Andy's and Army Museum

Although I am grateful we are so close to the hospital (traffic can be a nightmare), there is nothing close by for shopping and food. The directory in the room has a map with several options just on the other side of the freeway...things like Papa John's Pizza and a Chinese place. It didn't take me long (just about 30 minutes of driving in circles) to figure out the map is outdated. It has all been replaced with car dealerships.

I called the front desk and asked for the nearest commissary. He said there was one right down the road at Ft. Shafter. I was so relieved...only to discover that by commissary, the clerk thought I meant gas station with shopette. While they did have a few items of produce and other groceries, I was completely traumatized when I picked up a bundle of bananas and a gecko jumped out of it and onto my hand. This place was OFF the list!

With Heidi's help, I was able to find a nice, big commissary to stock up...but with only a small microwave and fridge in the room, we did still need to buy at least one meal a day. Finding no apparent restaurants in the vicinity left me consulting the Internet for clues. The process was tedious...trying to figure out what was close enough...but then I just did a simple search for "Honolulu restaurants" and quickly came upon a site called yelp.com...filled with pages of restaurant reviews, which could be sorted by price, cuisine, neighborhood, etc. It has become my new best friend.

There is a problem with this, though...instead of looking for close and/or cheap...I couldn't help but look for what sounds the best, or is the most highly rated. Andy's is both...although close it is not. No matter...with page after page of rave reviews for their homemade bread, hand-carved turkey, to-die-for smoothies and fresh pastries...I would have driven the island over. In traffic. Luckily, I only had to go as far as Manoa Valley.


It was a little bit of a challenge to find...we drove past it the first time. There were lots of reviews filled with warnings about the lack of parking spots, but fortunately for us, Jake now comes with special VIP parking. My mouth is starting to water just looking at their sign again...



And is it any wonder? I mean...look at that sandwich! And the smoothie? Jake got strawberries and cream (which had yummy coconut milk), and mine was a tropical slice of heaven with stuff like papaya, mango, strawberry and banana. Andy's is the definition of 'hole in the wall'. To demonstrate...see the guy sitting at the table on the left? That table is up against the shelving that runs the length of the restaurant. See the person leaning on the right? He is leaning against the coolers that line the other wall. That's how big the place is. This proved unfortunate when the young couple seated at the table next to us started making out. I'm not kidding. I saw her tongue and everything. Classy. Jake looked like he wanted to rake out his own eyeballs with his bare hands. {Man, how I miss the society of zero public display of affection...where my husband and I catch sideways glances for holding hands. I wanna go home!}



And get a load of that menu...does that just scream YUM?!



Oh my goodness, I want to bite my computer screen! See those white bags up top? They hold homemade, chocolate-chip granola bars and chocolate muffins for the road. They were already out of their famous apple turnovers, so we will have to go back, for sure.

On the drive down, we saw traffic horribly backed up in the opposite direction, and heard on the radio that there was a shooting of some sort which had a major road totally blocked off. Charming. Rather than sit in that nightmare, or try to magically find an alternate route home, we decided to head down to Waikiki and check out the Army museum to kill some time. {That's probably not the best phraseology. Sorry.}



Again, plenty of VIP parking right up front.

Ahhh...pining away for "home" just like me, I'm guessing.



This was a very cool tribute to veterans of the Korean War. We found lots more to see inside...











I found this exhibit the most interesting...and touching. General Shinseki is Hawaii's homegrown hero, and there was an entire room dedicated to his life and military career.

If you can't read this, click on it to enlarge. Reading this brought tears to my eyes. Who wouldn't want those things said about her by her husband? What a special relationship they have...and he sure has a way with words.



When we got back to the hotel, we were greeted by a very special surprise from Grandpa Jim. What could it be?



Is this gorgeous or what? These ginger flowers are individually wrapped with rose petals. I wonder how long something like this takes to make?



Jake's was a manlier variety...but just as beautiful. It was so thoughtful of my dad to send us something to help us catch the "aloha" spirit...



Heaven knows we could use some of that around here. Thanks, Dad!