the best laid plans...

My mother has always wanted to go to French Laundry, except that it's so hard to get a reservation that we've never had a chance.

I thought it would be a nice gesture on my part to secure a reservation for my parents' 30th anniversary, which is coming up in two months, so I blocked out my calendar starting at 10am for four straight days. (The reservation policy is that you can call starting at 10am two calendar months before the date of the reservation.)

Yesterday, I got through to a "reservationist" at 10:23am, and all the tables were already full for dinner on Thu 3/29 (lunch is only served Fri-Sun).

Today, I enlisted my sister as well, and the two of us dialed and redialed four phones (two cell, two land) until I finally got through at 11:08am. The good news was that there were actually some tables left for Fri 3/30. The bad news was that the tables were 4-person tables, not 2-person tables. I made a reservation anyway, since I had spent all this time already, and anyway my parents might enjoy the company.

So, I was somewhat satisfied with myself, until I got a totally unrelated email from my mom, in which I learned that my parents are going to be out of town that day. Argh!!!

Now I'm trying to decide whether to sell the reservation, invite some friends to go (unlikely, at $240 a head), or what.

goodbye, athena

I'm losing my Athena account next week.

Athena is MIT's campus-wide distributed network. Basically, an Athena account is a Unix account with a gig of space, an HTTP server, and lots of other random utilities like Matlab and LaTeX, etc. I could have kept it by continuing to act as a volunteer online consultant, but my knowledge is increasingly outdated and it started to seem like I was just mooching off the system.

Besides, I don't really use my account much anymore. I used to use it exclusively for email (go MH!) until Gmail came along a couple of years ago, and I used to host photos on it until I traded up to a 7.1 megapixel camera, and 1 gig wasn't really big enough anymore. Now it's basically a place for me to keep random notes and bits of data, so it shouldn't be that hard for me to give up the account, but it does feel awfully strange; kind of like I'm letting go of my college days. I guess it's about time.

a few good restaurants

I like trying new restaurants, so it's been a couple of good food weekends for me.

Two Fridays ago, I went to a birthday party at E&O Trading Company, in downtown San Jose. It's a Southeast Asian place that serves small plates, which can be shared family style. The food was fine, but I mostly remember the excellent cocktail that I had before dinner; I think it was a martini of some tropical flavor.

That Saturday, four of us waited the half hour that it takes to get into Queen House, in downtown Mountain View. I live two blocks away but have only been there twice due to the long wait times. But, it's always nice to have some cheap ($40 for 4, plus leftovers), authentic Chinese food. This time we had beef noodle soup, black bean chicken, salt and pepper pork ribs, a clay pot stew, and some stir fried Chinese veggies. Mmm...

Since Monday was a holiday, I was able to make it up to the city to eat with some friends at Helmand, an Afghan place which is located in a sketchy area of North Beach but is actually very nice inside. I had a lamb shank dish, which was good, but several people ordered the lamb chops (Chowpan?), which was better. I'll probably get that next time.

This weekend, Friday dinner was at Left Bank, a not-too-expensive French restaurant that has several locations throughout the Bay Area. We had booked the private room at San Mateo, for a birthday party, which turned out to be a good thing because we had a few bottles of wine and some people got a a little loud. I had the skirt steak (much better than Cheesecake Factory) with fries, and am now completely hooked on their fries.

We went upscale on Saturday, eating at Silks inside of the Mandarin Oriental. I'll have to recommend this place to my parents; my mom has a thing about noisy dining rooms, so she'll love the hushed atmosphere as well as the Asian fusion food. I actually liked the amuse bouche best of all the food that night; it was a raw oyster in a delicious onion-y, vinegar-y sauce. I had a clever "Eggs, Ham, and Toast" appetizer (the "ham" was crispy suckling pig, etc.) and rack of venision entree. Dessert was a coffee souffle, and then we were treated to a creamy-smooth hot chocolate with "Snickers" whipped cream on top. Service was really good; they took longer than usual to serve the main course, and someone came to apologize, well before I would have thought to complain. When our waitress presented the bill, she told us that as an added apology, our desserts were on the house. Bonus!

