Katy and I began our day today with a breakfast buffet from one of the restaurants at the hotel. This was our view. I think I could wake up to that every day of my life, ocean in view, waves crashing palm trees swaying. It was also a really good breakfast. The kids began the day on the beach with Nana and Puddin' and then, as you see in the image on the right, graduated to the pool. Turns out the stretch of beach right at the hotel has a lot of rocks and shells, so it's not the most comfortable spot to enjoy the water and they gravitated to the pool.
Next we headed up to Kaneohe, where some longtime friends of Gary and Nell retired, so we could enjoy a Thai restaurant they are big, big fans of. When I say big, I mean they have been there so much in the last 14 years since they made Hawaii their permanent home that these people know them WELL. And gosh we had a lot of fun. This is small spot where they treat you like you are part of the family. And everyone treated us that way, to the point where they kept bringing us food and food and food to share, even many things we hadn't ordered. 😃 The chef had asked me before if I liked seafood and made some suggestions. I mentioned the salmon sounded really good but that I knew I wasn't in control of the ordering. Our hosts, Jim and Minnie Lou (hope I spelled that right) Long wanted to make sure we received the authentic experience, so Minnie Lou ordered everything. Despite that, the chef brought out the very salmon he had recommended, which was AMAZING, just because. Wow was it good! We lost track of the number of dishes we tried, quite honestly, but all were great! 
At the end of the meal, they asked if anyone wanted homemade coconut ice cream, to which eight of our group of 11 confirmed they did. You'd think that would be it, but then the owner, who was called "Mama Toy", and I KNOW I am misspelling her last name, advised us the chef was bringing out a special dessert for the children. Boy did he ever, and I apologize but I don't have that particular picture to share. On a plate in the shape of a wooden guitar, he had slices of their chocolate ganache torte, whipped cream, a mango cheesecake cream of some sort, and a mound of blue cotton candy, among other things. The kids flipped (and most of the adults). I saw the chocolate torte and had to have some. To the right is what they brought out. I thought I was getting a slice. This came with a chocolate pistachio mousse and a number of other things. It was massive and incredible!
Leaving the restaurant, we took the Pali Highway back down to Honolulu. This highway takes you to several very scenic spots including the picture of us you see, then as we found ourselves a little further on, and a little higher up, Nu'uanu Pali Lookout, noted by the sign (still not convinced I'm capitalizing it correctly; I have much to learn here).
The lookout takes you to a place of historical significance, going back to the late 18th century, as noted by the description of the sign you see Zac framing below. As the text shows up too small to read unless I make it quite large, I have made that particular image bigger so you can see where it was we were. This spot looks north, I guess...directions are really kind of all over the place here. As Gary described it, they pretty much use nautical terms (windward, leeward) and then if I'm not mistaken north and south are Hawaiian words for mountains (north) and beach (south), or something close to that. Sorry if I have any of it wrong, but I do find it all pretty fascinating, plus with the lack of straight roads anywhere here, their concept makes a lot of sense. :)
This, to the left, is a view from the above scenic overlook. It of course does not do it justice. It also doesn't capture the speed of the Tradewinds that blow through here. It's really windy and slightly chilly, but absolutely a beautiful view and I'm so glad we stopped to see it. As you can see from the pic of Katy and me, our hair (look at mine go!) was really blowing. It didn't seem to bother all the chickens, though. That's right; I said chickens. And the feral cats. They didn't seem bothered by it. I'm told the chickens were blown between islands during some big hurricane years and years ago and that's why there are so many around, especially on Molokai, where Gary and Nell were earlier this week. Hey, I'm just the messenger on this one. :) After stopping to see the elementary school Katy attended while they lived in Hawaii and the high school Mickie attended during that time, we headed to the hotel for a few hours to rest before dinner. I'd share dinner pics, but between the kids mostly wanting to fall asleep (Mandy completely did), service being slow and so-so, and my dish being completely undercooked, it wasn't really worth it to post pics on it tonight. Everything else has been so great and service has been SO good that I'm not going to spoil it by posting a restaurant review that isn't positive. :)
And I apologize for not getting more pics of our lunch. The sheer volume of dishes filled the three tables we were seated at, completely taking up any free space we had between us, if that gives you any indication. Quite honestly, one of the very best restaurant experiences I have ever had, and now one of my all time fun food memories. What a fun day!
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