Ohana Means Family - Part 4

In case you missed it, here's Part 3.

On our third morning/fourth day in Honolulu, we figured we'd finally start sleeping in, but alas, no dice.  We were up early again, but we chilled on the lanai until the sun came up, and then I went for a short jog around the nearby Ala Moana Park while Chris propped up the Toe.

More Toe Pictures!

It's looking almost normal again!

Once I returned, we ate breakfast, got cleaned up, and hoofed it to the bus stop to ride into Chinatown, to finally do the visit we meant to undertake a few days prior.  We wandered through the area following the Frommer's Guide walking tour, which was interesting, if moderately outdated ("this is the local Chinese herbal pharmacy...well, it's closed now, but this is where it WAS").  Briefly stopping at the Izumo Taishakyo Mission, we sent up a hearty wish to the universe for Dad and the rest of the Onde Amo crew to make it here safe, sound, and preferably, soon!

Outside the Mission

With the prayer bells

We followed steps 1-4 and 6,

but we skipped 5.

Hope that's okay.

One of our main purposes in going to Chinatown was to eat dim sum, but it was a bit early for lunch, so we found ourselves at the Foster Botanical Gardens with some time to kill; what a great place!

The Kuan Yin Temple - 

we didn't visit here, but it's right next to the Gardens

This is the quipo tree.

It's freaking gigantic.

It's seriously massive.

We initially thought it was some sort of water tower-type

structure since it was so wide and tall and gray.

But no, it's completely natural.

This is a cannonball tree,

and I can see why they put

a warning sign underneath it.

Plants in tropical places are so odd sometimes.

We didn't take any pictures of the sausage trees,

but do a quick Google search for those.

You won't be disappointed.

Finally, it was a reasonable time for lunch, so before we headed out of the Gardens, we visited the loos and the gift shop, two of our more consistent haunts, wherever we happen to be.  I found this sign in the ladies' bathroom, and I had to share it:

I guess the stick thing really

is an issue in a garden.

We found this cool dude in the gift shop.

He's probably about my height, 

and he's made of dried pods from the quipo tree,

pictured above.

The volunteer working the gift shop saw me reading

Foster's little card and asked if we'd seen the quipo tree.

I remarked that we had, and it was quite large,

and she responded with, "it's pretty hard to miss."

Indeed.

Famished from all of our wandering and tree-peeping, we reached our lunch destination, Mei Sum Dim Sum and grabbed a seat.  As noted in several different online publications and websites, it was delicious, and we ate far, far too much, all of it wrapped in steamed, doughy goodness.

Halfway through -

sorry for the dirty dishes everywhere,

but I forgot to take a picture while everything was clean,

as I was busy stuffing dumplings in my pie hole.

Go here!  Eat dumplings!

Get bossed around by Chinese Aunties!

We'd been checking our phones pretty consistently for any news of Dad and the crew, and around this time, Risa posted this update on Facebook:

Just a bit later, we learned that the winds were indeed, a bit too strong for the boat to make it safely across the channel, under tow or not, so the Onde Amo would be camping for the night in a port on the southern side of the island of Moloka'i.  

A screenshot taken from the official

TransPAC race tracker app.

Can you guess which sad little gray boat is theirs?

For our part, we made a quick stop in the Chinatown WalMart for random supplies (tp, paper towels, hair conditioner, etc - we figured it would be cheaper there than in the ABC Store near Waikiki - we were absolutely right), and we hopped on the bus back to the Ilikai (where I ended up sitting in the midst of an entire family from Florida - the kids had obviously been coerced into wearing the matching "Anderson Family Vacation" t-shirts - listening to the patriarch of the clan calling out every business he recognized on the way into Waikiki.  "Guys, there's a Buffalo Wild Wings here!" "Ooh, there's a Dave and Buster's!"  "Look!  An Outback Steakhouse."  He was having a wonderful time making his teenagers insane).

A little over being hot and sticky by this point, we hopped in the line for ice cream at the Dave's in the lobby of the Ilikai, and we quickly ate it before it turned into puddles of goo all over our hands.  We decided it was more than time for naps and reading in the AC of our condo while the heat of the afternoon passed us by.

Just chilling out.

But wait - what's that on the lanai?

ZOOM ENHANCE!

We have a buddy!

He flew away when I tried to hug him.

Lame.

Our next pass of our global family checking site (aka: Facebook) showed us that Dad and the gang were safely anchored in Moloka'i, where they'd be able to take showers (somewhat cold and on the dock, but showers nonetheless) and eat food that hadn't come out of the boat freezer or an MRE pouch (they only opted for these at the end, and it sound like their food options were pretty good, overall, underway).  

Thanks to Loryne, one of the Onde Amdo Seven, for sharing this shot of the skipper:

In one of those "the world really is that tiny" type of stories,

it turns out that one member of Dad's crew, Ben,

had an existing connection to Moloka'i.

His wife Susan (whom we met and enjoyed spending time with)

had family members who used to live on Moloka'i

as part of the leper colony that used to exist on the island.

Who knew?

When we got hungry again (man, I love vacations like this.  Are you hungry?  Eat.  Are you sleepy?  Nap.  They're the best), we put on nicer clothes and summoned the Uber to take us to Nico's Upstairs, the slightly nicer dining option above the more famous Nico's Pier 38 seafood house.  We shared a poke sampler and Caesar salad, each had our own fresh fish mains and cocktails, and eventually ordered a dessert to take back to the condo with us.  Everything was amazing, and the spot itself was lovely - we had a window seat right at sunset, and we enjoyed chatting and watching the world of the docks go by.  Here's a picture from the internets:

Our table was right under the first set of windows on the left

Grabbing another Uber, we headed back to the condo, where I took our dessert and leftovers up to the room and Chris wandered across the road to ABC to see what he could secure for a nightcap.  We reconvened on the lanai, ate dessert and relaxed, while watching the evening lights of the harbor. 

Here's to another amazing day in paradise!

Later!

Amy