Day 438-439: Memorials & More

Tuesday 6/28
Breakfast: McDonalds, yeah I know a lame choice for vacation food fare. But McD's here has spam, Portuguese sausage, rice & other island favorites on their menu. Spam, I don't get their attraction to canned people-grade dog food but they love it here. Hence why we had McD's on our list of places to eat. I had eggs, spam & rice; gross!

We were treated to a show at McD's too. The guy sitting next to us had a handful of spare change on the table, well my guess is it was all the money he had in life. He sat the rubbing two coins together vigorously, as if polishing his coins. It was a sad show really as it is a safe guess this guy is not only homeless but likely addicted to who knows what which he cannot afford.

Time to pay our respects to those who sacrificed so we could enjoy this day. Our visit to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl was an amazing brush with history & a moment to reflect on how fortunate we are. The memorial here honors the sacrifices and achievement of American Armed Forces in the Pacific during WWII, Korea, and Vietnam.

Pali lookout was our next stop. This scenic spot is worth the drive to take in fabulous panoramic views of Oahu's windward side from the  Koolau mountains.

Beach time, we stopped at the famous Waikiki beach for this venture into the ocean. Um, what up with the old dudes in thongs? Seen too many of them sunning every inch of their bodies sans what hung down. Oh well we tried hard to suppress laughter and went about our ocean swim.

Lunch; Salad bar, chicken wings, apple cobbler. We ate at Sizzler. Yeah I know another lame choice for vacation food fare. Long story short my wife loves their Malibu Chicken. Since Sizzler no longer exists in the Chicagoland area whenever we travel if a Sizzler is there so are we. The kids found the best part of the meal to be the buttered rolls they brought to the table. They liked them so much the wrapped all that were left in napkins & stuffed the in our daughters purse to take with us. Kids, funny animals they are.

Cathy' parents & our niece arrived mid-afternoon. We caught up with them after they had dinner. All of us hung out at the pool for a bit while the kids swam.

Snack: we ordered a bunch of appetizers for all to munch on pool side. I nibbled on some tuna sashimi.

After while Cathy & I ditched everyone and headed out to walk about Waikiki ourselves. We hit the Wyland gallery to dream of some new art work, and dream is all we did. The most expensive piece there was $685k, the salesman said that price was not firm, to make him an offer; I laughed.

We stopped at Duke's, a beach side bar where Cathy enjoyed time years ago. The idea was to grab a drink there, but it was so crowded that didn't happen. We capped of the night grabbing mochi for the kids and frozen lemonade for the walk back to the hotel.

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Wednesday 6/29
Breakfast: same as Monday at the Shore Bird buffet. Needed a simple & sustaining feeding for the mornings activity.

As soon as we were done eating we headed out to Pearl Harbor. We knew to get there early to minimize wait time. Still our wait from time of ticket purchase to launch to the memorial was 3-1/2 hours.

We used most of that time to go to the U.S.S. Missouri, which is now a museum ship docked at Ford Island. An excellent walk through history walking the decks of that massive ship. I would love to be on deck when those 16" guns went off, but they are forever silent.

Likewise the U.S.S. Arizona visit was excellent. A mix of pride of nation and reverence for those who had to rise up to defend us that Sunday nearly 70 years past.

Lunch: Cathy had a brilliant idea when she steered us to Hanks Haute Dogs. A simple hot dog joint made semi-famous when Guy Fieri hit this place on his show. I had the Fat-Boy, a dog wrapped in bacon, deep fried served with mayo, tomato and lettuce, so amazingly good which is a huge compliment from me as I am not a hot dog lover. Their fries were a hit too, they fry them in duck fat. I kept my fry intake to a minimum as hard as it was to not just dive in.

We brought the dogs back to the hotel and ate with G'ma & G'pa. Our bellies happy we chilled for the afternoon. The kids his the beach while the adults sat in the commons chatting & sipping drinks. I snuck away for 15 minutes to hit the shops. Bought the kids a frisbee & beach ball, walked over to the beach, tossed those at the kids and left. Bought my wife some jewelry as an I-love-u / thank-u for doing a great job making this trip happen; what you thought I had anything to do with it?

Dinner: The Old Spaghetti Factory, not sure why we went here for dinner but the gals had this place pegged for us to dine at while here.  I had Chicken Parm with salad & bread. Eating healthy on vacation takes serious discipline, I've been so-so at best with today being the least so-so so far.

We took the trolley to dinner. A neat way to quickly & cheaply see what-is-where in Waikiki. These trolleys are used heavily by the Japanese tourists. If you have a JCB credit card all you need to do is flash that & you ride free.

A quick stop for Mochi for the kids before we got back to the hotel around 10 pm and shut down for the night.

responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!