A Chronicle of my Trip to Hawaii
Honolulu International Airport was very tropical, in that it was very open and rather warm. It took us a while to get our things together; but once we had, our shuttle dropped us off at the Aqua Aloha Surf and Spa. The rates at this hotel were incredible; and though check-in wasn’t for a few hours, they let us go up and drop off our stuff, in addition to upgrading us to a better room. It really was a fortuitous start to our stay in Hawaii. Every cliché about the beauty of the islands and the hospitality of its inhabitants was spot on.
Before we went to the beach, we both decided to stop off for some breakfast at an IHOP Alice and her mom had gone to during their trip to Hawaii last October. I helped myself to a country omelette, while Alice had a short stack of pancakes with a Dr Pepper. Our appetites abated, we located some cheap flip flops at an ABC Store on Ala Moana Blvd before popping back by the hotel to drop off a few things. We then threw on some sun screen, and headed for Waikiki Beach!
Waikiki Beach was somewhat crowded, but really not as much as I had expected. Alice and I made our way out into the water until we were up to a depth of about five feet. The rocks beneath our feet were a bit of a distraction closer to the shore, but the pristine water and the overcast skies more than made up for that. The waters were teaming with other tourists, but everyone seemed to be able to find a spot of their own. It felt surreal to have been in the cold and the rain less than twelve hours beforehand. Now we were suddenly at one of the world’s most beautiful beaches on a warm summer’s day. Well, ok. Technically it would be spring for another week or so.
I guess we were in the water for about two hours or so before heading back to the hotel. It wasn’t as close to the water as the condo in Florida had been; but a hotel that close to the water would have cost far more than either of us could have afforded. Besides, walking a block or two enabled us to dry off a bit before making our way up to our room. After a bit of a rest, we headed back onto the streets for some shopping.
I bought Dad a ukulele at the International Market Place on Kalakaua Avenue. We also stopped by Teddy Bear World, where Alice took a picture of me in front of the store with someone in a giant teddy bear costume. At a Hardrock Café I bought a glass that was essentially the same as the one I had often partaken of my adult beverages from back in Melbourne. She and her mom had purchased it at this same Hardrock Cafe last November. There were a few other small shops Alice wanted to stop by, so I sent a few messages to Mom while loitering on Kalakaua until Alice returned.
We took a quick power nap back at the room before heading out once more. Around 5:30 we stopped for an early dinner at the aptly named Cheeseburger in Paradise, also on Kalakaua Avenue. The cheeseburgers were quite enormous. I also had my first Piña colada ever. Yes, I’m aware it’s a girly drink. Girly drinks taste good!
After dinner we went back onto Waikiki Beach to enjoy the sunset and listen to a little surf music while the fellow vacationers passed by. During a stroll along the shore we were privileged to hear a traditional Hawaiian concert before getting a drink at Duke's Restaurant and Barefoot Bar. Whatever cocktail we had there was probably one of the best I’d ever had. All I can recall is that it had pineapple in it. Though truth be told, I think everything in Hawaii had pineapple in it. Even my burger had been garnished with pineapple.
Before we returned to our room for the night, we stopped off at the Cheesecake Factory for some, well, cheesecake. I think we could have kept on exploring downtown Honolulu all night long, but tomorrow we were taking a rather lengthy tour which we’d need to leave for around 6:30 in the morning. All in all we’d only be in Hawaii for just under two days, and we definitely wanted to see as much of the island as we could. Still, we had enough time to sit on the street and gorge on cheesecake before calling it a night.
We were up just after 5:30 Wednesday morning. Because Hawaii didn’t observe daylight savings time, the sunrise was a bit early, sometime around 5:40. That helped motivate us to walk down the block to the Starbucks over on Kalia Road. We didn’t have but twenty or so minutes before we needed to get back to the hotel, but that still enabled me to chug down a dark roast and Alice to scarf down a muffin, which definitely hit the spot. Both of us had adjusted to the time change rather easily. Perhaps that was because we would only be here a few days and so had psyched ourselves up enough to cope with the jetlag.
