Blogs from Waikiki, Oahu, Hawaii, United States, North America - page 12

Thursday 10th March – Tsunami Watch After a flight from Hilo to Honolulu, we head to our hotel in Waikiki and settle in before realising that a huge wave is heading our way: Coconut Waikiki –Checking into our hotel suite and unpacking, booking a few trips for Friday and Sunday, all seems well in island paradise. Hawaii 5-0 – Running along the Ala Wai canal, trying to keep pace with two 6 man Hawaiian canoes in the late evening sun, humming the theme tune to Hawaii 5-0 – it really doesn’t get much better than this! Tsunami Watch (full story at bottom) – Hearing the news of the earthquake in Japan, we decide what to do for the best as we wait for the effects to hit Hawaii and more specifically Waikiki. Luckily the eventual impact ... read more

On previous visits to Oahu I have been to the “tourist traps” and enjoyed all of them. Pearl Harbor, the USS Arizona, Hanauma Bay, North Shore and the Polynesian Culture Center. One historical site that is an absolute MUST is our National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. One of the most moving experiences of my life was attending the military funeral of US Navy LT CMDR Joseph William Maguire at the “Punch Bowl” He was a WWII and Korean War Vet. While we were there we saw the military practicing a 21 gun salute for his service and his daughter was gracious enough to let us attend the ceremony. What an honor that was! I’ll never forget it, that’s for sure. Later that day we visited St Andrew’s Catholic Church and there was a wedding taking ... read more

For a cheapish Hotel right on Waikiki, I recommend the Aston Waikiki Circle (cheapest room is city view) - no pool but rooms are clean and comfortable (res.CIR@astonhotels.com). 3rd day (Boxing Day) I flew off to Miami via Chicago – another 8 hour red-eye flight, more pins and needles, and arrived into Chicago at 5.00 in the morning with snow on the ground and absolutely freezing. Hadn’t packed any winter clothes so had to buy a blanket on the plane - yes buy, as on internal U.S. flights nothing is free, including headsets. Even your suitcase will cost you $25 to have it checked-in. Had 4 hours to waste to connect to Miami and was dying to go to sleep, but concerned I’d miss my connecting flight, so I found out the Gate No. it was ... read more

I am way behind on publishing my blogs but I blame my mate Joy who has been travelling with me for the past 4 weeks. These catch-up editions will probably be a bit lightweight but should include the highlights of what we have been up to - they certainly should include a ton of photos as I took thousands of shots, most of which were rubbish but some are decent enough to go public. So, I took a 30 minute internal flight from the Big Island of Hawaii back to Oahu on Sunday morning and checked into our Waikiki hotel, where I watched a multi-denominational church service held on the beach, featuring a group of women prisoners from the local correctional institution singing hymns. Then I went back again to the airport to meet Joy who ... read more

14th September (again!) Well we’re in Hawaii, Aloha!! We had a 4.5 hour flight then stoped in Christmas island for one hour but didnt get off the plane, then another 3.5 hours until we arrived in Honolulu. It was a long flight but I slept a bit so it was really fine. It wasn’t the big fancy planes im used to travelling in, it was 3 seats each side and one aisle down the middle and imagine you had to share tv’s that come out of the ceiling and wait for the movie to come on, I thought every plane had individual tv’s, anyway im just joking the flight was fine. We arrived and we were hit with the heat, its so strange coming from such cold weather. We then got the shuttle bus straight to ... read more