Hawaii, episode 12. In which we take our sea legs for a walk.

After our (always) melancholy departure from our first cruise, Mari and I found ourselves with some free time following our walk off the Pride of America gangplank. We had a pretty good idea where we could spend a few hours before checking into the Hilton Hawaiian where unbeknownst to us that morning we would receive our unexpectedly magical 20th anniversary upgrade at afternoon check-in.

That's us up there on the sprawlingly lush Hilton grounds back in 2010 and that's one of my favorite jaunty hats that I would fleamarket find the day following our cruise.

Mari is posing pretty in pink with this past June's tropical blooms and her own boldly-brimmed chapeau while I'm doing my best not to frighten the tropical parrots off their perch with one of my soon-to-be vintage shirts.

During our first visit to Waikiki in 2004, Mari and I discovered the Ala Moana Center, where I would return solo several times that last week of July while Mari was dutifully performing her APA duties at the convention center.

I hesitate to label Ala Moana a shopping mall because it is so much more than that, but it is essentially a shopping mall.

While Mari and I love fleamarketing for so many different reasons, we sometimes find ourselves walking the mall during our travels, hoping to discover local specialties that not only characterize a community, but help us remember our travels.

Like our 2008 spring trip to Minneapolis (another tag-along long weekend for me) during which The Mall of America became an easily accessible daytime "hangout" for this urban hunter-gatherer, I learned that there are shopping malls... and there are shopping malls.

As you can see from my pronounced pose at left, the Ala Moana Center is an indoor-outdoor shopping center that is a unique blend of everything you expect from a shopping center and everything you don't.

Here are some of the resident koi spreading their own aloha spirit to mall visitors. Ain't she sweet?!


As Mari and I were revisiting one of our favorite shopping centers post-cruise, we both experienced a strange sensation. While we had not suffered any level of sea-sickness during our first cruise, even on the roughest days (which were never very rough), we both experienced land-sickness while walking Ala Moana.

Our "sea legs" were a surprise souvenir of our week at sea and I am ever thankful that Mari also experienced the physical sensation that we were still at sea because it was (and still is) rather difficult to describe. Thankfully, the sensation wore off after that first day back on shore and neither of us has experienced it since, at least not to the same degree.

Since that post-cruise visit in 2010, a double-decker Target now anchors Ala Moana at the north end. Alongside my favorite Aloha Flea, the Aloha Shop inside Target is one of the best sites for affordable souvenirs including clothing, household goods, and gourmet foods including volcanic salt for those of us salt collecting gourmands.

Over the years, Mari and I have also enjoyed a variety of performances by local groups and teams including the hula students I photographed above during our most recent visit.

An easy and direct mile from Waikiki beaches, the mall's easy-breezy open-air design never lets you forget your heavenly surroundings and takes full advantage of postcard-perfect weather. Be sure to investigate the helpful site to plan your visit and to check the updated list of ever-changing merchants and restaurants. There is also a calendar of events and performances.

alamoanacenter.com

Browsing is all well and good, but shopping's the thing for amateur fleamarketers like us, and I had a goal during our most recent visit. Actually, I had a bowl goal or a goal for a bowl.

However you put it poetically or rhetorically, I had decided a few months prior to our travels that I was going to treat myself to a koa bowl. I guess I don't need to mention my bowl collection because everybody has bowls for flip's sake (no need to call hoarders-not-so-anonymous). It's not really a collection (is twenty too many?), but there are quite a few bowls in our home. (thirty?)

That's me with my most recent goal-in-a-bowl purchase outside Ala Moana. Perhaps you'd like to sneak a peek inside that yellow shopping bag?

As much as I fear the repercussions, I'm ready for a block party, or at least to put out a different bowl of snacks for each quarter of an ND football game (for the entire season).

This is the newest addition and it will not be seeing a single crispy chip, cheesy puff, nor chocolatey chunk any time soon.

I simply like looking at my koa bowl under the display light in the living room entertainment center. It will forever remind me of the natural beauty of Hawaii as well as serve as remembrancer of my years in education. It is my retirement gift to myself and the photo really doesn't do it justice. The 5-inch diameter bowl appears to glow from within and is so much lighter than it appears. Native to Hawaii, koa was traditionally carved into canoes, but has long been used for carving decorative household goods as well as musical instruments. In Hawaiian, its name implies strength and translates as "warrior." (Might as well be "educator.") Regardless, it was the bowl's simple and elegant beauty under the display light at the Martin & MacArthur shop that made me koa-cave.

Thanks for being polite and not asking.

On our 20th anniversary trip, Mari had gifted me the koa-inlaid pen pictured below. I love admiring it, but rarely have used it. Like all things collectible, its beauty outweighs its utility so I fear its fate is to be admired, after all. (You realize I collect pens, too, right?)

Sign up at the site to learn more about the beautiful products being made from koa and about the creative and talented artists, to read the blog, and to receive e-mail specials.

martinandmacarthur.com

Ala Moana also offers a great variety of dining options including a favorite of ours, Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. Taking a quick ride on TheBus (Numbers 8 or 13 will get you there directly from the beaches) or hoofing it a mile along Ala Moana Boulevard from the Hilton will also help keep you on budget. While the Hilton and other Waikiki hotels offer the convenience of on-site restaurants, the menu prices can best be described as out-of-sight, especially if you are staying longer than a few days.

Recently, Mari and I took a break from browsing to enjoy a local specialty, shave ice. Not a snow cone and not shaved ice with-a-D, Hawaiian shave ice is unlike any such frozen treat, but entirely like what you would expect from a tropically lush natural paradise. Better than any ice cream (except maybe the hazelnut gelato I had in the Piazza San Marco in Venice).

That good!

A few fun foodie recommendations next time.