Hawaii day 15 and it's time to go home

Made a pot of complimentary Kona coffee and cinnamon buns hot from

the microwave for breakfast and now at 10:30a.m. relaxing and enjoying

this rad condo until the very last minute when we must leave at 12 noon.

Our flight home isn't until 10 p.m. tonight, yikes, whatever will we do

with 10 hours and nowhere to nap or to call home. Whoever made these

stupid arrangements kinda sucks; oh yeah, it was moi, note to self; don't

ever do this again..... 

 So off to visit the Fort DeRussy Army museum next door to learn more 

of the history of Oahu and to look at pics and artifacts and read and see

the info. Videos were playing here and there, even a Disney Donald Duck

version. Too bad we saw only old folk in there who already knew more or

less what happened here; the young 'uns are surfing and playing volleyball

on the beach and that's ok, i guess they already know. I find the refreshing

of memory and history to be always gut wrenching but valuable as it makes

one appreciate it more i think. It breaks my heart knowing what happened

here on this beautiful island but i don't want to ever forget it either.  

Fort DeRussy Park from our condo

Pearl Harbor

We then walked west down the beach the opposite way and found a

cool place to have lunch outside (why does the chicken in Hawaii 

taste so much better than anywhere else? Prior to this my best chicken

was from the General Store in Paia, Maui) Fed some of

the birds that came to our table even though the sign said not to but

one was a friendly semi-invalid who needed to rest often; he had a

wing a little of of whack so who wouldn't? A huge soft ice cream cone

topped me off then we looped back through Fort DeRussy Park and 

spent some time sitting in the cool shade of a beautiful big ol' tree.

What to do now and it's only 4p.m. and 6 hours until we fly and Bob

doesn't want to get on a bus, especially one with a free trip to Hilo

Hattie's lol,, although i suggested it as a way to at least kill some time and so

 i could check out her neighbourhood.

i surprised a little gecko on a big plant, well actually he surprised me

we sat awhile under a big shade tree in Fort DeRussy Park

Back at Starbucks in the Reef i ordered a salty caramel mocha and was given

hot coffee; aww sheesh, my mistake i forgot to say Frappacino again but it

was good so not really complaining; note to self - make sure to always say

Frappacino or you'll get it hot dammit!

Vacation is almost over....7:45 p.m. and we are waiting at our gate already

and it feels like a sauna in here. A sign says this is a WiFi zone and again i

can't get on it; how the heck do people figure this out. Pop-ups of strange

sounding sites that i've never even heard of like Shaka or something and

they want my password? Then there's pop ups with games and then up pops

Visa and Mastercard etc. saying i should pay which i didn't expect; i thought

WiFi was supposed to be free. Ok, so much for this WiFi stuff, IPad 2 is way

 beyond me and it's sort of stressful because i see people all over the place

looking all comfy and in the know using them but i won't bother them to ask,

after all they're on vacation and i can wait until we get home and back on the

desktop. Do IPads or phones even get virus'es? I'll have to take the time to

learn all this before we go to Hawaii again which hopefully won't be too far

off because it's just the most awesome place to be.

Aloha everyone and mahalo for reading!

Hawaii day 14

Can life get better than this? Started off the day with Starbucks; their
coffee frappachino is much better than at home or maybe it just seems
so and that's ok when you're in Hawaii; their coffee is by far the best.
I love this place so much and for many years Maui was my fav.
Island and Oahu second best. Now on this trip i realise the things
i enjoyed doing on Maui are not really things i can do anymore but
Oahu will always have tons of things to see and do no matter how old
and feeble we get we'll still be able to enjoy visiting here so Oahu is
#1 now. Waikiki Beach is especially cool; i love being amongst
crowds of people and the whole tourist scenerio here.

hustle and bustle in Waikiki

The Royal Hawaiian Pink Palace; we saw a beautiful wedding party walk
thru as we stopped to have a little rest in their lobby

Near our doorway looking down 5 floors. Is it a surfboard graveyard?

Nice wide sidwalks for strolling along the beach

Arrowhead plant

Gianormous swiss cheese plant

Walking through the Royal Hawaiian shipping center today i got
caught by a guy selling beauty creams with gold flakes in 'em and
special salts to defoliate the skin. Truth is he sort of captured me
and by the time i realized i was caught he had placed a scoop of
these salts in my hand and Bobs too so we had to go along with his
sales pitch. The salts did make my hands feel nice and soft and then
he said i looked so young as he slathered stuff all over one side of
my face so then i was hooked for sure and thought i'd have to buy his
products because (A) i'd want to or (B) only one side of me was
being improved and i'd end up half beautiful and half not. When he
was finished fussing on me he raved on about the improvement
pointing it out in a mirror and i was starting to believe him but Bob
insisted i looked the same, just shinier on the one side and he said his
hands didn't feel any different so that made the get-away a little easier.

