The ship and the history behind it are impressive, and the men and women who served during the wars certainly deserve a lot of respect; but the visit had a lot of room for improvement. One can start with the entrance: the detours signs were simply atrocious, so we ended up going over some restricted areas (or were they?) to get to the place. While the people who work there were friendly enough, they didn’t seem to understand how best to talk to tourists. A simple “go there, wait for the shuttle bus, and buy tickets when you get to the boat” would be enough, but they only say “we don’t sell those tickets here.” I also wonder who owns these monuments? They are by far the most expensive “national” sites one could visit. After we paid over $90 for admission, including a $6 “fee,” I was asked if I wanted to contribute $1 to the upkeep of the ship. My reaction was “can’t you find $1 from the funds you just collected?” And the wait for the shuttle buses was simply too long.
After we were done, we met up with Ellie and others at the “new” hotel, and walked to Paia for dinner. That was probably the most expensive meal we have eaten so far on this trip. The Mahi Mahi plate I had cost about $24. Food surprisingly has not been expensive so far.
I was caught in a downpour when I went for my evening walk. I got soaking wet when it was all said and done.
For the next week we are staying in a 1-bedroom apartment that is quite basic, but quite workable.
Accommodations. Aloha Suites Waikiki (7 nights).
3/12 Fri. Anne
left early to go hike Diamond Head with Kuau and the two kids, and made it to
the top! I went to pick up Ellie after
she was finished with work, and hiked partway up the hill again. After lunch (takeout from Genki Sushi) Ellie and Kuau took Everly to the
beach (Waikiki) and Reid and Maisie stayed with us for a while. Anne and I had the evening to ourselves and
went grocery shopping. Dinner was
roasted meats bought from Duck Lee. This
is midnight, and rain is falling, quite hard.
3/13 Sat. Reid
and Maisie will stay with us today, sleeping in our one-bedroom suite
overnight. They were dropped off quite
early this morning; Anne had been up for a while, I was still asleep.
They spent the morning reading, and working through some of the workbooks they brought along. Lunch was food we bought last night. They would go with dumplings and noodles every day.
For our afternoon activity we went to the Foster Botanical Garden. For people interested in this sort of thing it is well worth a visit. As it was I found it quite educational, especially with Google Lens helping with identifying various plants. Some photos below.
When we said we should visit a beach, they said they didn’t want to go to Waikiki, but to Kaimana instead (it is just east of Waikiki). The kids climbed some of the poles in the park, played around the banyan trees, and dipped their toes in the ocean. Both Waikiki and Kaimana seemed to be very crowded. This with a drastically reduced number of tourists in town.
Dinner was takeout from Jack-in-the-Box. After the kids were put to bed, I went out for a 3-mile walk.
Anne and I would sleep in the sofa bed tonight.
3/14 Sun. Anne
took the kids for a short swim at Waikiki Beach in the morning. Lunch was dumplings for the kids, neither
Anne nor I ate a lot. We did drive to
Pipeline Bakery and bought quite a bit of pastries in the early afternoon. The favorites for me were Lilikoi Cheesecake
and Strawberry Guava Bomb. The rest I either
didn’t try or didn’t particularly like.
Ellie and Kuau showed up and finished most of the rest. They left with Reid and Maisie.
I walked to the Diamond Head Lighthouse, at a bit over 3 miles (roundtrip) before leaving with Anne to go to Alencastre, picking up dinner at Side Street Inn along the way. The dishes were all well-presented (even in takeout containers) but the quality varies. The Shortribs at $28 the most expensive was disappointing, while the Works Fried Rice was a crowd favorite.
3/15 Mon.
Anne got up early to go to Alencastre to babysit the grandchildren as
Kuau needed to be out. At about 10 am I
took the 2-mile 45-minute walk from the hotel to the house. It was mostly flat except for the last 1/3 or
so mile, and traffic lights were well placed so the walk was relatively safe.
Kuau and Ellie took Everly to see her pediatrician, and Anne and I have the other two kids for today and tonight. We first went to the East-West Garden at the U of Hawaii Manoa campus. Since there was no parking available, I stayed in the car and Anne took the kids to the garden. That was followed by a visit to another botanical garden (Honolulu has five of them), Lili’uokalani, which is not all that different from a park with a stream flowing through it. On the bank are camped many homeless people, which could be a dangerous situation if a heavy rainfall causes a flash flood.
The Chinatown in Honolulu is the oldest in the US, although many shops are run by other Asians nowadays. Anne took Reid to buy some Chinese pastries – which we ate most of when we got back to the hotel.
Dinner again was takeout from Genki Sushi.
3/16 Tue.
The kids stayed with us last night, Anne woke up early to make them breakfast
(they wake up at 6 am, but agree to stay quiet until 6:30 am). We headed to the zoo at around 10 am, its
opening time, and were met with relatively long lines, even for members. (We did sign up for family membership, which is
cheaper than single-day tickets for two adults and two children.) The kids still seem to enjoy walking around,
although the large crowds made us a bit nervous (for them).
Lunch was back at our hotel: dumplings and ramen. We stayed in the hotel for a couple of hours until it was (close to) dinner time. We met up with Ellie et al at Tim Ho Wan in the Royal Hawaiian Center and had a hearty early dinner. It was actually a good experience. I think this is the first time Anne and I sat at a table at a restaurant and ordered food. We were seated in a corner, and the place was relatively quiet, so felt quite okay. The food was mostly and expectedly good. Anne was enjoying Everly, who has warmed up to her considerably.
Reid and Maisie left with their parents, and Anne and I drove to the Diamond Head Lighthouse, and again convinced that we couldn’t access it. I went for a walk in the evening.
Only blemish to day was that it was mostly rainy, but not heavy enough that we couldn’t be out and about.
3/17 Wed. It’s
already been two weeks since we left NJ.
How the time flies, even when one doesn’t think one is doing much. I do get a bit more sleep – about 7 hours –
than usual; otherwise it’s been mostly time spent with family. No complaints whatsoever.
Anne really wanted to have Korean for lunch, so we stopped by Gina’s BBQ to get some takeouts, and also some donuts at Donut King. The donuts were not particularly special, but cost around $2.50 each.
After lunch we drove over to Alencastre, and left around 2 pm for Ho’omaluhia Botanical Garden. This garden is rather big, has areas dedicated to various continents’ plants, and several easy-to-walk trails. Well, we were told the last two attributes of the park, as our short visit didn’t allow us enough time to explore the place in enough detail. The recent rains also made some of the paths quite muddy, but it was generally a pleasant experience. No far from the park are some of the mountains on O’ahu, which make for nice scenary. Worth a second visit if we have time.
We stopped by Pali’s Lookout on the way back. Kuau said they had tried to visit a couple of times before but couldn’t succeed because of rain. The wind blowing up from the valley/plains below was strong.
We collected our left-over lunch and ate at Alencastre.
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