Hawaii Day 7: Aquarium, Zoo, Tiki's Grill, Kaimana Beach, & ACAI

I feel terrible for people who get sunburns easily and often. I woke up on Day 7 feeling pretty miserable - even with aloe and lidocaine spray I had a tossing and turning night of sleep trying to get comfortable on my side or stomach. My back was bright tomato red so we decided to stay out of the sun as much as possible for the day.

We opted to head further down Waikiki towards Kaimana for some fun out of the sun. Our first stop was a return trip to the aquarium.


It's a smaller aquarium, but there is plenty to see and do including a monk seal presentation.   I don't have a picture of this, but while we waited for the presentation to begin a volunteer approached my Dad and I.  He introduced himself as an intern that wanted to assess public knowledge about the seals before and then after the aquarium show.  He was British and had a charming accent, but he was WAY in over his head with my Dad.  My Dad is brilliant, not your run of the mill tourist visiting the aquarium.  I  suppressed giggles the entire time my Dad very thoroughly answered the man's questions about seals.


Before we left Cam was brave enough to hold this little friend at the interactive sea station.   Riley is terrified of creepy crawly things so she did not partake in the activity.

TG and I stopped in the gift shop for some free A/C on our way out and ended up buying these two a souvenir.

Waikiki Aquarium, August 4, 2014.


From the aquarium it's a short walk over to the Honolulu Zoo.   It's much larger on the inside than it looked from outside.  They have an impressive amount of exhibits.  


Honolulu Zoo, August 4, 2014.


I might have been a little cranky towards the end due to the heat, sunburn pain and hunger.  My Dad and TG know the signs of imminent danger so they rushed us all across the street to the Tiki Bar and Grill.  They have an open air restaurant with panoramic views of Waikiki.  Hubs had a delicious LocoMoco here and I ended up eating most of his meal instead of my BLT.

Crisis averted we ventured back out to Kaimana Beach.  I've never seen the waikiki natatorium before and though you can't go in there anymore it was fun to check that off my list of sites to see.  We tried to swim for a bit at Kaimana, but the water and current were pretty rough on that day.  My dad insists it's usually one of the calmest spots to swim and snorkel and thinks it might have had something to do with Iselle heading towards the islands.


After the beach we weren't quite hungry for a full dinnertime meal, but everyone was craving a cool treat so we drove up to our favorite Acai place for the hands down best Acai bowls you can get in Honolulu.  My mom and I both order ours with no honey, EXTRA-EXTRA granola.  In Hawaii, granola in your acai bowl is extra like guacamole and I don't mind paying for it.


It was a very full day of walking and we were all exhausted so we ended with an early bedtime for everyone.