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An Easter Birthday; No Egg Hunt, But A Hunt For A Hat And A Restaurant

5/5/2026

     Books by Patti Liszkay available on Amazon:
    "Equal And Opposite Reactions"     http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa
   "Hail Mary"    https://www.amzn.com/1684334888
"Tropical Depression"          https://www.amzn.com/B0BTPN7NYY

An Easter Birthday; No Egg Hunt, But A Hunt For A Hat And A Restaurant

...Continued from previous post:
The following day, April 5, was Easter Sunday. I woke up at 4:40 am and left a surprise for my young relatives outside their door: three Easter baskets I had put together the night before, each filled with candy, jewelry, a stuffed animal and a gift card.
At 5:15 am Tom and I walked into downtown Waikiki, then continued for a mile and a half up Kalakaua Avenue, so peaceful and quiet in the dark pre-dawn.

Our destination was St. Augustine by the Sea church for the 6:00 am Easter Mass.

The church was decorated with kāhili, or Hawaiian feather standards, staffs that are traditional symbols of the ali'i, or Hawaiian royalty.

When we left the church the sun had risen,

...and Kalakaua Avenue was already alive as we walked among the folks out and about at 7 am on this beautiful Easter Sunday morning in Waikiki.

This day was also the birthday of one of our young relatives. During breakfast at Koko's,

...one of the servers noticed us celebrating the birthday girl, and he made up a little birthday cake for her from muffins, whipped cream and fruit loops, and led the restaurant in a round of "Happy Birthday."

Later that morning some of the family went out banana boating - a recreational activity which, as I understand it, involves being fast-towed along in a banana-shaped raft until everybody falls off. Or something like that. Much fun, I hear, for those who enjoy that sort of venture.
I, however, opted to walk with one of my daughters into downtown Waikiki.

My daughter wanted to bring back a Hawaiian print cap for a friend, so we set out on a hat hunt.
We wandered up Kalakaua Street, popping into the ABC stores,

...as well as the 123 Waikiki Mart, which looked to be a wannabe cousin of the ABC stores,

...San Lorenzo Bikinis,

...the Target at the International Market Place,

...and a few of the other ABC-esque stores along the way which, while dovetailed with the high end stores, are legion.

When my daughter had narrowed her choices down to her top three, we decided to head over to the Royal Hawaiian Center, where we took the escalator up to the Pa'ina Lanai food court,

...so that she could think it over while we split a cheeseburger and fries from the Mahaloha Burger,

...which makes the world's best burger, nestled in a soft, buttery bun and accompanied by the crispiest of French fries.

After lunch we walked over to Duke's Alley, a not-easy-to-find-if-you-don't-know-about-it passageway off Kalakaua Street hidden between two buildings where there is a vast outdoor market of individual vendors who sell handmade jewelry, locally made crafts, Hawaiian clothing, and all sorts of Island souvenirs.

Ultimately my daughter, unable to decide which hat she preferred to buy for her friend, just bought all three. (All of which her friend loved).

Now, the plan was that, in honor of our young celebrant's special day, we would have a birthday dinner that evening at the Cheesecake Factory on Kalakaua Avenue. We likewise invited a friend of our young relative and the friend's parents, who, by happy coincidence, were currently staying next door to the Hale Koa at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. With the eight members of our group and the three invited friends, that made eleven of us.
We had called for a reservation but were told that place didn't take reservations for parties over six - which seemed rather counterintuitive to me, but whatever - so we decided to go early in hopes of avoiding a gargantuan wait.
However, though we arrived at 4:30 pm, we could see that the interior of the restaurant was already crowded with diners and the line to sign up for a table was out to the street. It occurred to me even then that, with eleven of us, dinner at the Cheesecake Factory might not be written in the stars.
When we reached the host station we were told that our wait would likely be a couple of hours. The sympathetic host explained that, this being Easter Sunday, they were busier than usual with lots of big groups. In other words, everybody had the same idea as we did. We took vote and unanimously decided to try our luck elsewhere.
But where were we going to find a table for eleven on this day when every other tourist in Waikiki was probably also out looking for a table?
One of my daughters took on the task of googling and calling around to hunt us down a restaurant. After a couple of tries and fails she found a place that had space for all elven of us, a pizza place a few blocks away off Kalakaua Avenue called Appetito Craft Pizza and Wine Bar.

