Downtown Honolulu – Fun at Waikiki Beach

It's really, really nice to wake up in the morning and see the blue sea right over Waikiki ... Getting up, making breakfast and enjoying delicious bagels (no, we're not tired of them yet) on the balcony. Finally having coffee after days, which unfortunately wasn’t available at the accommodation on Big Island. With the incredible view of the early hustle and bustle on the blue to turquoise water. Stand-up paddlers, surfers, open-water swimmers, paragliders, and sailors are all out on the water.

After that, we headed to Honolulu. We want to visit the old town, with the Aloha Tower at the cruise ship pier, the royal palace of the Hawaiian monarchs, of which there are none today, and the government building. All these points are centrally located, so we parked our car in a supermarket parking lot and could walk to the sites.

By lunchtime, we were back in Waikiki and took our first walk along the beach. The beach is lined with expensive hotels and surf schools. The water is perfect, at 27 degrees, with light waves and white sand.

At some point, the path along the beach ended, and we strolled along the main street, Kalakaua Avenue, past upscale shops like Hermes, Louis Vuitton, Dolce & Gabbana, and so on. No shops for us! In the 'International Marketplace', a collection of various stores, we could at least take a look and venture a foot inside. We focused on original Hawaiian shirts. Based on certain criteria, you can find such beautiful shirts that aren't printed with palm trees and don't come from Vietnam or China. They have buttons made from coconut shells, are straight cut at the bottom, feature a matching pattern on the chest pocket, and very importantly: The label in the collar shows that the shirt was produced in Hawaii. Of course, that comes with a price. But they are indeed beautiful...

The further we came back into our residential area, the more 'normal' the shops became. What we noticed, however, already the day before, is that there are a hell of a lot of ABC stores. It feels like you encounter one of these stores with lower-quality offerings every five meters. Mostly tourist products. The American antitrust office should really investigate this ... regarding monopoly status ...

Well, we only bought a magnet ;-)

Back home, we packed our things and headed to the beach. Finally, fully immersing ourselves in the warm water with gentle swells.

We consciously didn't bring a camera, phone, or snorkel mask because we wanted to enjoy the water together and not leave valuables on the beach. This soon backfired. Because, hardly in the water, a sea turtle showed its head above the surface. That was quite a shock at first. Who would expect such a wonderful creature just three meters from the shore ...??? A woman nearby was wearing a snorkel mask and had seen and followed the turtle as well. We quickly realized that the woman and her accompanying husband are Germans. It soon became clear that they are also passengers on the Norwegian Sun, and we are heading to the South Seas together ... What coincidences...

For quite a while, we observed the sea turtle, which had an estimated shell length of 60 to 70 cm, because it needed to come up for air occasionally and showed its head. We got the impression that it lives there...

There were also some colorful fish to see at the beach. So, it wasn't necessary to spend a lot of money, for example, to see colorful fish at Hanauma Bay (25 dollars per person). Or to drive to Turtle Bay ... Just go to a regular beach, there's already enough to see.

By the way, speaking of seeing: Somehow we are drawn to Pride weekends, or we coincidentally book around dates when such an event or parade takes place. Also today in Waikiki. Colorful and loud! But somehow without a real concept, without a message, as we found. It's not as extreme as in Germany. Thankfully, here you can watch the parade with small children without them having to cope with a traumatic experience. No naked men being led on all fours in the street with almost no clothing, or flamboyantly dressed, naked people indulging in their fetishes.

Here, groups march, leaving us wondering what the message of such a parade is? We are proud of ??? whom and whatever, and we wonder why the homosexual community always has to highlight the special? If you want to be treated normally, then behave normally ... When will there be a Proud Week for heterosexuals? So, we are out, and we are no longer interested in the 'queer, woke talk'...

Since we missed the sunset the day before, we decided to watch it today. Just squeezed it in; somehow, we expected the timing to be later, but it was still enough time for a nice photo.