Time for the North Shore!! The N.S., esp. the town of Haleiwa is known for it's big waves and surfing from about Dec-April. While we didn't see big waves, Haleiwa is a really cool surfer town! We ate at Haleiwa Cafe, total local's place, with AMAZING food! ...Don't ask me about the bathroom, aka outhouse, experience I had... Basically, it just justified every reason I have for NOT going camping!!
We stopped at different BEAUTIFUL beaches along the whole North Shore - breathtaking and I can't even imagine how awesome it would be to see them all packed watching the surfers out in the beautiful aqua water!! ...My next trip to Hawaii has to be during those surfing months so I can see them catch some gnarly swells!! (hehe..surfer talk)
We also stopped at the Dole Pineapple Plantation and along the way got to see fields where the pineapples were growing. So cute! I want a pineapple plantation in my next life! ...Or when I retire, haha!!
Our last stop we made was at Romy's - a local shrimp and prawn stand. Let me explain - the "big thing" on the N.S. are shrimp and shave ice trucks (or stands if the place is popular enough to afford it). And all of them we saw...packed! Everyone is sooo into these things. All the books and friends they haven been there recently told us we MUST stop at these shrimp trucks! So...we did a little research and made a stop at Romy's. We were super excited about this new experience we'd be having (my mom and I were much more excited...dad and Jack could kinda care less).
We wait in line for a good 20 minutes, order our pineapple something..., which we ate while we waited 45, yep 45 minutes, for the shrimp. We got two different kinds - mine was Cajun (obviously) & I can't remember what flavor/kind my mom got. So we sit at our picnic bench, eat these pineapple things, and wait...
They call our number, my mom and I go up - the lady opens the boxes to show us our food before we take it to the table. Opens mine - looks pretty "ok"...minus the shell & legs that are still on the shrimp - not my "cup of tea" by any means.
The open my moms - ....let's just say it's a good thing my mom raised me well and to be polite. Open box contains the shrimp we ordered...with shell, legs, and EYE BALLS!!! YES THE EYES were STILL ON IT!! O - M - G!! LORD HELP ME!!! And then she slammed down the lid of the box to close it back up...but what gets left sticking out the side...AN EYE!! I just about lost it completely in public...but I kept quiet, let my mom carry that box and back to our picnic table we went. I start my "indoor" scream/whine/"OMG I CAN'T DO THIS"/AHHHH moment!! It was quite the site to see...both the shrimp and myself...and my mom too!!
My mom attempted for about...ohhh, 5 seconds and then threw it back in the box and said "No way, no I just can't do it!!" ....Quoted straight from her about 3 minutes later..."This is a worse experience than child birth!" ...WOW -now, I haven't been through that experience, but I've heard it's not that much fun...so if this is worse...Eeek!! ...Good for me though - child birth will now be "a breeze!" haha!!
So I attempt to take the shell and legs off mine - but really - no use - I'm just having a major meltdown! Jack finishes capturing this moment via camera & video and then comes to my rescue and does it for me. My dad eats my mom's and after getting through about half of each...we called it, "Game Over!" Us: 0, Shrimp: 1! Eww!!!
And that my friends was our shrimp stand experience! One we will make sure not to experience ever again! ...makes for a great story though!! It took my mom the rest of vacation to be able to finally laugh about it, hehe!!
Overall....
It was a great day with my parents driving through the whole North Shore and seeing the beauty that lies there!!
Dinner at House Without a Key
My mom's dreamed of eating here for many, many years!! She loved every second of it!!
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