This is from the park outside our hotel. Our hotel to the left – Honolulu in the middle of the picture.

This is from the scenic walk from Waikiki to our hotel.

We had planned to have breakfast at Bogart’s, but the place was too full and we were told it was a 25 min wait, so we walked on. Trying Eggs’n things – the queue didn’t move for 10+ mins (and it must have been 15 ppl in front of us) – time had past 1015 so we thought we could just wait till Cheesecake Factory opened. While waiting we walked around the International Marketplace (or the Tourist Trap… ). We had a nice brunch – didn’t eat it all, so got a doggy bag (which is now in the fridge in our hotel room).

We decided to bit a bit of laundry – so spent the next hour at our hotel getting some clean clothes.

Kim picked us up at 5 pm taking us to an Indian restaurant – Cafe Maharani. We had some yummy food and Kim got to take home the leftovers! Lucky her! She was also so kind as to stop by Safeway’s so we could buy some fruit and something to drink.

No more plans for tomorrow – we’re relaxing and walking and window shop – might actully buy something as well So far the shopping has been mostly work-out clothes and some sneakers. And yeah – 4 tops from the Banana Republic store.

Elaine was at work so she got “a little piece of Norway” – which means she got a big bar of Norwegian milk chocolate (sorry Nicole and Donavan – one less chocolate bar for you). She was so happy and I think she wanted to taste it right away, but hid it and worked on.

After lunch we just walked around town – browsing the shops – bought a little something here and there and then went back to the hotel and relaxed for the rest of the day. Tomorrow we don’t have any plans except for dinner with Kim

Instead of the usual pics – here are some pics of car signs.

Since the breakfast was just so-so, we stopped by Yogurtland and had some icecream yogurt. It was soo yummy, but of course I forgot that Kim had given me a $20 gift certificate for Yogurtland – good thing we still have over a week left here

We’ve never been real touristy here since we’ve had Kim and Rob and their friend Ron taking such good care of us, so we bought tickets for the Aloha Bus and jumped on. We got off at the Ala Moana Shopping center – had a walk – checked out a few stores and I ended up buying some tops at the Banana Republic. We then jumped on the bus again – taking us back to Waikiki where we changed to a different line taking us around Diamond Head (you know – the dead crater). The guide on the bus gold us we should go to Walmart and buy the typical tourist stuff like Kona coffee and macademia nuts – so, back in Waikiki we changed back to the other bus and went back to Ala Moana – and two blocks up – et voila – Walmart!

We didn’t really buy much. I had a look for Wrangler jeans for my dad, but either the americans are larger or everyone else also use his size

Back in Waikiki for the X-ed time we decidede to have dinner at the Cheesecake factory before going all the way back to our hotel. We had another nice dinner and Elaine stopped by our table (we didn’t think she worked and therefore didn’t ask for her) – she’s such a fun person. The walk back to the hotel was long as we were tired from all the sun.

We had a nice and relaxed (and early) evening as Kim is picking us up in the morning – taking us on yet another tour around the island

Today’s picture are mainly from the bus and the Ala Moana shopping center – and of course – the sunset and Friday night fireworks over Waikiki.

I don’t know why I just had to try it (again), but I ordered pancakes – which means you get those heavy american ones. And not 1, but 3! I had mine with banana and macademia nuts – yummy, but I had ordered bacon on the side and ate another (almost all of it) with bacon and maple cyrup (yup – when on vecation… ). JO had breakfast burrito with omelette and some other stuff and chipotle sauce. We also had tea and JO had a smoothie of some kind, which mostly tasted of water. So – take the breakfast at Lulu’s and the view from Hula Grill and you’d have the perfect meal. Oh yeah – I also had pineapple – I love pineapple and I think I’ve had some every day from the day we got here

After breakfast we walked through town – picking up brochures about car rentals – we might rent a car for a day or two next week. We walked out on the pier (in the warm sun – too hot for us Norwegians), so we went back to the hotel and relaxed a bit before I jumped in the water and then relaxed on the beach with my book. JO went for a walk around the lovely park by our hotel. Suddenly it got all dark and grey – and we both thought for sure it would start to rain. I packed my stuff and went back to our room – JO was minutes behind me. We decided we didn’t want a big dinner and I went back out on the balcony since – of course – there was no rain! (just the normal tease weather here in Hawaii). At 5 pm (or about that) Kim called and said “Sorry I’m late” – I had no idea we had plans, but that’s how we went to dinner We usually just say “take us to a place you haven’t been in a while” – so we ended up in this small place – that we”d probably just past if it was only JO and I. But Kim knows all the small places there are and the food was yummy! We had salmon – cream cheese – onions and bread! Kim had some sort of sandwish!

Kim wanted to see the first episode of the new season of Big bang Theory, so we all went to our hotel and watched

Another great day and evening!

For Friday we have no plans. We migth we really touristy and take a ride around town with one of the tour busses (we didn’t do that last time either) It’s nice to just relax a bit – it’s after all our holiday

The rain had stopped when over breakfast was over, so we decided to walk across town. Browsing through a posh shopping center – with a Japanese toilet (for men..) – a Harley Davidson motorbike displayed in the middle of the make-up section… expensive handbags etc. And of course you had your typical japanese girl wearing hotpants and UGG’s. The latter must be expensive in Japan cause it seems that the store is crowded with japanese ppl. – and it’s still funny (as it was two years ago) watching ppl in 30 degrees with UGG’s – for me that’s winter shoes.

