going ...

Penny sits on our lanai with her usual cup of tea and says goodbye to the Lawai Beach Resort in the rain

Honolulu - we meet our hostess Harriet's friend Kazue, who gives us beads made from nuts ...

and then Penny picks passion fruit for her in her garden. Harriet lets us off at the Honolulu Art Gallery and we are amazed - an incredible collection of western and eastern art. From the beach straight to great art. Dazzling.

Diego Rivera

 Matisse, my fave, and below, a portrait by my father's friend Alice Neel next to an anonymous 19th century portrait

amazing trees with roots that descend from on high

We got a bus to crowded expensive Waikiki Beach and paddled and strolled

 They're trying to keep out the riff raft

 Penny went on walking, and I did the classic thing - went to the Royal Hawaiian Hotel beach bar ...

 for a mai tai. Delicious. I'm not a cocktail person, but that could change.

 A gorgeous monkey pod tree in the front courtyard of the old pink hotel. In April I was on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, and today on Waikiki Beach, which has a similar feel - huge old hotels, beach, rich people - except that most of the people here today were Japanese. And also runners - the Honolulu Marathon is Sunday. I thought briefly that I might enter but decided to drink a mai tai instead.

Harriet with her cousin, who's wearing a shirt with a Hawaiian Christmas theme. She picked us up at the beach, dropped us at our room, and soon we're going out for a Japanese meal with her and her son. My treat. I am so grateful to Penny and her old friend Harriet for this incredible vacation.