Anne drove me to the Diamond Head parking lot, and dropped me off before the tunnel as the line of cars wasn’t moving. The parking lot was full, which was somewhat to be expected; however, they would only allow so many cars to wait for an open space when someone left, and the rest had to turn around. People were very unhappy as that would mean they would have to get to the back of the line, and who knew if they didn’t have to do that again when they got back to the lot.
For a major tourist attraction things certainly weren’t running smoothly, and we can’t possibly be talking about the peak tourist season, although spring break crowds seem to be gradually increasing. Another example was to hike the Diamond Head Crater trail one has to buy a $5 ticket, fair enough. However, two of the three ticket machines would reject credit cards (only option) which would be accepted by the third machine. No a big deal in the scheme of things, but certainly can make the hike start at a somewhat sour note.
The roundtrip hike up the crater was quite straightforward, taking one hour, including times I stopped to take photograph and a rather long wait to get to the platform at the end of the trail. Per my Apple Watch, the gain in elevation was about 560 ft. There were two sets of rather long stairs, about 80 steps each. While Honolulu got quite a bit of rain the last couple of days, the paths were quite dry, with an occasional small mud puddle here and there. I rate this walk easier than from Alencastre to the Ridge Trail up the ridge.
Anne met me outside of the tunnel and I got lunch from Diamond Head Grill: a Char Siu Pork sandwich.
We spent part of the afternoon at Alencastre, and at around 5 pm we decided to drive to the Makapu’u Point Lighthouse. A well-paved trail leads to a summit with a good view of the Lighthouse, but entry to the Lighthouse is prohibited. While the area – appropriately called the windward side – is very windy, it was not raining. I walked up to the summit, Anne walked part of the way. The elevation gain was 520 ft, and 2.3 miles roundtrip.
It was getting dark when we started back, and we decided to stop by the Hawaii Kai Shopping Center for a quick dinner. I tried the Teri Chicken plate dinner, Anne had noodle soup.
We switched lodging to the Hyatt Place. It was quite busy, and when I first checked in a bit after 4 pm, they spent 20 minutes on their “system” before they told me they would upgrade us to an ocean view room, but the room wouldn’t be ready for another 30 minutes. They knew everything about me before I checked in! Also, they made me show my “travel safe” status: a copy of the QR code wasn’t enough, they wanted to see the actual website. Fortunately I remember both my and Anne’s login. We checked into our room after returning from our dinner.
Another mishap was with parking. When we showed up expecting to buy a 7-day parking pass, we were told the lot was full. We parked the car at Alencastre and Kuau drove us back to the hotel. The plan is I will walk there to retrieve the car tomorrow, after our conference call.
The good news is I managed to “score” over 1000 calories on my Apple Watch. I did walk 30 minutes this evening.
Ellie and Kuau wanted to take some time off (Ellie took a vacation day), so Kuau came by to pick Anne up to go to Alencastre. I went to Banyan Waikiki to buy a parking pass (success this time), and then walked to Ellie’s place. While Everly slept, I took a walk up to Ridge Park again: the second time seemed to be easier. After Ellie and Kuau came back, Anne and I took the older two to the park a couple of streets away to run around, play on the jungle gym, and shoot some baskets.
Reid and Maisie wanted to sleep in our hotel room, so we brought them with us, picking up food Ellie ordered for us, from Marukame Udon Waikiki. While the kids tried to go to sleep (around 7:15 pm), I went out for my evening walk, and managed to burn 1000 calories for the day. They were asleep when I got back. Anne and I plan to turn in early tonight as the kids wake up at six in the morning.
Emmie back in Massachusetts had an accident and suffered a cut of more than two inches. She was taken by ambulance and had to be stitched up. We as grandparents are of course worried, but she seems fine for now.
3/20 Sat. Indeed
the kids woke up early. To let me sleep
in, Anne took the kids to have breakfast in the lobby, and then to Waikiki
Beach for a walk. That still meant I had
to get up at around 7:30 am, and explains why I got a slow start today.
