If you’re driving through Laie on a Sunday, then it’s likely that is all you will be doing. That’s because everything is pretty much closed, so there’s no real reason to stop. Even Hukilau Beach is closed on Sundays.
Laie, located on the east side of Oahu, has a very large Mormon population. In fact, the Brigham Young University Hawaii campus is located out there, so day-of-rest-Sundays are taken very seriously. You probably won’t see many people outside on the streets either, so Laie can be pretty ghostly.
I remember driving out to the North Shore from Kaneohe and needing to stop for some bottled water and snacks. Foodland and smaller superettes in Laie would no doubt have those things – except, it was Sunday. We rolled up to a very empty parking lot with nothing but shopping carts that tumbleweeded across the asphalt.
That left a few different options for grocery shopping because other than those, it would be a while before we reached an actual supermarket. We ended up in the next town over in Kahuku and went to the superette for beach necessities.
On other days of the week, Laie looks like any other town. Kids peeping out of school buses, cars whizzing back and forth. But there’s still a calm about the place that I love and look forward to on those day trips to the North Shore.
