Pineapple Princess (Day 6) [a.k.a. Beach Baby, Beach Baby, There On The Sand]

Day 6 commenced with breakfast at the Koko Cafe, one of the hotel restaurants, which had a spectacular breakfast buffet. I could really get used to having bacon and fried rice for breakfast. I don't know that my circulatory system would feel the same way, though.
At breakfast, it was once again Mary's birthday. Katy told the waiter, who looked at Mary and said, "Well...happy birthday. Umm...I can give you...free creamer for your coffee." Which he did, as well as free juice from the juice machine that is included in the breakfast buffet.
After breakfast, we headed to Waikiki again. I had the sense to take a picture of the spectacular view from the beack elevator this time. You can see the ocean, the foliage, and the adult pool.
I also remembered to take pictures of the gigantic fish swimming in the ponds around the gardens. These fish were gigantic. The orange and white one at the edge was easily as big as Daphne.
Once we arrived at the beach, the nice young men set up our umbrellas and chairs. Often the best part of the day.

Today we had a particularly friendly chair setter-upper. Katy and Mary started to refer to him and his coworkers as our Beach Boys. They were going to buy them beer later. All part of being a cougar ;-)
This was a very productive day on the beach, as I finished another book (http://www.amazon.com/Salt-World-History-Mark-Kurlansky/dp/0142001619/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218940634&sr=8-1). Yay for Kathy for recommending another good book!

After laying on the beach for awhile, we went to lunch at the nearby bars (alcohol and snack). This is Tricia standing in line at the snack part of the bar (which had really good french fries).

This lovely item came from the alcohol part of the bar. It was a mai tai, and it was glorious.
All of the drinks came with pretty little cocktail umbrellas, which I commandeered and used to decorate myself. (There are better back view pictures of this, but they're on Katy's camera, the pictures from which I don't have yet).
After spending the better part of the day on the beach, we headed downtown for more shopping. I successfully avoided going into the Crocs store this time, and instead went to the quilt store, where I was appalled at the prices. I hope my mother learns quickly from the Hawaiian quilting book I got her, because I want one! After shopping, we went to dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory. No group pictures from this one, because it was so freaking crowded that the waiter couldn't take our picture without standing on the next table.

After dinner, we returned to the Hale Koa to watch the Olympics. Except everyone fell asleep except for me. Which was unfortunate, because that was the night of The Relay, as we've taken to calling the men's 4x100 freestyle relay. Do you have any idea how hard it was to watch that relay in a room full of sleeping people, without screaming or cheering or yelling? Let's just say it was a test of my self control. And if any of you have watched me during a sporting event that I care about, you know how much of a test it was!