We did the North Shore again today, only I was tagging along with the older sister, nieces, dad and older brother-in-law. Mom stayed back at the house to hang out on the beach and play her ukulele, as Jing went to work and Josh back to school. But this time we took the reverse route from the one Jing and I took on Sunday. Roads in Honolulu are... um.. non-intuitive. There is an H201, but it is not on any map we had. And exits off the freeway do not necessarily have exits to return to the freeway. Sigh. Escaping Honolulu was more of a chore than it should have been.

But make it out we did. Eventually, after traveling up the relatively flatter middle of the island, we first hit the surfing competition on the North Shore. The waves were much bigger so the sites and feats were much more impressive. The nieces seemed to enjoy playing in the sand more than trying to watch the surfers, but oh well. We hung out there for at least half an hour if not more before we were dragged away from the lure of the surf. On the way out we saw Bethany Hamilton walk by, and thought to stop her and get a picture of her with our Bethany, but she looked on a mission so we didn't want to intrude.

After watching the surfing, we headed to Waimea Valley Audubon Park to hike the "quick and easy trail" to the Waimea Falls. Quick and easy is relative, and valid if you are planning on hiking Kilimanjaro, but it was a bit more than easy, and definitely not quick with my family looking at all the flowers everywhere. After 2 hours up to the falls and back, we eventually hopped back in the car to get shrimp. The hike was lovely and the falls quite powerful, but the little girls apparently aren't rated for 1.5 miles. We still had fun, even if the evil adults had to give the nieces piggy back rides down the hill.



Making it to lunch at Fumis shrimp truck again, we slid in during a pause in the rain. It picked back up when we were under shelter, but the food was good and the company entertaining. The girls ate their tempura shrimp, which I had as well, and I convinced Clint to try the ginger shrimp I had on Sunday which was so tasty. With some puddle jumping we were back in the van scooting down the Windward side of the island, noting the cool terrain, stopping to let some ill-tempered geese cross the road, gawk at the cool land features, stop at the Tropical Farms for more macadamia nut related merchandise and free samples, to finally make it home alive and in tact.

Mom, Dad, Clint, blondemuse, and the girls are now on a plane home after a flury of packing and pizza for dinner before returning the rental and finding the airport. It was good to see them all, but I am glad I have one more day. I plan to hitch a ride into town with Jinger so I can hike Diamond Head in the morning and do some shopping and hanging out in Waikiki afterward. Should be fun. Then I have to pack all my stuff to catch a plane home myself tomorrow night.

Only the love I have for my Alan and the wonderful friends at home will be able to lure me onto that plane home. We'll really need to plan to come back sometime soon.