Oahu Wonders & Wanders
- erin7152
- Feb 26, 2020
- 4 min read
When I was growing up, my parents took us to Death Valley for “vacations”. What that meant was sharing the back seat of the car with a stinky, messy, dirty little brother and fighting with each other for hours on one of my dad’s “adventures” (aka, long drives to nowhere) in the car, listening to Debbie Gibson singing “only in my dreams”, and fighting over who got to wash the windshield at every gas station stop (my parents had it made in that department).
Then we’d get to the desert and we’d just drive around there for hours as well. I never understand what we were supposed to being doing out there but now as a parent I really can’t – what were my parents thinking?! I guess the sandy hills were supposed to appease us instead we just counted down to the swimming pool – and I still always do to this day. While I love the desert now (and maybe that’s why I even moved to one for a short period in my life) I can’t imagine taking young kids to a rural desert for “fun” because this was back in the 80’s when there were no cool hipster Ojai or Joshua Tree kind of hangouts going on…it was sand and heat. Anyhow, now that I have my own child I have gotten subpar at vacationing with kids (still a work in progress and never easy) but we always find a beach location is best – that water just tires them out. So off we went back over to the Hawaiian islands for our winter break and favorite spots on Maui.
This trip was divided between two islands. We started in Oahu, on the north shore near Pipeline, at the coveted Turtle Bay Resort. The idea of this was to go swimming in shark cages (one of the only places to do this is Oahu) and then head over to Maui (our favorite universal island) for the bulk of our vacation. It turns out going to Hawaii in February wasn’t at all what we expected – it was windy and almost borderline cold so being on the rough north shores, we were pretty shocked by how cold it was.
Hashtag #OurRoomViewDidNotSuck … this was truly beyond our expectations
Our biggest expedition was out to the shark tank on the choppy waters of Oahu. We got all the way out there deep in the ocean, with the boat nearly rolling over on its side, when the crew said it was too dangerous to get into the water. I was secretly relieved as once I got out there and saw the cage, and he said the sharks are “curious” and “bite at your hands through the slots if you let them” I was OUT. This was officially scary!
Don’t lie…you want an Aloha hat too
Ready to get in? Yeah, No
Smiling but terrified while on The Oahu Perfect Storm
We ended up having to make our own new fun which is not a terrible thing in Hawaii. The north shore is considered more of the “country” part of Oahu and so we got a different experience than we’ve had before with horses, farms, and roadside stands. We loved feeding the horses which has quite a crowd participating and was right against the coastline of Hawaii – what a place to be a horse!
The other highlight in Oahu are the food trucks – there aren’t many restaurants to say the least (none really except at the resort) but a HUGE food truck scene there with garlic shrimp plates that are their star! There are food trucks everywhere and even little food truck “cities” camped out along the way. Seven Brothers was a favorite and we also loved the Ted’s Bakery.
Cocktails…..
The Famous Garlic Shrimp
Sometimes You Just Need A Nap
I loved everything about the Seven Brothers environment
I’m moving in
You pull over at random spots and find a foodie community bursting
For sure the resort itself didn’t disappoint either – we spent a lot of time in the pools and at the beach cove nearby. Unfortunately, no turtle sightings at the resort itself but we made up for that in Maui (next post). There wasn’t one bad view on this entire trip.
I just want to know if there is any bad view in Hawaii aside from maybe near the airports? There is so much color and biological inspiration on these islands that it’s hard to stop clicking away. This round of Aloha adventure included more of the scenery and the boys than myself. Running your own design firm means you wear a multitude of hats, and that means you don’t have time to even sleep, so I didn’t have 3 minutes to even think about a wardrobe and let alone pack. I just slummed it on this trip, hair included, so I don’t have a great tropical inspired selfie pics to show you here – but, hey, I’m keeping it real. Meanwhile, my kid upstaged us all in his wardrobe choices…
I wouldn’t be a creative or a Designer if I didn’t note and take pictures of the hotel rooms themselves, and then really highlight key elements that I think are worth noting, and this pendant lamp is one of them. I actually think the drum shade itself works with the island decorum but the rope swing string thing threw me all off. I stared at that light for three nights in the room and changed it a thousand ways over and over. I’m not really sure what to say except that it was an idea that somehow didn’t quite translate right.
I’ve always loved hotel rooms – every single one is so different from each other. Always interesting color palettes and ideas for whatever region you are visiting. I haven’t seen turquoise wall color in a long time! The hotel grounds also did not disappoint…
Overall, I’d recommend the North Shore in Oahu as a drive through for a day or a one night stay at Turtle Bay – it’s gorgeous, serene, and full of outdoor beauty. Now, let’s hop over to Maui!
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