37/50: Hawai’i
We arrived back in Michigan in mid-January and were welcomed by the coldest Winter of my life while our Airstream was stored in Florida and basking in the sun. [HAS HEART] was completely out of funding and we were also personally out of money. Thankfully we were able to move in with Kendra’s parents who were still currently in Arizona for another month or so.
Our plan was that we’d hunker down in Michigan for a couple of months, fundraise the amount needed to finish the 50 States project, and be back on the road by early Spring.
Easier said than done.
We were originally supposed to do our Hawai’i project (State #24) almost a year earlier while we were still on the West Coast. Days before, we were scheduled to leave from Seattle, an extremely rare hurricane was hitting the islands, so we had to postpone for another time on the tour. We rerouted and rearranged our tour stops and thought we’d best be able to fit Hawai’i in later in the tour while we were in the Midwest so that we could drive up to Michigan, park the Airstream in the driveway, and leave Noel (our cat/child) with her grandparents for the week — so we rebooked our flights (using our Delta Skymiles).
Fast forward several months, and we found ourselves already in Grand Rapids without any money and two tickets to paradise. We also had a hotel sponsor (HUGE thank you to the Queen Kapiolani for hosting us — this project could not have happened without them), so the only choice we had was to still go… even without any money to our names.
This was our first time in Hawai’i, and we were blessed that the Queen Kapiolani hotel was our first taste. It had recently been renovated and beautifully covered in old and new art. The lobby featured Golden Age Waikiki modern art by Katie Borden, Mike Field, and Nick Kuckar, while the rest of the hotel was covered in vintage and retro posters, photos, and memorabilia. On the second floor was a special gallery featuring portraits of Hawaiian royalty, including Queen Kapiolani herself, who reigned as queen and consort of Mōʻī (King) Kalākaua of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi from 1874 to 1891 and was beloved for her work in health and welfare for her people, with a special focus on women and children.
On top of their appreciation of art, history, and culture, the Queen Kapiolani is also ideally located on the edge of Waikiki with an unobstructed view of Diamond Head and southern views of the vast open Pacific Ocean. We couldn’t get enough of the views from the third-story pool, restaurant, bar, and patio, where we witnessed why the state has rainbows on its license plates.
Being on a budget within a budget, we knew we couldn’t afford to live in vacation mood. Instead of eating meals out, we made a Costco run. We stocked up on loaves of bread, a jug of peanut butter, a garden’s worth of strawberry jam, granola, yogurt, bananas, apples, cheese, instant cold brew Starbucks coffee, chips and salsa, and more to act as our breakfast, lunch, and dinners. It was slightly pathetic but also very romantic eating PB&J sandwiches together every day, sometimes multiple times per day, with one hell of a view, especially as the sunset.
We first got settled in and were able to touch base with our project participants to finalize time and location details. We ventured out for our first taste of Hawai’i to the Ho’omaluhia Botanical Garden, a 400-acre “peaceful refuge” on the island's east side that boasts botanical collections from the Philippines, Malaysia, Tropical America, India & Sri Lanka, Melanesia, Hawaii, Polynesia, and Africa. Something I wouldn’t have expected, but the gardens were designed and built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to provide flood protection for nearby Kāneʻohe, nestled between the base of the mountains and the water.
We were pretty sure that at least some of the Jurassic Park movies must have been shot here because it looked like the kind of place a dinosaur would pop out at any moment. We later looked up and found out that Pearl Harbor and 50 First Dates were also shot here — you can even take a Movie Site tour to see the scenes yourself.
We lived out our movie scene when we got stuck in a downpour and scrambled to the car, soaking wet and out of breath.
One of the most significant parts of Hawai’i (and most tropical islands) is that a rain storm doesn’t last long, and/or you can go to a different part of the island, and it’d be blue skies and turquoise waters — which it was at Waimanalo District Park just a few miles down the road. The surf was pretty high, and the currents were strong, so we opted not to swim because we also wanted to hike the Makapu’u Point Lighthouse Trail, a 2.5 mile and 505ft. elevation gain paved trail that takes you to the top of the world. Looking out to the horizon, we could see the Molokai Hawaiian island, which is about 25 miles away across the Kaʻiwi Channel, and we even spotted whales coming up for air just off-shore.
