We picked up a rental car this morning for a driving tour to the North Shore and beyond. Our first stop was Leonard’s Bakery for malasadas. A malasada, sometimes called "Portuguese fried dough," is a fried type of doughnut, made of flattened rounds of yeast dough, flavored with lemon zest and coated with granulated sugar and cinnamon. Leonard’s also has malasada puffs which are filled with custard or coconut cream. We lucked into a parking space in the lot and made our way to the end of the line which wraps around the building! The wait was worth it, they were amazing!
Leonard’s has been around since 1952 and is a favorite with locals and tourists.
We made our way north and turned onto Highway 83 and pulled over to get our first views of the North Shore beaches.
Next stop,Waimea Falls. In addition to the waterfalls, the Waimea Valley has beautiful botanical gardens to enjoy on the way, as well as a living archeological site built in the traditional methods of native Hawaiians.
It was interesting to see as we made our way to the waterfalls.
We didn’t swim in the pool, but there were lots of folks who did! We saw lots of red-crested cardinals in the park today, also.
Alae Ula
The 'Alae 'Ula is an endemic water bird (found naturally only in Hawaii) that is an endangered species with a total population perhaps in the hundreds. 
Next to the Waimea Waterfalls parking lot is Hale O Lono. This site is dedicated to the Hawaiian god, Lono. This heiau (religious place of worship) is believed to have been originally constructed around 1470 AD.
We continued on to the North Shore Fish Taco food truck for lunch. The shrimp taco was much better than the fish, but our tummies were happier so we could continue our journey!
We stopped several times as we made our way across the North Shore. It was fun watching the waves coming in and seeing surfers trying their luck.
Other areas the rocks provided breaks which allowed families to be in the water and not be knocked over!
We headed back south along the windward side of Oahu. I stopped to get a picture of some plumeria.
Our next stop was Mokolii, which means “little lizard” in Hawaiian. It's also called Chinaman's Hat because of its cone shape, which resembles the peasant's hat worn in rural China. The basalt island is part of Kualoa Regional Park.
Besides a few lonely palm trees and two small beaches, there isn’t anything else there! Looking back to the west from the shore, you can see the clouds hanging over the mountains.
We made several more stops on our way back to Waikiki. 
We spotted hang gliders at this beach. This guy actually came down and landed above the parking lot, regrouped and took off again!
Near Diamond Head Monument (which was already closed by the time we got there) was a nice view back to the northeast. 
Our “circle” took us about 110 miles today – not bad for 10 hours!
We got our rental car back to the parking garage around 7:00 and headed to the little beach restaurant where we hoped to have dinner. No luck – 1-1/2 hour wait!
It was a long day, so we decided to head back to the condo and regroup. After deciding on pizza, we headed out. Our first choice was closed (A Slice of Waikiki) even though their sign said 10pm, so on to Giovanni’s. We opted for take-out and brought it back to the condo, finally getting dinner about 8:30!
It was a fun day and while there was a lot of traffic, the driving wasn’t really that bad. I enjoyed just spotting beaches and pulling over for a while to watch the waves.
Tomorrow is a “relax and hang out at the beach” day, and unfortunately, our last day here. A hui hou aloha and mana'o nahenahe. (goodnight and sweet dreams)
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