The North Shore (of Oahu)

I've been wanting to blog about our amazing trip all week, but have been waiting to send myself a couple photos first. My evenings have just been too busy. So instead of waiting till the weekend, I'll start a trip review now and post pics over the weekend.

Turtle Bay beach cottages are the most amazing places to stay. They are luxurious in every way possible and well worth the money. It's no wonder why they shoot movies here and why so many celebrities vacation at Turtle Bay. The cottage is only 15 ft away from the giant north shore waves. You leave the door open and hear the crashing waves day and night. We had room service one morning on our patio watching the surf and surfers...amazing. When they turn down the room in the evening they put on lovely hawaiian music and leave a coconut macaroon wrapped in a leaf on your bed. I wanted to start a new rule that I only eat things wrapped in leaves, but that quickly lead to problems and I re-considered. We will stay at Turtle Bay again and I hope everyone else can at one point...it's not to be missed in life.

We went to a lot of beaches along the north shore and to the Bonzi Pipeline. The surf is so strong they have red flag strong current warnings up every day. It's not really a place to swim (although there are smaller bays along the coast that were tame). It was so much fun to sit on these beautiful beaches and watch the surfers. I wouldn't want to do it myself, but it really is an amazing sport to watch. The girl who had her arm bitten off by a shark in Kauai was surfing at Turtle Bay one afternoon - ESPN was shooting her for a special to air in March.

The nearest town of Haleiwa was so cute. We frequented a great coffee place called The Coffee Gallery. We bought a couple bags of coffee to bring home. There were some amazing restaurants too. We ate so much excellent seafood. It was all so fresh and delicious. I loved the Hawaiian Sweet Potatoes! Matsumoto's was a must see - the best shaved ice. It was so fun!

More to report later...