Return to Oahu! (Day 2)

Scuba, Shopping

Saturday, April 10

I woke up early due to the time zone difference and got up around 6am to go out for a walk along Waikiki Beach and to time the distance to my future yoga site near the Aquarium. On the way back, I chatted with Mom since morning is the best time to call her given the 6-hour time discrepancy. Then Zumba and yoga in the room with the streaming YouTube on the TV. We got breakfast at Ali'i Coffee in the hotel lobby. The food was quite tasty (breakfast sandwich for Mr. E, salmon bagel for me), but I had to monitor a bit to make sure my special order was correct (no onions, no cream cheese). The Americanos were only OK, although Mr. E had quite enjoyed the one he ordered yesterday after we checked in.

After breakfast, we tried to book a Charley Taxi for the ride to Kewalo Basin Harbor, where we were supposed to check in at 10:45am for our scuba trip with Hawai'i Eco Divers. No availability with Chalrey until 11:30am!!! Mr. E called the front desk for assistance, and the friendly staff was able to procure us a taxi with a different company. Phew! We arrived early and soon realized that we probably could have walked after all as we waited... and waited... and waited. Our guide arrived just before 11am, but the boat was nowhere in sight! We finally got going just after 12pm, as we joined a few other groups on board the catamaran that took us out to our first dive spot.

We were the only divers paired with Max, so we got lots of personal attention and had two lovely dives. He briefly reviewed all of the basic info and then it was into the water to maximize our dive time. Three honu, several sharks, and a monk seal during the first dive over the reef, and multiple eels plus lots of shimmery fish for the second dive along the submerged pipeline. I'm so glad I had my extra layers of rash guard and "farmer Jane" shortie wetsuit under the full wetsuit supplied by the scuba company -- the water was a bit chilly!

The boat arrived back at the harbor around 3pm, so we started our trek back to the hotel. I had done some research for book stores since I was running low on reading material and had found a Barnes & Noble at the Ala Moana Center, which was on our way for the return trip. We stopped there for lunch at the food court (poke bowl for me, Korean bento for Mr. E), and then we split up for our errands at B&N and Tori Richardson. Success for both of us! Two books and a handful of cool greeting cards for me and two new shirts for Mr. E.

When we got back to the hotel, we unloaded all of our purchases, including provisions from the Foodland at Ala Moana Center, and then showered off all of the salt water residue from our scuba excursion. I took care of email and some work communications to free up Monday morning while Mr. E headed off to the food court at the Royal Hawaiian shops to procure some pho and Panda Express for his dinner. I sampled from the Foodland groceries for my meal as we watched a Jack Reacher movie to wrap up the evening.