September 28, 2009

The quest for Hula took up part of the day. We got into Honolulu in the morning without any trouble. We should have known it was too easy! We did OK at Ward Warehouse and picked up a print by a local artist that Bev wanted, then we had to navigate the one-way streets and construction to get to the downtown Fabric Center where the hula supplies were supposed to be. Turns out there were no hula supplies. But the young Hawaiian (?) guy that works there said to go to "C C fashion, two minutes up the street". He pointed up Kalakau and kept repeating "two minute!".

After circling round and round, up and down Kalakau there was no CC fashions. Plan B was to go Ala Moana mall to walk around and have lunch then find a phone book to check the address. Sounds easy, but getting to Ala Moana isn't that easy with one-way streets, traffic, but we finally made it. We expected to pull in, park and get in the mall. Apparently everyone else in Honolulu had exactly the same idea at the same time. Level 1: no parking places. Leve 2: same story. Finally up to level 3 on the roof and scored a good spot near an entrance.

Down to the food court with just about every fast food you could imagine and all the people parked on levels 2 & 3 were already there eating. Got Bev some Tony Roma ribs and a seat, then went looking for a plate lunch.

We wandered around through an ABC store and picked up a few things, then wandered into a toy shop. Couldn't find any toys to bring home but borrowed their phone book to check for CC fashions. No listing. Little Hawaiian guy is probably still laughing.

We found a listing in the yellow pages for Hula Supplies that sounded like it was close by. The girl working in the toy store said she knew where it was and gave us detailed directions. We followed the directions and got there in about five minutes. Stroke of luck? Not so fast.

Drove by, no Hula Supply. Went around the block, no Hula Supply. Parked at a drugstore. As we walked out Bev asked a lady coming out of the drugstore if she knew where the Hula Supply store was she smiled and said "they moved". Arggggh!

Sure enough, when we got home and googled them there was a note that they had moved AROUND THE CORNER! If they did we sure didn't see them. But according to their website they didn't have what we were looking for so it didn't matter.

Got back to Kailua just ahead of most of the rush hour traffic and back on the beach. But it was windier than normal and cloudy so we walked back, cooked dinner and hunkered down an evening of TV. Two hours of "Dancing With Stars" and two bowls of ice cream. Please let it be bedtime.