On Sunday night, I finally tried out one of this year's Dine about Town menus, at the Moroccan restaurant aziza. The restaurant is in the outer Richmond, mixed in with the Chinese grocery stores, so it's not very appealing on the outside, but once we went inside I was impressed by the cozy booths, exotic but not cheesy music, mood lighting, and curtains everywhere. The food was yummy and the portions were generous; I had three courses (lamb sausage with yogurt, couscous aziza, and almond chocolate cake), didn't finish my entree, and was completely stuffed.

Hawaii (Kauai, Day 6)

The last day of the trip was pretty chill; there were only three of us left, and we didn't have any big items on the agenda. Our flight back to Honolulu wasn't until evening, but checkout time was at noon, so we went ahead and packed up anyway, cramming all of the luggage into our compact-sized rental car.

First, we headed up Waimea Canyon Road back to see the Kalalau Lookout by day. Unfortunately, there were clouds completely covering the valley, and we couldn't see a thing. We walked the mile to the Pu'u o Kila Lookout, hoping things would be better there, but they weren't. Undaunted, we decided to hang out for half an hour or so, to see if the clouds would burn off (it was about 11am at this point).

For about twenty minutes, we continued to see nothing. In the last ten minutes, the clouds started to ease up ever so slightly, so that we could almost see green beneath the white. Encouraged, we stuck around, and were rewarded for our patience by an awesome show, as the clouds slowly drifted, rolled, and melted away. Every minute, the view would change again, and it would still be spectacular.

It was pretty hard to capture the magic of that hour on camera, but I certainly tried. Here are two of the better photos:





Afterwards, we walked back to the Kalalau Lookout, which had also cleared up. At one point we were treated to another of the many rainbows we had seen during our trip:



It was around 1pm when we started driving back, and we were hungry, so we stopped in Waimea at Jo-Jo's Clubhouse, a famous shave ice place that nevertheless looks like a cross between a barn and a shack. Never judge a book, right? We had the Tropical Rainbow (guava, papaya, and lilikoi), with macadamia nut ice cream and azuki (red) bean underneath. Ice cream, ice and beans sounds like a horrible combination, but it was really, really good; the best shave ice I'd had during the whole trip.

We checked out the Red Dirt T-shirt store next door, although I didn't buy any T-shirts (my socks were already permanently red from all the hiking anyway), and then drove back to Poipu Shopping Village for some real lunch. We ended up having hot dogs at Puka Dog, which serves hot dogs in a huge enclosed bun, with "garlic lemon secret sauce", as well as an assortment of tropical relishes (mango, pineapple, banana etc.) and optional lilikoi mustard. The food were good but overpriced; essentially $6-7 for a fancy hot dog.

From there, we were off to Wal-Mart (yes, there is one on Kauai), to stock up on macadamia nuts, cookies, coffee, and other goodies, and then to the airport. One person was on the 7pm flight, and two (including me) were on the 8pm flight, so we just checked in early to wait at the gate. Amusingly, after the 7pm flight finished boarding all passengers, the counter agent asked if there were any passengers who were ticketed on the 8pm flight, who wanted to go early. Of course we did, so in classic Hawaii fashion, we just hopped on, which got us to Honolulu an hour early; plenty of time for a leisurely dinner before boarding our San Francisco flight home.

Hawaii (Kauai, Day 5)

Day 5:

Several people left early, so by the fifth day, we were down to four people, one of whom was leaving the next day. We decided that we were rested enough for another hike, so right after breakfast, we headed back out to Ke'e Beach to hit the Kalalau Trail. The plan was to hike the first two miles to Hanakapi'ai Beach, see how it went, and then decide whether to attempt the two mile side trail to Hanakapi'ai Falls.

