Food is Beautiful: Oahu 2023

I'm writing this half laying on the couch. According to Google Fit, I walked 8.5 miles - 18,770 steps. Part of it was my inputting the directions in Google Maps to Diamond Head State Monument, by bus. I first walked through a beautiful park right near the hotel that I will definitely go to again. I kept going thought I must have missed something and felt I should have gotten to the bus stop by now... Checked the phone and it had me walking to the volcano. It is only a 45 min. walk from the hotel, but I decided to find the closest bus to take instead. It seems as though many people were planning to go there today! The bus got packed and we got off and then walked up the hill to the entrance to the park. Then I got an audio tour and set out. There were lots of people, which I had been told about. You do have to have patience because there are people of all ages and speed. I'm not sure how many of them weren't breathing hard after the steps though!

When I was done with the hike, I had the tough decision of where I was going to eat. It was only 11:30 and I thought I'd go back towards Waikiki. There's one place called The Rainbow Drive-in that I saw on tv, but the food there is comfort food and after that walk, I wasn't in the mood. I decided to take the bus in that direction and go to Maguro Spot, another place I saw on tv. They have poke bowls and yes, it was great. It's very much like a deconstructed sushi roll. I had the Rainbow Bowl with white rice, tobiko, and sea asparagus. There was tuna, salmon, cooked shrimp, and I think that's it. I sat at a table outside and a bit later this nice young woman asked if she could sit and I learned she is an airline attendant and is on a layover. She came in at 10 pm and is leaving at 10pm, on Alaska Air, where she is from. She's only been flying for a year and is still on standby. She got the call to take the flight and Anchorage was in the middle of a blizzard, so she was happy to get out of there. Driving to the airport wasn't great though! She told me she went to a cat cafe today and spent an hour without even realizing it. She also said the beach was really crowded and lots of people surfing, so that's where I went next.

It was crowded and there were lots of people surfing. They also have a walkway the runs the whole length of the beach. I went down to where I thought was good snorkeling and found the spot. It's called Queen's Beach and I walked out on a jetty (Waikiki Wall) and that's where I took the video of the water, shown below. It was really windy and the wall is about 3 feet wide and I knew I wasn't going to blow over, but I did have to brace myself, as this little woman next to me couldn't have been bothered less! We watched the fish together. A couple were feeding them, which is why they were so feisty. I don't remember such big fish when snorkeling in the Caribbean. I'm not sure you can see in the video anything, but they were big blue ones, thin blue ones, that looked like pin-nose somethings, and yellow ones.

Ok - looked them up (https://www.honolulu.gov/rep/site/dpr/dpr_docs/hbep_fish_id_card.pdf) and it seems like the big blue ones are pualu, Yellowfin Surgeon fish. The thin, long ones must be Trumpetfish (blue morph). I have no idea what the yellow ones were. These were in the pond at the hotel - ´āwela - Christmas Wrasse (male) Thalassoma trilobatum

After looking at the beach I went in search of something sweet and refreshing sounded better than baked goods, so there may be 2 or 3 options on every block. One that sounded good to me was a place called "Ice Monster". It is shave ice and fresh fruit and sorbet and very good. I had mango. That was fun eating on the walk back to the hotel. I thought I'd be able to sit and eat it in that lovely park, but I was done before I got there. It also was spontaneously showering during the walk back and I'd seek shelter with others under an awning, give it 15 seconds, it would lighten to a mist, so move on the the next time it got heavier. It was also sunny, which made it nice.

Here are some photos of my journeys: