Hawaii, Day 2

On my first night in Hawaii, I could only sleep until 3 a.m. Two hours later, S. and I departed in the dark to the gym for her 6 a.m. spinning class. She helped me set up my bike and made sure I was good to go. Her group of regulars was there. It was awesome to see her in action. I've known her for 25 years now, but I've never seen her in teacher mode, and she was a natural! So proud of her. What I was not so proud of were my knees, which screamed even as I pedaled with zero resistance at 0.00000001 mph. Whatever muscles knees need to ride a bike? Mine apparently don't have. Not to mention that my entire nether regions felt like they were in a state of severe pain and torture. So I meekly climbed off five minutes into class and headed to the treadmill in the next room. Never did I think it would feel so good to run two miles. Anything was paradise next to that bike. I am a little sad that I am not equipped for my friend's expertise, but what can you do? After her class, I headed back over, where I was informed by one of her regulars, who was gifting her with two homegrown avocados, how wonderful she is and how much they all love her. Heart=warmed. So nice!

After the gym, we headed to a fancy mall for iced hazelnut soy lattes ... yum. This mall is akin to Rodeo Drive ... Tiffany, Harry Winston, Prada, Gucci, Jimmy Choo, Louis Vuitton, and so forth. Fancy. Apparently lots of rich people either live in or travel to Honolulu to do their shopping. Then we returned to the house (in a town nearby), drove past the very lovely park where they got married, and prepared for our hike!

This is a favorite hike of hers on the North Shore, the Kaunala Trail.

She told me it would be "easy" but perhaps her fitness ease is different from mine considering she is a fitness instructor. At one point along the trail, we began to encounter many fallen trees blocking the path.

We would climb over them and under them and around them and it was sort of like maneuvering around town post-Gustav. This was very flummoxing and she kept saying, "I've never seen the trail look like this!" Finally she realized that was the case because we weren't actually on the trail. We found the trail and from then on it was mostly smooth sailing. Despite some hard inclines, it was definitely beautiful.

It took about 2.5 hours to get to the destination, a lookout where you can see the ocean down below and the mountains in the horizon.

It was very beautiful indeed, and we plopped down happily to have a snack, but it started raining shortly thereafter. Alas. The hike down was very muddy as the path has been overrun by tractors lately putting in some communications lines. But we still had plenty of fun.

Afterwards, we headed to lunch in a cute town called Haleiwa and ate BBQ chicken pizza and salads at Pizza Bob's. And then we went to the beach! A beach called Chun's. The North Shore is apparently famous for its beaches/surfing. I went into the water in my shorts & sports bra because I was a little bashful about changing in the car. The water was cold but clear and AWESOME. Word to the wise ... the currents here don't exactly feel like those in the Gulf of Mexico (duh). You don't have to go out very far to quickly be too deep to stand, and the currents really knock you around. I floated around for a while blissfully until I got pruney, but then I came in because I got a little nervous about the currents ... there are huge rocks and it wouldn't take much to smash into one! Anyway, it was so fun and relaxing to swim and the surfers were very cool and it was all stunningly beautiful to behold.

Then we came back here and S. cooked us a delicious dinner of fish, corn on the cob, and broccoli. I managed to stay awake until 8 pm at which point I collapsed. It was a great day.