Hawaii | Matthew Fox | Lanikai Beach | Lanikai Juice Bar
Related Topics
Related Articles
Beach Boy
by Mark Seal
Almost a decade later, he found even brighter fame
on Lost's mythical and mysterious island.
Premiering on September 22, 2004, the show was an immediate hit,
and so was Fox, who has regularly earned awards and nominations,
including a 2006 Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor in a
Drama. The role came with a major side benefit: Fox, his wife, and
their two children had to move to Oahu. He tells me his daughter's
first reaction was emotional. "We were still in California, and I
was just telling her that we were going to be moving to Hawaii for
at least a year," he says. "She started crying. I was not sure
where that was coming from. I said, 'Baby, what's wrong?' And she
said, 'Daddy, these are tears of happiness. I'm so happy to be
going; I'm crying tears of happiness.'?" Things got even better
from there. Here's the life Matthew Fox and his family found after
arriving in Hawaii to get Lost.
How did you discover Oahu?
My daughter's nine, so it would have been about eight years ago.
The first time we ever came to Hawaii, we came to Oahu to spend
about a week with a couple we had met in Los Angeles. They have
been family friends for almost 10 years now. We both had young
children at the time, and we just hung out and enjoyed the island.
They had some friends here, so they showed us around a bit, and we
did some surfing and generally just kind of fell in love with the
place. Since then, we have been coming pretty much every year - you
know, at least once a year for a vacation. My wife and kids had
fallen in love with it so much that we used to sort of joke about
what it would be like if I got a job and shot
here.
Where did you stay the first time
you went there? We stayed at what I think is called the
Ihilani now, over on the west side of the island. That was the
first place that we ever stayed. It's a big resort. Very nice. I
think that is where all the NFL players stay when they come for the
Pro Bowl. It has some man-made lagoons. It's a little manicured,
but it's beautiful.
What do the kids like to do
there? Where do you take them? They spend all their time in
the ocean or in the pool. We have both. It's the first time that we
have ever had a pool. And we have the ocean 25 yards in front of
the house. They love it. My little boy has just turned five, so he
has been here for a couple of years. He actually learned to swim
here, and he is just a fish now. He spends lots of time out in the
waves by himself; we watch from the beach, but he is really totally
fearless and has a ball. My daughter has always been that way about
the water. They spend a lot of time outdoors, which is great to
see. I really feel great about that.
Where do you start your
day? I have my favorite little coffee shop that I go to
every day. It's in Kailua, right next to where I live. It's a few
minutes' drive from my house, and it's a family-run joint. It's
called Muddy Waters, which I think is, like, the coolest
coffee-shop name. With that name, as you might imagine, they play a
ton of blues music, which is great because I'm a big music fan and
a big fan of the blues. They constantly are playing great music in
there, and they also have live bands that come in on Friday and
Saturday nights occasionally and play music outside. It's a really
cool place, and they make great coffee too. I'm sort of a
standard-coffee guy. I don't go for all the really fancy stuff. I'm
more for sort of a house brew with cream and sugar, but their
coffee is good. There are a bunch of nice people in there. They
know me and I know them, so it's no big deal when I walk in there.
Sometimes I take my kids in there, and they get chocolate milk and
stuff.
What's your favorite
beach? My favorite beach is the beach that I live on, Kailua
Beach. I think it is totally underrated. Lanikai Beach is the beach
that gets all the press on the east side. Lanikai Beach is more
crowded because it has this massive reputation of being the really
hot beach. Kailua Beach never has anybody on it. It's much wider.
You actually get some waves coming in; Lanikai Beach has reefs all
across it, so there are never any waves coming in. It has a sandy
bottom, so it's great for the kids.
What are some of your other
favorite haunts? I'm a huge fan of Lanikai Juice Bar. They
use all fresh fruit, and they just make really incredible, really
healthy smoothies and juices. I love it. It's a family-run thing,
and all the people that work there are really cool. It's a nice
place to go to get something for breakfast. We go with the kids to
Lanikai Juice quite a bit. They really enjoy that, and that's
always fun. They get geared up for that.
What are your landmarks on
Oahu? My favorite place is Kualoa Ranch. We shoot up in
there a lot on Lost, actually. I think it's considered to be sort
of a sacred place for the Polynesians. It's absolutely beautiful.
Ka'a'awa Valley is just unbelievably pretty. It's a really big,
open valley that you don't see until you drive right past the mouth
of it, and then this incredible valley opens up and goes way back
into the island. It's just really, really beautiful, and it has a
really special feel about it.
Can you hike there? Do you drive
through it? What do you do there? Well, I'm not quite sure.
I've always spent my time in there with the production, but I think
it's privately owned by a big ranching family that's been there for
many, many years. I'm not sure about the restrictions on getting in
there. But it's certainly worth it if you can get in. I know you
can do tours up in there from that ranch. I see people on horseback
all the time, and I see people up there on four-wheelers. So there
is definitely somebody taking tours up through
there.
Do you like to drive up to the
North Shore? I do the North Shore drive all the time. Yeah,
it's a pretty drive. My favorite drive is down around the
southeastern part of the island, where the road is winding around
all these cliffs. It's absolutely beautiful. That's my favorite
drive. Any opportunity I get, I make that drive and then stop.
There are a lot of turnouts, and you stop and you are up on these
cliffs, looking out over the ocean. There are a lot of places where
the surf is huge, and it hits these cliffs, and the waves will
spray up in the air, like, 40 feet. It's just really powerful and
majestic, open and beautiful.
Okay, where do you eat?
Well for sushi, you go to Sushi Sasabune, which is the best sushi
restaurant on the island, in my opinion. It's on South King Street.
It's, oh my goodness, it's just the best fish there is. They don't
do any cooked fish there at all. It's all raw fish. They are pretty
strict about how you eat the sushi. They have pretty strong rules
about that, but if you follow the rules, it's the best fresh fish
you are ever going to eat in Hawaii. I think Sushi Sasabune has a
really charming ambience.
What are the rules? Well,
you eat sushi in one bite. You don't put soy sauce on certain
sushi, because they have prepared their own type of sauce. They
just have a couple of rules; you follow those, and you will be
okay. I usually just eat a lot of baby bluefin tuna; they do
fantastic tuna and albacore. They also have the most incredible
crab rolls. I order off the menu and sort of pick the things I
like.
Share Your Comments