Lazy Waikiki

Our first couple of days have been pretty idyllic, for the most part. While still to get a true handle on just how big everything in the US is (their trucks, food servings, drinks... why is a small beer a pint???), we've had a good run for the first few days of our week in limbo, between Sydney and Seattle.


Wednesday was a day of laze - a walk down the beach, a walk back up the beach, lying on the beach, going for a quick dip at the beach... I'm sure you can see the theme of the day by now :) was incredibly difficult to pass up on the opportunity when the beach in question looks like this:

After a bit of a walk up and down Waikiki, we came to the foregone conclusion that it's very much tourist town here - but that's ok, we knew that when we arrived :) 


Hunting down dinner was the next order of the day, but first things first - apparently there's a free hula show for an hour every evening down at Kuhio Beach Park, which apparently is pretty good, so we went search for it. It was due to start at sunset, however sunset came, and went (if that is indeed the expression), and no sign of said hula show. A little disappointed, we found a Korean place that served ridiculous amounts of food, and got stuck into some cheap and cheerful Asian food. A quick chat to the concierge confirmed that the show only ran every other day, and this wasn't one of those days... go figure.


On the flipside, taking photos near the water at sunset is fun:

Thursday saw the two of us take on Kailua Bay with kayaks, a generous gift from Mrs Firehouse's teacher friends from HWPS. For two people who don't kayak very often (never!), we took on the bay with quite some vigour, and surprised ourselves by being one of the first across the bay! Having landed on Flat Island, we were treated to a nature lesson from our tour guide, before heading back for some hard-earned (and large of course) lunch. 

The evening saw us finally hunt down our hula girls as promised by the concierge - it was quite a good show, fun and traditional, with the added "benefit" of a homeless man who decided to join in the fun, swinging his hips for a song before someone in charge shooed him away with a big stick.

Dinner at a Mexican place that TripAdvisor told us was good - we finally got out quantities right! Great margaritas, spicy and chicken wings and chilli pork made for a fantastic dinner, all of which we polished off with great ease. We've never been a great fan of Mexican food in Sydney, have never been able to find anything that we'd go back for. As the theory goes, Mexican food should be better in the US, and our first experience in Waikiki certainly lived up to that expectation.