We started a bit after 11am, and the first quarter mile or so was fine. The rocks were a bit slippery due to the slight rain showers, but the path was definitely manageable. However, soon after that we soon found ourselves slogging our way through all different kinds of muddy terrain. Some parts of the trail were steep and covered in slippery mud. Other parts were flat and covered in sticky mud, the kind that threatens to suck your shoes off, or rocky and muddy both, so hikers were forced to choose between the two:



On the bright side, the scenery was consistently gorgeous for most of the way:





Near the end of the two miles, there was a stream crossing:



We had neglected to bring sandals or water shoes of any kind, so our options were to cross barefoot, and risk stepping on something sharp, or to cross in our hiking shoes, and let them get wet. I chose the latter; others in my group chose the former.

Since the going was slow, it was about 1:30pm when we made it to Hanakapi'ai Beach:



The beach is divided in two by the stream, and although the water is shallow by the time the stream reaches the coast, it was still an interesting experience to walk across it; the ground sinks a little under your feet, until you are almost knee deep in cold, runny sand.

Anyway, we sat on the beach, ate some sandwiches, and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. Because the beach can only be reached by hikers (or kayakers), it's fairly peaceful and uncrowded. While we were eating, we spotted a crab:



After hanging out for about an hour, we decided to head back and see if we could get some snorkeling in, rather than going on to Hanakapi'ai Falls. We were able to slog our way back through all the mud and get back a bit after 4pm, at which point we drove a short distance to Ha'ena Beach Park and hit the beach. Tunnels Beach is within walking distance of Ha'ena Beach, so we walked in that direction, before venturing into the water. The currents were pretty strong and there were several warning flags flying, so I decided to just lounge on the sand with my camera, while the guys went snorkeling in the shallow water. Here are some photos taken from Ha'ena and Tunnels:







Afterwards we rinsed off a bit, although some of the mud from the Kalalau Trail refused to be washed off, and started to drive back to Poipu. We were hungry by the time we got to Hanalei, but decided to try a restaurant in Lihue instead of going back to the Ching Young Village again. Since the sun had already set, the driving was a bit more treacherous, since there are almost no lights on the northern half of Hwy 560, so it was past 8pm when we arrived in Lihue, where four very hungry people descended on the Lihue Barbeque Inn.

The restaurant was filled with locals (in fact, we felt slightly out of place), the atmophere was casual cafeteria, and the food was homestyle and cheap. For instance, the specials cost about $10-12, and included soup, salad, and dessert. We split a delicious macadamia encrusted crab cake appetizer as well as some onion rings, and then each ordered a special; I had the chicken katsu, and mint creme pie.

We finally got home around 10pm, and took some very hot showers before heading off to bed.

Hawaii (Kauai, Days 3 & 4)

Day 3:

We were all pretty tired the day after the Nu'alolo hike, so we decided to take it easy. First, we drove up to the Ke'e Beach, at the very end of Hwy 560 on the north shore. The famous Kalalau Trail starts from this point, and extends for 11 miles across the Na Pali coast, but we weren't about to attempt any part of it that day. Instead, we hung out on the beach and did some swimming, and although we were close to shore, we saw quite a few fish.

Here's a photo of the beach, with the beginning of the Na Pali coast in the background:


After a couple hours, we headed for the Hanalei Bay pier, where we signed up for a 90-minute surfing lesson. The instructors (two for the six of us) gave us huge, wide surfboards, showed us how to paddle and how to stand, and then spent the next hour pushing us into waves. I was able to stand up most of the time as long as the instructors were pushing us, but then they gave us 20-30 minutes of free time with the boards, and I couldn't catch a single wave. Later I talked to a friend who surfs, and she said it was likely that I was having timing problems rather than issues with paddling strength. Apparently you have to catch the wave with an accuracy of about a foot or two, otherwise you'll completely miss the wave. I now have a whole new respect for surfers.

Here are some of the other people learning to surf in Hanalei Bay:


At this point we were really hungry, so we rinsed off and headed to the Ching Young Village in Hanalei, which is a shopping center with lots of shops and restaurants (none of which are Chinese, despite the suggestive name). We ate at the Polynesia Cafe, where I had a Kalua Pork sandwich and some yummy fries. We also bought several homemade desserts to take home, including a coffee macadamia cookie, a lilikoi mousse cake, and a macadamia fudge coconut tiramisu cake. We topped the food off with a shave ice from Shave Ice Paradise, which was not as good as Matsumoto's, although we were now better at picking flavors (guava, lime, and li hing mui, aka preserved plum). Some people also grabbed coffee from Java Kai, and then we drove the hour and a half back home.

