Everyone except Daddy woke up early at around 6am. While the kids were watching TV, I prepared the breakfast - Lucky Charms and milk for my son, pancakes with maple syrup and milk for the young lady, Nutrigrain bars for Daddy, oatmeal for myself and scrambled eggs and broccoli for everyone.
The plan for the day was simply to hang around in the resort. Both kids had their eyes on the lagoon pool that we could see from our balcony, so off we went.
When we got down there, there were kids making giant bubbles on the lawn. This was one of the scheduled daily activities.
We were almost the very first to jump into the lagoon pool. After probably half an hour, we were told that the pool was in fact closed until noon. So we moved to the big kiddie pool with the waterfall caves.
The whole morning was almost spent there. I played in the pool with the kids where my hu*****and relaxed in the sun reading his sci-fi book. We played dolphins and shark, a game invented by the kids wherein I was the shark trying to catch them two dolphins. Then we moved to the beach. To be precise, it was more of a lagoon, since there was a line of big rocks that stopped the big waves to come in. It was quite nice especially for kids.
Building sand castles, catching the waves, swimming out to the ocean - ordinary but much fun.
You guessed it, yes, that lady in black was me :-). I could no longer just wear a swimming suit, let alone a bikini, under the sun since a few years back. Diagnosis - dermal allergy to sun. We have looked high and low for a full coverage swimming suit, short of buying one designed for women of Muslim faith :-). The black ensemble has served me well.
Taking a break to a soothing view.
At one point, my daughter was getting excited seeing fishes in the water. So I told her that Mommy would go to the Market to get a snorkeling set for her.
The resort was very beautiful with waterfalls and palm trees swinging in the breeze and under the blue sky.
Trying on the snorkeling mask.
After lunch, my hu*****and went to the gym - he had an unrealistic plan to lose a few pounds while on this trip :-) - while I got the kids washed up.
At around 4pm, we set out to Chinatown, 5 on the Top 10 things to do in Oahu on our tour book. It's said to be the seediest neighborhood in Honolulu in the past but it has been rejuvenated since, and it's now lined with trendy shops and eateries.
Perhaps due to the high ranking by the book, my expectation was improperly set. To be honest, I was quite disappointed by the sight. Not nearly vibrant as the Chinatown back home. Some section of it was not really clean and did not smell nicely.
I found this sign very funny - 天津牛肉粉served up as Vietnamese Pho? Sort of oxymoron :-).
We happened upon a market place, and unfortunately most of the vendors had closed for the day.
This seemed to be a nicer section of the town.
The key criterion for our dinner venue was that it had to have honey glazed walnut shrimp, because that's what our son was insisting on. We came upon a sea food restaurant that looked very spacious and was nicely decorated. So I asked whether they had honey glazed walnut shrimp on the menu, and upon an affirmative answer, we filed in and were seated.
I noticed on the menu that the walnut shrimp was modified by a phrase "in a special sauce", so I asked what the special sauce was, and the answer came as "mayonnaise", as I was afraid of. So we asked whether the chef could make it differently - no special sauce, instead, make the shrimp honey glazed. The waitress went asking the chef and cane back saying that he would try.
This was his attempt at making what I described.
Not quite. The honey was served on the side. Luckily, after one bite, my son declared that he liked it.
All the other dishes we ordered were surprisingly quite good.
芋頭扣肉
Hawaii 空心菜
上海粗炒麵
蒸魚片
Once again, let me borrow from my daughter's journal to complete this. "we had dinner at Won Kee Restaurant, and it was delicious. On our way back, I fell asleep in the car. When I woke up, it was time to brush teeth. So I brushed and flossed and washed my face, and then I fell fast asleep. Good night!"
