Day 3 Sunday 28/11/2016 Honolulu

One of my first impressions of Hawaii when I first arrived in December, 1969, was all the images of a cold northern winter. Australia does this too. Both places with no snow in sight for thousands of kilometres unless you go to the mall. Then there are songs about dashing through the snow in a one horse open sleigh and songs about snowmen and crackling fires in the snow and here in Hawaii, they are doing the hula to Christmas songs. I was here in December of 1980 too. It was a month before Sacha was born. This year though for Christmas we will be on the east coast though we are not sure where but no doubt real snow will be involved and no one doing the hula.

Ala Moana shopping centre is the largest outside mall in the world. It was right from the beginning. Of course, with a climate like here it makes sense, one of the things that does here. We walked the 45-minutes from our pad (do they say that anymore or is that a left-over from the 1960’s?) to Ala Moana. I have been saying for this past year; “we’ll get it at Ala Moana”. Now with our suitcases filled beyond what they can hold we are unable to purchase anything more than a fridge magnet. We were a bit disappointed. It is just another shopping mall, like every mall in the world, only bigger and outside. Narda said our local mall in Adelaide, Tea Tree Plaza, was the same size and to save the argument and not be one of those people who claim “I told you so” I looked it up; Tea Tree Plaza equals 312,769.03 square feet, Ala Moana Centre (Center) equals 2,100,000 square feet. So, one is seven times the size of the other but I will not say anything. They are equal when it gets to snow scenes but Hawaii has the hula snow scenes; how cool is that? We did find the Shirokiya Japan Village Walk fascinating. Maybe a hundred or less Japanese eating places. Sacha and Georgia recently had gone to Japan and were telling us about how much they liked the food so this is the closest we could get to matching their experience. We found some vegetarian and seemingly low-carb eats that were really tasty and took the bus back to Waikiki. We got on and said “two-seniors” and paid a dollar each. One of the perks of being old.

Of course things change. But one that I was quite disappointed in was the International Market Place in the centre of Waikiki. This was once a great place to hang out with lots of funky shops. Now it is ‘world-class shopping’ meaning a lot of glossy expensive stores that were empty even when the area was crowded with tourists. Honolulu will never be Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore or anywhere else except Honolulu. Why they are trying to downgrade it is beyond me.

Like most cities, we are living shoulder to shoulder with our neighbours. Because of the climate people leave their doors open. No privacy here. This is looking out from our window.

It is great to have no plans for the day. Narda is still asleep and it is 8 am. She used to be up at five most mornings, never sleeping this late. So Hawaii has already become restful after a stressful few months before heading out into the world of ‘could this be retirement’?

Ok, “my turn” as Maggie would say. First some fact checks. I think that the Tea Tree Plaza size was measured in metres not feet..just sayin’. Furthermore, Alo Moana was dominated by Coach, Fendi, Gucci, Cartier, bla bla bla stores with NO ONE in them), and TTP is NOT. So, that’s all I will say.

We went shopping at Foodland (not the same) and were so shocked by the prices. Eggs $6-$7, bread nothing under $5, milk $7 etc. Blimey, there goes our budget. But…we’ve managed. We found a groovy sweet potato, $1.99 per pound, mixed it with chopped spinach, gravy on top..yum. Dinner on the lanai (my new Hawaiian word). Very nice. Me drinking Yellow Tail, sorry Bren.

After dinner, some rain, then a nice little walk around our own hood, staying away from the Waikiki strip. (More Gucci, Amani, whatever…). We came across a little pub with 4 old guys singing old style jazz, and lots or rock n roll. Think Rockin Robin, The Twist, Blue Suede Shoes, Crazy little thing called Love. We went in, even though was WAY past our bedtime. It was fun. We gotta get out more.