Hawaii Adventure part 4

Day 4 Oahu Adventures

Day 4 was hectic. We woke up at around 6:30am to catch the sunrise from Devil's Head lookout since the trail to the summit wasn't open yet. We waited for about half an hour and just enjoyed the view. Then there it was. Clouds started to open up and slowly unveiled the sun hiding from behind. There's something magical about sunrise. We took a lot of pictures, used a tripod and tried different camera settings but the photos will never justify the beauty of the scene we saw that morning. 

sunrise in Oahu

We decided to have breakfast while waiting for the Devil's Head State Park to allow people to go up the summit. We were so psyched to hike the trail that morning. That was a bad move. We enjoyed breakfast too much  that we stayed in the restaurant longer than we planned. When we went back to Devil's Head, the parking lot was full already and there were too many people in the summit. So we have to wait for more than an hour just to park the car inside the state park. Nah! We didn't wait. We decided to drive around the coastline. 

Breathtaking view at Makapuu

We checked out the Makapu'u Lighthouse and the view was just astounding! Aahh.. We spent a lot of time taking pictures and just admiring the view. One trivia: I read somewhere that during the winter time, the Makapuu view point offers a great vantage point for humpback whale watching. 

Lanikai beach

The pristine beach from Makapuu viewpoint was so inviting that we decided to go to Lanikai Beach to swim and get a tan. Warm turquoise water, fine sand, gentle winds every now and then, aahhh.. I love it. The best thing about Lanikai beach is that it is quiet and secluded unlike Waikiki beach. Don't get me wrong, Waikiki Beach is as stunning as Lanikai. But if you want to get away from tourist crowds, this is the perfect place for you. 

All the above activities made us hungry. And even though North Shore is an hour drive from Lanikai,  we all agreed to go for it. We aimed to hunt down the legendary Giovanni's Shrimp Truck. We didn't have a hard time finding it along Kamehameha Highway in Kahuku. The truck was parked next to a covered seating area. The place was packed with tourist and locals alike. 

 There were only three items in the menu. Shrimp scampi, lemon butter shrimp and hot and spicy. I tried the shrimp scampi. And boy that was good! It came with two scoops of rice topped with toasted garlic! aahh! Scrumptiously good!  There was also a smoothies truck and malasadas stand in the area but I didn't get to try those because I was so full already. 

Waimea Falls

We proceeded to Waimea Valley and Falls. It is open to the public 7 days a week from 9am-5pm. They also offer 6 guided hikes on a daily basis.

It was past 4pm when we got there and since we were short with time, we weren't able to do the guided hike. We rented a shuttle to take us to the waterfalls. The waterfalls was beautiful although you can't really compare it to the gorgeous Pagsanjan Falls. I was just in the water for five minutes then I had get out. The water was freezing! We walked our way back to the to the car to check out the botanical collection of Waimea Valley. I need to be honest, aside from the falls, I found nothing spectacular about the botanical garden. 

It was a very productive day for us. We went back to the hotel to rest a little bit.

Peter and I planned to have a fancy dinner that evening. I made a reservation at Top of Waikiki. The facade of the Waikiki Business Plaza in which the Top of Waikiki is located was far from impressive. It was an old building with a funny looking penthouse. But wait till you enter the restaurant. It was amazing! 

The restaurant has a floor to ceiling glass wall and three concentric circle platforms at three different levels which gives everyone an unobstructed panoramic view of Diamond Head and Waikiki Beach. The restaurant makes a complete 360 degree rotation every hour. The original reservation we had was at 5:30pm just in time for sunset. But we had to push it back to 8pm because of some last minute detours we had to take. It's already dark when we got there but I would highly recommend everyone to go there during sunset. That would be really awesome! 

Top of Waikiki

Oh and before I forget, The food was amazing! I didn't get a chance to take pictures because I was so hungry i forgot. because I totally forgot I had my camera with me. *wink* The steaks are cooked to perfection and the mango creme brulee was the bomb! A little pricey,  but worth every penny.