Hawaiian Travel Guide

It recently came to my attention that my friend Amanda was not only getting married, but heading to Hawaii for her honeymoon!  Now, as it turns out, I have a lot of experience with finding things to do in Hawaii, so I figured I'd list out a few suggestions!  Anyway, without further ado!

The USS Arizona and Pearl Harbor Memorial - open 7am to 5pm daily, free
A really cool memorial to the ships and seamen that were lost during the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941.  The memorial includes a museum about the era (including the use of very primitive radar warning of the attack), a short film about the attack, and then a shuttle boat ride over to the Arizona Memorial where you get to hang out for fifteen or so minutes.  If the ship I work on is in the right place, you can catch a glimpse of it on the ride over!  It's got two deckhouses and has a big "70" on the side, can't miss it!

The Valley of the Temples - open 8:30am to 4:30pm daily, small parking/entry fee
Probably some of the most ridiculously beautiful views on the island of O'ahu, the Valley of the Temples is a large, multi-religion cemetery situated on the side of a mountain.  It features all kinds of monuments to the dead, from beautiful stained glass to breathtaking views of the ocean to an absolutely incredible Buddhist temple at the center, completely with koi fish and a gong.

Diamond Head - open 6am to 6pm daily, $1 entry for walkers, $5 for parking
One of the easiest hikes on the island, but a really great one.  Generally I'll spend a few hours walking to the base of the dead volcano from Waikiki and walk up to the top for my daily workout, though this is indeed quite a jaunt.  The views from the top are excellent - one side shows you Waikiki and greater Honolulu, while the other offers a great view from on high of the ocean surrounding O'ahu.  Again, the hike up to the top isn't too bad; I see plenty of tiny Japanese ladies walking up it in chucks.  The worst part is the 99-stair stairway near the top.

Opal Thai - open 12n to 9pm
The best Thai food I've ever eaten.  Opel runs the place in a fashion very similar to how he ran his food truck a year or so ago.  He goes around, takes your order (or rather, asks you what you like and don't like and orders what he thinks you'll like!), and brings out fantastic dishes.  He has employees, but he runs around like a madman trying to talk to everybody while you're there.  It's about an hour drive away from Waikiki, but it's more than worth the drive.  I make sure to visit at least once ever time I'm in Hawaii.

Ted's Bakery - open 7am to 8pm daily
Pies!  Ted's is great for their cream pies, and offers burgers, fries, and a few other fairly average fair.  But the pies are excellent, especially the exotic haupia cream pie, which features coconut pudding.  It's up on the North Shore, near some great beaches, including...

Sunset Beach - open dawn to dusk
As one would probably think, Sunset Beach is a great setting to watch the sun sink below the horizon.  The beach is well known for its surfing activity in the winter time, though in the summers it's still as a lake.  I've spent a couple evenings just hanging out and it's one of the best places to see sunsets on the island.  Waikiki is generally pretty terrible just because everyone's so busy snapping pictures and cooing at how beautiful it is.

Waikiki Booze Cruise - various opportunities
I'd recommend one of these toward the end of the day.  Usually one of the catamarans sets sail forty-five or so minutes before sunset, and for $30 a head you can hitch a ride and get all you can drink while you watch the sun go down.  Last time I went there was a bachelorette party where one of my coworkers danced with the bride to be.  Oh, drunk people.

Furusato's Sushi - 11:30am to 11pm
Probably the best sushi I've ever had the pleasure of eating.  Since this place is in the middle of Waikiki, it makes it easy to eat here 4-5 times every time I visit the area.  If you're feeling extremely hungry, go for one of the sushi ships they sell; I can usually get by with a Diamond Head or Dragon roll!

Past the Florida Keys

As aforementioned, my work travel currently brings me to Jacksonville, Florida for a couple weeks hence.  The area seems pretty nice, and all the Mayo Clinic buildings really bring me back to my childhood.  Florida is a huge state that has a lot of different faces, and before a few years ago, it was the state I'd spent the second longest time in, yet I haven't seen that much of it.  Obviously, I've seen Disney and Universal more times than I can really remember to count, but most of the state is a mystery to me.

