Aloha – March 7 – 9/14 Weekend
Friday afternoon was a shopping day. We went back to Walmart for made-in-Hawaii shirts for both of us, then off to Don Quijote’s to restock groceries. On the walk back Todd remarked that I should slow down to “island speed”, but with the heavy backpack, I just wanted to get back. – Good thing…. The sky over the water was black and you could see it was raining. We just got into the room, when the floodgates opened…. Even in the rain, this place is beautiful – still able to sit out on the balcony and enjoy the warmth, waiting for the rain to pass….
This weekend is the annual Honolulu Festival. Its purpose is to promote understanding, economic cooperation and ethnic harmony between the people of Hawaii and the Pacific Rim region.
The festival includes dance performances, traditional art demonstrations, and crafts from Japan, Australia, Tahiti, Philippines, Taiwan, Korea, Hawaii and the rest of the United States.
The festival culminates with a 4 hour parade down the main street in Waikiki followed by fireworks.
For lunch on Saturday, in between watching festival performances, we ate at a Grill in the Ala Moana Center.
Todd finally got to try Ahi Poke – a famous Hawaiian dish made of raw tuna (I had pork sliders….).
Saturday’s dinner was at the well-known Marukame Udon. There is always line-ups to get into the cafeteria-style Japanese diner. We waited over 40 minutes in line.
I had the beef udon and Todd had the curry udon. We also had some various tempuras. Todd quite enjoyed the flavour of the udon; I thought it was okay, nothing special (although tempura was quite good….).
Monday, March 10/14
Most mornings, after coffee, we head over to Ala Moana Park and walk about. The green oasis stretches out into the ocean and is peppered with trees. It isn’t unusual to see people fishing or doing Yoga, Tai Chi, Qigong, or other exercises.
The park is also a “hot spot” for wedding photos. Throughout the day, numerous couples are in the park getting their wedding photos taken.
For dinner we went to The Chart House. We were a little leery on going there because of some of the reviews on Trip Advisor, but we were so glad we did.
click picture to view full size panorama
We each ordered from the Sunset Menu ($30.50 each included soup or salad, a choice of entrée and dessert). We started with a Caesar salad (one of the best we have had in a restaurant). The entrée consisted of asparagus (cooked perfectly a la dente), a 9 oz. striploin, and a generous portion of garlic mashed potatoes (with chunks of roasted garlic throughout). So good….so filling. We brought the Crème Brule desserts back to the condo for breakfast…
Tuesday, March 11/14
DIAMOND HEAD – we caught the bus outside the hotel/condo building just after 9AM (…after coffee and last night’s Crème Brule….).
After an uphill walk from the roadway to the entrance, the trail is about 1.3 km of switchbacks consisting of uneven rock and mud terrain with and elevation gain of 560 feet.
The first tunnel is preceded by 74 concrete steps and followed by 99 steep steps. Then 52 metal spiraled steps took us to the summit.
The views are amazing!
click picture to view full size panorama
BTW – the elusive “Boys” (Hawaii Five-0 cast) were filming at Diamond Head today! Off in the distance we could see the set, but (alas) no way to get near it…
After seeing this sign and thinking…..Oh my god “The Boys” must be close by !
Doesn’t Cindy look exhausted after frantically looking around the park for Steve McGarrett or Danny Williams…
Like climbing Diamond head wasn’t enough exercise !