The next day, we arranged to meet with our project Veteran who we were introduced to via the Pearl Harbor National Memorial. We reached out to the park service several months in advance and asked if they had any staff or volunteers who were military veterans and would be interested in sharing their stories and experience. Without hesitation, they suggested Jimmy. They said his stories would be exactly what we were looking for — and they couldn’t have been more right.
Jimmy grew up on Pearl Harbor. His family owned a farm on the northeastern shore. On the morning of the attacks on December 7, 1941, Jimmy had gone outside to feed the pigs and start his chores for the day. Then, he heard and saw the Japanese planes flying overhead as they started dropping torpedoes and firing at their targets. He recalled that they flew so low that he could look up and see the pilots’ faces. The rest of the early morning, he sat on the train tracks witnessing the explosions and chaos from the safety of the shore. Like so many others, his life was forever changed after that.
Jimmy volunteered at the historic sites a couple of days a week, often as a guide either on the boat tour or throughout the different exhibits. Countless tourists, ourselves included, are often in stunned silence as we would hear Jimmy’s story first-hand. The exhibitions do a great job of sharing different peoples’ perspectives of those attacks, from the Sailors, Marines, and Airmen to the nurses, doctors, and civilians.
Unfortunately for us on the boat tour, the USS Arizona Memorial was closed due to shifting and instability of the platform. Even without being able to look down into the haul of the sunken ship, everyone was left silent at the mere sight of where 1,177 officers and crewmen had lost their lives.
About 500 yards from the USS Arizona remains along battleship row the USS Missouri (BB-63) was docked.
After the boat tour, we took a bus across the bridge to Ford Island to tour the USS Missouri museum. Although the Missouri wasn’t present or even built and commissioned yet when the attacks happened, it does have a very significant tie-in to World War II. Upon its decks in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945, the Japanese Instrument of Surrender documents was signed to end the war.
Having the Missouri docked as a floating museum overlooking the USS Arizona Memorial represents the bookends of a trying time for the world. It was the site of the beginning of WWII and brought with it a resolution for the end of WWII, which helps to bring history a little closer to reality to the historic site’s modern-day visitors, who like ourselves, were not born when any of these horrific battles took place.
Also located on Ford Island is the Pacific Aviation Museum. Since it was getting late in the day, we couldn’t spend much time inside viewing their extensive aircraft collection, but we did certainly appreciate the flight tower while waiting outside for the shuttle bus back to the mainland. If you’ve ever seen the movie Pearl Harbor, this felt like a museum dedicated to the Airmen during that time period that immediately figured out a way to take to the skies and do what they could to protect their country.
The next day was the first Project Day of our STATE 37: HAWAI’I project hosted at the Queen Kapiolani hotel in Waikiki. We started with our usual morning coffee and conversation as our designer and Veteran met for the first time. Our designer was native Hawaiian Matthew Tapia, who has become known throughout the design industry for his hand-lettered designs and murals, and videographer Pawel Nuckowski.
After iced coffees and lattes in the lobby from Knots Coffee Roasters, we headed up the elevators to the top floor suite where we worked outside taking in Jimmy’s stories and incredible images on the deck overlooking Diamond Head and the Pacific Ocean until it got too hot and we retreated inside for air conditioning. We stopped for a lunch break and ate downstairs by the pool at the Deck Bar & Grill, before finishing up back upstairs in the afternoon consumed with stories, ideas, and design concepts that Matthew could take him to start his sketching process.
Usually, after the first day of projects, we’re so exhausted from a heavy day of stories, questions, and brainstorming that we’re too tired to do much. Luckily for us staying at the Queen Kapiolani, all we had to do was walk outside the door and onto the beaches of Waikiki for a late afternoon swim to help us decompress.
Project Day 02 was hosted at Lana Lane Studios, a creative studio, co-working space, and artist collective home to the POW! WOW! Hawai’i is an urban mural festival that transforms Honolulu and other cities worldwide through public art.
We were big fans of the vibe and activity in and around the building. Artists like BLKCORAL, designer and hand-lettering artist Jeff Gress, Hawaiian Blue indigo studio, and many other creatives fill the space with their works-in-progress and creative buzz that we were happy to feed off of as Matthew shared his sketches and design concepts with Jimmy. It seemed time went by too fast because our Hawai’i project was already coming to a close before we knew it.
