Day 17 – Last stop Honolulu

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.

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.

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.

Shopping at Chadstone

We had a VERY slow morning. After the long day and early start yesterday it was nice to just hang in bed (something I never do at home) with a cup (or more) of tea and enjoy this view. I also edited some vlogs and later ate breakfast in bed. Kevin opted for granola while I had sourdough toast with strawberry jam.

Many, many hours later we had our showers and got dressed for the day. Kevin needed to go to an Apple store to buy a better charger for his watch so we decided to head to Chadstone shopping center. I’ve never been before but knew it was supposed to be nice shopping – though we were more interested in browsing as we aren’t big shoppers any more.

Before we went to the shops I wanted to have a little drive along the foreshore to see a little of St. Kilda.

The drive to Chadstone wasn’t the best with LOTS of traffic but we eventually got there. We were lucky to arrive when there were still some parking spost available (on the rooftop), but it was crazy busy. Neither of us realized there were BLACK FRIDAY sales on !!

I was excited to see this Disney car parked right near us.

Thankfully the center did require facemasks to be worn. We wouldn’t have stayed if they weren’t. Most people were complying. Shops also had limits of the number of people allowed in. The center is lovely, esp. decorated for Christmas. It is huge and I’m sure we visited just a portion of the shops.

First stop was, of course, the Apple store. I thought it was a good opportunity to go to the bathroom, but I got lost when I came out – having taken wrong turn and ended up in the next corridor to where I should have been. I had to laugh at myself and use find my friends to see if I was headed in the right direction.

After being reunited we ventured down to the food court in search of lunch. Kevin suggested Schnitz since they have vegan options. I thought this was a good choice and we were able to be seated straight away. I had the Garden of Vegan wrap. I haven’t had one in the longest time and I’d forgotten how good they were. Kevin enjoyed a Chicken Parmigana.

I’d gotten excited when we passed a Bath & Body Works earlier, and though I don’t really buy all the stuff I used to from there (trying to buy more natural & ethical brands) I thought it would be very holiday like to check it out. Thankfully the line to get in wasn’t too long and actually moved quickly. We waited around 10 mins, which we really appreciated because the store, though busy, wasn’t super crowded. Plus you had to show proof of double vaccination to enter.

The black Friday sale was buy 3 things, get 3 things free. It was fun getting to sniff everything (though Kevin did say it felt strange/wrong during this covid time). Just a few years back I would have bought so many things but this time we ended up with 6 3-wick candles. A good choice really since the weight means we never bring back more than 1 or 2 when we visit the states.

We then went to Peter Alexander which is always a fun store to look around and we picked some jammies for Christy for Christmas.

Kevin spotted the cardboard dog just as walked into the store and we thought it looked very like Koda. How cute is it?

On our way back to the car Kevin picked up a few treats to eat and we went to Starbucks since he had 2 free drinks to claim. We both had Green Tea Frappuccinos. It’s something I very rarely have so did enjoy it.

Just as were about to leave we spotted a Coles so decided to pop in and get a few supplies so we didn’t need to stop on the way home.

We were pretty tired by now and glad to have this task over and done with. Back at the car it took quite some time to exit the carpark due to the number of cars entering and trying to find parking spots. So glad we arrived when we did. There was much less traffic on the road and it only took us 20mins to get back to the apartment.

I spent some time writing up yesterdays blog post before we watching some YouTube. Dinner tonight was some rice paper rolls that we pick up today from Roll’d. They were okay but not as nice as they could have been. I think the ones I make myself are tastier. But I definitely appreciated not having to make dinner.

The sunsets here are pretty late – close to 8.30pm but I’m loving getting to see them as it’s something we don’t experience at home.

Just as were going to bed I realized how pretty it was when the sun had gone down and the city lights were on show.

Tomorrow : Markets and a walk around St Kilda

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