Hula Hula
Day 143 – August 21, 2003 – Thursday
It was a nice day in Waikiki. Not the most beautiful Hawaiian weather I’ve seen, but it is beautiful here at all times. The sun was out off and on, but there were quite a few clouds, and big clouds along the horizon stole the sunset. I was out walking from 8 am to 8 pm, and my face picked up little or no red.
I planned to walk around Waikiki a bit and then hop in the glow-in-the-dark-yellow Mustang Convertible for a drive to some other spots, but I just kept walking and walking and walking. I met some nice folks, and I stopped a few places and just sat and watched the world go by.
Waikiki is prettier than I remembered from previous trips. From some reading I had done, I get the impression that the area may have gotten a bit run-down, so the area has been greatly improved in recent years. The landscaping was beautiful, and I saw crews hard at work making it even more beautiful. There were a number of sculptures that weren’t here when we last visited, including surfboard-shaped sculptures that are signboards for the Waikiki Historical Walk.
We had stayed at the Hyatt Regency Waikiki on previous trips here, so I stopped in. It’s a beautiful hotel built over and around lovely shops. I met Carolyn at the American Express Travel Service there. She fixed me up with tickets to see Don Ho. I figure one must see Don Ho when seeing the biggest sights in Hawaii. Don Ho was Mr. Hawaiian Entertainment for about 50 years. I bought a ticket for Sunday night.
We had our first smoothie in Hawaii 20 years ago. We flipped over them. I decided to have a Mango Smoothie for breakfast just to see how it compared with the Mango Snowcone at Freddy’s Fast Lube & Snow Cone Stand in Escobares, Texas (Day 16). Sorry, Hawaii — no comparison. Freddy’s was infinitely superior.
Hula Pie was a must-have while in Waikiki. I found myself at the Outrigger Waikiki Hotel in front of Duke’s Canoe Club at 11 am, so I had an early lunch of Fish Tacos followed by a gigantic slice of Hula Pie. I’ve never had Fish Tacos before, and they were excellent. The Kimo’s Original Hula Pie was also a first, and it was really good. It was developed at Kimo’s Restaurant on Maui, one of several restaurants owned by the folks who own Duke’s. The pie has a chocolate cookie crust topped with vanilla macadamia nut ice cream, chocolate fudge, whipped cream, and roasted macadamia nuts. Pools of hot fudge are poured on the side (so they don’t melt the ice cream prematurely). It was soooo good. I was amazed with how the ice cream remained frozen — served to me outside on the patio where the temperature was in the 80’s. The serving was huge — easily enough for several to enjoy. Sheila was my server, and she was delightful. The manager, Yvonne, brought the pie and sat down to tell me about the pie and about Duke’s. It was a most enjoyable pie-time and lunch-time all around. See www.hulapie.com.
I mainly saw colors, flowers, beach, swimmers, surfers, sunbathers, outrigger canoes, sailboats, catamarans, hula dancers, hotels, shops, water, historical markers, and lots and lots of people. Colors are so vibrant here.
The waves aren’t big. I understand they are big in the “winter.”
I saw quite a few flags here — far more than in Alaska. The military presence and history undoubtedly have a big influence on the patriotism here.
At 5 pm, Diamondhead appeared to be just a short walk down the beach. Wrong. It was 7 pm before I reached the Diamondhead Park and another hour or so before I got back to the Marriott Waikiki Beach. After wearing white socks and my dirt-colored Rockport Walkers for the last four months, I decided “Topsiders” and no socks was more appropriate for Hawaii. The look was better, but I was about halfway into the Diamondhead Marathon when I realized I was getting blisters on the bottoms of both feet. Half dollar sized. Back to the dirt-colored Rockport Walkers.
Hawaii became a state in 1959. Oahu is the third largest of the six main islands. About 850,000 folks live here. There are 112 miles of coastline. Oahu is 60 miles long and 30 miles wide at the widest point.
The Daily Journal of Round America:
Each day, we collect our thoughts on a web page just like this. We drop in some of the photos from the day. Our goal with the Daily Journal is to write about the towns we visit, the sights we see, the people we meet, and the pie we eat. We write about where we are, where we’ve been, and where we are going, but we also make observations about what we’ve seen and done as well as about life in general.
You can follow our travels from the Daily Journal section of this web site. Other pages of interest include the running report of “vital statistics” on the Trip Scorecard, our nominations for the Best & Worst of the trip, as well as a rating of the pie we eat. If you’d like to see information for a specific state or town, click here, and then click on the state of interest and the full itinerary is shown.