We still had enough daylight to hit a couple more sights on our Oahu to-do list, starting with the Halona Blowhole and beach cove, where we spotted a sea turtle just beyond the cliffs and whales passing by in the distance.
We found another beach spot along the southeastern shore where we couldn’t help but climb over black volcanic rock for a couple’s edition of Footscape photos in our Chaco sandals as we searched the tide pools for colorful creatures. On our sunset drive back towards the hotel, we kept passing by locals meeting up on beaches along the way and we couldn’t help but imagine what island life would be like. Instead of meeting up for happy hour after work, you’d pick a time and beach, keep your truck packed with your beach gear, and pack food and drinks to have dinner on the beach until the sun goes down, and you do it all again another day. Man, that would be the life.
Early the next morning we woke up extra early for a sunrise hike up Diamond Head Crater State Park to beat the day’s heat and also the Saturday crowds. We couldn’t believe the views from this ancient volcano crater. From 600’ above we could look down at the multi-million dollar homes and their coral-filled backyards and look back at Waikiki, even spotting our hotel room at the Kapiolani just on the edge of the park.
On the last day of our project, Jimmy said he really wanted to take us out to lunch at his favorite restaurant and around his old neighborhood in Chinatown where he spent much of his formative years growing up after living on the farm along Pearl Harbor.
We’re extremely grateful we took him up on his offer because we found out that less than 8 months after this meal, James Hoy Sau Lee passed away. We were shocked when we found this news online because Jimmy was so active, so happy, and so generous with his time. Earlier in the week when we met him at the Pearl Harbor Historical Sites, he left there to teach exercises at a local retirement home, he was just always putting his time, stories, and talents to good use.
We’re also extra saddened because Jimmy wasn’t able to see his final design, video, story, and photos from his [HAS HEART] project. Because of the lack of funding, everything had been put on hold, including releasing state projects.
We’re thankful and appreciative of Jimmy for opening his life and heart to us. We spent four straight days with him, which really made our journey in Hawai’i incredibly meaningful. We can’t wait to share his final design and story with his wife, kids, and grandkids, and great-grandkids.
While at lunch with Jimmy, he kept listing off all the great places around Oahu that we should visit, starting with Keawaula Beach. With full bellies, we sat on the beach for a while before jumping into the water. The beach drop-off was so deep that it made the waves perfect to body surf and bob up and down in since the salt water kept us so buoyant (which we’re not used to having grown up in the Great Lakes). This side of the island doesn’t get as many tourists as the North Shore, so it was a nice change of pace to relax with the locals in such a serene and remote piece of the island.
The road ends just after the beach, so it’s a hike to reach the point at the end of Ka’ena Point State Park. We weren’t exactly prepared for a long hike in such hot weather, so we didn’t make it all the way. But we had plans to visit the tip from the other side of the point later on in the week, so we were happy to save it for another day when we had more water. Nonetheless, the waves crashing along the rocky shores and filling the countless crevices behind with tidepools was a full afternoon of entertainment for us.
Whenever I have trouble sleeping, I think of the sight, sound, and smell of these waves rolling up and crashing along the shore — it was that peaceful and mesmerizing to watch on a loop over and over and over again.
On Sunday, we sadly had to check out of our Waikiki home base at the Queen Kapiolani. We can’t be appreciative enough for their support and generosity to not only provide a room for a week for us but also to play host to one of the Design Days. We literally could not have done this Hawai’i state project without their contributions.
On our way out of the Waikiki and Honolulu area, we drove straight north through the mountains to experience the jungle hike on the Manoa Falls Trail. There is no wonder that scenes in both Jurassic Park and LOST were filmed in this lush tropical rainforest.
The trail gets pretty muddy, but luckily in addition to the Z-Cloud Sandals that Chaco gifted us, they also included a pair of Odyssey all-terrain, closed-toe hybrid sandals/shoes, perfect for this type of path of both wet, warm, and rugged.
On a separate note, we’re pretty sure this is the Tree of Life.
After Kendra touched all the trees and ferns and stones she could, we were pretty exhausted and overheating from the 600+ foot elevation gain hike. We remembered that our project designer Matthew recommended a local favorite, Ice Garden that specializes in authentic Hawaiian shave ice that we were going to be driving by. It was a welcomed cool treat on our drive to the North Shore for a few extra personal days we wanted to spend on the island.
