Waikiki

Jen and Jelisa at Ala Moana Mall

Shellee at the International Market

Jen, Jelisa, and Shellee at Cheesecake Factory!

Yesterday we woke up at 6:00 am to get ready to go to Waikiki. It's about a two hour bus ride (45 minutes in a car) from Turtle Bay. Waikiki is a very beautiful place surrounded by amazing beaches and lots to do. It is kind of like the Vegas of Hawaii with lots of tourists, crazy traffic, tall buildings, etc. We were ready for a day of shopping so we ended up at the Ala Moana mall which is the largest outdoor mall in the U.S. It was amazing! Four floors chuck full of everything from Gucci, to Macy's, to a ton of stores I've never even heard of.

After shopping around at the mall, we started walking to the International Market which is basically a nicer version of the swap meet. There were a ton of stores in there, most of them containing the same type of merchandise, but slightly unique in their own way. The walk to the International Market from the mall was about two miles which isn't a bad walk, but in the dead of the day with the sun shinning brighter than ever, we were getting hot and tired. We kept going into different stores asking for directions to the International Market and we kept getting lead here and there and everywhere except the market! When we finall got there, we were standing under a tree and all of a sudden something fell on my head--oh yes, it was bird poop! Shellee started busting out laughing and thankfully got it out of my hair--dumb birds! A few minutes later I was walking by a guy and all of a sudden a huge bunch of bird crap came pelting down from above. The guy jumped and said, "What the heck?!" I started laughing hysterically and the guy hurried and ran inside to escape another attack.

Around 3:30 pm, we decided to find the Cheesecake Factory in hopes that we'd miss dinner prices and hit lunch. We went on a huge goose chase and after about an hour, we arrived at the Cheesecake Factory. Lucky for us, lunch doesn't end until 5:00 pm! We ordered all kinds of delicious food and then dessert where we got a white chocolate raspberry cheesecake and an Adam's peanut butter cheesecake to share. Oh they were heavenly and we were so thrilled because we had talked about eating at the Cheesecake Factory like two months before we even came out to Hawaii. We found our way back to the mall to catch the bus back home which is the 55. There are two buses that we always ride that end up in Turtle Bay, those being the 55 which heads in the Laie direction and the 52 which heads in the Hale'iwa direction. Luckily we met Susan a couple of days after arriving and she filled us in on the routes and helped us understand directions a little. We caught the bus just in time (we were on the phone with Susan as she directed us back to the bus stop in Waikiki) and headed back home. 

Shellee got stuck sitting next to a homeless guy who wouldn't stop talking to her about ships. He just talked and talked and Shellee was friendly and conversated with him for a bit. A guy around our age walked on the bus with his headphones on and sat in the seat between Shellee and the homeless guy (we were thinking--are you sure you want to sit there? You have no idea what you just walked in on). A second later Shellee was off the hook and the poor guy next to her got stuck in the conversation. At first he tried to answer the guys questions while listening to his ipod, but he soon found that there was no end to the conversation so he took out his headphones and put his ipod in his pocket.  We were getting such a kick out of that! The homeless guy then started telling the other guy that he eats dog poo and has wild birds stuffed in his bag which we were a little concerned about. It was a very interesting ride I must say. We finally arrived home around 8:30 pm and started watching Gilmore Girls. Grant text me and wanted to bring us some cookies so we told him he could come over and he hung out for a bit. We were so exhausted so Grant got the hint and went home and we headed off to bed.