Today was a very busy day. We’re still adjusting to the time change and I was up at 5:00 am. We didn’t have anything particular planned since this was a rest day prior to the trip starting. We did not, however, rest. We started at walking through Waikiki.
After that, we spent most of the entire day just walking and looking in the different shops. You could be here for a month and never see all of the stuff. And one of the things I had forgotten is that people here are so friendly. Every person we came in contact with was smiling and happy to help. It’s really nice.
First up was a breakfast place that Gregg found. If we didn't know the exact address, we would have found it simply by smelling the yummy smell of waffles from many yards away. The place was called Waffles and Berries and it was delicious, but the serving was ridiculously large. I found out later that we could have done a 1/2 serving and that's what we should have done. My waffles included tons of blueberries and strawberries, vanilla ice cream, powdered sugar and whipped cream. I don't think even our walking ALL DAY would have been enough to get rid of those calories. But it sure was good.
This afternoon we checked in for the WWII tour, which starts with a welcome dinner tomorrow night. There were tons of forms to fill out and swag to pick up. But while turning our forms in before dinner, we discovered one of the tour goers had forgotten his passport. His wife had a printed copy in a very neat binder with all of their papers, but that won’t do him any good in Japan. So he’s going to be spending tomorrow trying to find a passport office here to get an emergency copy or temp one. He’s find for Guam or Saipan, since those are US territories, but he’s pretty much out of luck unless he can get one before we go to Iwo Jima. I hope he’s able to get it.
We have a red folder that we keep our passports in. We must confirm and reconfirm a dozen times before we set foot on the plane. Your whole vacation can be ruined!
Saturday is Pearl Harbor, the USS Missouri and surrounding areas, so I’ll hopefully have more interesting pictures and stores when the tour starts. Tomorrow we’re spending the first half of the day in the ocean!
Aloha!
