It's Always A Little Sad When The Ohana Leaves

...Continued from previous post:
       On Saturday, April 11, the rest of our visiting ohana - Hawaiian for family - left the Hale Koa.  
         The first group left at 5:30 am, and Tom and I came down to the lobby, so quiet and peaceful in the dawn's early light, to see them off.

      The dawn view from the Hale Koa lobby.

      We also checked on the ducklings, who looked fine and were apparently still drying out (see previous post, https://www.ailantha.com/blog/duckling-911​). 

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     By mid-morning the streets of Waikiki had also dried out from the previous day's storm (see previous post), and so we were able to drive across town back to Snorkel Bob's to return the snorkeling gear we'd rented for our visitors.

       In the afternoon we drove the last of our relatives, our daughter Theresa, back to the Honolulu airport.

     After returning we felt a bit sad, as we always do after saying good-bye to our loved ones, so we decided to cheer ourselves up with our favorite pastime, walking along the beach, 

...to downtown Waikiki then to Kalakaua Avenue.

     As dinner time was approaching, our first stop along the way was the at the Royal Hawaiian Pa'ina Lanai, the food court,

...where, for all the many times over the years we'd eaten at this food court, for some reason we never until this time checked out this place:

        The L&L Hawaiian BBQ turned out to be an overlooked food court gem. Tom and I split an order of the garlic shrimp and steak plate. It was sooo good, and will on future visits be our go-to place at the Royal Hawaiian Pa'ina Lanai.

       After our dinner we set off up Kalakaua Avenue.

       We walked,

...and walked, 

...and walked,

...until we'd walked over two miles from the Hale Koa, all the way to the Honolulu Zoo in Kapiolani Park.

         We turned onto Kapahulu Avenue, which runs by the zoo, 

...and came upon the Queen Kapiolani Hotel.

       It so happened that my niece and her husband were coming to Honolulu in a few weeks and they'd told us that this was the hotel they were staying at. And so we decided to go inside and check the place out.
​       The lobby was cute as anything,

...and had a friendly vibe.

       I considered texting my niece my pictures of the lobby, but then decided not to, thinking it would be more fun for them to enjoy the surprise of discovery.
       Rather than walking back by way of Kalakaua Avenue, we decided to cut down Kapahulu avenue,

...and take the parallel street, Kuhio Avenue.

        After a few blocks we cut down a street called Seaside Avenue where we caught sight of a promising-looking shave ice shop called Ululani's and decided to give it a try.

       Our shave ices were in fact first rate.

       Soon after we were back on Kalakaua Avenue and heading for the Hale Koa,

...feeling considerably cheered up.
​        The night view from our room.

       To be continued...