Oahu 2023 - Day 6

 Since I believed my official time of isolation was over, I took a bus to Pearl Harbor. There weren't any tours available, but I learned a lot going through the 2 parts of the museum and hearing, seeing, reading about what went on that Sunday morning. It was gruesome and the whole harbor was filled with ships of various sizes. I had no idea there were so many vessels there. The scale was not something I had known. The other side of the museum described the world and what led up to the war and the attack. That was very interesting and it also shared how the Japanese American civilians and servicemen were treated and how it affected their honor, which was incredibly important to them. I can see why people recommend going and I'm glad I did. I didn't make it to the Arizona memorial, which I'm told is very moving.

I caught the bus back and both ways I got to see downtown Honolulu, including the Iolani Palace and a bit of the Bishop Museum. I would like to go to at least the palace, if I go back. I got off the bus a little past my hotel so I could get some garlic shrimp, which the north shore is famous for, and I didn't want to miss. I went to Sam's Kitchen and got the shrimp w/ spicy garlic sauce and made it "da plate" to get a scoop of macaroni/potato salad, white rice, and a salad. It was all very good. The shrimp were cooked perfectly and were pretty big. The mac salad had plenty of salt and I liked the potato part better than the mac and don't have the desire to start mixing the two together and keep with w separate salads. It was also good they didn't give huge scoops and really. It was a good few bites and let me enjoy the shrimp with some contrasting tastes. I brought it back to the apartment and ate it on the deck and watched the sunset on the ocean.

Small Tent City in Downtown Honolulu

Oahu 2023 - Day 5

Since I'm here in the winter, I needed to take advantage of the humpback whale migration. I cancelled the original tour I had, that also gave time to snorkel with sea turtles. The thought of going underwater when being congested was completely unappealing. I booked a trip that was just whale watching and we didn't see much, as far as whales go, but it was still an amazing day to be on the water. 

We also had the unusual sighting of a submarine going out to sea. The captain said this is only the 2nd one he's ever seen. If you click to see the original photo, you can barely see it, but it's there.

Canoers

View of Diamond Head (Lē‘ahi)

Waikiki

I got summer rolls around the corner after the watch, to eat at the Ala Moana park, next to the harbor. The captain had said there was a sea turtle near the dock and I was able to walk near there and if you look very closely, you may be able to see the turtle. At first I thought it was wishful thinking, but then I saw the head come up and then go back down and after a few times, I was convinced it was actually a turtle. Mostly the picture was to remind myself of the sighting. 

Later that evening, back at the resort, I went to get some pizza and on the way, wanted to take a picture of these very pretty koi and other fish that were all in the ponds they have around the place.

Oahu 2023 - Day 4

Today I spent a couple hours laying on the beach. You can see the tasty passion fruit smoothie w/ boba i got for breakfast. It was relaxing and warm and relaxing.

I'm pretty sure I headed back to the room for a bit because the street fair - Honolulu Festival, started at 4pm. It was down on the street that runs parallel to the ocean (moana) and a big shopping district. They closed the street off and there were vendors on both sides of the street. I thought I try something local and had a fried noodle dish. It was ok. I also got poi mochi and banana butter mochi. Now those were wonderful. So good I'm glad there aren't places that I know of, to get it in MA. 

I went over to the beach to see if they were going to be having the luau that is usually on Saturdays and Tuesdays, but they weren't that night, I'm assuming because of the festival. I did get to enjoy the beach sunset!

 

Oahu 2023 - Day 3

I got up this morning, after another good night's sleep, and realized something was off with me. I'd been assuming since I got here that I was tired/dehydrated from the flight, tired/dehydrated from the hike/walking, but tired and feeling like I have a cold isn't the same. I tested positive for covid. I stopped and got a test on my way to the beach. Tried to find a discrete place to take the test and doubt I was invisible as I wished. Actually had to sit on a wall in front of the Valentino store. Oops. The line came up immediately and I looked at the instructions, because maybe I was remembering wrong about line/no line, but unfortunately no. I remembered correctly. I never had it and am humbled because I thought I never would. I can't figure out if I have a fever or not. I've had chills the past couple of days when I've been in the apartment, but I'm often cold and it's not that hot. The beach today was nice and warm.

I can't even think about all the people I've been around on this trip. I'm bummed that I can't do everything I planned but at least much is outdoors and I will be able to do those things. I'm still masking when I'm outside with people and trying to stay away from everyone inside. 

