Honolulu, HI

I have the utter privilege to house sit my friends’ place and their miniature schnauzer. It’s an extreme pleasure simply because they live in Harbor Court, smack dab on the waterfront across from Aloha Tower Marketplace and on the edge of Chinatown and downtown Honolulu. This is most fortunate for me because Chinatown and downtown Honolulu is great for walking, great for sightseeing and great to mingle with people.

For the King Kamehameha Day holiday we sojourned through Chinatown and downtown enjoying both the good weather and both regular and business people milling around. We got started early in the morning around 6:00 in search of a good cup of chai tea latte, banana bread and a nice table to sit on while I looked at the newspaper. I was optimistic in finding a good breakfast place other than Starbucks. I basically had two weeks to locate some good breakfast places or coffee shops I could frequent on my two week “vacation.”

I love the area where their building is located off of Merchant Street. Walking in this small side street of downtown Honolulu is wonderful for all the old buildings and architecture that can be seen. It’s my favorite block - Merchant, Nuuanu, Bethel Street and Fort Street Mall area. It has my favorite buildings that I enjoy looking at time and time again: The old Honolulu Police Station, Bishop Bank and Bishop Estate Building, Melchers Building, C. Brewer and Co Building and the Dillingham Transportation Building. I love the fact that they are small-storied buildings, intricate in details and/or rough stone hewed walls.

We found a few offerings of cafes and eateries at the Dillingham Transportation Building and the Pacific Guardian Center. This one block has a beautiful courtyard separating the buildings with trees, tables, benches and numerous ledges to sit on. Since it was a holiday the courtyard was serene with only one other table occupied. We choose a table with an umbrella and had a quiet morning sipping a chai tea latte, enjoying warmed banana bread and the morning crossword puzzle. We rounded out our walk paying a visit to the Post Office on Richard Street and returning to Harbor Court via Queen Street.

On our second sojourn for the day during lunch time we headed out to Chinatown to enjoy more of the architecture in the Chinatown area as well as the hustle of people moving around buying vegetables, seafood and produce. The energy in this area is remarkable, so many people in a small space buying food; colorful fruits and vegetables so prominently displayed in wooden crates and card board boxes on the sidewalks; and the old historic buildings makes it such a great area to walk around on a sunny afternoon.

We walked down Nuuanu Avenue passing historic buildings, art galleries and a couple of neighborhood bars before turning left on to Hotel Street to head into the heart of Chinatown. All during this walk I was simply reminded of all the great times I’ve had being in this area at night. During first Friday of each month the art galleries are open in the evening, offering small finger foods and drinks and the opportunity to look at the art work in their galleries and possibly mingling with the artist themselves. This is always a fun evening to attend. A bit crowded but fun nonetheless. Most people would either start the evening and finish the evening at one of the numerous restaurants and bars/clubs in the area.

We walked for approximately 30 minutes - 1 hour moving in and out of various shops in Chinatown buying fruits and vegetables that are locally grown - lychee, papaya, kabocha squash from Maunakea Marketplace and fish from Oahu Market. To wrap the afternoon up we walked towards Maunakea Street to choose a place to do take-out from one of the many eateries and restaurants available. We settled on Chinese food to take back to the condo since little dogs are not allowed in restaurants.

After having such a satisfying though tiring walk through Chinatown, sitting down back at the condo with some tofu and bamboo shoots in oyster sauce and enjoying the view of Aloha Tower and the piers was an ideal way to enjoy the rest of the afternoon.

You don’t need to know someone in the area in order to enjoy what Downtown Honolulu and Chinatown has to offer. The area has numerous affordable municipal parking garages. I do recommend though if you are planning on shopping in Chinatown to bring a backpack, tote bag or a wheeled bag because carrying numerous plastic bags are hard on the hands.

For a good walking guide of this area and the rest of downtown, check out the following link: http://starbulletin.com/specials/holoholo/index.html#downtown