Four of us were staying together in the condo at the Kiahuna Plantation, so it took about an hour or so for us all to shower and get cleaned up. Aftewards, we hung out organizing pictures and using our free internet connection for awhile, and then invited the other two people over for dinner. We had bought groceries the day before, and so we were able to produce a spaghetti dinner, with ground beef, onions, and mushrooms in the sauce, and salad and French bread on the side. We all split the Polynesia Cafe goodies for dessert. I really do enjoy having a kitchen and living area when on extended vacation.

Day 4:

The groom from the wedding in Honolulu decided to come hang out with us in Kauai after his family left town, and so early on the next day, he flew in to join us. One person picked him up at the airport and we all met up at Kipu Falls, a watering hole with a 20-foot waterfall. Both locals and tourists like to jump off the cliff into the waterfall, and/or jump from a nearby rope swing. After we munched on some malasadas (big doughnut holes stuffed with red bean paste) and other baked goods for breakfast, all of the guys did the rope swing, and one did the cliff jump as well. I passed on both and did camera duty. Unfortunately, we had one slight injury; one person hurt his hand crossing the stream to get to the rope swing, since the rocks were pretty slippery, so we decided to keep things chill for the rest of the day.

After leaving Kipu Falls, we drove up to Wailua Falls, which is quite a different kind of waterfall:


The official height is 80 feet, but according to our guidebook author, who actually measured it, it's actually 180 feet tall. As we were standing at the railing looking at it, a local told us a story of two men who jumped off of the side last year. One broke his leg on impact, and was waving at the second to tell him not to jump, but unfortunately the second guy couldn't hear him, so he jumped anyway, and broke his shoulder.

It was raining a little bit, so we drove back to Poipu and hung out in the condo for awhile waiting for the weather to get better. After an hour or so, it cleared up a bit, so four of us walked to the Kiahuna Beach, right outside our own door:


We checked out free beach chairs and towels from the beach hut, set them up on the sand, and then went swimming for a bit. On the left side of the beach, we saw several types of fish, including a long, thin, pencil-shaped fish, and a larger fish with black stripes. The right side of the beach was much rougher, but the waves were kind of fun, so we spent some time there anyway, before retiring to our beach chairs.

Unfortunately, we had only been lounging for about twenty minutes when the rain came back in full force, and we quickly returned the beach chairs and ran back to our condo. It lasted quite awhile, so we decided to get cleaned up in case the weather stayed bad, and our only option was to go get dinner. We had actually been quite lucky with weather so far (it normally rains a lot in Kauai in the winter) so I was afraid that maybe our luck at turned.

However, the rain stopped after about an hour, so we drove to the Spouting Horn, which was only a few minutes away. I'm not sure what it is about the rocks in Kauai, but apparently it's quite common for them to erode in such a way that the water comes in underneath and then spouts up through holes, looking like little geysers. The Spouting Horn is the most famous such blowhole, partially because it's quite large, and partially because the water makes a kind of mooing, whooshing noise when it comes out:


It sounds cheesy but is actually quite fun to watch, and there are all these little blowholes nearby, so we spent some time hanging out in the area and exploring the rocks (again bypassing the safety railings).

After we left, we headed to the Poipu Shopping Village for dinner. We were a bit early, so we watched the sun set, and I took some photos:


Then, we met up with the rest of the group at Poipu Tropical Burgers. The restaurant was recommended by the guidebook, but I wasn't all that impressed. The burgers were fine, although the guava BBQ sauce that I had on mine was a little bit sweeter than necessary, but the service wasn't great; one person asked to substitute a chicken patty for a beef patty, and they obviously had chicken, since there were several teriyaki chicken burgers on the menu, but the waitress refused, without even consulting the kitchen. She also seemed annoyed when it took us awhile to decide on our menu selections. Nevertheless, the food was decent, and generously portioned.

