Waikiki is kind of meh

In lieu of doing actual work I decided to do a final post on Hawaii.
So we left Maui and headed over to Oahu for L's math conference thing (seriously, not really sure what it involved but I think it had to do with math and keeping planes from plummeting out of the sky).  The Sheraton Waikiki was nice and had lovely balconies.  They also had a fantastic infinity pool but a craptastic beach.  And by craptastic I mean that they didn't actually have a beach.  You had to walk to one of the neighboring resorts and exercise squatters rights in order to hang out on the sand.  So that was kind of lame.  I was able to make it out to the North Shore one day though and it was pretty awesome.  I also very much enjoyed watching the surfer boys ride the waves so there's that.  The next day we went over to Kailua for all of fifteen minutes.  The winds in Hawaii are ferocious.  Seriously nasty.  After some unintended microdermabrasion we packed up and headed back to the sort of sad 'beach' in Waikiki.  Once there we discovered there were bulldozers and whatnot driving back and forth dumping sand on the ground to enlarge the beach (also, they import Australian sand for their beach restoration which seems excessive).  But the water was nice and you can walk way out into the Pacific before it gets deep.  Anyway, we had some FANTASTIC food while we were in Waikiki.  Mostly in doughnut form but also some excellent porky goodness.  It turns out there are these Portuguese doughnuts called Malasadas that are kind of an unholy combination of beignets, the fluffiest normal doughnut ever, and an eclair.  Basically a fist sized fried and stuffed ball of happiness.  Mmmm...  http://www.leonardshawaii.com/ourstory.html    We also had a Hawaiian plate lunch at Ono Hawaiian Food.  YUM.  We had pork wrapped in taro leaves, kalua pork (basically shredded smoky pork), some kind of salmon thing I didn't eat, poi (weird purple paste), beef stew with rice, and wobbledy coconut stuff.  We also went to some other restaurants that were pretty nice: Town, Hiroshi's, and a fantastic food stand called Sam's (mmm... curry udon...).  I did miss the roadside fruit stands and fish tacos from Maui though.  I think that was more up my alley for island eating.
Anyway, here are some pics from Oahu.

Where happy things happen

Mmmm doughnut...

View of the city from the room

View of the ocean from the room

Infinity pool

Waves on the North Shore

Pineapple field!!

Waikiki evening

Heading to Kailua

Where the wind lives

Porky loveliness 

Diamond Head

Waikiki

Coming soon...porkstravaganza at Quinn's, return to hiking, and my plots on how to get an inflatable raft and adult soda up to an alpine lake at some point this summer.