Oahu - Monday - Jan 27

Monday January 27 -

We woke up this morning to drizzly rain which continued on and off all day.  The skies are gray yet still T-shirt weather and we could see some (crazy) people in the ocean outside our lanai.  The mist over the mountains are really pretty.

We headed up toward the north again and stopped at a roadside attraction called The Kahuku Sugar Mill.  It closed down in 1971 and now is basically a tourist trap with a couple of shops, a coconut shimp restaurant and a gas station.  We took a few photos of the old machinery on display but didn't stay long.

Along the way, we stopped to watch the surfers at Sunset Beach along with hundreds more with cameras.  The Banzai Pipeline contest started yesterday and goes through Feb 7.  Norm bought a T-shirt that commemorates the event. We should be able to see quit a bit of the surfing while we're here.  Unfortunately, the surfers looked like little ants in the water because of our camera limitations.

We then headed further down the hiway and stopped at the next beach where they offer surfing, kayaking and Standup Paddling. I saw a few people out on the water but it was too rough for me as a beginner.

Next we stopped at a roadside stand selling all kinds of shells.  We bought this mobile for the backyard.

When we reached Waialua Sugar Mill, we stopped for photo ops and to check out the gift shop.  The Sugar Mill operated for almost 100 years closing down in 1996.  Today its the home of Dole Food's Waialua Estate Coffee and Chocolate Mill.  They had some nice Hawaiian CDs playing and the manager changed them out for us to hear different ones.  We ended up buying one called Island Style Ukulele with 14 different songs from different musicians.  Our rental car has a CD player but no jack for a memory stick which is what we usually use at home with all of our songs loaded on it.  We don't often get a good signal for the radio so we thought we'd buy a CD or two during the trip. 

We saw a hula girl with a uke and called out to us for a photo op:

This is the CD that we bought in the Sugar Mill store:

We're always on the lookout for a uke store or bead shop.  Today we found a uke shop in Haleiwa:

This is why we like CC&Rs...........and they actually had a sign stating "No Photos"...

On the way back, we entered Starbucks ito the GPS.  When we arrived, we were told that the oowners dropped the name and switched to The Coffee Bead and Tea Leaf.  It was a bit disappointing but I still ordered a hot chocolate - it tasted warm and good on such a cool damp day - not cold but not warm either.  When Norm got back to the apartment, he sent an email notice to Garmin to alert them of the change in ownership.

 I like this sign on their counter:

On the way home we passed about 5-6 windmlls.  I saw one of them moving mid-day but on the way back, none of them were working yet it was quite breezy ???

Back to home sweet apartment....thankfully we have a good connection to the internet - I watched 3 episodes of Downton Abbey on the IPAD (I've not watched any of this season so it was good to get caught up) and Norm watched sci fi movies on his Nook.  That, and a couple of margaritas (thanks to Costco) and the rest of our Subway sandwiches that we bought yesterday....we were good to go!