Magnesium - Because what would we know about Honolulu without Magnum

Magnesium

Today's daily element for the blog is a complete cheat. We spent most of Saturday with Thomas Magnum in mind, so it was an easy step to move from there to the element Magnesium. This has nothing to do with Magnum, apart from them sharing the first four letters!  Magnesium, atomic no 12, is the seventh most prevalent element on earth, it is named for a place called Magnesia in Greece whereas Thomas Magnum, at least in his first incarnation, was born in Detroit and raised in Virginia. 

Saturday in Honolulu

Well it seems the cockerels were part of the challenge of sleeping in Kaua'i, as without them I spelt until 5:30am this morning, later than on a usual Saturday.

Luckily I had created much of the content of yesterday's blog post, as live, so I only had to format it and add pictures before posting it.

I made coffee for us both using the in-room coffee machine and we abluted then went down to breakfast at 8:00am.

Holiday Inn Express Breakfast

Like many of the hotels in this class, breakfast is offered as a free extra. When we first travelled in the USA, such breakfasts might be a donut or bagel, but now there is a much wider range. 

Holiday Inn Breakfast Offerings

This includes turkey sausage patties, pork sausage links, scrambled eggs or omelettes and biscuits with country gravy (the latter of which we are inclined to give a miss, as it goes gloop at you in the container!!)

Drew's Breakfast

Haydn's Breakfast

Magnum Locations

We are focused today on getting to see locations familiar to us from the Magnum series. Back while I was still working ITV4 started to show repeats of Magnum PI, a series I had missed first time around in the 80s, but which Drew had enjoyed. It turned out it was nice relaxing viewing while emailing or writing stuff in an evening after dinner. 

ITV must have lost the license for the show as the series petered out in early series 3. However, that Christmas Drew bought me the 8 series box set and we gradually made our way through them. So our only view of Honolulu or Waikiki before coming here was that derived from 80s Magnum. 

Modern Magnum

This year, however, to ensure we saw the final series of Game of Thrones before we read a thousand spoilers on Facebook/Twitter/online papers we invested in a month of NOW TV. As well as allowing us to catch up with GoT it also meant we saw the first series of the new Magnum PI. 

For those who haven't watched it, apart from some of the character names, it bears little connection to the original in either substance or style. It is nice easy viewing but nothing like the Magnum of old. 

<<Co-pilot's note: Even though, dear readers, the old Magnum was generally easy viewing, in many respects it was quite dark. There is nothing like that in the new version.>> 

Even Higgins, the English major-domo (played by a Texan in a remarkably good faux English accent) has changed. Noticeably she is now a women and much more an ally of Magnum than her predecessor. (This time she is played by a Welsh actress, from Pentyrch, a mile and a half from where I live, and her faux English accent is less good). 

Anyway many of the sites, especially in downtown Honolulu and Chinatown are ones from the original series. But the new series did introduce us to Kaka'ako a district with amazing murals. These were seen in the episode Six Paintings, One Frame.

Our Walk

Ala Moana Park

We walked along Ala Moana Boulevard from Waikiki, across the Ala Wai Canal and past the Ala Moana park until we reached Kaka'ako. Ala Moana is a pretty part of the city with cycle paths and running areas along its length. Drew tells me that Moana is a Disney Princess, though not one of which I  had heard. Apparently she is in a film called Moana, but neither of us have seen it. 

Kaka'ako

Kaka'ako, like Wynwood in Miami, which we visited two years ago, is an attempt to use art to gentrify a rundown industrial area. The murals are and painted each year under the asperses of Pow Wow. A few are below, but all of them are very impressive and it is really worth going to Flickr to see them all.  

Murals of Kaka'ako

Murals of Kaka'ako

The photos are judgement free

Downtown Honolulu

From Kaka'ako we walked into Downtown Honolulu with its City Hall, Department of Transportation building and courts, all places in the original Magnum. 

City Hall

We saw the plus the Hawai'i State Capitol Building, which is very different from many of its mainland equivalents. 

Hawai'i State Capital Building

We went next to the Iolani Palace, King Kamehameha Statue and the Old Post Office which turns out to be the existing post office too. So we buy stamps for the postcards we bought yesterday. 

Self-service stamp machine

It has been very hot and bright (88) today but not as warmly wet as Kaua'i so we are less sweaty, or at least the sweat is leaving more slowly not flowing out of us. Still it is dehydrating all the same. 