So the fun stuff - 

I brought my own snorkel and goggles. I didn't use the snorkel because I couldn't get it the goggles clipped on it and didn't want to ask anyone for help. That wasn't a problem though. It took me a while to get in the water - it is about 75 degrees, so not bath water and I'm a big wimp. Once I got in, I was actually surprised to taste the salt. I was so concerned about the temperature that I totally didn't think about it. I swam around a bit. I wanted to be careful and not touch the rocks and coral and I saw a yellow fish, a blue fish, and I think a sea urchin in the coral. I also saw a really beautiful Po¯haku puna (Lobe coral).

So far, that's it for today - came back here and wrote this up and chatted with a couple people and think I'm ready to take a little nap. 

Oahu 2023 - Day 2

I'm writing this half laying on the couch. According to Google Fit, I walked 8.5 miles - 18,770 steps. Part of it was my inputting the directions in Google Maps to Diamond Head State Monument, by bus. I first walked through a beautiful park right near the hotel that I will definitely go to again. I kept going thought I must have missed something and felt I should have gotten to the bus stop by now... Checked the phone and it had me walking to the volcano. It is only a 45 min. walk from the hotel, but I decided to find the closest bus to take instead. It seems as though many people were planning to go there today! The bus got packed and we got off and then walked up the hill to the entrance to the park. Then I got an audio tour and set out. There were lots of people, which I had been told about. You do have to have patience because there are people of all ages and speed. I'm not sure how many of them weren't breathing hard after the steps though!

When I was done with the hike, I had the tough decision of where I was going to eat. It was only 11:30 and I thought I'd go back towards Waikiki. There's one place called The Rainbow Drive-in that I saw on tv, but the food there is comfort food and after that walk, I wasn't in the mood. I decided to take the bus in that direction and go to Maguro Spot, another place I saw on tv. They have poke bowls and yes, it was great. It's very much like a deconstructed sushi roll. I had the Rainbow Bowl with white rice, tobiko, and sea asparagus. There was tuna, salmon, cooked shrimp, and I think that's it. I sat at a table outside and a bit later this nice young woman asked if she could sit and I learned she is an airline attendant and is on a layover. She came in at 10 pm and is leaving at 10pm, on Alaska Air, where she is from. She's only been flying for a year and is still on standby. She got the call to take the flight and Anchorage was in the middle of a blizzard, so she was happy to get out of there. Driving to the airport wasn't great though! She told me she went to a cat cafe today and spent an hour without even realizing it. She also said the beach was really crowded and lots of people surfing, so that's where I went next. 

It was crowded and there were lots of people surfing. They also have a walkway the runs the whole length of the beach. I went down to where I thought was good snorkeling and found the spot. It's called Queen's Beach and I walked out on a jetty (Waikiki Wall) and that's where I took the video of the water, shown below.  It was really windy and the wall is about 3 feet wide and I knew I wasn't going to blow over, but I did have to brace myself, as this little woman next to me couldn't have been bothered less! We watched the fish together. A couple were feeding them, which is why they were so feisty. I don't remember such big fish when snorkeling in the Caribbean. I'm not sure you can see in the video anything, but they were big blue ones, thin blue ones, that looked like pin-nose somethings, and yellow ones.

Ok - looked them up (https://www.honolulu.gov/rep/site/dpr/dpr_docs/hbep_fish_id_card.pdf) and it seems like the big blue ones are pualu, Yellowfin Surgeon fish. The thin, long ones must be Trumpetfish (blue morph). I have no idea what the yellow ones were. These were in the pond at the hotel - ´āwela - Christmas Wrasse (male) Thalassoma trilobatum

After looking at the beach I went in search of something sweet and refreshing sounded better than baked goods, so there may be 2 or 3 options on every block. One that sounded good to me was a place called "Ice Monster". It is shave ice and fresh fruit and sorbet and very good. I had mango. That was fun eating on the walk back to the hotel. I thought I'd be able to sit and eat it in that lovely park, but I was done before I got there. It also was spontaneously showering during the walk back and I'd seek shelter with others under an awning, give it 15 seconds, it would lighten to a mist, so move on the the next time it got heavier. It was also sunny, which made it nice.

Here are some photos of my journeys:

One of the lookouts on the way up

me in front of the lookout

An idea of the number of people that were there 

I went up the steps shown on the left and came down the steps to the right. There are 74 to go up and 99 going down. 

Maguro Spot

Banyan Tree

different view

me on the wall

Moana Surfrider, A Westin Resort & Spa, Waikiki Beach

Birds - Red Crested Cardinals

Oahu 2023 - Day 1

 I ended up not sleeping much and had assumed that would be the case, so I planned very little for today and that's what I've done so far. I went out around 8 AM and got doughnuts at this place around the corner called, "Kpop Donuts Hawaii" - https://goo.gl/maps/qYHKEPbw2Qp8h8T49. They were made with rice flour and were technically mochi doughnuts. I got a combo of these small balls with blueberry and strawberry filling. There was also a plain one and one dipped in chocolate. The chocolate was more like chocolate sauce, which isn't my favorite, but the fruit filled ones were very good. They were really chewy and tasted like real fruit. I took them to the beach to eat them. I would recommend people get 2 or 3. 4 was too much chewing, really.

