Tag: hawaii

Day 18 – A fibro day in Waikiki

Posted on by Libby Withnall

After a rather interrupted nights sleep (lost track of how many times I woke up) I was up around 5am in time for the sunrise, which we can see off in the distance. Poor Kevin had an even worse sleep than I did and didn’t go to sleep till around 4am !!!

Not surprisingly Kevin had a sleep in. After writing up my blog post I did a bit of reading and started work on the vlog. I also played around with the incredible zoom feature on my big video camera.

Though we felt better than yesterday, neither of us felt that great. But we did want to do something today so eventually headed out on a little walk. I got my first look at the open air lobby of the Waikiki Banyon and it’s really lovely with a fountain and fish, and some lovely artwork.

We walked to two blocks from the Banyon to the waterfront. I was kinda surprised to find it looked just like in all the walking videos we watched on YouTube during the pandemic (which was a big factor in Kevin wanted to return here – we haven’t been since our honeymoon in 1992 – 30 years ago).

I spotted a Mexican place with views overlooking the street/beach and we decided to have lunch there. I had thought it to be a restaurant but it was more fast food – like Guzman y Gomez or Chipotle. We both ordered rice bowls – Kevin got some chicken & guacamole in his – and got the last table by the window, so we enjoyed the view and people watching while having lunch. Kevin really enjoyed his. My stomach wasn’t the most settled today so I only found mine to be okay.

After lunch we popped into one of the MANY ABC stores and picked a few things (nail polish remover, watermelon & chips). We had planned to go on a bit more of a walk but Kevin started to be a lot of pain again (much like yesterday) so we cut it short and started to head back to the apartment. Luckily we have more days, and no plans, so we’ll get to do this another day.

We did however quickly check out the Honolulu Cookie shop and Kevin went into Starbucks (which was right next door to the cookie shop) to get the usual – a dragon drink for me (love these as they are so refreshing) and Iced Chai Latte for Kevin.

I spent some time reading and we received these photos from my Mum. It is Bailey’s 14th birthday so they had a little party for him. Mum said “It was very hard to get their hats on. Koda got his off and started chewing it before we got Keani’s on.. bailey wasn’t happy either getting his on. Party sandwiches, cheese and fruit to celebrate.” Sounds like they had a good time !!

Towards late afternoon I actually started to feel better (typical) and I believe Kevin was as well. We watched some YouTube as the day came to end.

I had another Amy’s frozen meal tonight and Kevin had a Wholefoods fridge meal. Mine was really good (as Amy’s meals are) and Kevin’s was okay (he wasn’t a fan of sausage in his). And later we enjoyed the ice cream sandwiches we had picked up at Wholefoods. However, once we realized how big they are we only had half. We both enjoyed them. It’s first time I’ve had a vegan ice cream sandwich and it was SO delicious. I think it’s for the best that we don’t as many of these vegan treats in Australia !!

Day 17 – Last stop Honolulu

Posted on by Libby Withnall

I was happy to be up at 5am on our last morning here so I could enjoy what will be our last sunrise over the ocean while here in Hawaii. I sat out on the lanai with my cup of tea to fully enjoy it.

I had yet another pita bread for breakfast, did most of the packing, then went down to have another swim. Kevin was super tired so he went to “try” and sleep some more. While I did enjoy my swim it was a bit windier and choppier than yesterday, and the sun refused to come out and play.

I rinsed off at the shower then lay on a sun lounger until I dried off.

Back in the apartment Kevin was awake (though he didn’t get much more sleep). We showered and finished packing and left just before 11am.

We had an hour long drive back to Honolulu. I must say it was a bit of shock seeing so many houses, tall apartment buildings and so much traffic. We found the Ala Moana Center and got parked. We were on the other side of the shopping center to our last time here so it took us a bit to find the entrance to the shops and get our bearings.

Unfortunately both Kevin and I were having bad pain days. Mine was mainly in my feet & hands but Kevin’s was all over.

The Pride Collection

We only went into stores we were really interested in, like Bath & Body works. And no, I didn’t buy the flamingo candle holders :-). It was strange seeing all the Summer scents since we’ve only ever visited during Christmas time.

Another favourite to explore is the Hallmark store. They always seem to have such good quality items.

This is a really nice shopping center but there is no seating to be found. Not sure if this is due to the pandemic or it’s always been the case. We probably would have stayed longer if we could have rested up every so often. We did catch a bit of a hula show so that was good.

Again, there didn’t seem to be a lot of cafes/restaurants like we get in Australian shopping centers – unless we just didn’t find them. We ended up, like we did last time we were here, at the food court. I was happy to be able to get the veggie option at Charli’s Philly Steaks. It was delicious as it always is, but rather messy. I also devoured a Strawberry Watermelon Lemonade. It’s not something I would normally choose but I was thirsty and it sound refreshing – which it was. Kevin (who was still in a lot of pain) wanted to get a bubble tea but the line was too long so he ended up with a frozen coke and some cinnamon pretzel bites from Auntie Anne’s.

After enjoying my lunch and giving my feet a fairly short break we head back to Box Lunch so we could facetime with Athena & Dan. Dan had spotted something he was interested in from the photos we had sent earlier. I was able to get a shirt (for his upcoming birthday) and the staff lady who attended to us was able to help Dan with some other queries about merch for one of his fav characters. Luckily she knew what he was talking about as we had no idea not being huge Marvel fans. Sadly they didn’t have anything but they seemed to enjoy their chat and the lady gave us a 25% off vochure (I assume because she enjoyed the interaction she had with Dan). Next time I’ll get everyone to check out the online store and give us a list to pick up.

Top for sale in Sketchers

I got myself some new Sketcher slip on shoes since my Crocs have pretty much had it and I haven’t been able to find a replacement for them at Crocs. The Sketchers don’t perhaps look as good but it’s like wearing slippers :-).

As we were heading back to the car I spotted Tommy Bahamas, which we had totally forgotten about. And we were able to get Kevin 2 of the boxer shorts he was wanting. Hopefully the other store in town will have some more in his size as they don’t sell them in Australia.

Finally we got back to the car, both so tired and sore, BUT we still had to visit WholeFoods before heading to our next apartment. We passed this awesome piece of street art on the way.

I put on my new Sketchers, which made a big difference, and we set out to get our groceries for our last 4 days in Hawaii. The store was really busy (to us anyway) but I still had fun checking out all the goodies that they sell. Like in Kauai we had to line up down the aisles but the line to check out, though it looked long, went fairly quickly. And it allowed me to find a VEGAN ice cream sandwich !! We always buy dinner at WholeFoods but we were just too sore to do that this time.

Kevin was excited to use one of these trolley escalators again.

We then had about a 15min drive to our airbnb at the Waikiki Banyon. The instructions we had were great and we were able to leave our car in the loading zone while unpacking and taking our luggage to the room – which is AWESOME.

As you can this airbnb is lovely. It’s clean and modern and well thought out. The only thing we miss is a bath – but that’s because a bath is awesome on a pain day.

We have a really nice view over to Diamond Head and we can even see the ocean. If you look straight down you can see the rooftop pool.

Once I’d filmed a room tour and all our luggage was up, I got a big glass of ice cold water and put my feet up. They were so sore !!! As were my hands and back !! Ahh, fun times with fibro !!

Kevin had to move the car so that the guy we rented from could come and pick it up later. The rental worked so good. We will definitely use this service again.

We obviously didn’t do anything more today except veg on the couch. We watched some YouTube on the nice big TV and later heated up a fridge dinner. I had lo mein and Kevin had Chicken of some variety. We both really enjoyed our meals – that tasted and looked home made.