In another hour we were on a bus heading westbound along the H1 toward Pearl Harbor. While there, we toured the Road To War Museum, the Attack Museum, and the Walk Of Remembrance. Two survivors from the attack on pearl Harbor signed autographs for Alice and I before we boarded our boat to the Arizona Memorial. As a sort of solemn end-note to that part of the visit Alice mentioned that there were three survivors at the little table when she and her mom had been here in November.
Before we left, we watched a rather sobering documentary on the attacks at Pearl Harbor. Rather than purchase any of the DVDs at the shops, Alice read out a few of the titles so we could look them up later. Surely Amazon or some other online retailer would have them at a much more affordable price.
The USS Arizona memorial was equally as interesting as Pearl harbor had been. The Missouri was nearby; so after walking around the monument a bit, we toured the boat which had hosted the ceremony marking an end to World War II. Both memorials were on Ford Island, which was a five minute boat ride across the harbor. Earlier that morning I told Alice I could have spent an entire week at the harbor alone. The pictures painted by the memorials and exhibits were as vivid on June 13, 2012 as they had been on December 7, 1941. Anyone who has the opportunity to visit the museums and memorials must do so.
Unbeknownst to us, the tour that we thought was going to end at 12:30 didn’t end until after 2:00. This may seem like a good thing, but checkout at the hotel was 1:00. During that ninety minutes of overtime, Alice and I were half worried our luggage would be waiting outside the hotel for us on our return. We did our best to pay attention to our tour guide’s explanation of the historic significance of the different palaces we passed, but that was the one point in our stay in Hawaii when jetlag really began to catch up to us. Fortunately I had recorded the entire day’s events and so could go back and listen to the interesting snippets I had slept through.
When we made our way back up the steps to the Aqua Aloha, we found that our things were perfectly safe. In celebration of that fact and of not being charged anything extra for our tardiness, we checked out and then went to a Chili’s over on Kuhio Avenue for what was essentially lunch, dinner, and perhaps tomorrow’s breakfast. Chicken crispers may not be everyone’s cup of tea, chiefly because chicken is not a beverage, but I can’t go to Chili’s without ordering them. Hey are fantastic. Alice isn’t a fan of them, but hey! That just means more for me.
Our shuttle to the airport came around 5:30. For whatever reason, our driver dropped everyone off based on where their respective airlines fell in an Alphabetic sequential order. Suffice it to say we were thankful to be flying Alaska Airlines that day, particularly because our flight was supposed to take off at 7:30 Hawaiian Standard Time.
As had been the case with my flight from San Francisco, Alaska Airlines only seemed to have one flight that evening. Going through security was fairly painless, so much so that by a quarter to seven we found ourselves at Gate 14 drinking some rather unusual beverages. Alice had a strange Hawaiian soft drink, the name of which I can’t remember but which probably had too many vowels. I on the other hand was treated to coffee in a coke can. That sounds so random, and it was, but it was quite enjoyable. Alice had picked it out for me, which once again illustrates how well she knows John.
We were both feeling a little anxious I think, only because the environment of Texas was so different from Australia or Hawaii. I wanted the second half of this trip to be just as fun and exciting and eventful as the first had been. Hopping on a tram to casually peruse through six or seven three-story shopping centers may not be possible from a Dentonian standpoint, but there was still a lot to do, and I hoped we could take advantage of every opportunity given to us.
Surprisingly we had more leg room on this flight versus the Jetstar flight we’d taken Tuesday evening. In our row, I had the aisle seat, with Alice in the middle and a girl who wouldn’t stop texting at the far end. She was texting a full hour into the flight, which worried me quite a bit during takeoff. We’d contemplated ratting her out to the flight crew, but we had another seven hours to go. I don’t think either of us wanted to be bothered with a potential adversary for 1,800 miles, even if it meant our impending doom.
