Our first 'lost' adventure

They say the best way to find your way around in a new area is to get lost on purpose. We technically were never lost as we had a GPS...

B left it up to me to decide on what we were going to do for the day...our 2nd whole day(out of 8) spent together..no PT in the morning and then he'd be all mine...he was mine from sunrise to sunset!! ;)

I chose for us to drive up to Haleiwa and spend the day...visit the marketplace there and have lunch too. Even though B had just driven through the area on his motorcycle the day before with some friends, he was game for going back since they didn't really do much more than grab lunch. Instead of heading up H2, I wanted to drive along the western coast of the island. So we hopped on H1 and headed towards Kapolei....and there the adventure began..we just didn't know it.

So being a good co-pilot I pulled up the map and monitored our location. B asked me if we needed to turn soon. Puzzled by this I just looked at the map and said nope. We continued past Waianae and Makaha. He asks again if he needs to turn and again my answer is not yet. We trek on past the 'homeless beach' and then we literally come to the end of the road. Apparently my better half failed to inform me that there wasn't a road that went ALL the way around the western coast as I had assumed. We did contemplate taking the crude "road", but opted to leave that adventure for another day!! LOL

Out of paved roads, we turned around and searched the GPS for an alternate route. Having thought we'd found one we continued onward. According to the GPS it was a state highway...though apparently they have a different idea of what a "state highway" is here! ..barely wide enough for 2 cars and was basically a dirt road. Oh and not one, but 2 of our supposed turns were blocked off. Utterly aggravated and frustrated we turned around and headed back looking for ONE road that would lead us somewhere that wasn't a dead end!!

The final option showed promise, it had to or else the entire day would have been a bust. It was paved, had signs, and lane markings!! We were glad to at least feel like we were headed towards civilization again....and then the rug was pulled out from underneath of us for the THIRD time. THIS time it was in the form of gate and guard! Thank GOD for having DOD stickers and a military ID!! ..otherwise we would have turned around AGAIN! Cautiously checking the GPS, it did show that our new road would lead us to the main road into Haleiwa. Being the troopers we are or just plain crazy, we continued on. We'd just have to travel through the back way of a satellite Navy base and an Army base to get to it!

There were several hair pin turns that reminded me of my trip to Europe; traveling through the mountains in Italy and being car sick from HOURS on the hair pin turns. By now we'd been driving for 2 hours and we were starting to get hungry...those hair pin turns certainly didn't help either! LOL

Trekking through the Army base was admittedly a bit scary. We saw several units that were training and they of course had their weapons drawn! SCARY!!!

By the time we FINALLY made it up to Haleiwa, we really only had time to grab a quick bite to eat and look through one or two little shops, before we started to head back home in time to get the kiddos from school. So our trip wasn't a total bust, just a bit of a let down! But I was promised that we will make the trek again soon!!

Our crazy day didn't end there. We still had to take the kids to swim lessons. We hopped onto Nimitz, then Kam and BAM right into bumper to bumper traffic! Apparently it was the first home game for the University of Hawaii game at the stadium. So with there being NO other alternate route, we missed the kid's swim lesson. Not wanting our entire day to be a bust, we ended up taking them to the community pool for a bit; and because it was nearly 5pm it was empty so the kids had the pool to themselves.

It wasn't the day that any of us had planned for, but it was the kind of day that made you appreciate the little things. For instance, our trip to Haleiwa took so long that we didn't get to see all that we wanted to, but me and B were at least spending time together; even though 90% of the time was spent in the car! LOL And the kids did miss their swim lesson, but they did get to go swimming! ;0)

We are ALL looking forward to a nice relaxing weekend, spent at home!!

~K~