>I was in Waikiki in late January, sent you an e-mail... either you didn't want to meet a curmudgeon or a spam filter knocked out the e-mail along the way. ;)

Damn! I didn't see the email - wish you would of sent me something though the UT....

>FWIW I hadn't been back since the Ilikai was the Hawaii-50 hotel and *the* place to stay. Thing are a bit different now! The Pink Palace is still there though it has a monstrous Sheraton looming over it and there are tourist hotels and apartments extending blocks back from the beach.
>
>>>That's one of the things I sure miss over here...real BBQ
>
>We thought the food was great- I take your point about BBQ but the fish is as good as you'll see anywhere. Also we noticed that there seems to be an ABC store on every corner but not so many supermarkets- though we did locate the big Food Pantry and Safeway. We also spent time across the other side at Kailua which is less crowded and really very nice.

Sadly I don't eat seafood...but yes there are 30+ ABC stores within crawling distance. If you're standing in front of one ABC you're never more than 100 meters from another store. They all seem pretty busy - when I first moved here I couldn't understand how they didn't keep from putting each other out of business. As for the supermarkets - they're all expensive of course...but the Food Pantry one seems to be worse than the Safeway - and there is a Longs too which is about the same as the Safeway.
Kailua is indeed really nice - except for that Japanese billionaire nutjob who keeps buying nice properties then screwing them all up.
http://www.civilbeat.com/articles/2012/05/21/15568-land-barren-japanese-billionaire-is-raising-eyebrows-razing-houses/

>Interesting part of the world you choose to live in! Next week I expect to be in another interesting location that will be overrun with tens of thousands of healthcare executives- almost as many as there are grockles on Waikiki beach. ;-)