When I think of Waikiki...I think sand and surf and longboards.
I tried longboarding (real time) in San Diego in the late Seventies.
It was a rental shop on the beach.
Their main concern was affixing the board to your wrist with a rubber bungee type cord, so that when you wiped out you wouldn't lose their board. Or maybe because things get a bit boring at the surf rental and tourists are their comic relief.
Yeah...funny stuff.
How hard could it be?
(...never ask this question...)
After paddling out and waiting for a good wave...I proceeded to immediately fall off the longboard....which wouldn't have been such a problem had it not been attached umbilical-like to my wrist.
It is a long way back to shore when you are being tossed by roller waves while simultaneously being beaten by a floating PLANK weighing maybe 20 pounds with every wave curl.
Surfing?
Yeah, I'm good with all that.
The Resort for a Waikiki Weekend would have to be beach-side at the Hilton.
Known as the Hilton Hawaiian Village.
https://youtu.be/M6EaspdpXe8
Not just a Hotel but an ADVENTURE.
Hotel Amenities include:
For Your Comfort and Convenience
- Automated Teller (ATM)
- Baggage Storage
- Bar Area
- Barber Shop
- Beauty Salon
- Car Rental Desk
- Clothing Store
- Concierge Desk
- Electric Service
- Elevators
-
Florist
- Foreign Currency Exchange
- Gift Shop
- Guest Activity/Recreation Desk
- Laundry/Valet Service
- Local Area Transportation
- Lounge
- Luggage Hold
- Multi-Lingual Staff
- News Stand
- On-Site Convenience Store
- Safety Deposit Box
- Snack Shop
- Tour Desk
- Beach
- Fitness Room
- Mandara Spa
- Pool
- Sight Seeing Tours
- Snorkeling
Not your Mom and Pop's Super Eight.
Waikiki is a beach-front city of Honolulu. The name means "Spouting Fresh Water" in Hawaiian for the many springs and streams that once fed nearby wetlands. In the 1800's Waikiki was a playground for royalty who liked to surf here using longboards.
Today there are still surf contests, hula contests, canoe races and performances held here.
Including several "Surfer Statues" near the beach.
One, of which, is Duke Kahanamoku Memorial
Kahanamoku grew up surfing these waters, and was buried at sea in 1968 after a heart attack at age 77. He brought the sport of Surfing into the limelight.
His nickname was "The Big Kahuna"
Yes...now you know where THAT comes from.
(...and I have to notice he does not have his longboard tethered to HIS arm...I am starting to see a disturbing trend here...)
Waikiki Surf Competition
https://youtu.be/7iIbDWdidV4
Waikiki Hula Festival
https://youtu.be/S7j9mTJjwbs
And Malu the Surfing Dog
https://youtu.be/cwBxWOqRzg4
(...notice that Malu isn't tied to his board either...way too smart a canine to let that happen...and I am beginning to believe the boys in San Diego were just making sport of us...)
but today I am on a quest...oh sure, Diamond Head is beautiful and the hotel really is a small village of its own complete with upscale retail shopping...but when I started this virtual adventure I heard about The Waikiki Café and Loco Moco.
Now Loco Moco is traditionally a breakfast dish...but I am fixing it for dinner.
Not only is it, supposedly, the Ultimate Comfort Food of Hawaii...it comes in several variations to please all palates...and even has a chain of Hawaiian Restaurants named after it.
Not bad.
The dish was created in 1940 at the Lincoln Grill for a group of teenagers from The Lincoln Wreckers Sports Club, after they had requested something different than the usual hamburger on a bun.
https://youtu.be/AAvvJov33nM
The egg was added later.
The concoction named after George Okimoto, a member of the group whose nickname was "Crazy"
They decided on Spanish for Crazy (Loco) and tagged on Moco because it rhymed and "sounded good". (...or it may have been a great high-school joke...considering that Moco in Spanish translates to booger...)
Widely popular in Hawaii now, it is served at most restaurants.
Now we KNOW.
My Loco Moco
~Impression~
It has a nice presentation, I'll give it that.
This is food in the same sense that Salisbury was "Steak" back in the 1960's, okay.
To put it another way, I suppose you could eat ANYTHING if you covered it with enough brown gravy.
(...well...except Haggis, of course...)
It wasn't particularly bad, in a starchy, brown gravy covered fashion...and where the fried egg to top it came from is a mystery.
So now I have tried Loco Moco which translates loosely (as we now know) to Crazy Booger. (psychotic snot?) (insane mucus?)
Try not to think about it.
More anon...
Hotel Firework Show
https://youtu.be/8atTaHO9xts
