We hit up Waimea Valley two separate times while we had family here. The first time was just to go to the farmers market they have (Thursday afternoons). I really wish we had some farmer’s markets even closer to … Continue reading
Waimea Valley
Tag Archives: north shore
Aoki’s Shave Ice
This is (was) my favorite shave ice place on the North Shore. Unfortunately this is the last chance we got to go there before they were tearing this building down and moving locations. I hate it when that happens… I have a fondness for old, funky buildings.
The hardest part, always? Deciding on a flavor! I am fallen in LOVE with guava, something my boy put me onto (how my 6 year old is all of a sudden a more adventurous eater is beyond me) Guava, lilikoi (passion fruit) and cherry is my flavor combo of the moment. And no beans, ice cream or condensed milk… I like a classic shave ice.
Leah, my niece, getting her ‘small’ shave ice. You should see the large, its as big as your head.
Happy sugared up kiddos… 
“Winter” at the North Shore
Winter in Hawaii is a pretty laughable thing. I must confess I am enjoying the hell out of this winter! I can totally live in flip flops year ’round.
Well, some of my lovely FRG wives and I decided that we needed to take a day trip up to the North Shore. Some of them had *gasp* never been. I just ADORE it up there, I like the scenery, the vibe and most of all the FOOD!
So we loaded up all 16 of us and headed north.
First stop, as always, Turtle Beach.
There were only two little guys braving the crazy surf to find food. The North Shore in winter is when all the crazy waves are here, there are surf competitions going on all the time right now!
Then we grabbed a friendly Turtle Beach volunteer to take a picture of our tribe.
Onward to our first meal of the day, my favorite North Shore eatery, Ted’s Bakery. We all grabbed our food to go and hit up the beach to eat lunch. I was so bummed, my bbq chicken combo was a bbq chicken sandwich. Same chicken but in a bun and with fries instead of rice and mac salad. First world problems, right?
We headed to the lovely tidepools at Shark’s Cove where the rocks around kept it pretty protected and gave the kids somewhere to play.
We all played and ate and played and talked. The weather was overcast and about 78, not a perfect beach day but man, it’s better than what most people are getting right now!
Of course after all that playing it was time for dessert. Oh did I not mention I picked up a Chocolate Haupia Pie from Ted’s? Can I say I don’t think our kids will EVER forget this pie. This is how we do it here, pie on the beach. Grab a fork…
After dessert we spent more time playing (kids) and gossiping (moms) making plans for our awesome ship’s Family Readiness Group. By this time we were famished! Time for dinner! Off to Haleiwa for some shreeyump. Shrimp trucks are everywhere and they all are a little different. I think I may have found my new favorite after being disappointed by the famous Giovanni’s.
Great selection, Lemon Pepper, Garlic, Original, Coconut and Spicey. $12/plate. I ended up sharing with the kids and then regretting it because they were SO good! We were all peeling shrimp and licking our fingers. So ono! (See me dropping some local lingo?!) So if you see this truck stop and order some yummy food!
Time to finally head home after a looooong day, the kids were tired:
Well one was anyways…
And the view on the ride home wasn’t half bad…
Great day with friends and the kids, just wishing my husband had been able to be with us… Counting down the days. Four months done so far!
Eating Our Way Through the North Shore
This weekend we headed back up to the North Shore. I am falling in love with this view as we crest over the hill and head down to the shore… When you actually see it in person you can hardly tell where the sky ends and the water begins. Also if you go earlyish in the morning you won’t sit in hideous traffic like we had to last time!
We made a quick detour to Turtle Beach since we had such good luck last time we were there. Gorgeous water, beautiful coastline. I can’t wait to do more exploring up here. It’s just so, so different than Honolulu.
No luck this time. I don’t know if we were just too early or what. Not a turtle in sight. Insert sad trombone… Mckenna was really bummed, so was I. We had actually brought our snorkeling gear with us so we could snorkel with the turtles. Omar on the other hand was thrilled because he was NOT in the mood to be at the beach. Weirdo.
Onward! We made our way over to Hale’iwa to poke around town and find something to eat. Please note Mckenna doing her best to look like my little Hawaiian girl by throwing a shaka! I may have made my poor husband pull over at both signs on the road (actually I made him pull over for the first one, he pulled over for me before I even had a chance to ask for the second!)
First stop on the agenda: Masumoto’s Shave Ice. A Hawaiian must do. Everyone and there mother will tell you that you have to go to this place so there is usually a huge line. I grabbed this shot as we were leaving. When we got there we only had a few people in front of us, almost zero wait. Also it gave us time to look at the CRAZY menu!
Below is the menu. It was VERY hard to narrow it down to 3 flavors! You can also get ice cream on the bottom of your snow cone sorry, shave ice, and/or condensed milk drizzled over the top. So far I have been a purist and haven’t tried it but I am going to have to start experimenting! Oh and they have a specific way they want you to order… how many, size, cup or bowl, etc…
This machine is an ice shaving beast. And the girl was crazy fast scooping and making the perfect scoop shape (and also clearly thrilled I am taking her picture.)
