Sunset Beach




Sunset is famous for big waves, but the waves this day were on the smallish side and few surfers were out. This was early spring, and the really big stuff usually happens in the winter.

Even though the waves off shore were small, we still had to be careful with the kids...the beaches were steep and the shorebreak could easily pull the kids off their feet and out to sea..

...so Yoko and the kids spent most of their time racing up and down the beach. That's Kaena Point, the northwest tip of O'ahu Island, way, way in the background.

Perhaps I've lived in Japan too long and simply forgotten, or maybe we were extremely lucky, but no matter what beach we went to, there never seemed to be very many people around. Compare these scenes with that of a typical weekend at Shirahama, in Japan. (Use your browser's Back button to come back to this page.)


As a student, I ate quite a few lunches from lunch wagons at the beach or at the university, and I wanted the family to try lunch at one. But there don't seem to be as many lunch wagons these days. After several days of looking, I spotted this one near Sunset Beach, so that's where we ate that day. Standard lunch wagon fare is two scoops rice, macaroni salad, meat entre and plenny gravy on top! This wagon actually featured Mahimahi (dorado or dolphin fish) and salads, but the kids insisted on hamburgers. I had the mahimahi. Loco-moco (a cheap and popular lunch item in Hawaii) Put a scoop (or two) of rice on a plate. Place a hamburger patty (cooked) on top. Place a fried egg on top of the patty. Cover the whole thing with gravy. Season with salt, pepper, shoyu, ketchup, whateva's

The next day, a bit further down the road in Haleiwa, we came across a branch of Kua Aina, a local hamburger shop, More hamburgers.