Ko Olina Lagoons

Lagoon #2

We had heard great things from family and some of Joe's coworkers about the Ko Olina Lagoons.  These are a set of 4 man-made lagoons about 20 minutes from our house.  Each lagoon has it's own charm and the first 3 lagoons are between resorts and the ocean.  We parked at the 4th lagoon and walked down a nice, paved walking path to check out all of them and settled on the 2nd lagoon with it being the least crowded (the first lagoon was associated with the Disney resort there and was insanely packed).  We've been told there is another natural lagoon along a path at the end of the lagoons, but we didn't get a chance to check it out on this trip.

Talk about beautiful.  Each lagoon had it's own charm and character, but we thought this one was especially nice and peaceful.  Even on a Saturday, it wasn't overcrowded (now the parking lots...that's another story).  We spent the better part of a day laying out in the sun, swimming around the lagoon (didn't think to bring our mask and snorkel, next time!), and snoozing under the umbrellas.  An added benefit of this area is there are restrooms and showers at each lagoon and all of the resorts have restaurants you can stop in for lunch or dinner if you didn't pack a cooler.  Some of the lagoons have big lounge chairs and cabanas you can rent or wide open space to set up your own camp.  We did wish we had extra umbrellas though because it got hot, hot, hot by the time we left late afternoon.

Now it may have been because it was the least crowded or maybe it was at every lagoon, but being on a Saturday we were witness to many wedding pictures being taken.  I'm hoping their photographers are good at Photoshopping people out of pictures because there were some not so attractive beached bodies in the background of their pictures.

We really enjoyed this area, even if it was more designed for tourists than locals (though many locals take advantage of these areas as well).   We even ended up coming back for dinner at a great restaurant called Monkeypod that night.  One of the few letdowns of the area we are living in is the lack of established restaurants.  We have only found one or two that really give you the restaurant feel (most look like take-out joints with a few tables to eat at).  At Monkeypod, the food was great and we had an awesome spot on their patio near their live music set-up.  I'm not sure who it was they had singing, but she was very good.  And the sunset from the patio was out of this world (see below).  Right by the restaurant are a few shops that I'm sure I'll be visiting again during our stay in Hawaii.  Overall, it was a really awesome day and I can't wait to come back and spend some more time at the other lagoons or venture out to the natural lagoon.  There's also another spot near here called Paradise Cove that is known for its sea turtles swimming right up to people, but that adventure will be for another day...

Sunset from Monkeypod patio