We didn’t really do much on day five. We had become a little exhausted taking care of Vanessa and Ian. Especially Ian. Sometimes he just wouldn’t stop crying. By the time we could “move out”, enough of the day had gone past. We decided to just go somewhere nearby, and that would be Kahala Mall. There wasn’t anything particular in Kahala Mall that we wanted to get.
We went to the Aloha Tower today. It’s supposedly ten storey high, the tallest in its time. It does look quite stately. Ten storey isn’t very high at all by today’s standards. But it’s plenty high enough if you want to go up and find that the elevators aren’t working. That’s what happened to us. As we were contemplating whether it would be worth our while to climb up the stairs, we noticed that the stairs were also sealed off. It was then that we realized that the tower was basically closed till some time in January due to renovations work.
The highlight on day three is about food. We headed over to Waikiki beach again, where they had this restaurant called The Cheesecake Factory. I thought it was a factory that made cheese or cheesecakes, where you could go to tour, sample their products, and maybe they had a little cafe somewhere you could sit down to have tea or coffee with some snacks. I was quite mistaken. I was wondering what the fuss was about having to go their on an empty stomach. It turns out it’s really a restaurant where, among other food, they serve a great variety of cheesecake.
We’re staying somewhere not in the “hottest” areas of Honolulu, but today, we took a bus down to the famed Waikiki beach. We were told that there actually isn’t much of the beach to see because they’re pretty much covered up by tanned (or tanning) bodies. It turns out that was slightly over exaggerated. But Waikiki beach isn’t really all that big, really. I’d think Patong beach in Phuket is bigger, although Waikiki has more developments around it.
Day one in Hawaii was spent doing nothing touristy. Not unless recovering from a long trip is considered a touristy activity. When traveling with kids, especially infants, I think everyone, adults and the children, all get very tired. So the entire day was just spent recovering from the trip. I took about a 1.5 hour nap in the afternoon. I’ve travelled much longer distances before, but I think this time is definitely most tiring. When I woke up, I was like in a daze. Suddenly all the muscles in the body remembered they were tired and overworked.
As with most air travel to any distant destination, the first day is essentially spent on the plane or in the airport. So that’s basically how we spent day zero on our holiday trip to Hawaii. The flying time itself probably totaled not a lot more than 12 hours, but including the transit time, the early check-in at Changi Airport, it all adds up pretty quickly.
Just a simple MacDonald’s vanilla ice cream cone will make her really happy. There’s the more expensive Island Creamery next door, but Vanessa’s not really interested. Given the choice, she chose to go to MacDonald. Then in MacDonald, there are a variety of other ice cream choices like the sundaes or McFlurry. But all Vanessa wants is the simple 70 cent vanilla ice cream cone. Save the parents a lot of money huh.
Vanessa’s concert was on last Saturday. We arrived rather early for the concert. There were only three other cars in the car park, some of which might probably belong to the teachers or other staff of the church or child care centre. I was beginning to feel like a super-kiasu parent, although it wasn’t that we planned to be. It is probably good to get Vanessa to the child care centre early so that we could make her up, and give her some time to settle down. We didn’t realize that her concert item wasn’t till like another 2 hours later.
The little brother Ian doesn’t join us very often, that is, playing around on the bed with Papa, Mama and baby Vanessa. We’re slowly trying to make some time for everyone to play together. Of course, the little brother Ian just watches most of the time since he’s still too little.
I noticed we’re (or at least I am) still referring to Vanessa as the baby, and Ian usually as “didi” (little brother), only occasionally also as baby. The “didi” probably came about because it was easier for us to refer to Ian as “didi” rather than baby when we talk to Vanessa, otherwise she would be wondering if she’s the baby, how come there’s another baby now in the house. I imagine it was probably easier for her to understand and say “didi” than “Ian”. But actually, now she can say “Ian” too. So maybe the “baby” and “didi” stuffs can slowly be deprecated (hehe must use a IT terminology).
Baby Ian is like 3 and a half months old by now, but actually he hasn’t gotten a lot of attention from Papa and Mama. It’s because there are people around to look after him, and Vanessa has been running around getting our attention and keeping us occupied. Some day when Ian grows up and starts reading this blog, he might notice and sulk that he is being featured less than Vanessa. So let’s write some nice things about baby Ian for today.
I think we had 11 oysters each, from The Line restaurant at Shangri-la Hotel. It's a big buffet with plenty of food.
Lunch at Lerk Thai some weekends ago.
