22-January 2007: We had our fill watching the guys surf at the Bonzai Pipeline and it was time to go. Julie decided for us to take the stairs right behind us and onto a back street instead of walking a ways down the sandy beach back to the car park. And as we walked closer to the car park, a black SUV passed by us as I was looking down to make sure no sand had gotten into the camera bag. Apparently Julie was paying attention because she immediately said, "Honey, that was Cameron Diaz!"

Since there was really nothing we had in mind to do on this day except perhaps to check out some surfing as well as pay a visit to Pearl Harbor, Julie seized the opportunity to use the Wi-Fi Internet at the lobby of the Ohana Maile Sky Hotel and get caught up on email. Meanwhile, I was busy being a couch potato watching ESPN talk about the Dallas Cowboys head coach Bill Parcels' retirement over and over and over again and then watching some Hawaiian TV channel talking about various aspects of their culture and attractions. It was a bit boring, but it was my job to make sure everything was packed and ready to go while Julie tended to her errands.

It wasn't until about 10:30am that we finally checked out of the Ohana Maile Sky Hotel, loaded up the Toyota Corolla rental car, and left for the surfing town of Hale'iwa.

After getting by the usual traffic westbound on the H-1 freeway, we eventually headed north on the H-2 and into the central part of O'ahu. It was a part of the island we hadn't seen up to this point and it really reminded us of suburbia back at home.

That was because here we were driving on a freeway before it finally ended into a highway with traffic lights. We then drove through housing communities with the familiar residential streets, roadside plants, and neighborhood shops I'm sure the locals would congregate at to shop. I could've sworn this was an LA suburb, but the Wai'anae Mountains to the west with its wrinkly forested profile as well as the Dole Pineapple Maize and Plantation reminded us that we were still in Hawai'i.

We eventually arrived at the historic Hale'iwa town at around 11:15am. We were still trying to figure out where to eat and where everything was so we decided to park in this plaza area (plenty of parking as there were numerous shops as well as a restaurant called Breakers here). We then decided to walk around town and see what else there was.

I knew Julie had her sights on having shave ice at Matsumoto's since she had read about it in the Blue Bible (i.e. Oahu Revealed).

We walked for probably about 10 or 15 minutes looking for a lunch. We ended up passing on various dives though one that looked interesting (due to its crowd) was this place called Kua'aina. Still, we walked on in the hot but surprisingly dry sun (it didn't feel real humid at all) and then Julie said, "I see Matsumoto's up ahead."

We didn't hesitate to go there despite not having a lunch yet and went into the small shop. There wasn't much of a line so we each treated ourselves to their popular shave ice. I had myself a combo of lilikoi and lychee while Julie had herself a combo of lilikoi and strawberry.

Quite nice and refreshing, but we couldn't really sit down and enjoy the shave ice on the bench in the front of the shop because there were numerous bees threatening to sting us if we didn't freak out. That made us uncomfortable enough to continue walking with shave ice in hand.

Of course without one of those plastic spoons to help scoop us the finely grains of flavored ice, we both ate from our shave ice directly. I had the misfortune of having half of my shave ice fall off the paper cone cup and onto the asphalt. I guess I could see why bees like to swarm around Matsumoto's.

So we continued walking towards the ocean end of town where the local road would eventually rejoin the 83. It was there that we saw a place called Hale'iwa Joes.

By now, we had probably walked a good 20 minutes or so and Julie didn't feel like walking back into town for one of the dives we had passed by. So we settled for this place especially since there was a view of the ocean.

So we treated ourselves to coconut shrimp and their cajun fish sandwich while trying to keep flies from producing maggots in our food. The atmosphere was quite laid back and we filled our already full stomachs (from the shave ice) with this food. I thought the cajun fish sandwich was a bit dry and bland though.

We then walked along the Hwy 83 in the direction of Waimea Bay just to see how much further the Hale'iwa town went. At this point, it was pretty much just surf shops so we headed back to the car.

At first, we couldn't tell where the beach for the Pipeline was because there weren't any signs indicating what it was. However, we did notice quite a few cars parked on the street as well as a mostly full car park right across the street from some school. It looked a little too busy to be nothing but we continued driving east knowing that if we had reached Sunset Beach, we had gone too far.

Well the Garmin etrex GPS hooked up to the Topo! software on Julie's laptop kind of told us that we were getting a bit too close to Sunset Beach. So we turned around and headed back towards that busy area near the school.

And fortunately (or unfortunately) for us, we didn't have trouble finding parking at the car park on this Monday. I guess that either meant the waves weren't big enough to draw enough of a crowd or maybe it was just Monday and most people were at work.

Still, we just had to see this world famous Pipeline for ourselves.

So we parked the car and walked right down onto the beach. There were certainly lots of people around and the waves were definitely bigger than anything we were used to back home (but perhaps not quite as big as the violent ones we saw at Hanakapi'ai Beach in Kaua'i just a few weeks ago).