After the beach, I meandered back to the apartment and relaxed until I had to go to my appointment with the Hilton sales people. I am proud of myself - I said no. I took the $150 in visa gift cards and got out of there. He did make me a great offer and I was thinking seriously about it, but then realized if I switch to being able to travel every year, I'd still have to pay for the airfare, food, maintenance on the condo, etc. So when he came back, he asked and I said, "no" and he said good because they weren't going to let him give me that deal anyway! lol

I then went to the ice cream place across the street and continued my meals of desserts and had a small (yay me!) passion fruit (lilikoi) sorbet and pineapple cake. Very, very good and lesson learned - get the ice cream on the bottom of the sorbet. As you can imagine, there wasn't enough resistance to easily scoop the ice cream. The place was Lappert's Hawaii - https://goo.gl/maps/GRXSrfSrACruvBMr8

I took it and walked towards the pool and after I finished, went in and fount a chaise lounge and was going to lay in the sun and take a nap but then it started raining and the sun went in and it was cold and I'm laughing at myself because this is sounding like a very sad story, and it's not, but I really did want to be warm and dry. So far it's been really windy here - 20 mph. I was worried the sand would blow, but it didn't at all, which is wonderful. It's really so windy walking around in some areas where there are passages that make wind tunnels, that it's just funny. 

I don't know what I'm doing tonight. I think I'll go now to this market and get some provisions for the next few days. Certainly something healthier for breakfast than doughnuts. I'll have to save those for my afternoon snack. 😀

-----

Later I did go to the market and got a few things for easy meals here. I ate then went to the Tiki's Bar & Grill, the big outdoor bar area and it was packed. I had a glass of wine, because it was really cold and I didn't want any tropical drinks with ice, and listened to a band. It was one for people my age - they took requests and then the male lead singer came out and did a neil diamond impersonation and sang sweet caroline for 10 min. with the crowd all doing the ba ba ba ba ba and all that. as well as some interesting dance moves! It always surprises me that people outside our area know about that song. 

Then had a very good nights sleep!

Oahu 2023 Travel Day

 I don't have much to day about the plane rides. They were long. I ate a bucket of snack mix w. nuts, dried peas, etc. I listened to my book (The girl with all the gifts), I bought the wifi and the first plane trip it was worth it because I played my game. The 2nd ride was not. Luckily I sat next to a nice young man from Portland, OR and we talked for a bit. It was a really good conversation, actually. As I've heard before, if these kids are our future, we'll be in good shape. I did watch a movie on the first trip - The Come Up, based on the book of the same name, which I read a while ago. The book was better. Much better, actually. I also enjoyed a very long sunset. Big advantage of being on the west coast.

I put on another movie for the last part of the trip but I was going to say, I'm not remembering what it was, but I DO! I finished watching "Everything, Everywhere, All At Once". I stopped watching it after about 30 min the first try and couldn't get into it. I finished watching it on this flight and honestly, I thought it was ok. I get why they had so much fighting, but it was a lot of fighting. However, it made the time went by quicker, no puns intended.

I checked the price of Uber to the hotel, while on the plane and it was about $20. I decided not to take the bus, which would have been $3, but a half hour vs. 15 min. and it would be right to the door. When I got my luggage I checked again and it was now $28, but I was already committed and did it anyway. I'm glad I did. The driver told me about how she got to be living in Honolulu and her brother, who's an artist, and the different places she's lived. And she ended up dropping me at the main entrance to the Hilton Resort and I ended up walking to my hotel, which was farther in the back. As I was walking through, I was very tempted to stop for a drink. The whole place looked like a party! I ended up going to the room and amazing myself at how many things I got into my suitcase. Then I tried to sleep and got a few hours.

Las Vegas - Day 6

Inevitably the last day is a struggle between trying to relax because we had plenty of time, to not wanting to do anything too time consuming. So it wasn't the most exciting day but we still enjoyed ourselves. We went to Paris and found dim sum. How couldn't you enjoy dim sum?

 Then we walked and walked more, trying to stay out of the heat, really. We window shopped at the Bellagio and got lost by their banquet facilities. We did see the chocolate fountain and these beautiful desserts. More walking and then back to the room to chill before going to the airport. The last thing we needed to do was get a photo by the sign. I had no idea there would be so many people, but we waited for about 1/2 hour and here you go!

