Exploring Waikiki

I spent last weekend in Honolulu.  I've been going to Hawaii a lot as of late, but managed to do a few new things this time.

When we arrived at the hotel, I made my way to the Del Sol t-shirt shop.  Some friends of mine's little girl is turning 6 in a few weeks and I thought a T-shirt from that shop would be a good gift idea.  When the shirts are exposed to UV light from the sun, they change color.  They also have nail polish, hair clips, bathing suits, hats.  (the website is http://delsol.com).  Later that afternoon, we all went to Top of Waikiki for dinner and happy hour.  This seems to have become SOP for Honolulu layovers now.  From 4pm to 7pm they have $4 martinis and $7 appetizers.  The food is real glitzy Asian fusion, so the portions are small.  The coolest part of the place is that the restaurant rotates.  In the course of 1 hour, you get a 360 view of Waikiki (http://topofwaikiki.com).  Of course after a few too many $4 martinis, you might be inclined to think the room is spinning, and in reality, it is.  (A word of warning... avoid the $4 Rising Sun Martini.  It's more of a mojito type drink and it tastes like grass).

The next day, my friend Mary Ann and I did a little exploring on our own.  We started early and went to Galaxy Steakhouse for breakfast.  It's not fancy.  Just good cheap food.  I got out of there for under $10 with an omlette, pancakes and juice.

We walked down Kalakaua Avenue, which is the main drag of Waikiki beach.  Mary Ann is a frequent visitor to the island, so she pointed out some of the highlights.  A favorite of her's is the Moana Surfrider, which was the first hotel on Waikiki, built in 1901.  It's a sentimental place for her, because it is where her mom used to stay when she visited the island.

We also visited the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.  It was built in 1927 and earned the nickname Western White House (even though it is pink) because it served as the residence for Franklin Roosevelt during his visits to the island.  The landscaping is elaborate and everything is lush and tropical.  It's also the location where the Shirley Temple was invented.

We made our way down the beach towards the Hilton Hawaiian Village, which is a mega hotel complex with several huge hotel towers, shops and restaurants.  At one point we stopped for some shaved ice and lemonade and we saw the Canadian actress Jill Hennessey from one of my favorite shows, Crossing Jordan (she was also on Law & Order).  She seemed a lot shorter in real life.

After our refreshment break we made our way out to the beach and began our paddling excursion.  We rented a two person paddle boat for an hour and went pedaling around the bay.  It was a lot harder than it looked and you really had to paddle fast in order to get anywhere.  We never did get the steering figured out and we were always afraid we were going to run into surfers, paddleboarders and swimmers. Makes me think we were better suited for life on the land.  Mary Ann brought along a disposable waterproof camera, so once she gets the pictures back and forwards them to me, I will post them.

We finished up the afternoon with a late lunch consisting of gourmet pizzas.  My garlic pizza was a big salad on top of it, which was something I had not seen before.

Our layover ended up being a bit longer than we wanted, as our plane was four hours late arriving into Honolulu, thus we were four hours late leaving.  We did not make it back home til late morning, so it was a long night.  You know it's bad when the sun starts to come up and you are still over the Pacific Ocean.