Plan your own tripTravel Log
by Vandra QuestSix hours over open water and then the doors opened and the air was warm and wet and smelled like plumeria. Dropped the bags at the Royal Hawaiian, walked straight down to the water in the clothes I'd flown in. The pink hotel against that blue is not subtle and I did not care.
Swallowed most of the Pacific on the first two. The instructor said stop looking at your feet, look where you're going — and that was the whole thing, apparently. Rode one all the way in and immediately understood why people move here and never leave.
Worth the early reservation slot. The bay is a drowned crater and the reef starts about ten feet from shore. Floated over a honu for a full minute before it decided I was boring and went back to eating.
Summer swell so the bay was flat and glassy, nothing like the winter footage. Sat on the sand until the light went orange and then pink and then gone. Nobody said much.
Drove the whole north shore loop with the windows down and stopped at Kahuku because everyone says to. Paper plate, twelve shrimp, two scoops of rice, enough garlic to keep the week honest. Ate it at a picnic table in the sun.