Wow, that felt like a long day! In fact, it feels like we’ve been here for much longer than one day. Which is a good thing! Ice and snow is magically a distant memory.
We were awake fairly early because of street noise and banging around outside but mostly because we are time-shifted by three hours still. Having ascertained that Whole Foods would be open at 8 am, we set off in search of food.
The day was again grey, windy, and mildly rainy. After 20 minutes of navigating rush-hour traffic, we arrived and entered the attached parkade. Street parking is basically impossible here so that was a bonus.
I got hung up in the meat section. Such beautiful seafood and meat! They actually raise beef cattle in the north of the island where apparently there are grassy valleys. But no feedlots!
There was a 5-point animal welfare plan posted having to do with how they are transported, antibiotics and growth hormone use, no confinement, and ??? if they are going to be part of Whole Foods retailing. It wasn’t ridiculously more expensive than Alberta beef, and they also had quite a bit of lamb, which is hard to come by at home. Good, nutrient-dense food makes me happy! We also got exotic cheese, and other basics like eggs, cream, coffee, and butter. Then we filled up the cardboard boxes with buffet breakfast items and cashed out, averting our eyes from the total bill.
We were up on the third floor of the parkade, but there was an ingenious escalator that would latch onto the shopping cart and bring it up with you. Smart!
Having enjoyed the Whole Foods experience, we returned home and gorged. Then it felt like nap time though it was only about 11 am local time.
We did rest a short while. This guy
was about four stories up in a cherry picker whacking away at the dead and dying fronds on the palm trees. We saw one fall driving to Whole Foods so I think this is necessary. It would hurt if one fell on your head, and the wind is making it happen.
The sky cleared up and the sun came out, so we decided to walk over to Waikiki Beach. Being lily-white Canadians from the frozen north we covered up, mostly. After about a block, it became clear that it’s a *lot* warmer when the sun is out!
About two blocks from our bnb, we crossed Kalakaua Avenue and were into the heart of 5-star hotel Waikiki Beach. It was lovely! Giant trees providing cool and shade, winding paths and flowers and lava rock pools and waterfalls, with a faintly Asian ambiance.
There are a lot of Asian-looking people here: Chinese and Japanese tourists for sure, but lots of Hawaiian people who might be a mix of those and Polynesian. People who look like us are very much in the minority on the streets in this part of town, anyway. Bi- and trilingual signs everywhere.
We continued toward the beach but got distracted by the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, a big pink pile that’s been there since early in the 1900’s. We wandered around in the lobby and various wings and hallways and it was very beautiful!
They were handing out leis to the registered guests. We thought we’d check out their swimming pool so went down another hallway and out and encountered this!
Sadly, nothing good to read in there.
We made our way through a thicket of loungers and curtained gazebos hosting languid, sweating guests and behold! An ocean! Beach! And my first whiff of ocean smell. Diamond Head loomed in the distance, looking misty and green.
The beach was wall-to-wall bodies stretched out in the sun, and a goodly number bobbing in the surf. Lots of bums in Brazilian-style bikini bottoms. I immediately wanted to run back and change into my swimming suit but we will have plenty of beach time in a few days.
We were maybe not supposed to be there as the hotels like to pretend it is exclusively their beach, for their guests. Not sure what the legalities of it are. But we were feeling uncomfortable, not least because we had so many more clothes on than 99% of the other people, so we left.
A refreshing stop for coffee for Mike and iced coffee for me. No disposable straws, so I am now the proud but involuntary owner of a metal straw which I won’t remember to take with me.
We wandered in and out of various hotel compounds until we came to a stretch of park abutting the beach. Not so many beautiful bodies, a few rough sleepers here and there. But all the beaches were all very clean and clutter-free.
Eventually we came to a big marina where you could walk past all the boats. Mostly sailboats. This is my boat.
This is Mike’s.
By now, our feet were feeling the steps, so we turned for home. In a hotel maze, a cute young woman offered us a tray of Ferro Roche chocolates and smoothly lured me into a skincare salon, where she passed me off to Talia, who promised to work magic on my eye bags with her serum of “plant stem cells.”
You can totally tell the difference, right??? I think she suspected I wasn’t going to buy it when I said it’s probably ridiculously expensive, right? She said, it’s not exactly cheap.
Many hours later, it still feels like there’s a thin layer of plastic there.
Stopped into an ABC store on the way home to buy sun screen and a few other things. Only on the way out did we discover that they charged us $9 for a simple paper bag to put the stuff in. Sigh.
We are going to have a long day tomorrow at Pearl Harbor so we are having a early night. We can’t decide if we want to eat again, so may not.
14,000 steps, no sunburns. A good day.
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