This was my plan for our day: Beach stroll at Haleiwa, turtle watching, out to lunch, reading on the lawn that overlooks the beach, some housekeeping, laundry and dinner at our friend’s house. I think Mike’s was close to that, but add in get gas, extra food for the plane, and have a swim.
Well the day didn’t go that way, except for the laundry, housekeeping, gas and extra food. What happened? A rainy island day presented itself. We said we would only go to the Bishop Museum if we had a rainy day and we thought by the second week of our trip, it wouldn’t happen. Guess someone, Mother Nature or Pele, herself, decided we needed to go to the museum.
So off we went to the museum. I was a little shocked at the admission price and had hoped for an educator discount, no such luck ($20.00 for an adult).
While we were exploring in the main hall, we had a group of students clamor up to the third floor, our response to that was good, the noisy kids can look up there first. Well wouldn’t you know, hey were a Hawaiian Flash Mob. They sang a song in English and Hawaiian while dancing. The acoustics were perfect. It was so moving I started to cry.
They only sang one song, good thing, because I would have been a blubbering mess it was so beautiful. After they finished we went up to the third floor. There was Duke’s board.
This was a perfect rainy day jaunt and a great way to learn about the royal family. While we were exploring the museum, our friends texted us that they would have to cancel dinner due to illness. Sad to hear a friend was ill and we did miss out on a formal goodbye, but we know we will see them again on the east coast, in the near future (yipeeeee).
We decided to give Lucky Belly a try in the outskirts of Chinatown for lunch.
OMG, this was the best restaurant we have eaten at on Oahu. For me, it made number #2 on my top 10 list of best places to eat (number one being Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago). If we had discovered this earlier in our stay, many a lunch would have been consumed here.
We were seated at the bar and I ordered a signature cocktail , a Chiharu “A thousand springtimes”. The bartender who served it was also the creator of it. She was very pleased I ordered and loved it.
We decided to split an appetizer, Pork Belly Bao. Amazing…
Main course for Mike was the Belly Bowl, portions are insanely huge.
I devoured the special, pork with apple smoked bacon topped with an asian slaw and a soup of I don’t know what, but I want that soup again and again.
We loved the ambiance, the waitstaff was attentive and friendly and the food…was out of this world.
After that we tackled the necessary chores that are mandatory before leaving, some light cleaning, laundry, extra food…the boring stuff of travel.
For missing out on our dinner with friends, Mother Nature provided us with a beautiful last sunset and a rainbow. Not a bad way to end our final day.
(Please note, Sunday’s final, final post won’t be written until Monday late afternoon eastern time – unless I have time Monday morning, during our layover).
CTHikergal Travels 
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