Hawaii (Kauai, Days 1 & 2)

Day 1:

Six of us who attended the wedding in Oahu decided to hop over to Kauai for a few days. We caught a pretty late flight out of Honolulu on New Year's Day, so it was dinner time when we arrived in Lihue.

After checking into our condo at the Kiahuna Plantation (on the south shore, in Poipu), we walked to the Poipu Shopping Village to get something to eat. The first restaurant we tried had closed at 7:30pm (maybe because of the holiday?) so we ended up eating sandwiches at e.b.'s Eats. The food was only so-so, but we were pretty hungry at the time.

Afterwards, we bought some extremely expensive groceries at Whaler's General Store. We were slightly horrified at the prices until we read in our guidebook, The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook: Kauai Revealed, that all groceries in Kauai were overpriced.

Day 2:

Our goal for the first full day in Kauai was to hike the 11.3 mile Nu'alolo-Awa'awapuhi loop. The guidebook recommended that hikers begin the loop by 10am, but we got off to a late start, and what with the hour and a half drive from Poipu to the Koke'e Lodge (where the loop begins) we didn't get going until about 10:45am.

Here's a map of the entire loop:


The first part of the loop, the 3.4 mile Nu'alolo Trail, is mostly downhill after a short initial climb. However, it was a bit slippery that day, since it had been raining just as we were starting out, so we stopped briefly to hunt down some walking sticks. After that we hiked straight on to the end of the Nu'alolo, and then onto the 0.4 mile side path leading to the Lolo Vista Point.

There was a good view of the Nu'alolo Valley at the end of the path, but it was obvious that if we hiked on past the safety railing, we could get an even better look, so we did so. We were rewarded with a better view of both the valley and the coast, and also discovered a nice flat patch of red dirt on which we decided to take our lunch break.

After eating, we retraced our steps back up the side path, and then started on the 2.1 mile Nu'alolo Cliffs Trail. Somewhere near the beginning of this trail, there was a strongly worded sign that warned hikers to proceed on the next quarter mile at their own risk, and indeed the trail soon became narrow and rocky, with a pretty scary looking drop on the left side. Luckily, that part was short. Unluckily, the rest of the trail consisted mostly of whacking our way through vegetation several feet taller than myself. The Cliffs Trail was certainly not designed for large hikers.

At the end of that trail, there was another side path, 0.3 miles this time, leading to a second vista point. We were making pretty good time, despite our late start, so we decided to check it out. In my opinion, the second vista was better than the first, with views of the Na Pali coast as well as both the Nu'alolo and Awa'awapuhi valleys.

Here's a photo (although it's not particularly representative of the view):


After a short water break and photo session, we headed back up the side path and onwards to the 3.1 mile Awa'awapuhi Trail. The last two miles of this trail are mostly uphill, and I started counting quarter mile markers well before the end. We made it back to the road at about 5pm, an hour before sunset, but still had the 1.5 mile downhill section of Waimea Canyon Road to hike, which took us another 30-40 minutes.

We got back to our cars and had some snacks and drinks (we had cleverly remembered to bring a 2 gallon jug of water, which we polished off in no time) and then drove up the last section of the Waimea Canyon Road to the Kalalau Lookout, to catch the sunset.

Although I was pretty hungry, I still managed to enjoy the view:



It took us another hour and a half to get back to Poipu, plus we stopped in Waimea for some more groceries (Big Save, cheaper than the General Store), so when we finally sat down to eat dinner at Pizzetti's, an pseudo-Italian place, I was starving. I ended up eating four ribs (with guava BBQ sauce), three slices of pizza, and a bunch of mashed potatoes and some other sides. I really can't say whether the restaurant was any good; the food tasted awesome, but I couldn't tell if it was because I was so hungry, or whether the food was actually tasty.

Hawaii (Oahu, Days 3, 4 & 5)

Day 3:

The wedding wasn't until 4pm on the third day, so that morning, we met up with some friends who live in Honolulu. They brought some delicious (and cheap!) garlic chicken bento boxes from a hole-in-the-wall place called Mitsu-Ken's, and we ate at one of the picnic benches in Kuhio Beach Park.

