Our day started early (due to jet lag) with the breakfast buffet at our hotel. Being an Elite Marriott member, the $29.95/pp “international breakfast buffet” was free of charge. The food was decent and eating outside was nice. So at a cost of free, it was a great deal, but at $30 bucks per person, umm, not so much.
We spent the morning at the beach on Waikiki, which is really one of the more spectacular and pleasant beaches in the world (at least in a highly touristed destination). This is especially true across from our hotel, where the beach area is fully sheltered by a wall.
Waikiki Beach
In the afternoon, we visited the Waikiki Aquarium. Although it’s modest in size, I was impressed by the aquarium’s quality and emphasis on Hawaii’s native marine life and associated ecosystem. It also seemed that this might prove to be a good introduction to our future aquatic activities.
Waikiki Aquarium
Toward evening, we attended the finale parade for the Honolulu Festival, which (knowing nothing about it) appears to be some sort of Pacific Rim cross cultural event. We watched the parade both from street level and later from the 4th story balcony of a Mexican restaurant where we ate.
Watching the parade…
After dinner, I took Emerson to have a proper Hawaiian shave ice. Unlike with a snow cone, top-quality shave ice establishments use syrups made of natural fruits rather than from flavored and colored corn syrup.
Strawberry shave ice…