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.

Today has been jam-packed with history and new experiences. We woke up at 7 (which doesn’t seem early out here, for some reason) and got ready to leave by 8:15. We caught the 42 (yes, it’s out here, too!) for $2 each and read for the entire 50 minutes it takes to get to Pearl Harbor from our hotel.

Once you get there, you have to check your bags (it’s $3 to do that) and then you can get your free tickets for viewing the movie and boarding the ferry to the USS Arizona Memorial. We arrived well before 10, but had to wait 1 1/2 hours to view the movie and board the ferry. Our original tickets would have been for 12:30, but a very kind young lady gave us hers as she was leaving. Woot! In the meantime, we read about Pearl Harbor and the December 7th attack. I guess I didn’t really know about the reasons for the attack, or the fact that so many different places on the island were attacked. Interestingly, there was a “Goff,” “Cox,” and “Ogle” on the registry of killed soldiers on the USS Arizona. I had no idea that those who were killed were never extracted from the ship, probably because scuba gear was not yet invented. Interestingly, the 1800 Japanese-Americans who were interned from Hawaii were never discussed. At any rate, the museum with the personal effects of the soldiers, the not-yet-exploded torpedo they found as late as the early 1990s, and the model of the Arizona were informative while we waited for our video and tour to the memorial. The memorial itself moved me, surprisingly. The cut-away that allowed you to look into the sunken ship, the engraved wall, and the leis floating on the water brought home the reality of what the ship still contained. It also contains over 500,000 gallons of fuel and oil, which still leaks daily.

This adventure took us a good 4 hours, so on the almost 1-hour trip back, we read again and rested. We ended up going through Chinatown on our way to Iolani palace, the only permanent residence of a monarch in the U.S. It was built in the late 1800s just two blocks from the ocean at the time. Now it is surrounded by high-rise buildings but still has lovely, ancient-looking trees on its well-kept grounds. After coffee, we toured the building in record time. We had to wear little blue booties over our feet and had to stow our bags. We got an audio tour (’cause that’s the thing to do around here) and made our way from room to room, marveling at the electric lights they had before the White House or Buckingham Palace, as well as their pull-chain toilets. I loved the koa wood staircase, the quilt made by Queen Lili’uokalani while she was imprisoned in her own palace, and the different types of leis in the basement. Unfortunately, the o’o bird used to make the capes and leis worn by the royalty are no longer around. Another interesting fact: the Hawaiian government was overthrown in 1893 and annexed by the US in 1898. President Clinton righfully apologized for this during his presidency.

With a little history under my belt, it was time for some walking, cleaning up, and eating. We walked from the bus stop through Ala Moana Shopping Center to our hotel, and got refreshed before dinner. We had a glorious multi-course dinner with Amy and Shannon’s families and friends (maybe 30 of us) at Happy Days Chinese Restaurant. We had tofu and shrimp egg drop soup, roasted honey walnut shrimp (my favorite), breaded oysters, breaded ribs, noodles, crab, rice, roast duck, duck buns (?), and an almond gelatin for dessert. This all took 3 hours.

Now we are recovering and watching Wimbledon. The movie, not the sport.

Tomorrow we will visit the Polynesian Cultural Center for an IMAX and Luau and much more. Yippee!