We stopped for lunch and i had a chicken and avocado sandwich, pop
and a cookie and just now remembered i had ordered fries as well but
didn't get 'em and it's just as well. Back in the condo Bob was down for
a nap so i went up to the penthouse floor to get the fabulous classic pics
of Diamond Head at the end of the building on the opposite side then
went downstairs and got a manicure; fuchsia pinkish with one glittery
nail on each hand.
No, these arn't professional picture postcards; i took 'em myself....
IPad is pretty awesome after all

another view from the 14th floor

Dinner at the same place as last night and another good band, this one
with white girl hula dancers so not quite as good as the all Hawaiian
group.We now both agree that Maui is out and Oahu is in but i added
the stipulation that a longer stay and a car would be a must for next
time so we can get out of the city and do it at our own pace and
have enough time to look for "Lost" film locations, Dog the
Bounty Hunter and such and maybe by then it'll be time revisit the
Polynesian Cultural Center, Chinatown, the north shore and botanical
gardens etc. We both love Hawaii and hope to visit again in the next
year or two, God willing.

After dinner Bob surprised me by walking to the jewelry store where
i had mentioned that yesterday i spotted an unusual ring and he must
have liked it too and he bought it for me probably because of it's cool
smoothness, and the blue, green, purple and aqua patterns coming from
within it like soft neon lights shining through the dark. It's a simple
band design, glossy yet silky feeling; made of tungsten, so hard as steel, a
ring that somehow fits all my fingers and even my thumb and it feels so
right; a beautiful unique piece that i loved upon first sight to add to my
Hawaiian collection.

We walked out onto the beach and admired the ocean with it's white
ribbons of surf gently rolling in and it's an unbelievably beautiful
sight. One of the best things ever is Waikiki at night, walking on the
beach, listening to Hawaiian music drifting on the breeze and stopping
at each hotel along the way.The place even smells fabulous, all the time!
As we gazed out at the stars we counted 6 planes in the night sky within
our view and even that seemed extra special. People come and people go
and fortunate are those who experience beautiful blue Hawaii.

Back in the condo a rerun of Mary Tyler Moore that must have been
about 40 yrs old and it was a great ending for our second day in
beautiful Waikiki Beach.

Hawaii day 13 Waikiki here we come

We were up and about way too early but who can sleep with
Stu the cruise director announcing the same old stuff over the
p.a. Guess they want us off here to get ready for the new people
and those who are self dis-embarking can get off now.
So off we took to find a long line-up of do-it-yourself travelers but it
moved fast and soon we were waving goodbye to the Spirit and in a cab
heading to beautiful downtown Waikiki. Found our condo easily; it's a part
of the Outrigger Reef on the Beach and right beside it but of course we
were way too early for 3p.m.check-in so dumped our luggage and headed
downto the Shorebird in the Reef for their fabulous breakfast buffet.

Kalakaua Ave. has grown and changed since the last time we were here and
it's all good; it's a one-way street now and there's nice new sidewalks all
over and new shops along with the old favourites and all very bright and
shiny clean.

The International Marketplace has what appears to be exactly the same stalls
and maybe even some of the same sellers; lots of the same goods like we noticed on
the other islands and just a little cheaper.Took lots of pictures and videos of
Waikiki Beach with my new IPad that didn't turn out because it was so bright
out guess i thought i was hitting the button but apparently no where near it.
Whatever, lost a lot of good stuff i thought i had and is that yet another flaw
of the IPad 2?  If so i think a stick-out button is needed instead of a flush
invisible one that you can't see or feel in bright sunlight.Or is it just me?
Stopped at the IPhone 5 store on our way back and had a different
question answered but didn't yet know about the pic scenario. Bought a new
watch at the Swatch store and macadamia nuts for gifts at our closest ABC
store then came back to the Reef On The Beach and collapsed with a
margarita in the lobby.

Soon we were lead to our suite and it was a very pleasant surprise; big,
clean, cool, bright and white and green with nice big windows for great
ocean and city views plus all the amenities and really good security. We
were very happy to find these great digs cuz you just never know when
shopping online. However, it had a network and Wifi pw that didn't
work but then, been w/o the web for 12 days because it sucked on the ship
(slow and expensive) so a couple more won't hurt cuz i've found it it's too
heavy and a cumbersome size to be packing an IPad around.Have no idea
what's been going on at home or in the world since 09-17th and it's a good
thing hockey hasn't begun as i wouldn't have been able to access it online.
We used to know where to find a Province newspaper in Waikiki but forget
now and maybe it's not even available anymore cuz nobody else has to buy
an actual paper newspaper anymore.

We had an nice unexpected surprise this afternoon when we spotted the
Spirit from the lanai as she sailed out of the harbor looking all grand and
stately and headed down under to a beautiful new life, yayy go Spirit! I
took a pic but now can't find it.

From our windows and lanai we can see the big commercial jetliners and the
military both coming and going out of Honolulu and there's one leaving
every minute or less and at times two can often be seen at once.This place
holds the distinction of being the only condo on Waikiki Beach; all the rest
are hotels and although it is a very nice place to rent for a couple days the
price to purchase a unit in here is close to or over a million and that's all
about the sunset, ocean and location,location, location.

Let's go surfing

There's a bird man here too!

hmmm, now which one should i ride

Now this is the life!

on the edge at the end of the hall

Had dinner at the Kani Ka Pila grille as we forgot to reserve the Shorebird
and were actually lucky to get in with just a 45 min. wait. Entertainment
was a super local band with hula dancers. One cute lil' wahine was about
4 years old who loved performing. She had great rhythm and will
undoubtably become a famous Hawaiian entertainer some day.