So we stopped for a Starbucks at 11:30am. 

Cold Americano and Hot Latte

I had an iced Venti Americano, I was too hot for warm coffee and Drew had a Hot Venti latte. When was the last time I had a cold coffee - 2 years ago in Wynwood, it must be my reaction to murals!!

Chinatown Honolulu

Entrance to Chinatown

Chinatown, like its equivalent in many cities, is a busy place with lots to see, lovely restaurants, great food shops people from a wide range of Asian cultures. 

This part of the city has many old buildings, and many of them have appeared in Magnum PI, both old and new versions.

Sun Yet-Sen

One of the most interesting places is the memorial park for Dr Sun Yat-sen. Sun was an early leader of the revolutionary movement in China and was elected "provisional president" of the new-born Republic of China on December 29, 1911. Sun lived in Honolulu in his teenage years, and attended school here.  

Fresh Fruit

By the end of our walk in Chinatown we had walked 5.6 miles that is 15,000 steps today. On that basis we decided to catch a bus back and travelled the 19 stops, in 45 minutes, for $2:75 each, on the number 13. 

Soon after getting back the lady came to clean our room. So as not to be in her way Drew went to the Gym to do his regular Saturday run and I went to one of the cabanas beside the swimming pool with my laptop and caught up with Facebook and Twitter. 

At 5pm we went down to the Third Floor and used the laundry facilities in 75 minutes all our clothes, except the ones we are wearing were clean ready for the next week or this holiday. It was $4 for the Wash and $4 for the drying machine both could be paid by Credit Card.

Dinner

We left the hotel at 7:00pm heading for tonight's dinner booking in the Hulu Grill. Again we were lucky we booked as the area outside the restaurant had twelve couples waiting for a table to become free. 

Focaccia and Olive Oil/Sweet Chilli Sauce

We were offered Focaccia and Olive Oil/Sweet Chilli Sauce while we made up our mind about the food.

Peking Duck Wings

For starters I went with Peking Duck Wings with hoisin orange glaze, crispy garlic and ginger cilantro pesto. I think I was influenced by the sites of the wonderful Peking Ducks hanging up in the windows of Chinatown earlier. The wings were tasty with a sharp sause with hints of orange that worked well with them.

Honey Mac Nut Shrimp

For starters Drew had Honey Mac Nut Shrimp which was crispy battered shrimp with candied macadamia nuts and a citrus marmalade glaze. The large juicy shrimp was rich and sweet and the crunchy nuts balance the sweetness of the shrimp, it was very, very tasty.

Cajun Grilled Nairagi

For mains I choose the Cajun Grilled Nairagi with chili lime vinaigrette, warm kale, kabocha & farro salad and lomi lomi tomato. The choice was largely because I fancied the cajun spice flavours, which tasted as good as they sounded and I had no idea what a Nairagi was (apparently it is a Striped Marlin). The fish had a strong flavour and texture, which was perfect with the lovely spice. The kale, kabocha and farro worked well as an accompaniment. the lomi lomi sauce was too sweet for me, but it was easy enough to keep it seperate from the rest of the meal, so I was very happy with it.

Special fish dish of the day

For mains Drew chose to have the special fish dish that was not on the menu. This was a taster of two local fish caught earlier today. The Kajiki was grilled and the Opah was encrusted with sesame seeds these were served with Bamboo Rice, pickled red onion, kimchi and kale. Both fish were on the meaty side, with lots of flavour. The Kajiki, a blue Marlin, had a texture more like chicken than like fish. (First one to say 'Tastes like chicken' will be reprimanded.) The Opah also had a strong texture, so the sesame seed crust was not to strong for it. Drew left the plate empty at the end, a good sign of the pleasure he had from the taste. 

Kimo's Famous Hula Pie

Drew finished the meal with Kimo's Famous Hula Pie, as the picture above shows this was not a small dessert. However Drew managed to face the challenge and consumed it all. <<Co-pilot's note: I, dear readers, would have been more than happy without a desert, but a certain someone insisted that I should have one. I was then thinking of having a pineapple and coconut creme brulee, which I had seen being delivered on another table, it was a small dessert. However, someone demanded I have the Hula Pie as the local speciality. I'm a victim, a victim!! I struggled through valiantly, beating the demon dessert, because I'm a good Drew. BURP >>

All done

We were back to the hotel by 10:15 and to bed soon after.