With the exception of an unfortunate bike crash, this weekend was excellent. On Friday night, we did something we have done before – the infamous booze cruise, but with three twists…
first: it was my first legal booze cruise
second: Luke’s parents came along for the ride
third: it was the sunset cruise
The first twist really did not make much of a difference. Being legal on the booze cruise really means nothing. Awhile ago we made friends with “Bear” at our local bar (On Stage). Bear happens to work on the booze cruise and he is the one who checks ID’s before boarding the boat. So prior to Oct. 12, I have been handing Bear my library card, just so his boss sees him checking something resembling a driver’s license. So not much thrill in being 21 on the booze cruise.
The second twist is kinda a big deal. Luke’s parents are our very first parents to come out and visit. We have had cousins, friends, aunts and uncles, but not yet parents. Let me just tell you they set the bar high. They started their vacation out on Wednesday night with our mandatory happy hour at On Stage, from there the fun never stopped. When Friday rolled around Luke knew he had to take them on the booze cruise.
And finally the third twist…the sunset!! The last booze cruise sets sail at 5:30pm. allowing all passengers to be sailing the Pacific during the beautiful Hawaiian sunset. And for some reason the all you can drink drinks were a little easier to swallow on the 5:30 cruise as opposed to our previous 11:30am sail last month J
After the sunset cruise we headed to Duke’s for some food, only to find out there was a 1+ wait for our group of 10 people. Instead, we headed to the bar/restaurant above Duke’s – Hula’s. Hula’s was great, just a little pricier than Duke’s, but the atmosphere was great with live Hawaiian music and dancers and good (though expensive) food. After dinner and a few more drinks in us, we were all ready to head home and rest up for Saturday.
Saturday morning did not start off so well…as I mentioned before there was a little accident. Allow me to set the scene for you: As many know Oahu is covered in mountains, every where you go there is hill after hill. This causes for a very beautiful rolling landscape and a very difficult bike ride. Each day many of the Dayton students head to campus on their trusty Wal-Mart bicycle. My first mistake was inaccurately describing our bikes as “trusty”; these sub-$100 pieces of metal have been nothing but trouble for most of us…sure they get us from place to place a lot quicker than public transit, but they have also caused many headaches (and other aches and pains). I had already had to bring my bike back to Mr. Walton 3 times previous for various reasons and it still was not safe to ride I guess.
On Saturday morning the student exchange club was meeting on campus to head out for the North Shore. On my ride up a very steep hill my gears decided they wanted to switch on me, even though I did not switch them manually. The problem with gears unexpectedly switching while you are standing peddling hard up a hill is that your body is then thrusted forward while your bike hangs back –causing your body to go over the handlebars, and in my case over the handlebars into a metal fence. Not really the most comfortable position to be in…in between a metal fence and a bike that is. I would not recommend it to anyone. To make matters ever worse after I detangled myself from my bike and the fence and realized what had just occurred, I heard “ppssssssssssshssssssss”. Yep, that was air coming out of my bike tire. Some how I managed to pop a tire in my crash as well. So not only was I in pain, but I no longer had a bike to ride to my destination. Thankfully, my new Hawaii mentality of “no worries” allowed me to brush it off, walk my totaled bike to campus, and forget about it! After all, I was going to the North Shore! I had much to look forward to!
The North Shore is on the other side of the island from where we live. It is home to beautiful white sand beaches, great surf, and cute little surf towns. We don’t get out there much because it is about a 45 minute drive on H1 (one of Oahu’s 3 highways – H1, H2, & H3).
The first stop we made was at Waimea Bay. Waimea means “Red Water” in Hawaiian, the water is said to have a reddish tint in the winter months. Also in the winter, Waimea and other North Shore locations such as Pipeline and Sunset Beach host a number of surfing contests because of the large waves found here. These waves are created by winter storms in the North Pacific. Also located in the bay is a 50ft. rock, which we took advantage of (see Oct. 18 pictures). All I will say is hitting the water after free falling 50ft. felt even worse than my bike crash!!
After Waimea Bay everyone was pretty hungry so we made our way to the town of Hale’iwa. Hale’iwa is a tiny little surf town filled with board shops, restaurants, tourist shops, and shaved ice! Victor and I shared a shaved ice from one of the best places on the whole island – Matsumoto. It was amazing!! 
Our final stop of the day was Sunset beach. Recall that the waves and rip tide are much greater on the North Shore than at Waikiki? Well we quickly learned the hard, yet fun, way! With 6-10 ft. waves and sporadic rainfall it quickly turned into Pacific Ocean frenzy. It was so cool jumping into these huge crashing waves then getting sucked back out to sea…but we all felt it the next morning.
Again, another unforgettable to weekend in Hawaii! Can’t wait to see what next weekend has in store!!!!!!!!
Did I mention we swam with sea turtles?? Cause we did. Victor saw it catch a fish then rip the fish’s head off! Look closely at the pictures of the turtle, you can see it holding the fish…