We noticed a spot further down the beach where there seemed to be more people sitting and spectating and even a few of them with cameras armed with long telephoto lenses. In the water, we saw a handful of surfers congregated where the waves seemed to be breaking in that classic pipeline shape we were so familiar with in posters as well as in the movie Blue Crush.

Even though there were no signs indicating that this was the famous Pipeline, something inside me told me that this was probably it.

So what's the big deal about Pipeline?

Well it's apparently one of the few spots in the world where waves break in an almost perfect barrel shape while being big enough to thrill big wave surfers from around the world. I knew folks at work and acquaintances through work who would proudly proclaim that they've ridden at the famous Pipeline. So I reckon it was almost like a rite of passage in the surfing culture.

Anyways, the waves were still big enough to be over the heads of the surfers in the water when they were riding the waves. But it wasn't nearly as big as I had hoped it would be. Even with that said, there was no way neither Julie nor I would go in the water. We're mauka people and we'll stay away from the makai, thank you.

So we sat on the sand enjoying the scene while the sun beat down hard on us. I didn't know a telephoto lens equipped with me so the surfers looked rather small on my photographs.

Anyways, we lost track of time watching the mesmerizing action of the waves and the daring surfers riding them.

But eventually we had our fill watching the guys surf at the Bonzai Pipeline and it was time to go. Julie decided for us to take the stairs right behind us and onto a back street instead of walking a ways down the sandy beach back to the car park.

And as we walked closer to the car park, a black SUV passed by us as I was looking down to make sure no sand had gotten into the camera bag (during our time at the beach).

Apparently Julie was paying attention because she immediately turned to me and said, "Honey, that was Cameron Diaz! That's so cool!"

This took me off guard and I was kind of skeptical so I played along and said, "Really? So you saw her blonde hair or something?"

"She had dark hair. Come on, you don't know this by now?" she said.

Obviously I don't pay attention to Hollywood very much so of course I didn't know she changed the color of her hair. I then asked her, "So how do you know it wasn't Ashlee Simpson?"

"She looks nothing like Ashlee Simpson," she said.

"So did you make eye contact with her?"

"No, she was just chewing gum and looking straight ahead."

"Was she driving?"

"No, she was with some guy with a cap on. I've never seen him before."

"So I guess she's not with Justin Timberlake no more," I said. That was pretty much all I knew about the rumors and whatever.

"That's old news," she said.

Anyways, Julie was unusually excited about this and I guess since she follows this stuff and was a big movie fan, it was understandable. I guess I missed out on that one as I had paid more attention to my camera...

I'm sure Julie was probably frustrated with me since I didn't see what the big deal was and that I didn't anything while I did my usual, "Leave them alone. It's none of our business!" sayings.

If she really did see Cameron Diaz, then I guess this was probably the first such incidental big celebrity sighting in my life since Julie and I saw Carrie-Ann Moss (aka Trinity from the Matrix) having a lunch at Morel's in the Grove in Los Angeles while we also happened to be dining there. This probably happened some four years ago.

I also remembered before that when Michael Jackson and bunch of kids were standing right behind an oblivious grandma while she was playing slots at Circus Circus as we waited in line to check in. I can't remember when that happened but it was probably some 15 years ago or something...

Anyways, it probably did make sense that it was them in the black SUV because I'd bet you have to be pretty rich to own a home in one of those beachfront properties. It's either that or you'd have to pile a bunch of surfer dudes into one place and rent it.

It was nearly 4pm when we finally arrived at the historical Pearl Harbor. We pretty much concentrated on going to the USS Arizona Memorial where there was a visitor center and a very distant view of the USS Arizona Memorial. So we took some time reading the signs and gaining an appreciation of how the Japanese attack here changed the course of history.

Unfortunately, it was too late to take a boat ride to get a closer look at the USS Arizona and we didn't really want to pay to walk into the docked submarine nearby the visitor center. We probably spent about an hour here before we left the soon-to-be-closing-for-the-day complex.

So there was still nearly 6 hours to kill before our flight, but our rental agreement on the car expired at 6:30pm so I certainly didn't want to be paying for an extra day. So with our limited time left, we decided to use up the remainder of our Ohana Maile Sky Hotel parking (we had until 8:15pm before our paid period ended) to have one last dining experience at Waikiki. Still, getting there from Pearl Harbor took longer than expected due to rush hour traffic.

We ended up eating at the Ezo (actually short for Ezogiku) Noodle Cafe to fulfill Julie's ramen craving. We knew we had to eat before getting on the plane since Northwest wasn't going to offer anything besides drinks.

And after a pretty satisfying dinner, it was finally time to get back on the H-1 and head to the Honolulu Airport.

We managed to make it back to the Dollar Rent-a-car lot a few minutes before the 6:30pm deadline but not before getting gorgeous looks at the setting sun as we approached the airport. It was fitting end to a relaxing day but we still had a rather long wait for our red-eye flight home - and directly back to work the next day...