Honolulu

Aloha!

I was fortunate to spend an entire week in Hawaii, where the winter weather was pleasant, with temperatures in the upper 70s. I explored Oahu, primarily around Waikiki. 

While I could spend the next 3 paragraphs on things to do in Hawaii, I'll provide a quick checklist here to save you the trouble - and for you to keep handy for your future travels to Hawaii! (or similar to how I used ChatGPT to write my Atlanta post, you could also ask it to create an itinerary as well).

• Beach, Beach, Beach

• Food, Food, Food (Poke, LauLau, Loco Moco, Spam Musubi, Macaroni Salad…)

• Hula Dancing, ukulele playing, Lei making 

• Diamond Head hike

• Swap Meet & Marketplace

• Watching the sunset on the west side

• Pickup Basketball

Unsurprisingly, pickup basketball proved to be one of the more challenging items on my to-do list. Hawaii boasts an abundance of well-maintained courts scattered throughout the island. However, the real challenge lay in beating the winter rain and, of course, finding a court where people actually played.

Before embarking on my quest to explore the various courts across the island, there was a prerequisite: I had to procure the official basketball jersey of Hawaii for my pickup games—an aloha shirt.

Now armed with my basketball gear, I was off to find a pickup basketball court

Crane Community Park

I went here 5 days in a row and never saw more than 3 people shooting around

Kānewai Basketball Courts

I went here 5 days in a row and only once did I see a group of people finishing up 3x3 one day but never got the chance to join them.

Kaimukī Playground

They had an indoor court here as well but it was closed for renovations during the time I visited. Came here 3 days of the week and never saw more than 2 people shooting around. 

Picture Of A Chicken

I saw a chicken in Hawaii and wanted to share it with you

Paki Community Park

More people playing pickleball than basketball!

Kapāolono Community Park

Not much happening here

Ala Wai Neighborhood Basketball Courts

Finally a court with enough people to play a game. There was a game of 4v4 already running and once I got there, I just had to call next. Fortunately for me, the next team didn’t have 4 yet so I just hopped on to the next game. I was hoping we could eventually run 5x5 full but it didn’t seem like people were interested in doing that. The courts were looking kind of bigger than regulation so running half was probably for the best.

Games were played by 1’s and 2’s (ew) to 15. I would have expected the games to take forever (because math) but for whatever reason, everyone was hitting their shots and each game lasted no more than 15 minutes each. Games moved fast and players were eager to jump on the next games so be ready to start playing once there!

Conclusion

I visited all the courts on multiple evenings between 6-10 pm for a week, and, for some reason, could only find games being played at the Ala Wai Neighborhood Basketball Courts. Whether it was bad luck, timing, or rain that deterred people, I found it surprising that I could only play games on one court throughout the entire week. Could it be that pickleball mania has taken over?

Of the five courts I visited, four of them had pickleball games instead of basketball. One notable aspect I appreciated was that all these courts were well-maintained by the city, offering a fun/safe environment with lights (turned off at 10 pm) and ample space for various fitness activities.