Robin and I woke up Friday feeling much better for the rest. We went to a coffee shop on the ground floor of Waikiki Banyan. Robin got her usual iced vanilla coffee, I got my usual mocha. Over our breakfast sandwiches, I told her about a dream I’d had involving hitting an annoying person with a pit bull puppy. I asked her what she thought it meant.
She looked at me levelly over her iced coffee and said, “Clearly, it means you’re a psychopathic nut-job.” I nodded my head, sagely, thinking, “Duh! You don’t think I know that?” What I actually said, instead, was, “I see.” Robin is probably right. She usually is, damn it!
The weather was a bit rainy. A storm system had settled over Oahu, in preparation of our visit, I’m sure. Robin had prepped me by describing Hawai’i weather. “It’s 80 degrees, breezy, sometimes windy, but May is the start of the dry season.” She had the 80 degrees thing right, and the breezy, sometimes windy thing right. But over the past few days, Oahu had received a shit-ton of rain. I know that for a fact, because it was in the Weather Channel app. “Forecast for Honolulu, HI, a shit-ton of rain.”
Our condo is a block and a half off of the beach. We walked to the beach and turned right. Our condo sits on Ōhua Avenue. It ends at Kuhio Beach. The next beach west is Waikiki Beach. Along the way, we passed a statue of Prince Kuhio, the beach’s namesake. We also passed an Indian Banyon tree, which looked really cool, and a statue of Duke Paoa Kahanamoku, the grandfather of modern surfing.
We stopped at a Croc store. Robin wanted to ty out some sandals, as she heard that Crocs are very comfortable, I bought a pair of closed-heeled, closed-toed sandals. They are very comfortable. Then it was off to the Waikiki Christmas Store. Robin purchased an ornament two years ago on her last trip. It had her name, and the names of her two sisters on it. We bought an Ohana (family) ornament that represented our immediate family. There were two Tikis with the names of Robin and myself, four sea turtles for Christian, Jessica and the Devilish Duo Roman and Stevie, and a gecko for Carole.
Our next stop was at The Stones of Life, Na Pohaku Ola Kapeamahu A Kapuni. These represent 4 Tahitian healers who brought their arts to Hawai’i. Next to it was a public restroom and a sandwich shop. We got drinks and sat and watched surfers doing their thing. Water is wet, bruh, and there are waves coming in! Who cares if there is a little rain?
We went back to Waikiki Banyon for some pool time, went up to our condo to shower, then walked back to Waikiki Beach for dinner. We ended up at a Mexican restaurant, had some good food and people watched for a bit. We sat on the sea wall and listened to some music coming from a Hula concert a couple of hundred yards away. We watched the sun set behind some clouds, then a bit of the fireworks display from the Hilton Hotel.
We then headed back to the condo, to settle down for the night.
All in all, not a bad day on paradise.
Meditations of a Bald, Fat Guy 