Afterwards, we drove to Diamond Head Beach Park, and explored the beach a bit. It was much, much less crowded than Waikiki, and just as pretty:


We saw a couple of fishermen who had caught some eels, our friend explained to us about the darker, volcanic sand which we saw mixed in with the normal sand, and we did normal beach stuff like chasing waves and playing in the sand.

After a couple of hours, we headed back to our hotel to change for the wedding. We managed to get ourselves there a little bit early to check out the grounds of the Ihulani Resort, which was where the ceremony and reception were held. Everything in Hawaii is gorgeous, but the resort area is super gorgeous, with beautiful gardens and pools full of sea life (including stingrays and sharks). The wedding ceremony went off without a hitch, the seventy-odd guests appeared to have a fun time at the reception, and I myself much enjoyed the food, which was definitely above average for wedding food. The dessert was a "trio of brulees"; I've forgotten the flavors exactly, but I think one was coffee, one lilikoi (Hawaiian for passionfruit), and one vanilla. Yum.

Day 4:

We were leaving for Kauai on the fifth day, so we had a lot that we wanted to do on day four, which was also New Year's Eve. That morning, we drove up towards the North Shore, stopped at the Dole Pineapple Plantation for some pineapple soft-serve topped with pineapple chunks, and then proceeded on to Hale'iwa, where we had shave ice at the famous Matsumoto's. Afterwards, we stopped at several beaches along the North Shore, including Sunset Beach, and took lots of photos of surfers riding huge waves.

Here's one:


We had a late lunch at Romy's, one of the "shrimp shacks" near Turtle Bay, and then continued around the island to Kualoa Ranch:


There, we took a "Ranch and Movie Tour", during which they took us to the Ka'a'awa Valley and showed us some of the filming locations for Jurassic Park, Pearl Harbor, 50 First Dates, Godzilla, and more. My favorite was "Hurley's Golf Course" from the last couple of seasons of Lost. On the way back to Honolulu, we drove through the Valley of the Temples and stopped at the Nu'uanu Pali Lookout, which has a great view of the southeastern coast of Oahu.

For dinner, several of us went to Alan Wong's Restaurant. Since it was New Year's Eve, the menu was a fairly expensive prix fixe, but in the end it was worth it. We started with an ahi tuna amuse bouche, ate an appetizer of oyster, ikura (salmon roe), ahi, and crab, then had some kind of meat wrapped in a flaky pastry crust with two sauces, followed by an entree of our choice, and then an amazing dessert. I chose the rack of lamb, which was quite good, but I didn't eat much of it, because I kept eyeing the waiters who were carrying the dessert plates to other tables. When it finally came, I was really glad that I had saved room.

Here's a photo of our dessert:


On the far left is a "coconut" which is made out of a chocolate shell, encrusted in coconut flakes, with coconut ice cream inside. Next is a strawberry gelatin, followed by two kinds of cheesecake. On the far right is a crunchy chocolatey dessert that takes a little bit like a really good Kit-Kat bar; this was my favorite, especially because it had a cute little clock on top, in honor of the New Year's countdown.

After dinner, we went to the bride's parents' house, and set off firecrackers. Apparently, in Hawaii, everyone buys firecrackers in huge boxes from Costco; the cheapest box is $30 and has about 15-20 firecrackers inside. We certainly saw evidence of this on the drive over; every block had someone setting off small firecrackers, some on the sidewalk, some in their own backyards, and one person on his roof. As we got to the more residential areas, we even saw aerial fireworks, although it was a little scary when the ash rained down over our heads afterwards.

Here's a photo of one of ours:


Day 5:

We didn't do too much in Oahu on the last day, since we got home pretty late on New Year's Eve, so we slept in a bit the next day. Basically, we grabbed a quick brunch at Seaside Bar & Grill, a pretty cheap breakfast place in Waikiki, and then packed up our stuff and hung out in our hotel room for an hour or two until our flight. Then, it was off to the airport for the Kauai part of our trip!

