Day Ten - June 5, 2011

We packed so much in to today that it is going to be tough to remember it all!  We started out by actually sleeping in to a normal hour.   We have adjusted to the time difference just in time to turn around and have to do it all over again in a few days!  We got up and had a light breakfast and had decided instead of going out to church we would do church online!  Earlier in the week when we met with that travel service to hear their pitch the gentleman that met with us got talking with us and found out that we had been on missions trips and that we had been to Lanakila Baptist Church – turns out he was a Christian and recommended we try Enew Hope Baptist Church in Honolulu.  Greg had looked it up online later in the week and found out that their service could be viewed streaming live on the internet. So since we had both not slept very well the night before: me – pain and him – sunburn pain decided to stay home and watch the service online.  We set the laptop up on the table and pulled up a chair and watched the service. It was a great service!  It is a huge church  in the heart of Honolulu – what we call a mega church.  10 members in their Praise team!  The Pastor was doing a sermon series on the Family being the backbone of society.  We both really enjoyed the service.  After the service was over we showered and got ready to head out for another day of adventure!  We decided to head into Old town Haleiwa. It is a cute little surfing/boating town that has shops and restaurants and artsy stuff all along the one street through the town.  We walked through a couple of shops and then decided to have lunch at Breakers Bar and Grill.  We were seated outside on their lanai.  I love being able to eat outside.  I ordered Macadamia nut crusted chicken breast sandwich, and Greg had a Prime rib dip sandwich.  Once again the taste buds were not disappointed!  I haven’t had one thing to eat here in Hawaii that wasn’t delicious! Oh, well . . .I guess the poi . . .not a big fan of poi.  After lunch we spent a couple hours walking around Haleiwa peeking in the shops and stopping at some of the booths of the roadside vendors.  I bought a kukui nut lei from one vendor to hang in my car as a constant reminder of my trip.  We ended our walk at a stand famous for their shave ice: Aoki’s shave ice stand has been around for over 30 years and has just about every flavor you can imagine, and if you want they will mix it with ice cream.  I had their Hawaiian blend of pineapple, coconut, and banana – Greg had the same but he had them mix in the ice cream.  I could definitely see why they have been around for over 30 years!  Our first clue should have been the line at the stand – and the line behind us within minutes after we got in line!  We got our shave ice and started the walk back to the car.  Once back to the car our next destination was Waikiki for some last minute souvenir shopping, dinner and a Polynesian magic show.  We parked in Waikiki and stopped in a couple different gift shops to pick up a couple of things to bring back for family, and walked slowly through Waikiki enjoying the sights.  We stopped at the restaurant we were headed to for dinner.  This time I had shrimp scampi and Greg had steak and fried shrimp.  After dinner we headed into the International market place to pick up a Hawaii hoodie for my daughter-in-law and then we walked the short distance to the Polynesian Magic show.  The show was a mix of magic and beautiful Polynesian dance and even a fire dancer!  It was a great show we both really enjoyed it.  The magician did everything from making a helicopter appear to making a corvette disappear!  When we came out of the show it was now night time in Waikiki and man do the streets come alive at night!  There were more crowds on the street now than during the day! There were street entertainers everywhere!  We got caught up in one entertainers web even before we knew it – we stopped to admire a brightly colored macaw that was sitting on a guys shoulder and before we could blink he put it on my shoulder and a second one on my other shoulder, grabbed Greg’s iPhone and took a picture of me and then shoved Greg in the picture and took another one and then wanted a $10 “donation” to “feed the birds”   YIKES!  How do people come up with this stuff!!!  Oh well lesson learned.  We stopped and watched another group of street entertainers do tumbling acts, and left before they “passed the hat”  (we had seen this one in NYC)  Then we stopped and watched another entertainer that made the most beautiful paintings with spray paint.  He was very entertaining with fun music playing and interpretive dance moves in between different colors used in his painting. We watched for about 30 minutes because we wanted to see the finished product.  The last song he played was one of my favorites: “I Can Only Imagine”  a Christian song about imagining what it will be like when we get to see Jesus.  Afterwards he gave glory to the Lord for his ability.  The painting was stunning to say the least and someone bought it before it was even dry!  Well it was time to leave the nightlife of Waikiki.  We walked back to the car, put the top down and enjoyed a moon and star lit drive back up to the north shore.  We have another full day tomorrow – it is our 30^th anniversary and we are headed to the Polynesian Cultural Center for the day!