Mayhaps not the first choice location for a kid's birthday dinner, but, hey, we figured there'd be pizza. And seats for eleven.
Which there were, except that our seats weren't all together. Still, we were grateful to the staff who kindly squeezed us into their crowded restaurant without an advance reservation on a busy holiday. And it was, in fact, a nice place with a friendly staff,

..and good food.
I had the Homemade Bolognese with Pappardelle, which was quite yummy,

...while among the others at my table, some had pizza which I was glad I didn't order since I don't like the burned spots known in the nomenclature as "char" (see post from 4/7/2026, https://www.ailantha.com/blog/so-is-burned-pizza-a-thing), though those who ordered the pizza liked it,

...and others had the salmon.

Apparently someone passed it along to the staff that there was a birthday girl in the house, as a server bought out to her table a beautiful little square of cake with six spoons so that everyone at her table could have a taste.

And, of course, we all sang another round of "Happy Birthday."
To be continued...

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The Arrival Of The Ohana

5/1/2026

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Books by Patti Liszkay available on Amazon:
"Equal And Opposite Reactions"   http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa
   "Hail Mary"    https://www.amzn.com/1684334888
"Tropical Depression"       https://www.amzn.com/B0BTPN7NYY

The Arrival Of The Ohana

...Continued from yesterday:
Ohana is Hawaiian for family, and on Friday, April 3, some of Tom's and my ohana began arriving in Honolulu to spend a week with us at the Hale Koa.
First to arrive in the afternoon were two of our daughters, whom we picked up at the Honolulu airport,

...then drove back to Waikiki. I've always loved the section of the road from the airport that passes by the mountains.

That evening we walked next door to the Hilton Hawaiian Village,

...where we ate at the Blue Water Shrimp, a short-order eatery,

...with the cutest dining area,

...and the best food.
Among us we had the garlic shrimp,

...the garlic shrimp and steak,

...the salmon,

...and the cheese quesadilla,

...served with a mountain of sweet potato fries.

Afterwards we walked towards downtown Waikiki,

...to a little hidden gem of a shave ice stand, the Niihau,

...apparently named after Ni'ihau, the Forbidden Island, most western of the Hawaiian islands, where visitors are forbidden and the 100 or so residents, the last descendants of the islands' original Polynesians, value their privacy, speak Hawaiian, and keep their island as a refuge for native birds, wildlife and Hawaiian culture.
Here is a view of Ni'ihau, which is 17 miles off the coast of the island of Kauai, from the beach cottage where Tom and I stayed in April of 2015 on the Barking Sands naval base (see post from 4/10/2015, https://www.ailantha.com/blog/two-hikers-in-search-of-a-trail) .

The Niihau shave ice stand, however, was very welcoming to us tourists,

...though folks were required to order at the door,

...then stand back and wait until our shave ices were brought out to us.

Though we'd all ordered "Keiki's" - child sizes - our shave ices were enormous,

...and oh, so delicious, topped with a condensed milk blend called a snow cap.

We then walked back through the park to the Hale Koa,

...where our daughters were happy to turn in for the evening.
The next round of relatives, who were supposed to arrive in the the evening of Friday, April 3, arrived at the Hale Koa at 1:30 am on Saturday April 4, their plane having been delayed.
Later that morning, while the late arrivals slept in, those who arrived the previous day enjoyed their first Koko's buffet breakfast of the season (see post from 4/22/2026, https://www.ailantha.com/blog/in-search-of-a-suitcase-part-2).

After everyone was up and ready to start the day, we went to Snorkel Bob's, the Honolulu snorkeling gear Mecca, to pick up the gear that I had reserved a few months ago for those of us who planned to snorkel.

This, of course, did not include myself, as I tried snorkeling one time a few years ago at Hanauma Bay and lasted a little under five minutes. Turned out that I couldn't stand putting my face underwater even with a mask, I don't even like being in water, and being that close to live fish gave me the creeps, even the beautiful exotic fish swimming among the coral reefs.

But, as always, I was happy to let every one else enjoy mingling with the beautiful exotic fish.
Sadly, there had been heavy, windy rain storms in Hawaii the week before we arrived, and so there was so much residual turbulence of the sand and sea water that the snorkeling this year, according to those who participated, was not the best.
By Saturday afternoon the final round of our visiting ohana arrived, so that there were eight of us at the Hale Koa.
After lunch at Happy's, where Tom had the seafood salad,