Hawaii 2018, Day 2, Part 1: The Swap Meet and Tantalus Lookout

We started out the second day in Oahu by visiting some old favorites: Kono's and the swap meet. Kono's has really good kalua pork that they serve in a breakfast burrito or on a biscuit. We ate our food outside this time and enjoyed the view of a small part of Haleiwa. Gabe and Elisa were quick to show Ian the chickens and reminded him that he used to call them "hey heys."

Luckily the swap meet is open at the Aloha Stadium on Wednesdays and Saturdays, so we were able to visit at the beginning of our trip. The swap meet really is the best place on the island for souvenirs. They have the best selection and the best prices. However, it seemed like there were fewer vendors on Wednesday, so maybe we should go on a Saturday next time to make sure we have a larger selection.

Outside of Kono's for breakfast. Notice the sign: Please do not feed chickens.

For lunch we wanted to try some authentic Hawaiian food, so we went to Helena's in Honolulu. It really is a hole in the wall restaurant that only accepts cash. We tried the kalua pork, sticky ribs, and lomi salmon. I guess dessert was included because it came with some sort of coconut gelatin (haupia?). We took our food on a picnic to Puu Ualakaa Park where we could see the Tantalus Lookout over Honolulu. It was quite a steep drive on some windy roads to get to the park. We walked to the lookout from our picnic table and took in the incredible view.

Diamond Head Crater is just down the coast from Waikiki Beach.

Erik used the panoramic feature on his camera phone.

Erik says that Rick and Marsha have a similar picture to this from over 35 years ago.