OK, so the next part of the day was probably the one thing I was most looking forward to about our entire trip: a leisurely driving tour around the island with the Roots! I love exploring new places with no timetable, and having my trusty
Oahu Revealed guide in my lap meant we could just look up the sights as we came across them or a little in advance to decide where we wanted to stop. Im sure this day didnt look at all relaxing to the Roots when they saw my plans in Tripit, since I had pasted in about 15 different places we could eat along the way, just in case. Good food is the one thing I wont leave to chance!
As we pulled away from Kualoa Ranch and headed north, the highway drew right up to the edge of the Pacific Ocean. I could hear Patrick whimpering from the drivers seat, and I think he may even have pressed his nose up against the glass a couple times as we whizzed by pristine beach after pristine beach. Finally I gave a combination eye-roll-loud-sigh and acquiesced. FINE! Even though we have an immaculate white sand beach of our very own that we PAID FOR back at Aulani, I GUESS we can put our feet in the water by the side of the road like common criminals...!
Common Criminal Beach
Patrick and Nate tumbled out of the car and bounded straight for the water, shoes and socks flying in all directions as Jensey and I straggled behind, picking up them all up.
Flying, I tells yaabsolutely FLYING!
My happy little clam
With an impish grin, Patrick began miming like he was gonna take a dive right into the drink...
Two happy little clams!
Back at the car, Jensey and I waited patiently as our fellas wrung seawater outta their pants and unwrapped the odd starfish from around their ankles. Then we were back on the road north, this time in search of some food.
Everything Id read told me we needed to stop at
Giovannis Shrimp Truck. I think if I
hadnt read about it, we would have slowed down, surveyed the abandoned-looking, graffiti-covered short bus, and then stomped on the gas. In LA, we like our food trucks polished, snappily painted, and preferably in the form of a gleaming vintage Airstream trailer or a twee little cart hitched to a turquoise Vespa. In Hawaii, they apparently like their food trucks to look like post-apocalyptic dwellings for tattooed street urchins.
There are only four choices on the menu, and thank goodness one of them was a hot dog, cuz Jensey doesnt eat seafood! I couldnt figure out the difference between the Shrimp Scampi (marinated in olive oil, fresh garlic and lemon butter) and the Lemon Butter Shrimp (sauteed in butter, lemon sauce), so Patrick and I split one of each. The Roots split a Jumbo Garlic Hot Dog slathered in the garlic scampi sauce and then dashed back to get another while their plate was still spinning. At $13 a plate, the shrimp is not cheap, but the $3.50 hot dog and $1.50 drinks are!
I sure hope the Roots took more pictures than we did, cuz those are all we got! The setup is actually really well thought-out and one I wish we had in LA: Giovannis and a few other trucks ring a covered patio with picnic tables. Out back, there is a sink with soap and paper towels for you to clean off the inevitable mess that results from eating at Giovannis. Because these are real, tail-on AND legs-on shrimp that have to be ripped outta their oil-slicked shells. Im the kind of person who would eat EVERYTHING with a fork if she could (French fries, cupcakes, sandwiches...), so I was not super-crazy about having to reach into a greasy pile and pluck the legs off my food before eating it. That said, I *devoured* our meal in record time, sopping up the extra sauce with the two giant scoops of rice.
Lemon Butter Shrimp & Shrimp Scampi (Photo courtesy of www.tokyotikiroom.blogspot.com)
Both kinds of shrimp were garlicky, and although they tasted slightly different, overall the main flavor of each was SALT, and plenty of it! They were good in a comfort-food kind of way but not the life-altering experience that theyve been hyped up to be. If I lived there, Id probably eat at Giovannis once or twice a year. But maybe Id feel differently if Id had the hot dog, which the Roots adored.
After wed all hit each other with the hose, the four of us hoisted ourselves back into the car and continued around the North Shore. Patrick drove; I rode shotgun, reading aloud descriptions of landmarks and potentials stops from my Hawaii bible; and the Roots played with their smartphones in the backseatit was the quintessential family car trip (except that I never had to fling The Arm back there to break up any fights)!
And then we came across something that wasnt in any guidebook....
It was some kind of burned-out, abandoned old... hotel? Retirement home? Creepy hospital? Haunted insane asylum? At any rate, I cant tell you what a stroke of luck it was to find this, considering the countless times on our adventures that Patrick and I stumble on some cool abandoned place and say to each other, I wish the Roots were here to shoot this!
In unison, Nate and Patrick leapt out of the car, cameras cocked and ready.
Fire!
Fire!
Fire!
While Patrick trotted behind Nate as he disappeared around a corner, Jensey and I sat in the car and got to have our one traditional girl talk of the trip. Were both so fond of spending time with our husbands that we usually only get about one chance on any trip to just chat like chicks do. Picture us sealed in the car, blithely gabbing about whatever it is women are supposed to talk about (Cupcakes? Yoga? Skinnygirl-tinis?) while Nate and Patrick parkour through the ruins, dodging a pack of zombie hospital orderlies.
(Zombie hospital orderlies not pictured)
We got there almost that early but they made us stand there and wait for someone to show up and take our money and start the film about not touching the coral you can't help but bump into. Hey, at least you got some snorkel pics - I totally forgot to get the underwater disposable camera! 
Not much to do in the booneystickers of Oregon, you know. The scenery across H-3 is A-mazing! So what did Nathensy (I'll Play) 
think of the tour? I'm sure Nate got alot of great shots, anyway. 
I think they filmed an episode of the Brady Bunch in there and never touched it again! 
But at least you'll have all my best tips for off-site activities before then (except for the Polynesian Cultural Center and Dole Plantation, which we did on our last day... dang!).
Hey, thanks!
)
). And of course Sony doesn't make that model any more either 
Or as in Hana mau, ma'amau kanaka hana kalaima kahakai. At least that's what the Hawaiian Dictionary website spits out the translation so don't know how accurate that is. God bless the internet!
