built

Celebrating 20 years of friendship!

After we were finished at the beach, we drove down the south eastern coastline back to the hotel and stopped at a few scenic over-looks. At the one pictured below, those pilot eyes managed to spot a wild dolphin having a blast and jumping through the waves. What a sight! That little blip on our camera definitely whetted our appetite for our dolphin adventure the following day.