We reserved a couple of nights at the “Mermaid Cove” AirBnB studio room in Waialua. Angel and Duke were incredibly welcoming “super hosts,” and their dogs were equally as friendly and made for great breakfast companions under the shaded porch in the mornings.
I’ll have to say, my favorite feature was the outdoor shower. Whether it was a late-morning rinse under the sun or a late-night cleansing beneath the stars, it was one of the best shower experiences of my life. After “checking in” and getting settled in the breezy studio room attached to the main house, we set out to get the lay of the North Shore.
We first took to the Mokuleia Army Beach on the northwestern shore. Located across the road from the Dillingham Airfield, the beach used to be the site of a military recreation area from 1970-1989 and seems to be a pretty secluded beach. More scenes from the series LOST were filmed here, and some of their equipment and props were even kept next door in an airplane hangar. While we were there, however, it was extremely chill. In the Winter months, the surf is high, and the currents are typically too strong to swim.
Apparently, in the summer this area is calm as can be and is a beautiful swimming beach and snorkeling area with plenty of reefs. It was definitely a high seas “Winter” day, so we opted not to get swept away in the rip currents and watch the waves and surfers from the safety of the beach.
There we a couple of young military families down the beach from us that could probably tell we were not from around there that came up to us to tell us about the sea turtle that was making its best Kendra impression. At first, we didn’t see it as we scanned the beach and saw large rocks, debris, and driftwood. Eventually, we realized what we thought was a rock was actually the turtle! It’s illegal to touch or get within feet of the sea turtles, so we hovered safely around it in awe.
We continued our beach excursions by taking in a heavy surf sunset at Three Tables Beach with a crowd of onlookers. Similar to the Mokuleia Army Beach, during the summer this area is a calm swimming and snorkeling beach, but being that it was still “Winter” in Hawai’i, this beach was being blasted nonstop with heavy surf and waves up to 15 feet.
We thoroughly enjoyed a slow morning sipping coffee on the porch, air drying our laundry, and showering outside before we started off for another day of adventure around the island.
Even though it was a partly cloudy day, it made for the perfect weather to chill at Kualoa Regional Park along the East Shore. Since it was a weekday, the park wasn’t very busy so we had a little sliver of beach to ourselves overlooking the bay and an mountain island just off-shore.
The best part of the park was that you had views no matter which direction you were faced — to the east was the open ocean with a barrier reef a 1/2 mile off the coast and behind us to the west were the rigid, fragmented, and lush Ko’olau Range that was once half of a volcano.
Since the Winter surf was so strong, Waimea Bay was filled with big-wave surfers. With waves that can tower 30+ feet high, this is the area where major surfing happens, including worldwide surf competitions. Along this stretch of beach, the multi-million dollar houses are homes to pro surfers and action sports brands like Hurley, Quicksilver, Rip Curl, Nike, and more.
Instead of our usual Costco-sourced meal, we treated ourselves to a local favorite Surf ‘N Salsa food truck in Haleiwa before we took in another priceless sunset at the beach at Hale’iwa Ali’i Beach.
The next day we prepared ourselves to hike the Ka’ena Point Trail to reach the secluded and furthest western point on Oahu. It was an extremely HOT 5+ mile hike out and back with zero shade along the way. Since there are no roads to reach the point from either side, this 59-acre area has been purposely protected as the Ka‘ena Point Natural Area Reserve managed by the Hawai‘i Department of Land and Natural Resources.
As we neared the point, we had to enter a gated area meant to keep predators away from the nesting Albatrosses sea birds who occasionally popped their heads up as we strolled by at a safe distance.
The highlight at the end of the trail was the resting Hawaiian Monk seals, which are rare and only found here in Hawai’i.
Our last full day in Hawai’i was spent snorkeling at the Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve. In the Winter, this is one of the few snorkeling areas because of the high surf, and it was also one of the busiest. Nonetheless, we were more than happy to find a little area to spend the day on the land as we kept going in and out of the water with the mask and snorkels we brought with us from home.
All good things come to an end, and our time in Hawai’i had finally come to an end. We had a later 8PM flight, so after we checked out of AirBnB room, we did one last tour around the island stopping at beachside coconut stands and a brief visit to Waimea Valley before we arrived at HNL airport to start the long journey back to Michigan.
