Aloha Hawaii

Well, what can I say about Hawaii. It's everything you'd want from Paradise. It's pretty much always sunny here, it smells of the sea and everywhere you look around Waikiki beautiful people are wearing barely there bikinis and pulling it off.
It's the life.
On the flip side everything is ludicrously expensive, there is abject poverty and more homeless people then I've seen in a long time.
We're staying at the Moana Surfrider .

We've walked up and down the main stretch here at is is the most beautiful hotel around. The inside is just as spectacular, decorated in a colonial plantation style.
The hotel courtyard is built around an ancient banyan tree and you step out from the courtyard into the sand. It's idyllic really.

Yesterday was our first day here and we wandered the streets a little after we got here. We finally settled down to a lunch of Vietnamese noodles and rice. Maybe it was the homesickness that had us reaching for the lemon grass chicken and rice.
After lunch we lay on the beach a while, read books and napped. When dinner time finally rolled around we decided to hunt down The Cheesecake Factory.
As we walked in both inside and outside was packed; upon reaching the counter we realised it was because there was a 50-minute wait for a table. Since neither of us were particularly hungry we decided the wait was worth it. We grabbed a buzzer (someone should suggest this to the owners of Iron Chef) and seated ourselves on the rock wall outside. 50 minutes is a long time, we read magazines, I browsed Forever 21 which was in the building next door and we both took turns deciding what we wanted on the menu. When our buzzer finally flashed red we knew what we wanted, entrees, mains and desserts.
As the hostess took us to our table way back in a part of the restaurant you can't even imagine from the street she informed us that the servings are extremely generous.
So, when we got to our table we ditched the idea of the entrees and ordered our meals from Ben, the tallest waiter I'd ever met. Nuwan's BBQ pork burger came out, seemingly innocous and small; it defeated him. Me, I got two salads in place of the one tostada salad I had ordered. Described as a salad of mixed lettuce, spring onions, chicken, beans, avocado, tomatoes, sourcream and tostadas I expected a small bowls with all the above.
In stead I got this, and that plate is like a platter.

So as I struggled through the mound, I appealed to Nuwan for help, he too was struggling with his Kalua pulled pork burger. In the end the salad defeated me, while totally delicious I could only finish half.

In the end, we left The Cheesecake Factory without even consuming a piece of cheesecake!