Sun, Shopping, Surfing and Sand!

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We awoke to that beautiful sunrise over Diamond Head. It was awesome sharing it with Montana! Unfortunately it was too dark to take great pictures.

But here is Waddles and Mr. Quack on our balcony over looking the beach and Diamond Head.

Another Tip – If you aren’t big breakfast eaters or are looking to save some money, make sure your room has a fridge – if not use your ice bucket. We aren’t big breakfast eaters and knew we would be waking up early, so we bought cereal and milk from the dozens of “ABC stores” in the Waikiki area. (It really is incredible how many there are – more than Starbucks!) We had our breakfast had some Internet time (uploading pictures to Facebook etc.) and decided to go for a walk.

All the stores were closed (It was 7:45 am by this time) so we hit Starbucks and sat out on their patio watching the people go by.
We then went for a walk along Kalakaua Ave (the main strip along Waikiki Beach). Most of the stores were closed, but

the city was waking up by this time and we watched the joggers and thought – wow they must be dedicated and HOT!!!) It was already 83 F and very humid. We were amazed at how the temperature varied 10 F from Sun to Shade.

We found the story teller Hawaiian God Stature and had to take pictures with her.

Shopping and Turtles!

We started to walk back and did some shopping. We made it made it back by 10:30 am and were starving. We found a Coco Cove store that had the salads like we like in New York – the one where you choose the lettuce and then the ingredients and they toss it for you – they also had Panini’s. So we decided to take some food back to our room and enjoy our balcony and view. It was perfect! We even got a picture of the turtle! By the end of the weekend we saw 4 at one time!

More Shopping at the Ala Moana Center

We then took a taxi to the Ala Moana Center. It is the largest outdoor mall in the world and the largest mall in Hawaii. Montana wanted to use her gift card she got for her birthday (THANX MOM) so we headed straight there. She did quite well and was really excited!

We went into the humongous food court with foods from every part of the world and were all amazed at the size of it and the variety! What was funny was that we all decided that a hot dog was all we wanted. So a Nathan’s Hot dog it was! Montana also had a bubble tea – well at least one of us enjoyed the ethnicity of it all!

We also found a lulu lemon athetica store! It was awesome to see a piece of home (lulu lemon is a Canadian company).

It was time to return for our afternoon swim and I promised Montana that we would go and find out about surfing lessons. So back to the hotel and onto the beach.

We found a great guy to give Montana a lesson in the morning – Corbin – he asked us to be there by 7 am for a lesson in the morning. We knew we would be up!

We went for our swim and then got ready and went for sushi – our favorite place in Waikiki – the Restaurant Suntory in the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Area. We sat at the sushi bar and were excited to see it was the same Sushi chef as last year. It was a great dinner.

Montana then wanted to “pick a pearl” so we wandered through the International Market Place and she picked a stall to pick a pearl. She was really excited, and chose a larger than average pearl. She chose a silver ring setting, and was really happy with how it turned out.

We were in bed by 10 pm – afterall it was 4 am at home!

First Surfing Lesson!

We woke early again and Montana was excited to go surfing. I was a little nervous about it but I felt good about the instructor that we chose the day before. There was a large long board surfing competition going on. So there were a lot of surfers out there.

We paid for a group lesson but there wasn’t any other participants so Montana ended up with a private lesson. They did a quick 5 minute on land lesson, then an hour in the water.
The lesson included the use of a surfboard and surf shirt to wear.

Out they went and before you knew it Montana was up on her first wave! I was amazed at how easy it came to her. Corbin would set her up and then off she went!

Needless to say she had a blast!

As the hour went on I could see how tired she was getting. When she finished the lesson she said her arms were killing her! I can see why – It looked like a lot of work!

We decided to spend our Sunday as a “lazy day” so we got showered and went for an early lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. We had a great table overlooking the street and we could watch the people go by. As usual the portions were huge so we took the leftovers back to the room for dinner.

We wandered around the shops again and then went back to the room to watch “The Matrix”. This is Warren’s absolute favorite movie and it was shot in Sydney Australia (where we are heading to while I write this!).

We have arranged to do a movie tour that is mostly a tour of the locations that the Matrix was filmed in on Thursday. Montana had not seen it yet, so it was a perfect idea to have a lazy afternoon watching the movie. I think she liked it – I was glad to be refreshed as I hadn’t seen it in a few years. Warren has seen it a dozen times!

We sat out on the balcony and watched the masses of beachcombers, surfers and swimmers. It was the day before school started so it was really busy on the beach! This time we saw 4 turtles in the same spot. In fact there was a man swimming quite close to one but couldn’t see it, the turtle came up for air and scared the man half to death! It was hilarious to watch him swim away fast and furiously. I am not sure if he knew what it was! I think he scared the turtle just as much as he was scared!

We then went for our afternoon swim and looked for the turtles to no avail. I guess it is easier to see them from 18 floors up!

Dinner consisted of leftovers, and another salad from the salad place – it was yummy and not too much! We were all tired, but had to pack up as we had an early morning flight to catch – this one on JetStar – the Qantas charter airline. They have a star class service and section which is a little more money but worth it! We each got an individual movie player with a pretty good selection of movies. And meal service. In the regular section of the cabin you can rent a unit and pay for meal service before you get on the plane. I think it is a great way to do it.

Ok so we have 4 hours to go on a 10 hour flight – hmmm now what? PSP? Another movie? Gossip Girl (I promised Montana I would catch up so we could talk about it!)

Well Waddles and Mr. Quack are excited to be on their way to Australia and we are about to fulfill on a life long dream for Warren!

I am not sure if every blog entry will be this detailed as it took over 2 hours to do. But we will do our best!