Traveling with the Grobmyers March 7, 2024 Day 9

 To start out the morning today Joe took a call on the balcony and he was joined by some friends.

Did some more exploring and shopping at the resort. Checked out the Honolulu Cookie Shop.

Today’s pigeon and duck of the day.

I finally got around to the statues that I remembered from our time here 18 years ago.

We drove around the west side of the island again today. We went past where the Disney resort was to where the road actually ends on the west side. This side of the island is very different from the other side of the island. It’s not as crowded but we didn’t see a resort or or hotel on that side. The beach is very different as well. In some areas it looks very rocky and not sandy at all. There is a beautiful valley with tall green mountains that look like it divides the island in half.

We saw this sign for Space Force. We didn’t realize they had one here.

I learned that Tua’s hometown was Ewa. We saw the sign for it today. We may check out his high school tomorrow.

Joe found online Little Joe’s Steakhouse. So we had to try it out tonight. We sit down and the waiter comes over and talks to us and immediately wanted to know where we were from. We told him Alabama and he spent some time in Chattanooga as a child. So he recognized the accent. A little later Sweet Home Alabama played in the restaurant. When he came by we asked if he played out song. He told us that the restaurant we had picked is owned by former Alabama place kicker Peter Kim. I remember reading that Peter owned several restaurants in the Honolulu area. What are the odds we would pick one out of all the places in the city. The food was great, especially the passion fruit crème brûlée. Now Mr Vanilla didn’t enjoy it as much as I did.

As we were heading back to the hotel we saw a couple of rainbows.

Today’s flora and fauna.

Tomorrow is our last day here. We fly home tomorrow night.

Traveling with the Grobmyers March 6, 2024 Day 8

First thing this morning Joe was on our patio and caught the sand Zamboni out smoothing the beach.

 We had a few places we wanted to try and find today. One is on all the must do list when you visit, so of course we had to do that.

We drove out to Leonard’s Bakery. Home of the famous malasadas. Malasadas are a Portuguese doughnut with no hole. You can get them filled with different fillings or rolled in just sugar or cinnamon and sugar. We got a couple of filled ones, guava, coconut and vanilla. The filling is almost like a pudding. They are best eaten hot and that makes the filling a little sloppy. In fact I had to run back to the hotel to change because I had a filling mishap. But it was so worth it.

I found a quilt shop.

Very small shop, but I had an interesting conversation about football with him.

Then we drove out to the Disney Aulani resort to check it out and have lunch. The resort is on the west side of the island and we had not been to that side before. It is known as the dryer side of the island and some of the fields look like they belong out in the western United States. It is a lot less crowded on the west side as well and seems a little more laid back. We found the resort and in true Disney fashion they did not leave a detail out.

We saw a few of our friends there as well.

The resort had some of the best landscaping we have seen since we have been here.

Joe wanted me to share his ahi tuna he had for lunch. He said it was really good.

Joe found a train that he would like to come back and ride.

We saw a sign for Seagull School. We could just picture a school where they teach seagulls to dive bomb people and steal their food. We had to find the school. We liked our idea better.

I found another quilt shop on our way back to the hotel.

The chickens of the day.

 I’m not sure what will be in tap for tomorrow. Hopefully it won’t rain tomorrow. We had showers off and on this afternoon.