Honolulu, HI

I had the most wonderful night with my boyfriend. While I was working out at the gym I had a great idea. I called him when I got out of the gym. I suggested that we bring a bottle of wine, pick up some food at Ala Moana Shopping Center and cross the street to watch the sunset go down from Magic Island at Ala Moana Beach Park. My timing couldn’t have been more perfect. I rushed home to meet him, took a quick shower and changed my clothes. He had already gotten off of work, took his shower and was ready to go.

Unfortunately by the time we got out the front door it was 6:20 p.m. We knew we would miss the sunset entirely. The sun sets around 7:00 p.m. and we still needed to pick up food from Shirokiya. We continued with our plan anyways. We could still catch the dying light. Even after the sun has set the sky is still beautiful and alive with shades of red, orange and yellows.

We pick up food at Shirokiya from Ala Moana Shopping Center because they have Japanese bento style foods that we both like. We took the bentos to go. We were both hungry and excited to start eating. We bought stir fried lotus root, tako balls with benito shavings, seaweed and kabocha squash. We were trying to find a small tray of simple mochi for dessert but we couldn’t find any. We did find sweet potato dumplings instead. They were so delicious. We had a really good light but flavorful pinot noir that I had brought back with me from my trip to Sierra Vista, AZ to go with it all.

We parked our car and walked into Magic Island, a section of Ala Moana Beach Park. We wanted to sit on one of the benches that face out to the ocean towards the sunset but we ended up sitting at the first bench that we saw. It was angled mainly facing the city instead of out into the ocean. It was fine with us. The other benches looked occupied already. We opened up our bentos, placed them between us, uncorked the wine and filled our glasses.

Magic Island is such a great place to be at this time. It’s not completed isolated where we were the only ones there. A few families were still sitting at their picnic areas enjoying each other’s companies. We saw couples and friends sitting at the tables. Fishermen were on the rock wall with their lines and lanterns. We saw one person in the shore with a light. I assumed he was trying to catch bait fish.

Though we missed the sunset we still enjoyed a great view of the city and its night lights coming on. It was a most beautiful evening. We sat on the bench eating the most delicious foods and drinking a great glass red wine. Watching the day light fade ahead and seeing the city lights brighten was nice experience. Ala Moana Shopping Center shining below and above the tree line of Ala Moana Park was a most interesting site.

As we ate I explained to him the group of lights that we saw in the distance crawling up the side of the mountain slope as being Pearl City. Then looking at the city buildings I told him what I knew about them. I’m born and raised in the islands and a lot of the condominiums that surround Ala Moana Shopping Center were built in the 1990s. I knew a little about them. At least I knew which building was which when we looked at them before it got too dark to distinguish them at night. We discussed which building we liked better. When we finished with our dinner, we lingered on to enjoy the city skyline.

While we sat there we had a nice surprise. I was looking at the city enjoying my wine when I noticed that everything got a light brighter. I looked around thinking that it was a car. Then I noticed our faint shadow on the ground. It turned out to be the moon. It was a little more than half full and it was so bright that it casted our shadows in front of us. It was a beautiful evening with great company, good food, good wine and a terrific view. We walked back to the car feeling extremely satisfied.