Jason's Corollawagon has a very interesting sound when he applies the brakes. It sounds something like a jet passing over the sky, every time we stop. It also scares children and small animals.
Heading off, we stop by a Jamba Juice where Jason orders the secret menu White Gummy Bear, which is yummy and tasty, and I nab my regular, the Strawberries Wild, both boosted with protein for an active day in the sun. We take off to the White Plains Beach on the southwest side of the island. On the way there, things start to look like California again. Broad plains, fewer trees, road and suburbia housing spread throughout the lands on the way to the beach.
Jason takes a turn into an area, and it turns back into the natural look of Hawaii. Tiny road, no shoulder, surrounded by miles of shrubbery and trees. Awesome!
A few turns later, it opens up into this tiny beach park where the locals hang out. I love local spots, since they're not as crowded as the tourist trap areas, and the people are generally nicer. And tan. Like, dark Filipino tan. Like, on a white guy.
A bunch of surfboards are laid out on the grass. It turns out the company is demoing their boards. Can you say, "Free rental!!" One of the local guys gives me a quick lesson on how to quickly snap from my stomach, which is the regular paddling position, onto my feet, so I can hang ten (and possibly show off my n00bness by nose diving into coral). I grab a board that's the size of the Corollawagon and struggle to move it 20 feet into the water. When you're new to surfing, you've got to surf Noah's Ark, apparently.
A few paddles out into the water later, I'm in the middle of the ocean, bobbing up and down on this ginormous floating board, totally chillaxing. It's beautiful to be out there. I think that's my favorite part of surfing, really, just being out there with the sun and the wind blowing, seeing the island of Oahu and it's clouds and mountains bobbing up and down in front of me, surrounded by clear blue water.
And then a wave sneak attacks, and I'm swallowing salty stinging water. Through my nose.
Back on the board, chillaxing again. Jason notes that a wave is coming and says to turn around and paddle. I do my best to follow his hasty instructions, and somehow the wave manages to catch and I'm sailing toward the shore! Pop up onto my feet, and stand up, for like 0.000004 seconds. 0.000004 seconds of Vegas Baby, Vegas! 0.000004 seconds of hanging tens. The board is surprisingly stable, even as it dips side to side.
Then, I almost kill like 5 kids since the wave takes me right to the shore, turning the surfboard into a cruise missile that targets small children. Sorry locals!
Back out to sea again, and another great wave caught, I get stuck into the area where surfboards are a no-no. Whoops. I also notice there's this huge seal roped off on the beach.
Paddling out to the sea again, I notice various parts of my skin begin to sting after about half an hour of more paddling, so I decide to call it a day and head back to shore.
Is the seal dead? I watch as it lies there, motionless, baking in the sun. Or possibly rotting in the sun. Nope, it's alive. The water laps at its fins and it moves its head ever so slightly. Photo time! I love chubby water animals. He's like a big fat (smelly dirty) blubber pillow. Faaaaaantastic.
3:12 pm, so time to head back and get ready for Alan Wong's, Kristl's fave restaurant evar. I borrow a collared shirt from Jason since this place is a nice eatery, and Kristl and Sara arrive. We take off to the restaurant, which is on the 3rd floor of a building out of the way of Waikiki.
Result: 5 course meal for me, Jason and Sara, and Kristl goes for the special Farmer's salad and a ginger crusted fish. The servers come by and bring us their specialty dinner rolls, which comes with a spicy butter mix. Kristl proceeds to eat 5 rolls.
I'm started with an appetizer duo of a wrapped poke and sandwich/tomato soup-in-a-martini-glass combo. The sandwich is a kalua pork patty melt, which is amazingly tender and tasty, and the tomato soup is delightfully tangy. The poke is, well, it's poke wrapped in slices of fried wonton. I. Love. Poke.
Next, we get the ginger crusted fish, amazingly tender and served on a bed of corn and some sauce which I can't remember the name of, but I remember the taste. Ever so slightly sweet from the corn, the whole thing goes down tender and easy. Yum!
Next, a lobster tail on top of a tiny quiche. I mean, tiny! This course was itty bitty, but still tasty. Lobster tail is buttery, and quiche is quiche, nothing too special.
Last food course is the twice cooked beef in a kalbi style. Except it's way freaking tender, and ten times as delicious. And the waiter brings us a bowl of white sticky rice, which goes great with the beef. I'm struggling to finish at this point, not wanting to stop since the beef is so good. Having to stop since there's no more room in my stomach.
Oh wait, I lied. Gotta try the dessert. And a specialty Kona coffee, which it says on the menu is Alan Wong's favorite. Can't pass that up. No really, you can't. It's the best coffee I've ever had.
If you've ever seen that Youtube video of the Iraqi spider against 30 fire ants, this coffee would be the Iraqi spider, and all other coffees in the world would be ineffectual, pansy ass fire ants.
After rolling myself out of my chair and down to the elevator, we head back to Jason's condo where we play a few quick rounds of Cranium and call it a night.