Alice and I each had a pre-packaged snack tray for dinner. That sounds rather lackluster, but it really wasn’t. I had the fruit tray, while she had the deli tray. As with the previous flight, we rented tablets to provide our entertainment. I watched episode 175 of Family Guy, Meg and Quagmire, while I ate. Alice was watching a movie, I believe, though I forget what it was called.
This flight also had the Big Bang theory among its choices, though this flight only had one episode whereas the Jetstar flight had two. This was a shorter flight however, so I could forgive them for that. All of the episodes of the Big Bang Theory seemed to be from either the fourth or fifth seasons, too, which pleased John greatly, as he only had the first four on DVD. John does seem to write a lot in the third person. John hopes that this is acceptable.
We landed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport just before 6:00 Thursday morning. Our connecting flight to Dallas had been pushed forward an hour or so, which gave us literally five minutes to sit before rushing to our next flight. As in Dallas, their international terminal seemed to be the D Terminal, but there weren’t a lot of people around. I guess there weren’t many folks flying Wednesday nights, though that was specifically why we decided to come back on that day to begin with. Apart from the very first morning I flew, mornings at other airports were much quieter than they had been at DFW. This also pleased John greatly.
Alaska Airlines actually offered Wi-Fi on their flights. Since we were going over the Pacific Ocean during the first half of our trip, it really wasn’t relevant. However on the second leg, it was. By the time we were over Grand Junction, Colorado, I was online and posting random check-ins on Facebook and Foursquare. I had to flip the cell radio on to get a location, but I made sure to turn it off soon afterward. I followed that up with another post from Tucumcari, New Mexico, wherever that is.
We finally landed at DFW International Airport just before 1:00 in the afternoon. The heat assaulted us immediately as we exited Terminal E, and it was maddening to say the least. We were both hot, exhausted, and carrying around a total of five bags, six if you count the bag holding Dad’s ukulele. We were fortunate in that we didn’t have to wait too long for our shuttle to arrive. After dropping someone off in north Tarrant County, we made our way to the northeast and, in another twenty minutes or so, walked through the front door of the duplex on Woodbrook. John and Alice were back in Texas.
Before we went to the beach, we both decided to stop off for some breakfast at an IHOP Alice and her mom had gone to during their trip to Hawaii last October. I helped myself to a country omelette, while Alice had a short stack of pancakes with a Dr Pepper. Our appetites abated, we located some cheap flip flops at an ABC Store on Ala Moana Blvd before popping back by the hotel to drop off a few things. We then threw on some sun screen, and headed for Waikiki Beach!
Waikiki Beach was somewhat crowded, but really not as much as I had expected. Alice and I made our way out into the water until we were up to a depth of about five feet. The rocks beneath our feet were a bit of a distraction closer to the shore, but the pristine water and the overcast skies more than made up for that. The waters were teaming with other tourists, but everyone seemed to be able to find a spot of their own. It felt surreal to have been in the cold and the rain less than twelve hours beforehand. Now we were suddenly at one of the world’s most beautiful beaches on a warm summer’s day. Well, ok. Technically it would be spring for another week or so.
I guess we were in the water for about two hours or so before heading back to the hotel. It wasn’t as close to the water as the condo in Florida had been; but a hotel that close to the water would have cost far more than either of us could have afforded. Besides, walking a block or two enabled us to dry off a bit before making our way up to our room. After a bit of a rest, we headed back onto the streets for some shopping.
I bought Dad a ukulele at the International Market Place on Kalakaua Avenue. We also stopped by Teddy Bear World, where Alice took a picture of me in front of the store with someone in a giant teddy bear costume. At a Hardrock Café I bought a glass that was essentially the same as the one I had often partaken of my adult beverages from back in Melbourne. She and her mom had purchased it at this same Hardrock Cafe last November. There were a few other small shops Alice wanted to stop by, so I sent a few messages to Mom while loitering on Kalakaua until Alice returned.
