After this morning, Grandpa took a small nap. Then this afternoon we had to go pick up Ethel from work downtown. We left the house early and drove down through Waikiki. He could not believe all the huge buildings. We drove past the beaches and he said he really didn't recognize anything. That is until we pulled up in front of the Royal Hawaiian hotel. Sixty or so years ago when he was last here, the Royal Hawaiian was the only beach front hotel in Waikiki. During his day, the Navy would rent out the entire hotel for sailors on liberty. He spent some time there back in the 40s when he was here. Thanks to restoration efforts, it looks almost exactly the same today as it did 60 years ago, right down to the pink paint. Once we pulled up to the front of that place, his eyes lit up and he said, "oh wow, now I recognize something". Even the old small balconies off the rooms were restored and he commented on how he remembered standing on one of those. We didn't have time to go inside or anything. We're going to go back on Saturday and take a tour of the place. He seemed to enjoy seeing it though.
After burgers on the grill and a little TV, he's down for the count. Day one is in the books.
More tomorrow...
Greg
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