I will so miss this beautiful randomness.

           

Having our last meal before leaving Oahu overlooking a hammerhead shark pool.

           

The sunset right now in Oahu

Maunawili Falls

                                         

After the aborted Kayak trip, we did a little research and headed out to find Maunawili Falls. The falls lie in the middle of a 10 mile hiking trail, but you can park on a residential street, take a little shortcut and get there in 2. After parking the car, gazing at the beautiful green mountains behind the houses, we uttered what would eventually be the most-repeated phrase of the trip: "Wow, now that is some LOST shit right there..."

 The hike took us about an hour each way, coursing through dirt paths with tree roots breaking through the ground, over little streams, and through dense, overgrown tree canopies. If you take the trail, you'll come to a point where the path seems to lead to the right, as the stream on the left heads into the distance. Don't take the path, the way is over the boulders in the stream, which leads to the waterfall.

The falls drop about 25 feet into a swimming hole, and as we got there, a bunch of people were swimming, exploring, and leaping from the small jump near the falls. On the left side, there is another pathway that leads much farther up for a full-on cliff dive. How high was it? Let's just say really frigging high. 

After checking out the scene for a while, I decided to go for the cliff dive. It was a muddy trek up to the jumping point, which is obscured by trees and greenery. At the very top, there's a rope tied to two trees to lower yourself over the steep, muddy wall to a small foot stand. Through the leaves, far below I could see the swimming hole. Before I climbed up, a native Hawaiian kid said to me, somewhat ominously, "aim for the middle"...

I jumped and splashed in. Next time I gotta remember not to have my arms flailing around. Ouch.

With my mission accomplished, we got our stuff together and took the hike back to the car. I think we had about 5 more "Wow, that is some LOST shit right there"'s - on the way back.

Here's the Google Street View of the trail entrance:

View Larger Map

Here's a video that gives a pretty good taste of the Maunawili Falls experience. The guys in the video had to do a whole rock wall climb that I didn't have to, and are way thinner and buff than I am. Beside that, this captures the experience pretty well.

Kayaking? Maybe Not.

                       

First, we noshed an amazing breakfast at a homey diner-type spot called Cinnamon's. Holy crap. Deeelicious. We had a Kalua pig omelet, scrumptious Portuguese sausage stew, and... Red velvet pancakes with frosting topping - CINNAMONS WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TRYING TO DO TO ME??. Oh man, I wish I was there right now. My kinda place. The food was so tasty I wish I had five mouths.

http://www.cinnamonsrestaurant.com/

The idea was to take a kayak out, pull into a teeny island called Moku Nui, explore it, jump off a cliff into a pool the back side of the island. Not this time. The wind was too intense for kayaking, so we cashed in our chips, hopefully to pull it off another day. 

We stopped at a bar called Boardriders in Kailua and hatched a new plan to head to the nearby Maunawili Falls, which apparently took a bit of a hike to get to, but ended up in some kind of waterfall-fed pool with a cliff to dive off of (otherwise known as Shit Steve is Super Into™).

Click here to check out the Maunawili Falls post

Poke, Waikiki, Malesadas, Aloha Shirts and Sunsets

                                       

On our first day of actual Oahu adventuring, Meli first found us a cool local spot to try the Hawaiian staple of Poke, raw cubed and seasoned fish, it came highly recommended in Meli's Lonly Planet guide (later to be known as Meli's bible). Our plans were to hit Waikiki beach, and Poke Stop was on the way, and it ended up being out-of-control-awesome tasty. The place is a no-frills random slot in a strip mall, but the fish is crazy fresh, and made Poke lovers out of both of us instantly.

http://www.poke-stop.com/

Next, we hit Waikiki beach. What a beautiful day. Clear, bright skies, teal surf, and tons of tourists, including us. We laid down for a while, and as is my tradition when vacationing, I burnt the shit out of my skin in like, 30 minutes. It was worth it though; the sea was perfect, and I can soothe my lobster skin with boatloads of aloe.

Melissa has a master list of sights to see compiled from the Lonely Planet guide, and from the exploits of Anthony Bourdain, so we have no shortage of cool little spots to check out as we hit the bigger hits of Oahu. Next on the list was the Mecca of Aloha shirts, Bailey's Shirts and Antiques. This place had hundreds of shirts organized by decade, designer, and type, that ranged from the beautiful, to the kitschy, to the bordering on making your eyes bleed - in a good way. There were a bunch I dug, but they were pricey as hell, so I settled on a sweet black one with a bird of paradise motif that fit the budget.

http://alohashirts.com/

Up the street from Bailey's is a Portuguese bakery named Leonard's famed for its "Malasadas" - little sugared dough pockets filled with, apparently, Magical Golden Children's Dreams. These little fuckers are so tasty, I almost wanted to cremate them and shoot them into my brain. We got ones filled with haupia (coconut), custard, and guava custard all sprinkled with cinnamon. Sugargasm.

http://www.leonardshawaii.com/

Our Honolulu tour continued with a stop at famed tiki bar the La Mariana Sailing Club, another of Tony Bourdian's tips from No Reservations. The La Mariana is a lovely little shrine to the great tiki bar aesthetic that is so hard to find these days. I loves me a good tiki bar. Wish we could have seen it at night.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/la-mariana-sailing-club-honolulu

Damn, that was a full-ass day. We closed it out by watching the unreal sunset in Ko Olina's, on the Leeward (West) side of the island. We crashed out around 9:30pm, after watching a Kathy Griffin stand up special on Bravo. Crashing out at 9:30pm is maybe a first for both of us, barring sedation.

Mister Brainwash in Meatpacking

     

Shepard Fairey opening craziness

                       

Holy crap, Shepard Fairey is making a mural on Houston RIGHT NOW

     

Na'vi seen on 14th St.