We took a quick power nap back at the room before heading out once more. Around 5:30 we stopped for an early dinner at the aptly named Cheeseburger in Paradise, also on Kalakaua Avenue. The cheeseburgers were quite enormous. I also had my first Piña colada ever. Yes, I’m aware it’s a girly drink. Girly drinks taste good!
After dinner we went back onto Waikiki Beach to enjoy the sunset and listen to a little surf music while the fellow vacationers passed by. During a stroll along the shore we were privileged to hear a traditional Hawaiian concert before getting a drink at Duke's Restaurant and Barefoot Bar. Whatever cocktail we had there was probably one of the best I’d ever had. All I can recall is that it had pineapple in it. Though truth be told, I think everything in Hawaii had pineapple in it. Even my burger had been garnished with pineapple.
Before we returned to our room for the night, we stopped off at the Cheesecake Factory for some, well, cheesecake. I think we could have kept on exploring downtown Honolulu all night long, but tomorrow we were taking a rather lengthy tour which we’d need to leave for around 6:30 in the morning. All in all we’d only be in Hawaii for just under two days, and we definitely wanted to see as much of the island as we could. Still, we had enough time to sit on the street and gorge on cheesecake before calling it a night.
We were up just after 5:30 Wednesday morning. Because Hawaii didn’t observe daylight savings time, the sunrise was a bit early, sometime around 5:40. That helped motivate us to walk down the block to the Starbucks over on Kalia Road. We didn’t have but twenty or so minutes before we needed to get back to the hotel, but that still enabled me to chug down a dark roast and Alice to scarf down a muffin, which definitely hit the spot. Both of us had adjusted to the time change rather easily. Perhaps that was because we would only be here a few days and so had psyched ourselves up enough to cope with the jetlag.
In another hour we were on a bus heading westbound along the H1 toward Pearl Harbor. While there, we toured the Road To War Museum, the Attack Museum, and the Walk Of Remembrance. Two survivors from the attack on pearl Harbor signed autographs for Alice and I before we boarded our boat to the Arizona Memorial. As a sort of solemn end-note to that part of the visit Alice mentioned that there were three survivors at the little table when she and her mom had been here in November.
Before we left, we watched a rather sobering documentary on the attacks at Pearl Harbor. Rather than purchase any of the DVDs at the shops, Alice read out a few of the titles so we could look them up later. Surely Amazon or some other online retailer would have them at a much more affordable price.
The USS Arizona memorial was equally as interesting as Pearl harbor had been. The Missouri was nearby; so after walking around the monument a bit, we toured the boat which had hosted the ceremony marking an end to World War II. Both memorials were on Ford Island, which was a five minute boat ride across the harbor. Earlier that morning I told Alice I could have spent an entire week at the harbor alone. The pictures painted by the memorials and exhibits were as vivid on June 13, 2012 as they had been on December 7, 1941. Anyone who has the opportunity to visit the museums and memorials must do so.
Unbeknownst to us, the tour that we thought was going to end at 12:30 didn’t end until after 2:00. This may seem like a good thing, but checkout at the hotel was 1:00. During that ninety minutes of overtime, Alice and I were half worried our luggage would be waiting outside the hotel for us on our return. We did our best to pay attention to our tour guide’s explanation of the historic significance of the different palaces we passed, but that was the one point in our stay in Hawaii when jetlag really began to catch up to us. Fortunately I had recorded the entire day’s events and so could go back and listen to the interesting snippets I had slept through.
When we made our way back up the steps to the Aqua Aloha, we found that our things were perfectly safe. In celebration of that fact and of not being charged anything extra for our tardiness, we checked out and then went to a Chili’s over on Kuhio Avenue for what was essentially lunch, dinner, and perhaps tomorrow’s breakfast. Chicken crispers may not be everyone’s cup of tea, chiefly because chicken is not a beverage, but I can’t go to Chili’s without ordering them. Hey are fantastic. Alice isn’t a fan of them, but hey! That just means more for me.
