This was a chillin’ day. We didn’t leave the hotel until almost 11! We got up early enough (9 ish) but just had a hard time rolling out of the room after such a busy day Wednesday. Our main objective on this day was to accomplish as little as possible in a whole day by the beach. When we got to the lobby, Amy’s mom and aunt were just leaving and decided to give us each a beautiful, cool purple orchid lei. They also didn’t want to fly with their bamboo beach mats, so we ended up with three of those. Yippee! We wandered through the Hilton Hawaiian village to go to the beach and found an unoccupied spot. We promptly spread out our mats and sprawled on them, trying in vain to hold them down from the strong tradewinds. We were out there for almost three hours, swimming, sunning, reading, shielding our eyes from the occasional sandstorm. Around us were fellow sunbathers as well as beginner surfers and children playing on their boogie boards. We ended our afternoon on the beach with a picnic lunch in the little park nearby. Justin was so moved to try to scale a palm tree, inspired by a demo at the Polynesian Cultural Center. He didn’t get too far, but I am sure he could learn how.
After lunch, we trekked back to our hotel and I went to the pool for an hour. Justin had to set up a couple of new clients and I wanted to finish my book (Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim). Unfortunately there was an older gentleman persistently hitting on an older lady next to me, so I spent most of my time half-listening to their conversation rather than actually reading. I was entertained, but I decided to come upstairs and read on our lanai. I talked to my parents, drank some afternoon coffee, and finished my book.

Soon I got cleaned up because we had to get ready for dinner with our friends. We had to walk 1.5 miles to their hotel so they could pick us up to go to Ono’s, a Hawaiian restaurant.

We ate an early dinner due to the tiny restaurant’s popularity with natives and visitors alike. I’m not kidding–this place is tiny. Think Bobby’s in Searcy-sized. Now cut that in half, stir in some Hawaiian food, double the prices, and put all the food on hospital-pastel dishes. Now imagine it being REALLY yummy. I had chicken long rice, a noodle and chicken soup in a clear tomato (?) broth, rice, haupia (a gelatin made with coconut), a Hawaiian beef jerky (not too tough–it was obviously fresh), and a chopped salmon and tomato dish (like pico de gallo with chopped salmon in it). I tried some of Justin’s shredded, smoked pork. Yum!

After dinner, the ten of us made our way to a Malasada place called Leonard’s (Malasadas are Portuguese donuts).

On the way there, it began to sprinkle and we could see this amazing rainbow that stretched from the mountains to the ocean, it seemed. This made our walk go by quickly. When we got there, I found that this place was also tiny, and it didn’t have the most friendly of employees, but we gave them great business. I ordered one filled with coconut and one filled with chocolate for later. Both were fresh and warm, rolled in sugar. YUM!

When we said our goodbyes, Justin and I walked back toward our hotel, stopping in vain to inquire about bike rentals. We made our way through the international marketplace and picked up a boogie board for $13 and got a snorkel set for $25. It costs almost this much to rent, so we thought we could use these again sometime. We also saw a 2-story fish aquarium that you can walk through in one of the stores. I love manta rays, and there were a few in there, so we had fun in that tunnel for a while.

Once we got back to our room, we decided to stay in and watch the rest of Wimbledon and all of The Princess and the Warrior, starring Franka Potente. I slept through the middle of it, not because it was boring, but because I was lying down already and it had been a long day, but I got to see the end of it. We had to go to bed now that it was 1 a.m. because Friday morning we needed to catch the 8:15 bus a few blocks down the road.