Before lunch Anne took the kids out to the walled beach for a quick swim, and bought cookies at Cookie’s Corner, and lunch at ABC down the block (musubi and hot dogs). We then drove to the Roko Crater Botanical Garden to meet up with Ellie et al. We first came upon the Plumeria Grove with a large variety of plumerias, and started on the Americas portion of the park. Evidently the park is divided into these “regions” to highlight the vegetation from various continents. Then rain fell, drizzle first, rather serious later. We hid under a copse of trees for a while (never sure it’s a good idea) but eventually decided to brave it back. Of course rain stopped soon afterwards.
The kids would stay with us for another night, so we said goodbye and went on our way. We did stop by the Halona Blowhole which the kids hadn’t seen, and enjoyed seeing. We decided to pick up dinner on the way back, and thought Sekiya’s would be interesting as there always were people waiting outside when we drove by. Our conclusion was that it was probably due to their inefficiency. What they said would take 15 minutes ended up taking 30, and the food was ordinary, at best. Good thing Reid and Maisie like all kinds of noodles.
I walked around Waikiki again – in light rain this time – while the kids went to sleep. The streets were busy on this Saturday night.
3/21 Sun.
The kids woke up early, and again Anne took them down for
breakfast. By the time they returned a
bit after 7 am, I was up.
At about 9:30 am, we left our hotel – Anne to Burger King to buy breakfast croissants as “brunch,” and I to Banyan Waikiki to get the car. Our first stop was Bishop Museum, where we spent over three hours, including time for lunch.
Bishop Museum is “the” Hawaiian Museum and has buildings dedicated to various subjects. We visited the ones on Science which deals mostly with Hawaiian ecology; Surfing; and Hawaiian History. The experience was somewhat limited due to the pandemic as most interactive displays were disabled, and crowd size limitations made it impractical to visit some exhibits. I did spend sometime looking at the displays of the Hawiian monarchs starting with Kamehameha the Great. A couple of observations: (i) many monarchs died young; (ii) the royal families were quite small and there had to be some level of hereditary issues; (iii) little mention of James Cook and how the advent of Europeans and other western countries must have upended the Hawaiian kingdom; and (iv) an overall over-romanticization of the benevolence of the monarchs. Growing up in Hong Kong buffeted by Mainland China, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom, I can understand why history can be a painful subject, and all narrators wear a certain shade of glasses; wonder if that is the case here.
We bought a ham/cheese croissant and a hot dogs for the kids as lunch, and concluded our visit after that.
We had a brief visit to Ho’omaluhia Botanical Gardens a few days ago. We decided to do it again as (i) we wanted to see the mountains at the end of the road that Ellie talked about; and (ii) see some of the orange cichlids that were obscured by the muddy waters from the rain. We were not disappointed in both regards.
It was after 4 pm that we got back to Alencastre. I decided to walk up the ridge again, and Anne took the kids to the playground. By the time we got back, Kuau left to pick up food from Rainbow for dinner. The food there is expensive, but quite good.
We returned to the hotel after dinner, and I again went on a walk. Despite both weather.com and accuweather.com saying there was 0% probability of rain, I got wet. The good news is I made my 1000 calorie objective.
3/22 Mon. Ellie took the day off so she and Kuau can go
on a strenuous hike, so Anne went over early in the morning to babysit the
three kids. I was to take care of a few bills
and then walk over to join her.
This morning was the first morning I had to get the “new” breakfast; and was it pathetic? Only option is a dry egg, Canada bacon, and cheese muffin, and only milk option was whole. And one attendant handing them out.
Last night I found out all this walking gave me a blister on my foot, so I was a bit worried if I could manage. It was okay, as long as I avoid tilting my foot outward – which evidently is my usual walking posture.
For lunch I took Reid and Maisie to get something from Duck Lee and Donut King. Kids are just not good waiting in line, so I had a hard time asking them not to touch everything in sight. It’s good they don’t mind wearing masks, which help them avoid touching their faces with their hands.
After lunch I took Maisie and Reid to the playground where they had a lot of fun. The three of us also did a race which established our order as: Reid, Maisie and me.
Anne and I left after Ellie and Kuau returned. We went to Diamond Head Grill and bought dinner, and ate along Diamond Head Road.
One thing about our hotel arrangement. The first 4 nights was paid with cash, and points cashed for the last 3 nights. It was basically smooth as (i) I was sent a digital key; (ii) the card keys stopped working so I took them to the front desk to be replaced, but had to do it twice as one of them didn’t work; (iii) the digital key now stops working; (iv) they made up the room, probably because it’s a “new” stay, but they did that the previous night also. In general one has to dial back expectations if one doesn’t want to get too frustrated.
