Introduction to Hawai'i - A Day on Oahu

We were quite impressed with our flights on United Airlines. We hadn't flown them for some time and never on long-haul - the flight from Denver to Honolulu was a little over 7 hours. The business class cabin configuration was really nice, a sort of side-by-side pod on a small angle so that both people could see through the windows. What was really cute and quirky about United though, was the safety video. On most airlines they go through a very dry presentation about seatbelts, life jackets, oxygen masks, etc and many passengers don't even bother to watch. United's video had the seatbelt presentation in a New York City cab, the oxygen mask on a Hop-on Hop-off tour bus, and the life jackets in an Australian wildlife park with kangaroos nearby. The funniest part is when the presenter talks about 'ripping open the pouch' to get your lifejacket and you hear a startled 'Huh??' from the kangaroo. Somebody put a lot of thought into making the most boring safety information very entertaining and memorable.

As we started to come down from cruising altitude, our course took us relatively close to the islands of Hawai'i and Maui which you can see below:

The Big Island, Hawai'i, is farther away on the left. What you see
through the clouds is the top of Mauna Kea, where we will
be going for sunset and stargazing.

and then Molokai, which we will not be visiting on this trip

Unfortunately, we were on the wrong side of the plane to get the view along Waikiki Beach on our final approach.

Upon checking in with the Globus transfer representative we were all given traditional Hawai'ian leis, which of course started the obvious comments: 'Hey, we've been lei'd, right in the airport!' Yeah, yeah, we know - that line is getting very, very, very old. Imagine how those tour reps must feel, hearing them day after day after day...But anyway, here's the first Hawai'i photo:

Our drive from the airport took about half an hour, mostly along the waterfront, before we arrived at the Sheraton Waikiki. This was one of the original Waikiki Beach hotels, and it does show its age a bit on the accommodation floors. But it is still quite comfortable and has lots of pool and beach access. After getting checked in and unpacked our next project was to get dinner. The hotel is right across the street from the Royal Hawaiian Plaza, full of shops (many very high end, too) and restaurants. We had seen the P.F. Chang's on the way by, so that's where we ended up having dinner...very early, before we headed back to our rooms at 8:00 to crash. Well, we did manage to get another hour in before we turned out the lights.

Waikiki Beach in late afternoon, with Diamond Head in
the background

The very last colours of sunset from our balcony

This morning we were awake very early, of course, and decided to turn on the local weather reports on the TV. We had booked a rental car for the day, but weren't absolutely sure we would go anywhere as they had been forecasting rain, possibly heavy, for much of the day. Both of the local news reports and the weather channel were saying that there could be some rain showers in the afternoon, but when we got up it was looking rather nice, so we had breakfast and then went to get the car.

As it happened, one of the people working at the Avis counter lived in the town we were heading for, and gave us some indications of distances and times, so it seemed that our route wouldn't take as long as we thought it might. Our plan was to drive from Waikiki past Diamond Head and out to the southeast coast, following the coastal road to the town of Kailua, which also had a very lovely beach. From there we would travel back straight across Oahu to Honolulu and back to the hotel. And, sure enough, that's what we did! Lots of opportunities to stop for photos, and once we got to Kailua we spent about an hour in the ocean.

An overlook at Maunalua Bay:

 One of the lookouts along the way:

These people climbed their way down (some with small children)
the lava rocks from the road level to get to this little
cove. As Barb said, 'one slip and bye-bye baby!'

Halona Blowhole Lookout:

Sandy Beach is beyond the lava rocks

Makapuu Lookout:

Finally, at Kailua Beach:

After the beach, we stopped for lunch and also had to have the unique Hawaiian specialty - the Shave Ice.  This is pretty much what it sounds like - a hand-compacted pile of shaved ice over top of a scoop of vanilla ice cream, with fruit flavoured syrups poured over it. Very refreshing and quite different.

Even crossing the island on the Pali Highway on the way back to Honolulu had its share of fantastic views:

Once back at the hotel, we got ready for the evening and then went down to Rumfire, one of the beachfront bars at the Sheraton. The first Hawaiian sunset we saw -

For dinner we walked to the Waikiki Outrigger, probably THE oldest hotel on the beach strip, and ate at the Hula Grill, that specializes in Hawaiian regional cuisine. The fish was excellent and the dessert, that all of us shared, was a cookies and cream pie, very much in both taste and size like the Billy Miner Pie at The Keg.

So here we are, sitting on our lanai (balcony) in the still stifling humidity, finishing off the blog post. Tomorrow morning we have a breakfast meeting with the Tour Director and the rest of the group, and then a free day. We're planning on spending it near the hotel pool, considering that the forecast is once again for some rain and/or thundershowers and/or possible flash flood conditions....it would probably be too much to hope to get another rainy day like today!