We celebrated our 8th anniversary yesterday! We had such a great time. A friend from church took Autumn for the afternoon and we went out on the town. First we wanted to go to several galleries and look at art. This is something I hesitate to do with a toddler. Just something about a little person who drools on things that seems incompatible with art.

We hit up the art district at the edge of Chinatown and saw a lot of local artists and a lot of Hawaiian/beach art. We tend to like minimalist, non-representational art so most of the Hawaii stuff didn’t suit us. But there were several things that did. There was painting at the Pegge Hopper Gallery that we liked, by Stephen Little. I heard his name in my Museums Studies class when the assistant director of the Honolulu Academy of Arts came to speak. Little is the director of the Academy and he apparently just had his first show there last month. His piece we liked was REALLY minimalistic, just a few ink strokes on canvas. But something about it was very striking.

After the Chinatown galleries we grabbed an espresso at the Downtown Coffee shop and headed to the Hawaii State Art Museum, which was on the 2nd floor of a beautiful white European-style building right in downtown. They had some great Hawaiian and Asian artists, and a whole special exhibit on hula. In the back there was a hands-on section (for kids or people like us) to make some art of your own. We did.

Then we drove down to dinner at the Yardhouse in Waikiki, where they boast 100 draft beers. I got a Lost Coast Downtown Brown and a Youngs Chocolate Stout (and a Turkey Club), and Clayton got a Franziskaner Hefe-Dunkel and a Rogue beer that was really bitter (and a Thai Spice Pizza). Fun!

We then took a leisurely stroll on the beach in Waikiki. It was dark and all the lights of the city were really pretty. I had to remind myself that we are so lucky to spend our anniversary in Hawaii. So many people want that, and we just happened to be here for it! So we enjoyed the time on the beach. We also stopped in several shops my sister Mary would love: Cartier, Fendi, etc. It was funny to act interested in handbags when really they just all looked like diaper bags.

We finished the evening with a take out order from Cheesecake factory, sitting on a glitzy hotel patio complete with a gold and white Christmas tree. It was nice to talk and relax, enjoy the scenery, and just get away. Lovely anniversary.