Hawaii (Oahu, Days 1 & 2)

After a short, five day stay in Taipei, I was off to Oahu for a friend's wedding, and then a week of vacation in Kauai. I didn't have time to write about all the fun things we did while we were there, but I'm going to try to get them down in the next few days, before they escape my horrible memory.

Day 1:

We arrived at 7am, met up with friends at the hotel, went to Eggs & Things for breakfast. Eggs & Things is an extremely popular breakfast place (interestingly, open from 11pm to 2pm daily) and it took an hour to get a table. However, since it took half an hour to find parking, we effectively waited for only half an hour. I had some very yummy blueberry pancakes, which were light and fluffy but probably full of butter.

After eating, we headed to Diamond Head and "hiked" up the trail to the lookout at the top. Very nice views of Waikiki, as advertised:


I'm pretty sure I've been up there before, but it's been at least 15 years since I've been to Hawaii so I don't remember it at all.

That afternoon, we checked out Waikiki Beach for a couple of hours. It's pretty and all, but I don't really like crowded beaches; it took awhile to find a place to put our towels down, and there were tons of beginner surfers in the water. We only hung out for a couple of hours before we decided it was too hot to stay much longer.

For dinner, we met up with even more friends who were in town for the wedding. We decided on Petite Garlic for dinner, in part because they had a short wait compared to most of the restaurants in the area.

After dinner, we headed to Coconut Cafe, also in Waikiki. Some people had the $1 corn dogs, and others had shave ice and/or smoothies.

Day 2:

The next day, we went on a kayaking excursion with the groom, in lieu of a bachelor's party. We drove out to Kailua, on the east coast of Oahu, and the fourteen of us rented seven tandem kayaks from Two Good Kayaks. After a lengthy safety briefing, we were on our way.

We got our bearings in a small channel which was separated from the ocean by a sandbar, and then lugged the kayaks over the sandbar into the Pacific Ocean. About five minutes after we launched into the ocean, it started to rain like mad, which was a bit scary since it made the water choppy and visibility poor. We paddled through it and the rain cleared up about ten minutes later.

There are three islands off the coast of Kailua, a "flat" island, and two larger islands which both seem to be called Mokulua Island, one (or both) of which is a bird sanctuary. Our intended destination was the first Mokulua Island, but according to the safety briefing person, the only safe approach to the first island was to paddle parallel to the coast, straight towards the second island, until the first island was directly to the left, and then turn ninety degrees towards the first island.

My interpretation of the "safe" route:


Once we were in the ocean, it became obvious what he was talking about. The waves were coming from both directions around the two islands, except that the second island acted as a kind of buffer for the first one, so there was a channel about ten or twenty feet wide where the water was somewhat calmer, which could be used to approach a small beach on the inside edge of the first island.

Out of seven kayaks, five made it to the island within about twenty minutes of each other. The sixth kayak had some issues with the rain and choppy water and decided to land on the "flat" island instead, and the seventh kayak had an experienced kayaker onboard who decided to explore elsewhere. Of the five kayaks which reached the island, three capsized while attempting to land on the beach. My kayak landed successfully (yay!) after a tense minute or so, during which we were paddling as furiously as we could, to try to reach the beach before the waves got to us. The whole time, the people in the first two kayaks were waving their arms wildly in an effort to steer us to shore.

Here's a view of the second island from the small beach on the first island:


The ten of us tried to hike around the island, but were soon thwarted by high surf which made the rocks on the coast slippery. We munched on some snacks and hung out on the beach instead, before beginning the return journey.

As exciting as landing was, launching was even more interesting. The challenge was to get some speed before any large waves hit the kayak sideways, and then to paddle as quickly as possible out to the calmer water. Only one kayak capsized leaving the island, probably because the people still on land were helping, by pushing the kayaks as they entered the water. Once we were all afloat, we had a good time taking photos of each other and racing for various short distances, and one person saw a sea turtle poking its head out of the water.

After we returned the kayaks, we drove back to Waikiki and got cleaned up for the wedding rehearsal dinner, which was at a Chinese restaurant called Royal Garden Chinese Restaurant in Honolulu. After ten courses of Chinese banquet food, we went home to sleep off the food coma.