Hawaii - North Shore

Day 3 held a North Shore excursion.  It was a little road trip adventure.  These mountains are actually really close to where their house was located, and you pass or go through them to pretty much get anywhere else on the island.  I love these mountains!

On a side note, I also love that these particular ones look just like the mountains in the show Lost.  awesome?  yep.

 We stopped a lot on the side of the road for pretty picture opportunities.  Teresa was nice. :)

We HAD to have Shave Ice on the way up.  Aoki’s Shave Ice was my sister’s favourite shave ice spot on the island.  This was our first taste…and of course, we were addicted.  Love at first bite.  They put ice cream in the center, top it with finely shaven ice, and then pour on whatever flavours you want.    

I got watermelon, pineapple, and coconut.  SO GOOD!

Next stop was turtle cove.  I LOVE me some turtles.  Last time I visited Teresa, we actually got to go snorkeling with the big sea turtles.  The water was a little cloudy that day, so the rocks and the turtles looked similar.  As I was swimming along, thinking I was right next to a rock, all of a sudden that rock turned around and the GIANT turtle face was right in front of my face.  It startled me so much that I SCREAMED under the water so loudly that Teresa stood up and burst out laughing.  Good times.

On this day, however, we weren’t able to snorkel with them.  :(  They were too far out in the water, and there were “turtle guards” (life guard type people to monitor and protect the turtles) keeping people away.  Sad.  But we still got to see them swimming around!

And a paddle boarder.

 Turned my focus back to the cute turtles again.  I wish they really spoke in the awesome surfer dude accent that they have in Finding Nemo.

Gorgeous, and stereotypical, Hawaiian beachscape photo background. 

I <3 this picture of us!!

Next stop on our North Shore tour was Waimea Bay, the beach where all the big surfing competitions take place.  Definitely a nice place to sit, rest, soak up sun, watch surfers, and find shells.

After watching the surfers and walking around the beaches, we decided to stop at a small local shrimp shack on the side of the road.  It’s called Romy’s Shrimp Shack.  Long line, but totally worth it! 

So good, in fact, that we forgot to take a picture BEFORE we devoured the yummy garlic and sweet & sour shrimp.

Leftovers?  Not of this amazing food.  No way we weren’t eating every.last.morsel.

I LOVE HAWAII!