Our First Day in Waikiki

I can't speak highly enough of the many extra touches that our hosts, Irene & Wes, have provided. Here is one example.
These simple, beautiful flowers were in front of our hotel and a wonderful sight for rain drenched eyes!
The center of Oahu is quite mountaineous, as is shown in the background of this photo.
I had [naively] thought that the "challenged" Japanese economy would have dried up the plethora of Japanese tourists compared with years past. Oh how wrong I was! There are huge swaths of the Hawaii tourist industry devoted exclusively to Japanese tourists, including private shuttles and restaurants primarily geared to them. These two young ladies were more formally dressed than most though.
For our first breakfast I went looking for an interesting, local place to take my Mom. Unfortunately it started raining and she's not a happy camper when she's tired and/or famished. So as soon as I spotted this place I knew we would get a good meal.

Continuing on the same trend I started at the SFO airport yesterday, I had a delicious breakfast burrito. Yum!
Across the street was an outdoor mall of small vendors called the International Marketplace. At the center is a magnificent banyan tree, along with this pond of beautiful fish.
Because of some miscommunication we missed having breakfast with our Chicago friend, Toni. But we connected with her later. Here's my Mom, pictured with Toni on the right and her Saskatoon friend, Gloria, on the left. Each of these ladies has been coming to Waikiki every year for 1 or 2 months for the past 30 years!
I can't get over the number of palm trees in Hawaii! I absolutely love 'em. This is an outdoor mall that channels tourists to/from the Royal Hawaiian and Sheraton hotels.
The beach - we finally made it! In the background you can see a glimpse of the many hotels. The famouse Diamond Head mountain (actually an extinct volcano) is also prominently shown.
I learned that this time of year is not the busiest but there were still lots of sun worshippers on Waikiki Beach!

There are several of these catamarans along the beach. I don't know the cost, but it seems a fun way to spend a few hours out on the ocean.
Here are some young kids heading out for surfing lessons.
If you want to see pure delight, click on this photo and look at the joy on the face of the little boy on the right!


Indeed, architecture can be art!
The waves aren't very big on this side of Oahu but there sure are plenty of surfers looking to catch that special ride.
Duke Kahanamoku was a very special man and an amazing example of the very best that Hawaii has to offer. Incidentally, there's a live webcam focused on this statue. I plan to wrap a Canadian flag around me and appear in front of this webcam at a predetermined time. I'll post more on this later!

This is one of the many trolley buses running around Honolulu. Some are free, some cost a few bucks, and some are private.


The kind look on the seal's face is quite amazing to behold.

You can imagine how overjoyed we were to receive our luggage! It got to us around 5:30pm the day after we arrived. United Airlines was good about the entire thing and handled it very professionally.
For dinner we went to a local place that truly fits into the category of "hole in the wall". There's only seating for 9 people, around an L-shaped counter. But you get to see your food prepared right in front of you and served hot & fresh!

Won Ton soup is a signature dish that I like to have at every new Chinese restaurant I try. The one here was quite good.
I couldn't resist taking this photo. Though I can resist trying anything with such a name!
Not since watching Magnum PI have I seen so many tacky .... errrr "colourful" Hawaiian shirts!