Adventures (and Misadventures) of Kris and Chris: Crawling through a Hedge = Winning! (Not Really)

We spent this past Sunday roaming our old haunts at the North Shore and most specifically Haleiwa. Both Chris and I love Haleiwa...the chill, laidback vibe just works for us. Keep the country country!
If I were a multi-millionaire and could afford it, I'd buy a house up here and stay here for awhile (but I'm not a multi-millionaire and there is that whole global-warming-rising-seas bit which probably means North Shore property may be a limited time asset)

One of our favorite things to do is get the huli huli chicken next to Malama Market.

HULI HULI STAND IN HALEIWA

"Huli" means "turn" in Hawaiian (Thanks to hula, I now know this!) and basically it's chicken on a spit, turned over kiawe wood which is Hawaiian mesquite.

IF ONLY YOU COULD SMELL THIS

It is just so insanely good. Two servings of rice and one huli huli chicken chopped for you and that's just a finger lickin' good meal. I guess I should really say it's ono grindz! (Translation: Finger lickin' good food!)

Then we headed over to the Haleiwa's Farmer's Market.

E KOMO MAI!

Hopefully they'll get to stay in their current location since there's a lot of current drama about the Department of Transportation telling the managers to cease and desist (despite having it run without issues for three years). We were pretty stoked to see some old friends (an old TFA-er and another Ilima colleague who has a new business venture with Bokashi buckets - a way to turn food scraps into soil...for more information: http://eachoneteachonefarms.com/bokashi/). We also got some delicious mini cheesecakes (Waimea strawberry for me and lilikoi for Chris). Unfortunately they were too good and there's no proof since we ate them before I thought to take a picture. Chris got some gross (smelly) smoked fish.

HALEIWA FARMER'S MARKET

The real reason I wanted to head up on this particular day is that I have always had this really weird hankering to do the Dole Plantation Maze. Billed as the World's Largest Maze (Guinness confirmed in 2008), I have wanted to do the maze since I moved out here. So Chris and I finally got the opportunity to tackle it.

They have you clock in at the beginning. I clocked in at 1:40pm and Chris clocked in at 1:42pm (Ostensibly to give me a "head start"...pshaw!) and then we were off!

WHICH WAY TO GO???

I quickly realized the maze was no joke. This wasn't going to be a sprint race. The goal is to find eight "secret" stations and then get the different symbols stenciled (e.g. a palm tree, a fish, a train, a pineapple, etc) onto your ticket and THEN find your way out.

I bumped into Chris three times in between walking in what I felt were circles. The first time I totally heard him laughing through a hedge. This picture below is the second time when I found out...

RUNNING INTO CHRIS

HE HAD A MAP! Cheater. But being that he's a good boyfriend (and also a cocky bastard haha) he gave me the map. It helped somewhat to have the map (even more helpful that he labeled his routes and what symbols were where...

CHEATER HEDGE

But I'm not above a little "shortcut" here and there. Especially when it's clear I'm not the only one who's done it! Although there was this one Japanese couple that seemed especially horrified when I crawled out of a hedge while they were stenciling at one of the stations. Puh-leeze. Call it American weirdness...I call it: Winning. Ok I don't, because if I really said that line I would sound like Charlie Sheen and he's Cra-zee.

Finally I emerged, tired, hot but complete and saw Chris across the clearing. I went up to him and asked him if he was done. He asked me if I was done. We both were pau. He looked at me. I looked at him. And we started sprinting...I vaguely recall seeing a really confused four year old boy giving us a bewildered look as we left him and his family in our dust.

I got to the station and clocked in: 2:32pm. I looked at Chris and he was just standing there. And then realization hit me like a splash of cold water...he had already finished AND clocked out. Sure enough he had: 2:21pm. He had beaten me AND come back to the maze to find me. Bugger.

OBNOXIOUS

Ugh. I hate losing. But I conceded victory since fighting it only meant Chris would be even more obnoxious (as I would be too if I had won). The pineapple whip and pineapple float in the tacky souvenir cup helped soothe my losses though.