I can't say I'm the biggest fan of travel but this was pretty simple. Everything going home was on time and we actually got in at least 1/2 hour earlier than expected.

Stats: 4 hr 23 min, 8.81 miles (?)

Las Vegas - Day 5

Shara didn't want to sleep late so I was able to get her up about 10'ish. I suggested we go to Hoover Dam and we could get back in time to get to our reservation at Hell's Kitchen. Let's just say the Dam wasn't terribly exciting to Shara. I thought it was fascinating and impressive. The ride there was pleasant. We got to see some bigger hills and valleys and a bit of the state that was very different from Vegas.

medallion on the floor of the engine room - native american design, original floor still there.

So on to Hell's Kitchen, which was one of the more exciting parts of the trip. We had 4:30 reservations, the latest we could make. The atmosphere was festive and the place is quite big, with the open kitchen - one side red and the other blue. Everything is color coordinated with that theme.

 

Our waiter was very nice and helpful. It was no problem to split the tasting menu and the wagyu meatballs - slow roasted tomato sauce, polenta croutons, parmesan cheese, basil. Here is what is on the tasting menu, all the signature dishes.
first course; pan seared scallops - english pea puree, braised bacon lardons, pickled fennel
main course; beef wellington - potato puree, glazed root vegetables, red wine demi-glace
and for desserts, sticky toffee pudding w/ speculoos ice cream
It was good we split this because we couldn't even finish the meatballs. Shara also had a Agua Fresca (watermelon and agave) and I had a rhubarb mocktail with vodka. That is the only alcohol I had the whole trip. Obviously I'd rather eat my calories.




















Since we had an early dinner, we decided to walk up the Strip to check out the Fashion Show Mall. It was a nice mall and one store was having a $7 sale and we looked and looked for a nice dress for Shara but couldn't find one with a back and/or sides. Nope! They were quite cheap in all ways. There was a cute store there called Sugarfina with several alcohol flavored candies. A couple of trends we noticed were oxygen bars everywhere, one place at Linq had rehydration IV's to cure hangovers, lots of bath stores; bath bombs, cute soap that looks like desserts, etc. It was a nice mall. When we left we went to the Mandalay Bay to watch the Volcano erupt and then the long walk to the hotel.

Stats: 2 hr 34 min walking, 4.63 miles

Stats: 4 hr 23 min walking, 8.81 miles

Las Vegas - Day 4

Wednesday Shara suggested we get breakfast/brunch/lunch at Eggslut at the Cosmopolitan. She heard SLUT

about it a while ago on Instagram and since it was near, we were there! She had
cage-free coddled egg on top of a smooth potato purée, poached in a glass jar, topped with gray salt and chives, served with slices of baguette. I had FAIRFAX - cage-free soft scrambled eggs and chives, cheddar cheese, caramelized onions and sriracha mayo in a warm brioche bun. Both were quite good and it seemed like the thing to do, considering the line we waited in. I couldn't resist going to Milk Bar, which was right next door, and got an Iced Crack. They mix Crack ganache into espresso and milk. It was very good but I had to save it for the next day.

Our next stop in a whirlwind of a day was a trip to the Ethel M chocolate factory in Henderson. May as well make use of the car rental! We sampled the dark chocolate and learned that this is the fancy chocolate division of the Mars company. Personally my favorite candies are Mars/M&M. The chocolate tasted a lot like Dove candies. We of course had to get a box, which we haven't even touched yet. But when we get home I suspect we will. They do have very nice flavors. These are the ones we picked:

We also took a spin around their cactus garden. Shara said she had some Arizona trauma! We cut it a bit short because a storm was a brewin' and we weren't sure if the skies would open up or not, so we headed back to the store.

Our next stop was at the pinball hall of fame. We tried a number of $.25 games - very old and no special effects but it's amazing that there was such good action in the bands - these were certainly put back together with care. I found the Addams Family and Terminator, which I used to play all the time at Bogie's, and then played a number of Pirates of the Caribbean games. I really like that one. Shara's favorite was one with a medieval theme.

Our evening event was to check out the Fremont Experience in Downtown Vegas. Oh my, this didn't go over too well. Shara got quite an experience and not the one we were hoping for. It was really raunchy. There were women dancing on bars, loud loud music, weird street performers, and lots of homeless people. And there were other families there, so it wasn't just us who thought this was going to be a family activity. We basically looked for something to eat by going down the street and not seeing anything to eat. Shara wasn't comfortable going into a casino to eat and that was where most of the food was. I don't blame her - they were smoky and loud. So before it got fully dark we went back to the hotel/Miracle Mile and had Chinese fast food, which was actually good followed by a very late gelato from Sugar Factory. Won't do that again.

Stats: 2 hr 27 min walking, 4.61 miles