The Hawaii Cat Cafe And Other Things

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“Two extended and blended multi-generational and crosscultural families become intertwined and interwoven with each other to form a tangled web of relationships. Funny and emotionally moving.” –R. Bruce Logan, co-author of the award-winning Back to Vietnam: Tours of the Heart 

​THE HAWAII CAT CAFE AND OTHER THINGS

...Continued from previous post:

​...Continued from yesterday:
     After our nearly 30-hour odyssey from Columbus to Honolulu (see previous post) Tom, Theresa, and I got to the Hale Koa hotel around 4 am Monday morning,

...and to bed at 5 am, which was 11 am in our still-on-Columbus-time brains, and probably why my confused brain snapped awake an hour and a half later at 6:30 am and refused to go back to sleep.
      And so, after a vain attempt to tuck my brain back under the covers for just a little while longer I got up, spent a few minutes enjoying the views from our balcony,

...then decided to go for a  walk.
        I continued down the front entrance,  

...and headed towards downtown Waikiki,

...snapping some sights along the way,

...including several fine-looking feathered locals.

     I walked only a couple of blocks from the hotel as far as the Bank of Hawaii, which must surely rank among the world's most beautiful bank buildings.

     I then returned to the Hale Koa and joined my mate for the breakfast buffet at the Koko at Kalia, which is one of the hotel eateries.

    My favorite, the vanilla bread pudding.

     After breakfast I strolled around the Hale Koa snapping some pictures of the place.

       Then, while some of our group went to the beach, and Claire and Miguel, avid bikers whom we've nicknamed the Biking Vikings, pedaled around the island,

...I took a long nap.
     Later that day we visited  the Hawaii Cat Café, a place some of our group happened upon they day before while walking around Waikiki. 

       The Hawaii Cat Café is a cat shelter and adoption center where one can have a snack and a drink, and, for a fee,  visit and play with the cats. Which we did. 

    Our friendly barista.

     I noticed that the Cat Café decorator and myself shared the same taste in wall hangings.

     My kitchen:

      We purchased half an hour of play time in the kitty room, during which we joined the other patrons  who were visiting with the kitties.

     It occurred to us that this was good for the cats, as it taught them to be sociable and affectionate to humans and therefore nice pets for the folks who would hopefully soon adopt them.

    That evening some of the ohana*, back from our day's occupations, met in the lobby of the Hale Koa, and from there we walked a pleasant mile to the Ala Moana shopping mall,

... where we had dinner at our favorite go-to dinner spot, the mall food court,

...which, as we learned on our last trip, is also a popular eating spot among the local folks.

     And then there's the added benefit of a nice after-dinner walk back to the hotel.

*Hawaiian for "family."