One of the major motivations for wanting to take a trip while I'm down here is the fact that I've always been curious about a monument known as the Coral Castle.  It took a couple other sites to make me realize and be able to really articulate my love for places such as the Coral Castle.  Last year, Dana and I rolled through Ohio on our way to California, and made a stop at the Hartman Rock Garden.  Originally created by its namesake during the Great Depression, it was clearly a labor of love, thousands upon thousands of tiny stones glued together to create an elaborate work of art.  One man took the time and effort to do something he thought was important, and spent a great deal of his life creating it.  If there's a better definition of "suffering artist," I really am not aware of it.

In the early part of the twentieth century, a man named Edward Leedskalnin moved to the United States from Latvia after being jilted by his fiancee at the altar.  For twenty-eight years he labored in south Florida to create what he dubbed Rock Gate Park and later became Coral Castle.  Using a deep understanding of weight and leverage, he was able to lift and arrange over a thousand tons of stone into gates, arrangements, and doorways.  Purportedly, before it failed in the eighties, there was a nine-ton gate that a child could push open using a single finger, due to the perfect balance that Ed had crafted.  Ed died in 1951 and the monument was passed on to a few other entities, finally ending up as a private company which still does tours today.

The castle is six hours away from where I'm staying, so I figure a two day trip would probably be best.  Fortunately, there's plenty to see between here and there, so I won't be bored for things to see!  Below is my brainstorming for things I find interesting that are potential visits on the way.

Below I'll be classifying things into a few categories:  quick stops/statues, museums and amusement parks, hikes, and restaurants and snacks.

The World's Largest Cross - 27 Ocean Ave, Saint Augustine, FL
A follow up to the Effingham Cross we saw last year, this thing is apparently even taller.  It's dedicated to Our Lady of La Leche, and is lit up at night to comply with FAA regulations. (+5 minutes)

The Bluebird of Happiness - 180 Vilano Rd, St. Augustine, FL
Originally erected in the 1940s as an advertisement for oranges, it was rebranded as a bluebird more recently to advertise Vilano Beach.  It's eight feet tall and truly looks VERY happy.  Makes me continuously hum "Birdhouse in Your Soul," so it must be good.  (+6 minutes)

Michelangelo's David Replica - 19 San Marco Ave., St. Augustine, FL
A replica of the famous statue, made in the same manner as the original and now displayed outside the Ripley's Believe It Or Not museum.  It weighs 20,000 pounds and was created in the sixties for the New York World's Fair by Italian artisans.  (+3 minutes)

First Airplane Replica - 600 S. Clyde Morris Blvd., Daytona Beach, FL
A replica made of steel of the first airplane flown by the Wright Brothers in North Carolina.  Nearby is a statue of one of the Wright Brothers, looking on as his sibling takes off in their new contraption.  The statues live near the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.  (+12 minutes)

The Ruins of Bongoland - 950 Old Sugar Mill Rd, Port Orange, FL
A defunct amusement park of past, Bongoland was open for only four years in the late 1940s and early 1950s before being closed for lack of public interest.  Most of it is gone, now, save for a few (some purportedly awful) concrete statues of various dinosaurs.  It's free to explore, but donations are accepted.  (+18 minutes)

The United States Astronaut Hall of Fame - 6225 Vectorspace Blvd., Titusville, FL
A tribute to the few hundred Americans who have flown into space.  It only seems fitting to give this place a visit after the recent death of the first man to walk on the moon, Neil Armstrong.  (+20 minutes)

Earth Rock - 3645 N. Courtenay Parkway, Merritt Island, FL
A large boulder painted to look like the earth.  Well, half the earth, anyway.  One side is completely painted black, possibly representing the night side.  Either way, it seems like an interesting quick stop.  (+22 minutes)

Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex - Hwy 405, Titusville, FL
I've been here before, but it's been years and years, so I'm thinking of potentially visiting again!  It's a bit pricey, though, so that alone may make me back off a little.  Maybe some external shots of the facility, though.  (+38 minutes)

