July 23-24, 2010, 18:45 HST

N 21°17.567’, W 157°51.404’
Just another day in Paradise…Part II

The 23rd was a blur involving the beach, the pool at the hotel, a couple of venti, green iced tea things, dinner and drinks. I walked up and down Waikiki Beach a few times and ended up putting my towel down at Queens Surf Beach down at the Diamond Head end of Waikiki. Richard had gone back to the boat to check on the refrigerator so I had most of the morning and afternoon to myself.

We ended up doing dinner at a restaurant in the Marriott (Sansei Seafood Restaurant) and there was tons of food, including variations on sushi rolls that we had never tried before. The panko-fried shrimp roll was especially good. We headed to Hula’s Bar and Lei Stand in the Waikiki Grand Hotel after dinner where we had a beer, then I left as I was pretty much wiped out from all the sun during the day. I walked along the beach back to the hotel and was surprised to see lots of people fishing right off of Waikiki Beach.

On Saturday morning, I woke up early to jump on a bus and head out to Leonard’s Bakery in search of malasadas, the Portuguese fried donuts that all the tour books say you have to try when in Hawai’i. The bus dropped me off about a half a mile from the bakery and I walked the rest of the way. Despite it being only 8:00 in the morning, it was really hot out. By the time I reach the bakery, I was sweating profusely and craving a venti green iced tea thingy like mad.

There was a fairly long line of people queued up to place their malasada orders and I worried that they might run out. I’m sure the staff at Leonard’s is used to this type of demand because as soon as one tray emptied, a new one quickly took its place in the display case.

Just to be on the safe side, I ordered a dozen (six regular, six cinnamon). I also sampled the flavor of the month malasada, which was guava, and despite what anyone says, it was, as they say here in the islands, ono (delicious!), despite the creamy filling being an unnatural pink color

After picking up my malasadas, I walked to the nearest Starbucks for my venti…in preparation for the long walk back to Kuhio Street where I would be able to pick up a bus. I called Richard along the way to tell him that I had the goods and was on my way back to the hotel. We also stopped down at the breakfast buffet to fortify our malasadas with fruit, juice and tea. I’m not sure why Richard insisted on this, I would have been just as happy to just eat all the malasadas while they were still warm with no leftovers.

After checking out of the hotel, we walked back to the boat to plan the rest of our afternoon. We noted that Hula’s was sponsoring a catamaran outing off of Waikiki Beach and decided that this would be a great chance to get out on a boat on the water…wait a minute! That’s how we got down here in the first place! You would think that the last thing a boater wants to do is get on another boat and sight see.

We justified this excursion by remembering that we didn’t have to prepare the boat, we didn’t have to steer or raise the sails, or trim them or any of the hundreds of other things you have to do while you’re sailing a boat. All we had to do was sit back, relax, have a drink, swim in the ocean, mingle with the other tourists, and leave the boat when the whole thing was done. It was fun and we enjoyed our couple of hours on the water.

We returned our boat and made plans for re-provisioning the boat for the trip to Hanalei Bay on Kaua’i. Shopping without a car…this should be interesting!