Hawaii Day 4 - Lanikai Pillbox Hike, Manoa Chocolate, North Shore/Shark's Cove

I got to see the windward side of Oahu today. The drive out to Lanikai was my first "whoa" moment since arriving to Hawaii. I was honestly a little taken aback on my first day on Oahu because it didn't feel or look like the Hawaii that I expected--Honolulu is very crowded and industrial and it looks like just about every other major city in the US. The drive to Kailua gave me the views and terrains that I hoped to see, which I would describe as "Jurassic Park-y." In fact, the family indulged my request to listen to the JP soundtrack on the drive.

Cliff and I left Jill with the minions and we hiked the Lanikai Pillbox Hike. It's a good moderate hike that gives hikers great views of the Mokulua Islands, Kailua and Lanikai beaches, and some expensive-ass houses. Most hikers stop after the first or second pillboxes, but the trail actually extends another few miles to along the Kaiwa Ridge. We didn't want to maroon Jill with three small humans for too long, so we just hiked to the pillboxes and turned around.

Since today is MLK Day, I wanted to do some sort of service while we were out--I threw a few extra garbage bags in my day pack and spent the return hike cleaning up trash with Cliff. I will say that for the most part, the trails and beaches that we've visited in Hawaii have been very clean and the Lanikai Pillbox trail was no exception. However, if you are really committed to picking up trash, you can find trash. Most of what we collected was micro trash, toilet paper...and poop. Dog poop. Human poop. All of the poop.

We met up with Jill and the kids and spent another half hour on the beach before driving to Cinnamon's, a cute little breakfast nook in Kailua known for its guava chiffon and red velvet pancakes. The place was packed and had about a 40-minute wait, so Saint Cliff watched the kids while Jill took me upstairs to Manoa Chocolate, a local bean-to-bar chocolatier. This experience will definitely go down as one of my most favorite impromptu moments in Hawaii. We did a full chocolate tasting with Tammy Butterbaugh, one of the owners (her husband, Dylan, is the founder and primary roaster). Check out their story here. She brought out single-origin chocolates from Hawaii, Vietnam, and Ecuador and also provided us with samples of some of their bars with inclusions (honey, sea salt, cocoa nibs, etc.). And tea. I'm really getting into this afternoon tea thing. After the chocolate tasting, Jill and I split a delicious kalua pig eggs benedict and caught the scraps of the kids' leftover pancakes.

After a short intermission at home, Saint Cliff once again volunteered to watch the minions so that Jill and I could drive out to the North Shore. If you're not particularly familiar with Hawaiian cultural geography, the North Shore is where surfers from all over the world come to visit/live. It's definitely got a different vibe than the rest of Oahu--a little more laid back, a few more "sweet, bruh!" types milling around. We drove to Shark's Cove--a location near the Bonsai Pipeline known for prime snorkeling. The water was a little too cold to interest Jill and me in snorkeling, but we waded into one of the tidal pools and watched the waves break. On our return trip home, Jill and I stopped for Matsumoto's Shave Ice (note the absence of a "d"--in Hawaii, it's "shave ice"), a must-eat while on the North Shore.

We concluded the evening with a delicious mediterranean feast. Needless to say, I am eating really well here.