Yummy shave ice! What is not shown is that Omar dropped his shave ice about 30 seconds after sitting on a bench outside. There were tears. But he then got to share with all of us, and pose with my cherry/watermelon shave ice.
Verdict: All shave ice pretty much tastes the same to me. Stop by if you are there, otherwise go to one of the other million stands on the island.
After our shave ice we decided to get dessert. What? This day had no rhyme or reason to our eating schedule!
Just ended up grabbing a photo op and some cookies. We were a little disappointed by the baked goods selection for a bakery, but they do also bake their own bread and have a nice little lunch menu. Service, hmmm. Our order taker was friendly but literally stopped us 3-4 times in the middle of our order to deliver food/talk to other people. Super cute little place though. $1 cookies!
$1 cookie display. My walnut chocolate chip was really good. And Omar didn’t drop his!
Right across the parking lot is this trailer with dozens of chickens on it. You cannot miss the smell, it is divine. We had other plans for lunch so we decided to pick up a chicken for dinner. $9 for a chicken ($9.50 if you want it cut up). We also picked up some pineapple cole slaw. Yes I know, I was dubious too. But it is really good.
Grab a 1/2 or whole chicken and sit at a table and eat it. When we ate it for dinner there was only a backbone left in the serving dish, my kids picked the chicken clean. Great sauce or rub or whatever it is that they put on it. And when you are done you can wash your hands in the cutest sink ever. I love beach towns.
Next stop: Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck another must do according to every guide book, friend and tv show.
Super simple menu makes it easy to order.
While you wait grab a Sharpie and sign your name. Good luck finding a spot!
Omar got the spicy shrimp which weren’t that spicy to him because he has a ridiculous scale of spiciness from eating habaneros every single day. They were wicked spicy, I couldn’t handle them.
I got the scampi which were good. Both of our shrimp may have been a smidge overcooked. Good but we are also lazy and don’t like peeling our shrimp. (first world problems I know…)
So great day eating and trying lots of must try things. If you haven’t gotten up there yet, DO IT!
North Shore Trip aka Best. Day. Ever.
We decided to actually do something Hawaiian and touristy and take a trip up to the North Shore. On the way up we took a quick stop by the Dole Plantation. We weren’t trying to stay all day so we didn’t do the maze or train.
Not even a minute after walking in did Omar spy a pineapple! They have groups of different varieties growing all over the place and it’s amazing to see the many different colors and sizes. Who knew?!
The koi pond was also pretty cool. The koi were outta control, trying to swim on top of each other to get food. Unfortunately for us, the food was all gone out of the dispensers. Go before noon if you want to try to get some!
They had some really pretty plants as well. I am constantly taking pictures of all of the plants and flowers I see (I really need to buy that macro lens I want!) I love how well landscaped everything on this island is! Just beautiful!
My little pineapples… There was a group ahead of us who were doing this as well but they had way more people and a million cameras and were taking FOREVER. It was super annoying and they refused to get out of the way so my kids could take a picture.
Everyone raves about the Dole Whip, and I admit it was good. But really, it’s pineapple soft serve. For $5. But now I can say I ate it.
Guess what? MORE pineapple pictures! They were SO cool, and the baby ones were adorable. (Yes, I realize I just described a fruit as adorable.)
I don’t know what kind of tree this is, but Mckenna and I are now calling it a rainbow tree.
Continuing on to the North Shore, we passed this horse farm. Nothing happened, I just love how this shot turned out. (As we were creeping along in traffic because our bright idea was the same one that half the island had!)
Quick pull off right after the horse farm. Turtle Beach! I was hoping to see at least one sea turtle, or honu as they are known here. Instead, we saw DOZENS!
I just love those sweet faces! But not enough to touch them as they are protected and will cost $250K! The volunteers were actually really great and I would love to join them! hang with turtles all day? Sign me up!
While we were having a religious experience with sea turtles, Omar was happy to watch from the shore.
Next time I am bringing a snorkel!
One of the turtles up close. This is why they are here, to munch on all this yummy algae.
Onward! This time to find something to eat! We ended up purely on accident at Ted’s Bakery. Ended up having a GREAT lunch wishing we had room for dessert. They are apparently quite famous for their cream pies (which looked outstanding!) I did end up having my very first Hawaiian plate lunch. Fantastic!
After lunch we tried to make our way to Waimea Bay, one of the most famous surfing beaches in the world. Parking was INSANE. No where to park for miles, so back up the coast we go, finally stopping at Shark’s Cove. I had read that they had great snorkeling and even though we hadn’t brought any with us, we were hot and ready to cool off!
Omar and Mckenna went in first and I couldn’t tell whether they were enjoying it or not. Once they came back they said they saw tons of fish. We all ended up going out (with just goggles) and ended up seeing hundreds of convict tangs, parrot fish, wrasses, puffer fish, a moorish idol, and a humahuma trigger. I can NOT wait to go back here with a snorkel!
Still can’t believe this is my life. I’m kinda digging it so far.
Sink Or Swim 