A trip to the North Shore

This is the first sunrise we've seen since we got here. And we saw it today because we had to get up early to take the bus out to the airport to rent a car to drive to the north shore. I never like to get locked into things, like car rentals, and this time it came back to bite me in the butt. When we finally decided to go to the north shore, there were no cars left in town. So we had to rent out at the airport. It was a good plan. There's good bus service to the airport, and we got out there in plenty of time. Except, I had forgotten what car company I rented from. I had surfed so many websites I couldn't remember where I finally rented the car. So we're walking around a more or less empty airport at 8:30 in the morning, picking up the telephones at every car rental counter and asking them if we'd rented a car there. And then after all that, I noticed that I had written the number of the car rental agency on the piece of paper with the confirmation number!!! DUH, DUH, and DOUBLE DUH.

Here are a few random pictures from the various beaches we visited on the North Shore today.

I think the reason they aren't very bright is because it was a little overcast -- or I've screwed up some adjustment on my camera.

We basically stopped at every beach we saw. The North Shore is so different from Waikiki, much more laid back, lots of people who seem to be living on the edge, or who only live to surf, or whatever.

There were some pretty fabulous surfers out there today. We are here during the best surf season of the year, but we are here in a trough between two sets of fabulous waves. Not to say these weren't pretty fabulous, probably about 10 feet. Even at the kiddie beach they had surf warning no swimming signs up.


These are two pictures at one of my favorite beaches. It's pretty nice, too rocky for swimming, I'd say, but less than a block to walk to get to good surfing/swimming. (but no today if you aren't a pro.)



Pineapple and Maui style chips. What more could you want for lunch? Yeah, I know. Chocolate. I forgot to take the m&ms.


Oh, you all knew President Obama was coming for Christmas. I saw him down shopping at Waikiki tonight.