It wasn’t until we were almost there per CarPlay that we realized we didn’t set the correct destination. So it was about 11 am that we got to He’eia State Park. Along the way we stopped by a Leonard’s Truck at Windward Mall to buy a few malasadas. The park is not spectacular, but certain pleasant. Next to it is a fish pond used by Hawaiians a long time ago (600-800 years ago). There is now an organization dedicated to its preservation. There are kayak rentals that one could use to paddle on the calm waters around that area. We then decided to drive along the shore for a few minutes before we headed to the Pearl Harbor Memorial.
Ellie managed to make reservations for the USS Arizona for 1:15 pm. Anne and I got to the Memorial early enough, but Ellie was delayed a bit: she and the kids were dropped off by Kuau and ran to catch the ferry. Yes, a ferry took a group out to the Memorial; there are various narrated tours one could buy, but we just opted to walk on/walk off. Kuau caught the next ferry and did a short walk around and went back to the Center on the same boat as us.
We had visited the USS Arizona before, but it remains a solemn place testifying to people’s sacrifice and the horrors of war. I do wonder how much longer will it take for the ship to be completely eroded away.
It was then to the “original” Shimazu Shave Ice for dessert. Anne and I shared a “halo halo,” supposedly a Filipino dessert – it was good.
The kids then came back to the hotel with us. They were happy sitting around our small room. Dinner was takeout from Denny’s; Anne also got food from the Thai food truck.
3/24 Wed. It’s
a problem when 4 people sleep in basically the same room. Reid and Maisie woke up at around 3 am and
started to talk to each other. They
eventually went back to sleep and didn’t wake up until 7 am. Anne took them for Burger King takeout, eaten
at the hotel lounge.
Our first destination was Ka’ena Point, at the western tip of the island. There is a 5 mile, 2 hour coastal walk which might be nice to try on a dry day. Given the wet days we have had recently, it was no surprise that much of the trail was muddy. That didn’t bother Reid or Maisie much, even though they were wearing only flip flops. We ended up walking about 30 minutes each way. Ellie et al met us. They all decided to go down to the tide pools to wash their feet, while I waited for the car. A few splashes in the ocean, which I originally thought was just a white cap, made us stay quite a bit longer to look for breaching whales. Anne saw quite a few, with binoculars I saw a fluke out of the water. We finally left when the plumes got quite far away.
Our hopes for shave ice at Shimazu in Haleiwa were dashed when we saw a long line at the counter. It was quite late already, so we ordered lunch from Vintage Island Coffee. The food was surprisingly good.
After lunch, Ellie et al went home, while Anne and I took Reid and Maisie to Ko’olina Beach Park for a visit. Our intention was to revisit our trip to Aulani, but the beach turned out to be quite pleasant – no doubt financed by the developers of the luxury resorts that line this part of the island. An ice cream cone and a popsicle made the kids very happy, even though I couldn’t get exactly what they wanted.
It was time to go back to Alencastre. I went for a ridge walk (40 minutes due to time constraints), and Anne took the kids to the playground again. Dinner for the Garssons was fruit, salad, and sweet potatoes. On our way back to the hotel Anne and I got food from Genki Sushi.
Packing for the return trip was surprisingly simple.
United again used the 757-300 configured with “domestic first class” and no internet over the ocean. Since it was a day flight, it wasn’t that big a problem. As far as I can tell (it’s now less than 2 hours before departure), we don’t have upgrade possibilities for the LAX-EWR flight, and it will be a full flight.
Anne gets two lounge passes from her credit card, so we are now sitting in this rather large lounge with few people. There is no open food bar – not that there was ever much – but they do give you food on request.
The past three weeks went by really quickly. We simply enjoyed family, got the older kids to stay with us for a few days, and managed to get Everly to warm up to us. Ellie et al would be back in June, so we will need to go back to weekly Zoom calls in the mean time.
Well, the EWR-LAX flight was packed, with over 300 passengers inside a 787-10. Even though Anne and I are fully vaccinated, we still feel apprehensive. (We are still okay after about a week.) We took an Uber home, at about $65 one of the most expensive ever for the Newark-South Amboy trip.
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