Is it closing time everywhere?

Ganes and I agreed to get together on Tuesday evening. We would finally meet after the previous day's brief encounter at the Honolulu airport. He mentioned that he would like to go out for a crab dinner. I suggested we look for a restaurant on Waikiki that served crab. I would meet him at his hostel at 7:00.

I was a little tardy in arriving at the hostel. Ooops. He was waiting for me in the lobby. I apologized for being a little late. To quote Ganes, "It's okay. I am on holiday." (It is a phrase he repeatedly uses in his blog when describing how his flight was delayed thus missing a connection and then the airline misplaced his bag.) We did some talking on our crab quest. We both worked in the same industry, so we talked about that for a while. Hey, shouldn't we be looking for a place to eat?

Time for a new strategy. No luck finding a crab place on Waikiki. I suggested we go for a drive to Sam Choy's Crab House. Certainly they will have crab. Walk back to the car. Drive 15 minutes to Sam Choy's. I pull into the parking lot and notice the absence of vehicles in the parking lot. This place is usually busy. We enter the restaurant and there are only a few people inside. I asked the hostess why is it so empty. Oh, it's because it's 8:30 and the kitchen closes at 9:00. However, they can accommodate us for dinner. We quickly chose our food and the feast began. The last remaining customers left and the staff began to clean the restaurant. They told us to take our time but I felt guilty about taking so long and making them wait. I cleared my conscience by leaving a generous tip.

Now it's time for a few cocktails. I drove by the Ward Center but it didn't look appealing. Kind of dead, but it's a Tuesday night. There's always something happening on Waikiki. I parked the car and we went looking for a place to drink. Ganes wanted to check out a particular bar on Kuhio Avenue. We found the bar but changed our minds when we saw the type of people trying to get in. Ganes suggested going to a place on the beach. Okay, sounds good. On our way to Duke's, we played a game of spot the prostitute. It wasn't too much of a challenge because they were out in force.

We arrived at Duke's and found a table overlooking the ocean. We had a few drinks while we played a new game, find the obnoxious tourist. Once again, not much of a challenge. Our gameplay was interrupted when the waitress informed us that the bar is closing soon. Once again, we took too long to leave. All the lights on the bar are turned on and they tell us that it's time to go home. Okay, I can take a hint.

I drove Ganes back to his hostel and we planned to meet up the next day. I had a fun evening with Ganes and was looking forward to more fun tomorrow.