Honolulu, HI

This last Tuesday afternoon my wife and I headed over to Ward Warehouse, a mall near Honolulu. Although smaller and less well known than the world famous Ala Moana shopping mall, which is not far from Ward, Ward Warehouse still has much to offer. Also, be careful not to confuse Ward Warehouse with its cousin, Ward Center, which is actually down the street a ways from Ward Center (although it is not that far).

There is a hair salon (Bobbi & Guy) here where my wife sometimes gets her hair done. While I am waiting for her, I like to go check out some of the shops, such as the guitar store on the second floor. They have many fine instruments for sale in here, including ukuleles and traditional guitars. Next to the guitar store is a hobby shop featuring board games having to do with wizardry and the like. Strange, but if you need to find 12-sided dice and ceramic dragons, this is the place in Hawaii to go. Also, I found time to stop into the bookstore next to the hair salon, and they have some awesome Hawaiian crafts in here (with prices to match), including drums, fishhook necklaces and shark tooth clubs.

We ate dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory, which opens at 5pm. This is a national chain restaurant which offers good, cheap Italian food, and, at Ward Center, you can actually get a decent ocean view, too. We sat in a large booth right next to a window looking out over the harbor. I had the spaghetti with Portuguese sausage (local flavor), while my wife ordered the traditional spaghetti and meatballs. We also shared a carafe of red wine.

After that we were ready to walk around the ‘warehouse’ some more. There is a juice store next to the Dairy Queen that makes excellent fresh fruit smoothies. For something different, try the Durian! We also stopped in at the As Seen on TV store, where you can see and buy all those nifty gadgets and gizmos advertised on television. Our last stop was the pet store, where they have adorable puppies on display plus all the usual pet supplies. They don’t sell fish, but they do carry some aquarium supplies.
 
One advantage to Ward Warehouse is that it is less crowded overall than Ala Moana. So, next time you’re in the mood for some mall action but aren’t looking forward to fighting the crowds at Ala Moana, consider checking out Ward Warehouse.