[lashbear]

So,

Waking up to the dulcet strains of the garbage trucks at 7am, we all thought it would be nice to go down to the breakfast with itty bitty sausages, large pancakes and lashings of maple syrup plus fresh pineapple and OJ. All for $3 - not bad value at all. I mentioned to the server that Sugar free maple syrup was unavailable at home, and she came running after me with a whole unopened bottle of it for me to take home !!! Gotta love Hawaiian Hospitality.

From there, we got our wireless network set up on the computer so we had connectability, then went for a leisurely walk around the area, just to wear off the pancakes, and discovered that of the 500 buses that went to Ala Moana, only one was coming soon, and in fact it left the rank just as we arrived. Assured that more were going there, we waited as every OTHER bus came past, however eventually one number we recognised off our list came past, and LashMamma looked down at the list of numbers, looked up at the bus and cried triumphantly "Bingo"

Ala Moana is Big. Really Big. We managed to miss the Foodland store we wanted, but we found the Sunglasses store, so Stoat and I now have a sporty new look, and we found Macy's, so Rob now has two yummy Hawaiian shirts by Tori Richard, and Stoat and Rob how have two new pairs of Joggers. All on special. yay. Oh and lots of Sockettes.

We found Sees Candies !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! they gave us a couple to try and we got a small selection, which (now that we're back) we can't find !!

On the rooftop we found the Mai Tai Bar, and had....... milk. No, not really, we had three beautiful trad Mai Tai's which made the rest of the shopping easier.

After a fabulous day of being separated from our money in a variety of novel ways, we made our way back to the unit, where Stoat sat on the balcony overlooking the parking lot and road, nursing a Margarita.

Occasionally he would describe what he was observing, such as "Bear...Bear!!! - that drunken bling-clad yo-boy with the two pop tarts just tore the front corner off his car on the garden bed, and then ran over the tyre stops and scraped the sump pan".

..."Should i go down and help him, or the cussing lady across the street that's burning out her starter motor because she's run out of gas"?

Thinking better of it, Stoat reflected "No...I'll let that nice local person doing the drug deals help her...he has an honest face - she'll be fine."

Later, (about 2 hours later) Stoat had wished he had the number for the AAA Service. It could have helped her avoid listening to the drunken bums across the road. I don't know if the AAA is for cars for alcoholics...but either way it would have help her.

We don't like watching other people's misfortunes, but it is refreshing when it isn't us for once!!! It's perversely relaxing. The Margarita helps too.

Folks are really friendly here. Stoat also spotted a well-built marine type wearing a T Shirt with very large letters "BI" written on the front. He thought he had died and gone to heaven, calling out "Bear...Bear !!!" - until the guys' towel revealed the "F" of "FBI".

We also spoke with ~MS~ and CoasterMatt and Rose to settle more plans (these people are amazing...somehow they seemed to know we were coming to the US). We've also lined up (using an eyebrow pencil) some more time with Gemini. Bear says Diamond Head - Stoat says Church on Sunday with all seven Stations of the Cross with Chardonnay and crackers.

We are thinking the Zoo and the (porpoise-free) Aquarium today. Stay tuna-ed.