Jason - June 13th 2:47 PM EST
Night before last, we had dinner at Perry's Smorgy Restaurant, which came highly recommended by my parents. The atmospehere and decor were excellent, but the food was pretty bad. The restaurant was a buffet, but it seemed like most of the food was very over-cooked. Perhaps my parents went there for breakfast or lunch, or had a different chef?
Yesterday we woke up and took the free Hilo Hattie trolley to Hilo Hattie (http//www.hilohattie.com), a giant Hawaiian store where they sell a huge variety of Hawaiian shirts and dresses, and a number of other Hawaiian souvenirs. This store not only has a free trolley service, they give you a shell lei when you walk in, and they have free juice, coffee, and water in their store. Also, if you buy anything, they give you a ton of coupons for other activities on the island. We bought a couple shirts for me, a love tiki statue, and a hand-carved wooden picture frame.
The Hilo Hattie trolley is almost like a small tour in itself. We saw a number of interesting buildings on the ride over, such as St. Andrew's Cathedral. The Catherdral was actually originally built of timber, but was rebuilt in stone after being eaten to the ground by termites. Alegedly there's a termite immortalized in stained-glass somewhere in the cathedral.
From Hilo Hattie's stopped for lunch at a place called Zippy's. Then we walked up to the Foster Botanical Gardens, and saw a variety of interesting plants and trees. There are a number of very strange plants on the island, unlike anything up in Ottawa. We saw a monsterously large tree called an "Earpod tree", so called because it drops seed pods which are shaped much like human ears, and a "Sausage tree" which had strange sausage-shaped pods hanging down off long vines. We also saw a Cannon-Ball tree (we saw one in Waimea Falls as well), which has dozens of round cannon-ball shaped melons or nuts growing all over it. These evidently weigh around 10 pounds a piece, so you have to be careful walking underneath the tree.
After the Foster Botanical Gardens, we walked back through China town, then took the Hilo Hattie trolley back into Waikiki. Getting back to Waikiki took a little while, as there was ANOTHER parade on. This was also part of the Kamehameha celebration. We'd had enough parades though, so we went back to the hotel, changed into our swimsuits, and went out to the beach for a late afternoon swim.
I sat in close to shore, sat Anne Marie in my lap, and let monster sized waves knock us about on the beach. Anne Marie and I were repeatedly tipped over and even upside down. Great fun, although our bathing suits got packed full of sand (Anne Marie's new suit now has sand embedded in the fabric :( ). It was still a lot of fun, though.
After our swim, we walked over to Hy's Steakhouse for dinner. Hy's had a huge ornately carved door out front, and a copy of their menu. While Hy's is supposed to be very good, we decided the prices were a bit steep for us, so we walked over to Chili's instead. Anne Marie had some grilled salmon, and I had a plain old-fashioned hamburger. I think today was one of the first days where two of our meals didn't come with pineapple. :)
I think I'm starting to get used to the climate here. Every couple days it seems we turn the air-conditioning in our room up a couple degrees because the room is too cold (of course, when we first got into Waikiki, the air-conditioner was set to 60F. Since it's just a little room air-conditioner at floor-level, I seriously doubt it was actually 60 in here, but it was still very cold, and that got changed quickly. :) The air here is very humid, but it isn't so warm that the humidity really bothers you. Ottawa is going to seem very dry when we get home. It will be nice not to have to put sunscreen on every day, though. (Although, really, that's just because Anne Marie and I never go outside in Ottawa. :)
Today we plan to go to Hanauma Bay to do some snorkelling.
Night before last, we had dinner at Perry's Smorgy Restaurant, which came highly recommended by my parents. The atmospehere and decor were excellent, but the food was pretty bad. The restaurant was a buffet, but it seemed like most of the food was very over-cooked. Perhaps my parents went there for breakfast or lunch, or had a different chef?
Yesterday we woke up and took the free Hilo Hattie trolley to Hilo Hattie (http//www.hilohattie.com), a giant Hawaiian store where they sell a huge variety of Hawaiian shirts and dresses, and a number of other Hawaiian souvenirs. This store not only has a free trolley service, they give you a shell lei when you walk in, and they have free juice, coffee, and water in their store. Also, if you buy anything, they give you a ton of coupons for other activities on the island. We bought a couple shirts for me, a love tiki statue, and a hand-carved wooden picture frame.
The Hilo Hattie trolley is almost like a small tour in itself. We saw a number of interesting buildings on the ride over, such as St. Andrew's Cathedral. The Catherdral was actually originally built of timber, but was rebuilt in stone after being eaten to the ground by termites. Alegedly there's a termite immortalized in stained-glass somewhere in the cathedral.
From Hilo Hattie's stopped for lunch at a place called Zippy's. Then we walked up to the Foster Botanical Gardens, and saw a variety of interesting plants and trees. There are a number of very strange plants on the island, unlike anything up in Ottawa. We saw a monsterously large tree called an "Earpod tree", so called because it drops seed pods which are shaped much like human ears, and a "Sausage tree" which had strange sausage-shaped pods hanging down off long vines. We also saw a Cannon-Ball tree (we saw one in Waimea Falls as well), which has dozens of round cannon-ball shaped melons or nuts growing all over it. These evidently weigh around 10 pounds a piece, so you have to be careful walking underneath the tree.
After the Foster Botanical Gardens, we walked back through China town, then took the Hilo Hattie trolley back into Waikiki. Getting back to Waikiki took a little while, as there was ANOTHER parade on. This was also part of the Kamehameha celebration. We'd had enough parades though, so we went back to the hotel, changed into our swimsuits, and went out to the beach for a late afternoon swim.
I sat in close to shore, sat Anne Marie in my lap, and let monster sized waves knock us about on the beach. Anne Marie and I were repeatedly tipped over and even upside down. Great fun, although our bathing suits got packed full of sand (Anne Marie's new suit now has sand embedded in the fabric :( ). It was still a lot of fun, though.
After our swim, we walked over to Hy's Steakhouse for dinner. Hy's had a huge ornately carved door out front, and a copy of their menu. While Hy's is supposed to be very good, we decided the prices were a bit steep for us, so we walked over to Chili's instead. Anne Marie had some grilled salmon, and I had a plain old-fashioned hamburger. I think today was one of the first days where two of our meals didn't come with pineapple. :)
I think I'm starting to get used to the climate here. Every couple days it seems we turn the air-conditioning in our room up a couple degrees because the room is too cold (of course, when we first got into Waikiki, the air-conditioner was set to 60F. Since it's just a little room air-conditioner at floor-level, I seriously doubt it was actually 60 in here, but it was still very cold, and that got changed quickly. :) The air here is very humid, but it isn't so warm that the humidity really bothers you. Ottawa is going to seem very dry when we get home. It will be nice not to have to put sunscreen on every day, though. (Although, really, that's just because Anne Marie and I never go outside in Ottawa. :)
Today we plan to go to Hanauma Bay to do some snorkelling.
posted by Jason Walton at 2:47 PM
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