Hawaii Day 3

It’s funny how each day does end up having a theme or at least a big outing. As is our usual routine for the day, we did some big touristy thing in the morning and decided to spend the afternoon lazing around the condo and the beach. We wanted to take J to the view of Hanauma Bay but the Bay is closed on Tuesdays. Luckily we got to drive on the rocky and desolate windward side of Oahu. The ocean and beaches are spectacularly beautiful here. See?



This day was our rainforest day where we went on a hike to Manoa falls. I am kind of amazed that Manoa falls trail isn’t necessarily surrounded by a national park with a big visitor’s center. The infrastructure is some guy with a folding table and a parking lot. One major plus about the guy with the folding table was the free use of bug spray which made our hike infinitely more enjoyable. The hike itself was spectacular - exactly what you want your rainforest hike to be. It started off being cool and relatively dry and the closer you got to the falls, the warmer and more humid it got. One word of caution, our guidebook called this trail a moderate to easy hike. If that’s moderate to easy, I hate to see what difficult-expert looks like. There was a progressively steeper incline and the trail got increasingly muddy. Being a “moderate to easy” trail, it was full of hikers and tour groups. But the payoff was incredible. The falls were beautiful and the trail itself was lush and verdilicious.



After the trail we all needed to have some food so we hit a MacDonald’s whose drive thru was another little kiosk connected to the main restaurant via a conveyor belt. We watched with rapt fascination the bags of food sliding down the conveyor belt. After a stop at the condo to clean up. We went to the much anticipated Boots and Kimo’s pancake restaurant. Boots and Kimo is an unpretentious, football themed restaurant with a particular focus on the Denver Broncos (go figure). Whatever you do GET THE PANCAKES WITH MACADAMIA NUT SAUCE. This rises to the level of plate-licking good. J and I split a stack of pancakes and an order of short ribs. J didn’t like the short ribs as much as I did. They were simply grilled with a generous coating of salt and pepper. They were a little chewy for J but the flavor of the meat was really savory and yummy. But really, the star of that show is the macadamia nut sauce.

After lunch we settled into the afternoon routine of napping/reading/swimming at the beach. This does not ever get old.



For dinner we went to Buzz’s Steakhouse which was conveniently right next door to the condo. Actually it was at the end of the driveway of our condo. With a décor that was wasting away in margaritaville, Buzz’s was that Hawaiian fish experience we were dreaming of. They serve other stuff but the star here was the many many kinds of fish served in several different preparations. J and I had been eyeing Buzz’s the whole trip and had actually went there the night before but this night we had to take MIL as well. FIL was feeling tired and we promised to take him some carry out. So MIL and I had the Ono (one the continent it’s known as wahoo), a mild moist fish while J had the Opah (moonfish) which was also a mild white fish with a bit more texture. J and I had our fish with the Asian preparation, steamed with ginger, garlic and scallions and then seared on a hot pan. MIL had hers grilled with lemon. While the salad bar has had complaints for some reviewers, that night, the ingredients, while not extensive were really high quality. I loved their pickled maui onions. We took home for FIL a rich and tender steak with béarnaise sauce. FIL was happy.

J and his mother kicked our asses in canasta for the second night running.