Our
beach-hopping continued at Kailua, where after having a shave ice in every way
inferior to Tuesday’s from Waikiki, we went swimming at Kailua Beach Park,
a perfect beach with fine, white sand, a gentle current, and just a few small
bobbing waves. The beach is divided in two by a freshwater stream that at low
tide doesn’t make it all the way to the ocean, and Robert walked over
to watch kayakers coming down the stream, little boys fishing, and other kids
rock-hunting.
We drove further north to Malaekahana Beach, where we had heard that it was possible to swim, float, or wade out to Goat Island, an off-shore bird sanctuary, at low tide. The beach was narrow, with lots of driftwood and a border of trees, but not only was it high tide, there was also a very rough cross-current (below). Neither of us wanted to swim in that, so although we could see people over on Goat Island, we just took a nice walk along the beach and then headed on to the north shore instead.
Driving along, we passed on the makai (ocean) side the offshore volcanic cone known as Chinaman’s hat (below left) as well as, on the mauka (mountain) side, the mountains and valley were Jurassic Park was filmed (below right).
We
were in prime shrimp-truck country, so we stopped at the classic Giovanni’s
Shrimp Truck for really good roasted garlic shrimp. Robert also ordered the
best hot dog I’ve ever had—split and cooked in the shrimp-garlic
sauce—and a coconut-pineapple smoothie.
Our final beach stop of the day was at Waimea Beach Park, near Sunset Beach and Banzai, the famous surfing beaches. Robert kept longing for waves, he said, yet even here there wasn’t really any surf—the surfers just lounged about in the water with their boards, and the waves were almost non-existent. At dusk, we drove inland slightly to Pu’u O Mahuka Heiau, the ruins of an ancient stone temple and possibly sacrifice site on a hill above Waimea Bay.
Back in Honolulu at night, I practically had to twist Robert’s arm to get him to take me to Bubbie’s, a local ice cream chain with a very atmospheric branch near the university. Bubbie’s specializes in tropical homemade ice creams wrapped in fresh homemade mochi: we immediately ordered four (raspberry/vanilla dipped in chocolate, lilikoi, chocolate/espresso, and litchi). Now keen on Bubbie’s, Robert decided we should take advantage of the situation and order a few more. So, since I’d seen a tempting webpage about Bubbie’s that put the idea of an ice cream mochi sundae into my head, we chatted with the friendly ice cream boy and created one. The guy swore up and down that such a thing didn’t exist, but he was intrigued by our creation: four mochi in a bowl (chocolate/peanut butter, lilikoi, strawberry, and green tea), with hot fudge and whipped cream on top. Excellent flavor and texture, though somewhat difficult to eat. A spork actually would have made things easier, or maybe (I might try this at home) cutting the ice cream mochi into quarters before putting them in the sundae. Either way, the ice cream mochi were fresher and tastier than we’d ever had them.
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