LOST-Day 3, Monday

Today was Daddy's birthday, and Lily wanted to start celebrating at 5AM. Yay?

We decided that eating every meal at the hotel was unsustainable, and so we visited the the Wailana Coffee House across the street. I like pineapple and pancakes. These guys were able to put those two together for a proper birthday breakfast.

Lily draws a bit of attention, good and bad, everywhere we go. Our very nice waitress stopped an talked to her several times, but Lily would always clam up. We tried getting Lily to say Aloha, but it only came out as "HA!" She sounded a bit like she was mocking our poor waitress.

Later that morning, we drove to Hanauma Bay, which was absolutely gorgeous. You park on the top of a cliff practically, and walk down to the beach. The water is very calm because of the coral reef, and the aquatic life is quite literally everywhere. They do a good job of conservation here, by requiring you to watch a 15 minute move before giving you access.

Hanauma Bay is a national park, with very limited access, so the amenities were sparse. If you want an exercise in spatial reasoning and logistical problem solving, try changing a squirming 18-month old from normal clothes, to a swim diaper and bathing suit, in the stall of a public restroom, without touching any actual surface. Like I said on Sunday, we are not good at "going to the beach".

Based on our first experience at the beach, I decided it was a bad idea to see if Lily could snorkel. But due to the proximity of the reef, little fishies would swim right up to us, which tickled Lily quite a bit. After a while, she would point at just about anything in the water and go "pfishie!"

Later that night we ventured back to town for dinner. Our first dinner was in a very touristy shopping strip. It was OK, although Carrie insisted that she was entitled to fully cooked fish- ceviche, anyone? We decided that we wanted to try some real "local food", not a tourist restaurant. Naturally, we decided to go for Mexican food.

Mexican food can sometime be a risky move in foreign lands (yes, I know, Hawaii is a state, but lets be honest here, there are birds flying around my head that would be in a zoo anywhere else). While traveling in France, we decided that we would give a Mexican restaurant in Versailles a shot. I think it is safe to say that no one employed by the restaurant had been to Mexico, and they were quite unfamiliar with the cuisine. We enjoyed such offerings as cheese quesadillas (made with chevre cheese), and Fajitas (with green beans and broccoli). Delicious.

This time we got lucky and the food was great, the service was great, and the ambiance was very much "local Waikiki", if there is such a thing. Lily enjoyed her cheese quesadilla (with quesadilla cheese, whatever that is), Spanish rice, and generous amounts of sour cream, guacamole, and salsa. Someone likes to "dip" as she says.

Here are some pics from Day 3.