(this happened on) Friday 3rd July 2009

The Gap Year Gang, Surfing, Haircuts, Museums, Fireworks and Jimmy Buffets in Oahu

It's A Tank What More Do you Want To Know?

Everybody was out for the count when I woke up.

I blame a lot of it on the incredibly noisy air conditioning in the room, it’s too hot to turn it off and too noisy to sleep with it on. So we all wake up feeling rather ragged.

Today I needed to get a haircut. I walked down towards the man Waikiki shops area but could not find anywhere, eventually a couple of helpful locals sent me to the Ala Moana Mall.

I found a barbers on the ground floor and got my haircut by a nice friendly but slightly nutty old asian man, who opened with “you have not had your hair cut for two months”, the rain man of hairdressers?

I walked out of there with a decent haircut after I had run my fingers through my hair a few times once out on the street to get rid of the fancy fluffy hair he had given me.

Sasha was out for a few hours surfing with a company called ‘Girls Who Surf’, when she came back she seemed to have had a good time but still did not feel confident enough to just hire a board and try it on her own for a few hours.

Basty had just been chilling watching a couple of episodes of Red Dwarf on the computer.

He got ready and Basty and I went to the Army Museum, it was pretty interesting but I have to say I actually found the story of the building itself to be of more interest.

It started off as a gun battery to protect the island from attack and when many years later it was abandoned and was on the site of a new hotel, the wrecking ball came in and bashed the building about knocking off some fripperies and when the dust settled, the building was still standing with barely a mark on it.

They considered blowing it up with explosives but would have needed so much that the buildings surrounding it would have suffered much damage. So they decided to build the hotel next to it and they used the building as a store room.

Many years later the idea of converting it to a museum was launched and viola!

Surf's Up Waikiki Style

When we got back to the room Sasha was back and Sofia was ready  to move, so we all headed onto the Beach.

Sofia and I were soon in the water while Basty and Sasha just lay on the beach.

Afterwards we all went back to the room and got washed and dressed before heading back to the beach for the evening to watch the Friday night Fireworks, it was fun and soon we were in a mass of people heading towards town and restaurants.

Sofia spotted Jimmy Buffets Beachcomber we had seen a Jimmy Buffets Margaritaville in both Vegas and Orlando but had eaten in either, so this would be a first.

The place had a big queue but they gave us a light up vibrating thing and told us 15 – 20 minutes and pointed us to the bar. 5 minutes later we had drinks and the flashing vibrating started and we were seated, It had a very cool themed decor, with lava style floors and wave shaped booths. We made our orders and enjoyed a few drinks before the food turned up. I have gotta say my food was pretty dam good, I had a steak and prawn combo, the prawns were pretty weak but the steak was bloody lovely.

I think everybody else also enjoyed their food so it gets a recommended, good food and live music of a good standard.

Afterwards the kids went back to the room and Sofia and I went to Roys for some drinks, Sofia tried a Rearrinto (very minty) and I had a Pacifico beer. We had a few nice cold ones and played a few hands of cards before heading back and hitting the bed.

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