From the mall we walked past all the famous brands – Cartier – Tiffany – Vuitton etc etc. I hope for their sake that rent is cheap cause I couldn’t see a single ppl. inside!

We went to Fort Derussey park. Which is a place we the armed forces and their families can come and relax. They have hotels to stay at etc etc. Military is a big thing in America. At the airport in San Francisco there were certain areas just for the armed forces and their families.

Fort Derussey is almost on the other side of Waikiki than where we’re staying. It was very quiet – just like where we live, but I still like our side of town better (must be the big park we have outside our hotel)

We didn’t have any lunch today cause the breakfast was – as all meals here – LARGE sized portions, but we stopped by cheesecake factory and shared a piece of banana cheesecake. Kim had to cancel dinner due to her contact lenses hurt one of her eyes (she had a great evening though with her new Iphone and chocoloate from Norway).

Jan Ove googled and found a place called Uncle Bo’s – so we went there. It looked like a … place that you’d pass if you didn’t know about it, but the food was good enough – again large portions and prices are fairly low.

We had an early morning – so we fell asleep early – which was nice. I guess it’s all the walking and the fresh air that makes us so sleepy

No plans for tomorrow – maybe just relax in the sun or checking out rental cars

We were looking for a place called Lulu’s, but since we just had the name and an idea of where it was – well – after walking around the block a few times we gave up on the idea of a breakfast there. So we walked around a bit – bought a new bathing suit and eventually ended up having another brunch at Cheesecake Factory. We asked to be seated where Eleani worked and she was happy as ever! We were seated outside – which might look nice, but with the huzzle and buzzle from the traffic it’s just ok I – Anett (who seems to be the desinated blogger for this trip) had a nice pasta dish with chicken and Jan Ove had some sandwishes with sallad – both tastes yummy as ever – and again we got our drinks to go

We went to the International Marketplace and saw a man with two cockatiels on his shoulders. As we were leaving we saw him again and just had to go and talk to him. One of the birds where 24 + years old – the other one was a youngster called Pocket – since the owner used to carry him around in his pocket when it was young. We got to hold and pet Pocket – what a cute bird! We miss our Kitty!

Kim picked us up at the hotel at 1645 (pm 4:45) and we drove off to Chinatown – which was a bit boring really. We saw mostly homeless ppl. and no cute shops. After a bit to and from Kim took us to her favorite restaurant – some kind of dim sum place. Dim sum are just a lot of small dishes – mostly steamed meat of some kind. It wasn’t too bad – not my best meal, but far from the worse!

I think Kim is a bit bored since her hubby got a job contract in California and left before we got here – so she was so nice to drive us to a comic book store! The kind you see in the tv show ”The big bang theory”. We haven’t counted them all, but came out of that store with comic books for $300 +

We then took Kim back to our hotel – showing her the view Not as good as last time, but still worth a look. Then she got her chocolate! If you’ve ever tastes Norwegian chocolate you know what I talk about! Compared to most American chocolate – this is a taste of heaven

Another nice day here in paradise Meeting Kim again tomorrow for some new adventures

Last time we were here – the very first thing I did was to buy a white leather jacket at the Harley Davidson store (and we had to carry it across town to get our marriage licence – and the bag broke!) . Guess what I did this time – oh yeah – I fell in love with a black and pink leather jacket, but I haven’t bought it (yet).  There are a few cars here that I’d like to bring back home – like the Dodge Charger with a Hemi engine that the Honolulu Police use in their work – would be nice (and probably way too expensive to even think about buying).

Just as we remember – the weather here is a bit.. strange. You can wake up to grey and foggy weather and you think it’ll rain, but then you get blue skies and the sun in shining. That’s how our morning started. Very windy and grey, but oh so hot and humid.

Even though we thought we’d sleep in – we didn’t, so we went out early. We planned a breakfast – brunch – at The Cheesecake factory. Of course it opens at 11 am, so we had to walk around for a bit – down on the beach – sitting in the garden at the Royal Hawaiian hotel (the pink hotel you see on our photos). We had this very cute waitress from Brazil named Eleanie – show charmed her way into our hearts. We decided to have a huge lunch (brunch) – we were both kinda starving, so the Chicken enchillada was the perfect choice (as it always is). I also got my favourite drink – the tropical icetea (I call the Passion fruit cause that’s the main flavour). Eleanie was so kind to give me the rest of my drink to-go when we left – yummy!

After looking through the International Market place (read – tourist trap) we went back to the hotel relaxing on the balcony – reading and eating fresh pineapple! For dinner we went back to the Cheesecake Factory, but we had a late dinner as it was 1.5 hr waiting time for a table. We knew that from earlier that for dinner you should be there before  pm, but I fell asleep and just couldn’t get my body going any sooner

The fact about The Cheesecake factory are their cheesecake that you never have any space left for after dinner. We tried explaining this when we were here last time “sorry, we’re not used to such large portions” – now, they tell you that the portions are large! I’m amazed, but why not make them smaller so ppl. can have cake as well!? It’s the American “value for money” all the way. We bought cake and brought it home – it’s in the fridge and I think it will stay there for a good 1-2 days

That was our first day here. Sun and rain and a bit cloudy, but 99% sun and warmth and of course the usual redness since we always forget how close we are to the equator! Tomorrow Kim is picking us up in the evening and we’re going to Chinatown – a place we didn’t visit when we were here last time.