After a couple nights at the first place we stayed, we dropped off our keys and picked up the ones for the next place. The timeshare employees moved our bags for us once the rooms were cleaned, which was convenient.
On Monday, President’s Day, we hopped on the bus to the other side of Honolulu, and picked up our rental car, an electric Nissan Leaf. After getting a quick tour of the car, (but not one where we retained that there was a USB port available to charge our phones), we took off into the distance not entirely sure where to go. I reasoned we should set a free car charger as our next stop, so we picked one east of Waikiki on the Plugshare app on my phone, and set the phone’s GPS to navigate us to it. When we were almost there, we pulled over into a large free parking lot to take a quick look and stretch.
A few minutes later we pulled into a busy parking lot, and immediately spotted the free Volta-branded EV charger, and the parking spot was available narrowly. I squeezed in beside a pickup, and we plugged in.
With up to 2 hours to kill, we wandered off to find lunch. There was an Italian place, and we got a window table by the boat docks.
I tried calamari steak for the first time, and it was good, but there was a lot of it. American sized meal portions remain a bit of a problem even for a bottomless pit like myself.
The car was fully charged again when we returned to it, after charging our phones in a mall hallway outlet. We set off for the next charger. We stopped along the way at the rocky ocean side where there was a free parking spot with lots of tourists doing the same.
The Target we ended up at had chickens and roosters wandering around the parking lot. The EV charger was busy though, so we explored the town more after taking a wrong turn once and having to go in a circle.
We found the grocery store charger was busy too, but another pair of chargers (one working and occupied) provided us with some free juice after only a 30 minute shopping wait. We walked over to another mall nearby, and there was a nice sitting area with an outdoor phone charging stand. One of the haggard parents we saw there with a little girl, we ran into later on the Luau bus trip we took on Thursday.
On our way back to Waikiki, there was a charger near a McDonalds, but it only worked for 5 minutes without a payment option. So we drove back, parked, and went to supper at Cheeseburger in Paradise. Delicious, and you really pay for the location.
The golf course visible from our condo’s balcony.
The next day’s sunset after a bit of shopping at Pearl Ridge, I found the beach to be a bit too well used.
For an unused beach, the parking security across the street was annoying given that their parking lot was empty and their suggestion was to park only 40m away on the dirt. I ended up finding a better spot adjacent to the beach, after a U-turn on the non-busy street.
