After weeks of not getting the weekend off to spend time with me, R finally got a break and he was off on both Sunday[s]; this past two weekends. That first Sunday, we'd gotten up early (not early enough though) to check out Iolani Palace. It was hosting its scheduled monthly Kama`aina Sundays (usually the 1st Sunday of the month), where if you are a Hawaii resident (identification required of course), you're able to tour the inside ~ free of charge. Not a bad deal being that I've not been or seen the inside of the palace even after being and living here on the islands for close to 11 years now. On a regular day, you'd have to pay $20 if you're a tourist and $15 if you're a Hawaii resident. This I did not know prior to arriving and as we walk up the stairs towards the entrance of the palace, we were told that we needed to get time tickets for the tour and was pointed towards the right direction as to where to pick up such tickets. We get there and the next available time slot is 12.45pm (it was a little past 10am at that moment at the ticket window) and we found out we could get a later ticket time. We'd already made plans to meet R's dad and grandpa at Kabuki for lunch at 1pm, so we decided to forgo the whole tour as there's no way we'll be rushing through lunch so that we can rush back into town. I guess we'll need to make an effort to try again next month. So before heading out to Pearlridge to meet them, we ventured off to the State Capitol to take pictures. We even had time to stop by Best Buy to pick some DVDs that were on sale!

Then, this past Sunday...before heading out towards Waialua, we stop by the Japanese Cultural Center to check out the New Years Ohana Festival. I'd read about it in the newspaper TGIF section. The event is free to the public and one can park for free as well at the University of Hawaii's Dole Street parking structure. From there, we caught their complimentary shuttle (and in our case) trolley service to the center. When we arrived, the place was busstling away with entertainmment, displays, crafts, even food booths both at the center and across the street at the Moiliili baseball field and we also got to see a good, old fashioned mochi pounding in action. It was a great day...sunny and windy ~ a perfect day to be outdoors!


This weekend...he has both days off and so far we have no plans made yet so for now we'll be spending most of it at home...sleeping in! *grins*