Last Days, February 19-20

On Tuesday, we slept in. I was awake at pre-dawn, however. When I looked outside I noticed the orange full moon setting on the water. I snapped some crummy pictures not worth posting and tried to get back to sleep. In part, I was trying to condition myself for re-entry to Ames.
We read, re-packed everything, and hung out most of the morning. After our final check out at the hotel we ventured up to Pearl Harbor and decided to take a tour of the Battleship Missouri. During the tour a woman behind me said, "Wow, look at those GUNS!" Of course I knew she was amazed at my manly physique...I wish.
We came back to Waikiki to have a nice last meal at Duke's. Traffic was CRAZY on the way there. It took us about an hour to travel the 10 miles from Pearl Harbor to mid-Waikiki. Once we found Duke's we started cruising off the main drag to find a parking spot for our Hyundai. I spotted one on my left and started a U-turn to get into it. At the same time I noticed a car backing up on another street about a block away who had just spotted the same parking spot. I jostled myself into the space as best I could to get out of the way of the car whose spot I had "stolen". As the "losing car" passed us, the passenger said loudly, "UNBELIEVABLE!" He didn't challenge us; after all, I saw the spot before they did and got there before they did, so I didn't feel too bad. I was thankful that we had lived in Chicago for 10 years. Chicago robbed me of my conscience when it comes to parking spots. It also reminded me of the Seinfeld episode where George and another guy claimed the same parking stall. I watch too much Seinfeld.
We finally made it to the restaurant after walking through the crowds on the main drag. It was like a warm Saturday afternoon on Michigan Avenue in Chicago...unbelievably touristy and busy (yuck). We put our names in at Dukes and waited out on the beach watching a catamaran dock itself on the sandy beach to unload its tourists. We were worried that the little kids in the water would get run over. But it made it into shore just fine.
We were finally seated...but once we were inside at Duke's we had great service. I had the fish catch of the day and Sue had shrimp linguine. They had a great salad bar with those purple sweet rolls (Sue thinks they have taro in them??). After the main course we were tempted to go with the Hula pie for a 3rd time on the trip, but we shared a LUSCIOUS slice of Double Chocolate Fudge Cake.
We shopped for some last minute items at a ubiquitous ABC Store on the way back to the car (there are up to 2 or 3 ABC's on every block!!). On the way to the airport we stopped for gas and changed into our long jeans. My jeans were tight...BUMMER. We pulled out our coats for the trip home...UGH! A guy snapped our picture in front of Gate 11 at the Honolulu airport. Yes, those are our sad faces (see pic).
Wow, re-entry is kinda tough. I know I shouldn't complain, but living a life of no responsibility can be addictive.
I wrote some thoughts about our vacation on my blog here.
I'm trying to think of how I'll explain my tan when I get home.