Despite feeling that I wouldn’t need to eat for a week after last night’s Cheesecake Factory extravaganza, breakfast time is still breakfast time. And so, we went for a wander around the two main streets here in Waikiki. Kalakaua Ave is the main one that runs along the beach, and Kūhiō Ave run parallel to it, one block back. It’s the main Waikiki tourist area, so you’re never short of places to eat or shop.

My quest for anywhere with a proper espresso machine led us to a little place in a food court, called something super-memorable like ‘Hawaii Cafe’ or something. See? Memorable! 🙂 We weren’t at all worried when the person taking our order didn’t believe that one of the drinks we ordered actually existed. But once we grabbed a menu and pointed and said “that one” they then had no choice but to concede that yes it did exist and yes we could order one. (Don’t worry, it wasn’t the cappuccino, which ended up being easily a 7 on the iScott Coffee Scale).

Breakfast was a yummy açai bowl for Perry, and a yoghourt bowl for me. Tasty, and it ended up being ‘dinner and a show’ as a small troupe of aircon mechanics set up shop pretty much right at our table to run a ladder up to the roof to change some filters and check for leaks. So yeah what the little food court may have lacked in ambience, it made up for in entertainment. But full credit to the cafe for getting our order 100% right in the end, as the chances sure were looking pretty slim at the start 🙂

We took a good wander through the ‘International Marketplace’ – which has had a massive glow-up since my very first visit in the 90s. Back then it was just an open area with a bunch of portable stall kiosks – i.e. like a market, funny that. Now however it’s been built into a massive open-ish mall, with the likes of Balenciaga and Rolex, rather than many purveyors of keychains and tshirts. It still retains some of its open-air feel, thanks to multiple ponds and water features – and even a few ducks which was kinda nice. Here’s a few pics from over the years.

There was also a nice shop selling completely made-and-designed in Hawaii wooden souvenirs, so of course we could get a couple. I noted to the person at the till that I didn’t buy because the exchange rate is low with the current economic conditions and she was all “mmm.hmmm… girl’s got comments on that but, you know…” 🙂

There was also a Target in the mall so we ducked in for a look and sure enough it’s nothing like Target at home, unless Target at home sells lots of fruit and alcohol and eggs (but there’s a limit on how many eggs you can buy). The funniest part, and I don’t know if this intentional or not, is this cleaning product. It’s meant to be used on hard wood, so of course they called it…

Today we’d thought about going over to Diamond Head monument (i.e. National Park) – however the area is mostly closed up due to some construction work, not to worry. I probably couldn’t manage the hike right up to the peak these days anyway. But here’s a photo I took in 2009.

Today I also dragged out my proper camera with its big zoom lens for some shots of life out on the water.

Lunch just wasn’t, really. But we did pop into Starbucks in the afternoon for a drink and a snack. There was a baby Tern in the tree outside which seems to be a local celebrity judging by the number of people who stopped to take photos. It’s also kinda refreshing to see a Starbucks that is hardly visited – there’s so many places to go on this island for food that Starbucks almost becomes an afterthought. Glad we went though, their “Midnight Drink” was delicious – even when served at 4 in the afternoon. Coconut milk mixed with blackberries, over ice. And, um, only 24 grams of sugar. Healthy!

We also had to try the ultimate combination of Hawaiian and and Japanese cuisine fusion – the Spam Musubi. Basically, spam sushi. Except the spam is cooked (again) and it’s served hot. It’s one of those so-wrong-its-right kind of dishes, really, and I ave no regrets!

At dinner time we just went for a wander to one of the many food courts, the same where we had lunch on the first day. I had a nice dish of BBQ chicken and rice, Perry had a nice assortment of Chinese food. I’m sure you’ve seen both these things before so no food photos this time around. We followed this up with dessert at Maccas – their Sundaes are so small they should probably be called Tuesdays, but it was nice enough, and I guess more healthy since there was less of it. Umm, winning, I guess?

Anyway that is almost a wrap for our time in Hawaii. Didn’t get up to much, but it’s kinda good to just unwind from the last two years of not being on holiday. We’ll head to the airport early in the afternoon, for a flight that will be even longer than the flight we took from Sydney to get here. The hotel’s been good (love the views from the balcony!), Waikiki’s always easy to navigate as everything’s geared toward the tourists. A pleasant start to the trip, for sure. Might be skipping a day on the blog as we make our way to our next destination. See you then!