Malaho!

Our last day on Hawaii was rained out. Only in the late afternoon it cleared up, but that didn't help anymore. Because of the rain we spent a pretty lazy morning in our hotel room with some donuts from the nearby ABC Store and coffee from the hotel lobby. At noon we checked out, left our luggage and took the bus to the Ala Moana Center, a huge shopping center (pic) in Midtown Honolulu, swamped by Asian People, with over 350 stores and restaurants and a stage. Didn't plan to go there, but since it rained and since the Pearl Harbor Memorial on top of the sunken USS Arizona was closed for renovations, we decided otherwise. Also, there was an Uniqlo Store in the Shopping Center, a store we both love.

Did some not-planned shopping at Uniqlo and Sketchers (love their comfy shoes!) and enjoyed an early dinner of Ahi Poke and "Loaded Fries" (with salsa, guacamole and cheese) at Waikiki Brewing. Yummy!

Not wanting to wait for a bus again, we walked back to the hotel - rain had stopped in the meantime -, re-packed in the hotel lobby (right pic) and called an Uber at 6 pm. Again, the driver was an interesting man from the Philippines, a single parent of two daughters and a son, who lives on Oahu near the Dole pineapple plantation for 15 years and before that in Los Angeles. His late wife was from Molokai and we talked about this island, too. Got to like Uber (or Lyft) much better than regular cabs (not that we usually take cabs or other services if there is public transportation, but sometimes have to). With Uber you know exactly what you are going to pay, you don't need cash, you decide about tipping lateron on the app. Drivers are usually more interesting, too.

Now we are sitting at Honolulu Airport, which is partly open-air, as all the previous Hawaiian Airports were, but - strangely - most shops were closed at 7 pm already. Wouldn't have had to worry about the weight of our luggage (both pieces close to 50 pound), the lady at check-in told us that we have a 75 pound (instead of 50) allowance as UA Silver Medallion members. Didn't know that. Checked out the plants/flower shop (with beautiful "real flower" leis) and was enticed to buy frangipani or ginger plant stalks to grow at home, but did not. Won't grow anyway in our rough climate.

I passed on my long-time cold to Peter, he is sneezing and coughing badly now and we got him some cough sirup and lozenges. Hope the expected cold weather won't make it worse. Also, I hope that he will get some shut eye on the plane, won't have a real night's sleep anyway, arriving in San Francisco at around 5 am in the morning and having 4,5 hours layover there till our plane to Seattle takes off where our Go West congress' fam tour starts in the afternoon.

Malaho und Aloha Hawaii! It's been an interesting trip and perhaps we will be back one day - to Big Island, and, perhaps to Molokai.