Events:
· Doris Duke’s Shangri-La and Honolulu Academy of Arts
· Zippy’s
· Wal-mart stop
· Chinatown
· Legend seafood (dim sum) (100 N Beretania)
· Leonard’s Bakery (Malasada’s) (933 Kapahulu)
· Pali Lookout
· Run Sushi at end of the Marriott Waikiki ($49.83)
· Hot tub

We got up a little late today. Ran off to get to the Honolulu Academy of Arts to catch the shuttle to Doris Duke’s Shangri-La. You need to reserve these well before hand (like 2 weeks before, not the week of), especially if you want the early tour. We didn’t get the stuff in the mail from them in time, so we weren’t quite sure where to park. I dropped Jenivee off to make sure we checked in while I found a spot. As it would have it, all roads past Ward have NO reasonable parking even going down as far as Punchbowl: All private parking or 1 hour parking. Even if you are willing to pay a LOT, there is nothing. I drove around and around. Signs are not obvious and lots of one way streets with no left turns. Jenivee finally had to switch with someone who was there early and was on the 11am tour so all in all it worked out. I finally found parking at the OTHER academy of arts. If you stay EAST of Ward and Victoria there is LOTS of places to park for free or cheap. If you get the stuff in the mail, the parking is clearly marked, but make sure you know where you are going before you head out. Even after I knew where the parking was, since we had some time to kill we drove around a little, and even then, starting from driving by the Honolulu Academy of Arts on Ward and Beretania and trying to directly go to the parking behind the Honolulu Academy Art Center (which is NOT the Honolulu Academy of Arts, but catty corner to it on Victoria street), it took about 18 minutes because of all the one ways’ and the roads you would normally take were closed to turns from King because of construction. We had to go down King, reduced to a one lane eastward, clear back to where Sam’s club was and get back on Beretania/Vine from there. Wow! Giant slow circle, we were almost late for the 2nd tour because we did not realize it would take almost 20 minutes to park from something we could see, but not directly get to! In the meantime, we went to Zippy’s on Vine and had a fine breakfast of pao dolce (sweet bread) French toast, beef-hash for me, ham for Jenivee, 2 eggs each. Zippy’s is Hawaii’s version of JB’s or Shoney’s, or maybe you might call it a Village Inn. It’s got a lot of localized grub, is decently priced, and most of the shops have a fast food side, the sit down side, and a bakery in the middle. I recommend it as a good value and a safe way to try out what locals might typically eat. It’s got a bit of everything with Japanese, Portuguese, Hawaiian and Western influence. Spam dishes too! You can now go to Zippys-dot-com and get an idea of what they have. They apparently ship some things too, hum! Then we ran over to Wal-mart and grabbed some cortisone anti-itch cream for Jenivee who seemed to be getting little sun blisters that were itching quite a bit. We were going to get this at ABC or whatever the night before, but the Equate brand was less than $3.00 and ABC name brand was more than $7.00 so we waited ‘til morning since we knew we would be in the neighbourhood. Anyway, there is lots of parking on Vine. $5 at the Art Center, less if you remember to validate (I did not remember and paid a full $5). Free at Safeway another block away if you dare. About 5 or 6 at the Medical Arts building also on Vine. And you could always resort ot Wal-mart Sam’s club parking for free if you wanted which is about 3.5 blocks kitty corner from the Academy of Arts and Art Center to the south east. We would have been better off just staying there and hoofing it than driving around and around like we did.
Once we got on the tour, it was pretty dang cool. It seems a bit odd at first, though. You get the sensation that this is a top secret place and they might haul you away if you step out of line. There is a security guard with an earpiece who follows your group around. The shuttle takes 20 people over at a time and they split you into two groups of ten each with your own guide. Apparently Doris Duke was a little bit eccentric and recluse of sorts, and rich enough to make her world conform to her standards, and that has rubbed off a bit on the tour system and the foundation running the tours. No indoor pictures, which probably just reduces hassle for what really should be or should not be allowed to be photographed for copy-right issues and flash deterioration issues. Outdoor photos are allowed though. It’s a pretty interesting building that reflects some of Doris Duke’s eccentricities. Big house, only 1 guest room plus her bedroom. She wasn’t an idiot though, and did a lot of her own grunt-work to boot. This house has only been open since 2002, so it is still relatively *new* to outsiders, and the tour makes you feel that way. Our tour guide, Lawrence Ward, was very very good and knowledgeable. He seemed to have a German accent, but apparently grew up mostly on Oahu, lived a few years in Vienna. But I can’t be sure of his actual origin and didn’t bother asking. I would guess he might be Hungarian if not German, and possibly Turkish (?), but has been a Hawaiian for most of his life regardless. Anyway, this tour is way way cool and very informational. I’ll let you discover the rest on your own. Back at the Academy of Arts, we checked out the native Pacific Island exhibits, the Asian stuff, the Islamic stuff (mostly donated by Doris Duke as well), and a bit of whatever else they had. We finally left about 3 o’clock.
We then decided we were rather hungry and had Legend’s seafood on our list. It wa rated an ONU and we had seen it highly rated elsewhere as well and especially famous for its dim sum variety. This was also on Beretania in Chinatown. We went and finally found parking. When we got to the front door along the canal facing side, we found it was closed between lunch and dinner and didn’t open again until 5pm. Our guide book did not mention this and we hadn’t bothered checking out the hours, so we were plenty disappointed. We walked a little through Chinatown, where apparently everyone sells leis, but we didn’t see much interesting so went back towards our hotel. We stopped at famous Leonard’s Bakery and got a dozen Malasadas. They are basically hole-less donoughts of Portuguese descent. To me they seemed pretty banal, but Jenivee loved them. We got six cinnamon-sugar and 2 each of chocolate, custard and coconut filled. I didn’t like any of the filled ones at all. Jenivee loved what she thinks are the coconut ones, but I think they are actually the plain custard ones. I think the other one is the coconut one with the whiter filling, which she did not like as much.
We went back to the room, freshened up, and then went out to Pali Lookout off of Pali highway. We just took some snapshots and hung out for a few minutes. We went here last time, but just wanted to take a gander again. We think we might hike the old trail road next time, but it is a pretty long hike. I didn’t take a jacket, but it didn’t seem too cold to me. Jenivee thought it was a bit chilly though. It’s pretty cool how windy it is there all the time. The story about Kamehameha pushing everyone off the cliff there is sort of spooky too. There are also the stories about how they buried the kings in the cliffs along with their best servant of selected family members. Whoever was lowered down to dig the tomb was then cut loose from above once they were done so they would keep the exact location a secret. This was of course considered an honour to take the king’s bones location to the grave… Hum… I’m thinking not.
This night, we wanted to do better, but we rushed into just going to Run Sushi in the Marriott. It was okay, a little expensive, but nothing spectacular. We got there a little late and they weren’t seating outside which actually is right across from Waikiki so has a good view. We got Miso, tempura shrimp, fried noodles, sashimi bento combo, and gyozas. On the whole, it was fine, but nothing we couldn’t make ourselves just as well or better, and for a lot less. So considering all that, we should have just gone out to a nicer restaurant. I recommend Run Sushi for their daily lunch special for a quick bite, or for just a snack of sushi, but not as a main course kind of place. We had tried them last time out to Hawaii too, and it is still about the same. Great for a quick bite if you are in a hurry, but don’t expect to be amazed.
After, we went and sat in the hot tub again. Very relaxing. Nice way to end the night

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