Our shuttle to the airport came around 5:30. For whatever reason, our driver dropped everyone off based on where their respective airlines fell in an Alphabetic sequential order. Suffice it to say we were thankful to be flying Alaska Airlines that day, particularly because our flight was supposed to take off at 7:30 Hawaiian Standard Time.
As had been the case with my flight from San Francisco, Alaska Airlines only seemed to have one flight that evening. Going through security was fairly painless, so much so that by a quarter to seven we found ourselves at Gate 14 drinking some rather unusual beverages. Alice had a strange Hawaiian soft drink, the name of which I can’t remember but which probably had too many vowels. I on the other hand was treated to coffee in a coke can. That sounds so random, and it was, but it was quite enjoyable. Alice had picked it out for me, which once again illustrates how well she knows John.
We were both feeling a little anxious I think, only because the environment of Texas was so different from Australia or Hawaii. I wanted the second half of this trip to be just as fun and exciting and eventful as the first had been. Hopping on a tram to casually peruse through six or seven three-story shopping centers may not be possible from a Dentonian standpoint, but there was still a lot to do, and I hoped we could take advantage of every opportunity given to us.
Surprisingly we had more leg room on this flight versus the Jetstar flight we’d taken Tuesday evening. In our row, I had the aisle seat, with Alice in the middle and a girl who wouldn’t stop texting at the far end. She was texting a full hour into the flight, which worried me quite a bit during takeoff. We’d contemplated ratting her out to the flight crew, but we had another seven hours to go. I don’t think either of us wanted to be bothered with a potential adversary for 1,800 miles, even if it meant our impending doom.
Alice and I each had a pre-packaged snack tray for dinner. That sounds rather lackluster, but it really wasn’t. I had the fruit tray, while she had the deli tray. As with the previous flight, we rented tablets to provide our entertainment. I watched episode 175 of Family Guy, Meg and Quagmire, while I ate. Alice was watching a movie, I believe, though I forget what it was called.
This flight also had the Big Bang theory among its choices, though this flight only had one episode whereas the Jetstar flight had two. This was a shorter flight however, so I could forgive them for that. All of the episodes of the Big Bang Theory seemed to be from either the fourth or fifth seasons, too, which pleased John greatly, as he only had the first four on DVD. John does seem to write a lot in the third person. John hopes that this is acceptable.
We landed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport just before 6:00 Thursday morning. Our connecting flight to Dallas had been pushed forward an hour or so, which gave us literally five minutes to sit before rushing to our next flight. As in Dallas, their international terminal seemed to be the D Terminal, but there weren’t a lot of people around. I guess there weren’t many folks flying Wednesday nights, though that was specifically why we decided to come back on that day to begin with. Apart from the very first morning I flew, mornings at other airports were much quieter than they had been at DFW. This also pleased John greatly.
Alaska Airlines actually offered Wi-Fi on their flights. Since we were going over the Pacific Ocean during the first half of our trip, it really wasn’t relevant. However on the second leg, it was. By the time we were over Grand Junction, Colorado, I was online and posting random check-ins on Facebook and Foursquare. I had to flip the cell radio on to get a location, but I made sure to turn it off soon afterward. I followed that up with another post from Tucumcari, New Mexico, wherever that is.
We finally landed at DFW International Airport just before 1:00 in the afternoon. The heat assaulted us immediately as we exited Terminal E, and it was maddening to say the least. We were both hot, exhausted, and carrying around a total of five bags, six if you count the bag holding Dad’s ukulele. We were fortunate in that we didn’t have to wait too long for our shuttle to arrive. After dropping someone off in north Tarrant County, we made our way to the northeast and, in another twenty minutes or so, walked through the front door of the duplex on Woodbrook. John and Alice were back in Texas.