Giant Orange - US Hwy 1 and Masterson St, Melbourne, FL
Kind of just what it says - a giant orange sitting in a park.  It apparently features a memorial to those who fought and died in the Vietnam War.  (+18 minutes)

Burt Reynolds and Friends Museum - 100 North US. Hwy 1, Jupiter, FL
A museum dedicated to history's greatest actor, Burt Reynolds.  Lots of memorabilia and interesting objects document the actor who grew up on the Atlantic Coast of Florida.  Oddly enough, one of the podcasts I follow features a guy named Mike Carano.  In 2005, he tried to purchase a wax figure of Reynolds from a closing California wax museum and lost the auction.  He was then contacted by Burt Reynolds himself and contracted to deliver the figure to Florida for him.  I'm not sure if it ends up here, but that would be pretty amazing if so.  (+25 minutes)

Butterfly World - 3600 W Sample Rd, Coconut Creek, FL
A kind of zoo that features over eighty species of butterflies.  Seems like a pretty good time, actually!  (+6 minutes)

Scooby Doo Van - 530 Northeast 167th Street, North Miami Beach, FL
An unfinished replica of Scooby and the Gang's blue-and-green detective van.  It sits in the parking lot of a diner, apparently, so it might be a good place to grab a meal after getting a couple pictures of the seventies-inspired Mystery Machine.  (+6 minutes)

Oldest Building in the Western Hemisphere - 16711 W. Dixie Hwy, North Miami Beach, FL
A monastery that was originally built in Spain in the 12th century.  It was moved to Florida, piece by piece, in the 1950s and now stands as the oldest modern structure outside of Europe and Asia.  Costs $8 to tour the place and it's open until about 4pm.  (+16 minutes)

Coral Castle - 28655 S. Dixie Hwy, Homestead, FL
As described earlier, the Coral Castle is a collection of monolithic stones arranged in patterns to create a "castle".  It's precisely the kind of thing I love - an interesting art piece created by a lifetime of work from a single person.  Open until 6pm most days.  (main attraction)

As far as hotel goes, I'll probably be able to stay at one of the Hampton Inns in Miami after my 7-8 hour drive.  Right now, this is all only a bit theoretical; we'll see if it can actually happen!

That Road Trip Business

I'll admit, I've been slacking.  After glancing through the last couple years of posts, I realized that the road trip posts I made (particularly the one almost exactly a year ago to the west coast) were some of my favorite things to glance back on.  Realizing this has made me really wish I would have better documented a few of our more recent trips, so, I figured I'd share some of the plans we've made recently!

We were originally planning for a fall road trip up to northern Vermont with some of Dana's friends, but it seemed shortly thereafter that it probably wouldn't fall into place.  Instead, we've decided to head south past the Mason-Dixon line into Virginia.  I've seen parts of Virginia - primarily Wallops Island, on the other side of the Chesapeake from most of the state, and the areas around Dahlgren for work.

Instead, this time, we're thinking about seeing the more southern portions of the state, specifically Shenandoah National Park.  The National Park follows the Blue Ridge Mountains southward from Harrisonburg, Virginia, and includes a road known as Skyline Drive.  This scenic byway winds through the mountaintops for a little over a hundred miles.  Skyline Drive connects up to another road known as the Blue Ridge Parkway, a National Scenic Byway that is often considered one of the top five drives in the entire nation.

After our adventure two years ago on the Pacific Coast Highway, also known as Route 1, in north and central California, we've always wanted a similar yet new experience.  The Blue Ridge Parkway is very similar - it is windy and slow, and offers some ridiculously scenic views.

Speaking of scenic drives, after researching a bit for the Blue Ridge Parkway, I discovered that Florida's A1A is also apparently a National Scenic Byway.  I happen to currently be down in Jacksonville for work, which it just so happens is near the northern terminus of A1A!  There are a lot of interesting things to check out around the area, too, so I may have to make an impromptu, regrettably solo, road trip out of it.

Either way, I'm going to write up both of these trips in the coming day or two, so stay tuned for the plans.  I'll make sure they include lots of dumb, novelty, giant things!