Day 2

After waking up rather early (Hawaiian time) we started our first official day in Hawaii!

Aaron made us a breakfast of eggs, bacon, toast and pancakes (all of which were very tasty). We planned to go to the Waikiki Aquarium and then the Waikiki beach. On the way to the beach, Aaron took us to our first lookout point, the Pali Lookout. It was an amazing view and we got some good photos.

When we got near the beach, we realized the roads near the Waikiki strip were blocked due to a parade which we did not previously know about (King Kamehameha Celebration Floral Parade). So, Aaron let us out of the car so we could watch the parade while he found a parking spot. The parade was pretty cool; there were horses, marching bands, armed forces, floats, etc. Near the end of the parade, Aaron was able to meet back up with us again and then we decided to hang out at the beach before going to the Aquarium.

At this point, I realized that my iPod Touch was missing! I looked everywhere, in my bag, in my pockets, and Aaron even was nice enough to go look in the car. I had no luck finding it and was kind of bummed out about it, but eventually came to accept the fact that I had lost it or it was stolen. Afterall, I was going to be getting a new iPhone next Friday anyway, so no big deal.

Anyway, after that, Aaron and I went swimming at the beach and Ashley stayed on the sand since she didn't want to swim today. I brought my prescription goggles and had fun swimming underwater. I didn't see anything that exciting down there. Aaron and I thought we saw an eel or something though. We also saw some little black crabs on this rock ledge thing on the beach. After we finished swimming, we rinsed off and then walked to the aquarium. They had some neat fish and stuff, but it wasn't that big of a place so we were done fairly quickly.

We were all pretty hungry so we walked back down the strip to the Cheeseburger in Paradise. I had the Cheeseburger Island Style (it had pineapple and teriyaki on it), Ashley had the Chicken Burger Island Style, and Aaron had shrimp and fries. We also had some cheese fries. Ashley and I ordered smoothies just so we could have some fancy non-alcoholic drinks. I had banana and she had mango. The food was delicious and when we finished it was still around 4 PM so we had time to go do more stuff.

Ashley bought a cute flower clip for her hair from an ABC store. I decided I wanted to get a blow conch since I sort of like to collect musical instruments, so Aaron took us on a trip to a shell store he had seen before. When we got there, it had already closed at 4 PM, so he decided to take us to the Marine base since he knew they sold conch shells there. On the way, we stopped at a couple of lookout points along the Kalanianaole Highway, including Blowhole rock. We got some good photos here too.

I bought the blow conch I wanted, but found out it wasn't as easy to operate as I had hoped. All three of us were having a hard time getting the right sound. Aaron and Ashley got pretty close though.

Then we went to a mall where we were thinking about seeing a movie but we just decided to walk around instead. I found a Pokemon capsule machine so I spent $1 to see what I could get. I ended up getting Happiny, meh. Ashley bought an Edward Scissorhand shirt and Nightmare Before Christmas shoes from a Hot Topic. She even got to use Aaron's military discount!

After the mall we just went home. I checked my (temporary) cell phone for messages and saw that I had a voice mail from an unknown number. It was a sergeant from the Honolulu Police Department calling to tell me that they found my iPod! He gave me a number where I could call them back, but when I called, a different guy answered and said they did not have it there, but to try the main police station, which unfortunately isn't open until Monday. He gave me the number to that station, so I might try calling the same number again tomorrow to see if someone else can tell me for sure whether or not my iPod is there, otherwise I'll wait until Monday to contact the main station. Man, I was for sure I would never see my iPod again, but now there is hope!

Ok, time for bed now. We plan on taking a hike tomorrow so we will need our rest.