Blogs from Waikiki, Oahu, Hawaii, United States, North America - page 14

THE ELOPEMENT IS ON!!!! Both of us got got up very early Wednesday morning and were off to Dulles airport for a 12:30 flight to Honolulu with a stopover in Los Angeles. We arrived in Hawaii at 7:30 pm local time. It is now 10:45 pm local time which means Vanda and I have been up for over 21 consecutive hours. Both flights were long, 5 plus hours to LA and just under 6 hours to Hawaii, but we arrived excited and ready to go. We rented a car and arrived at the Hale Koa hotel about an hour after arrival. By this time Vanda was her usual famished self, so we had dinner at 9:30 -- 3:30 am Thursday in DC. The restaurant in the hotel was an open air one with a huge banyan ... read more

It is our last day with the ship docked in Honolulu. First thing this morning, a group of us went to visit Pearl Harbor. (See my last entry for that visit.) We finished there in the late morning. Our plan for the rest of the day was to hit up Waikiki! We took the bus across the city. It felt so “normal” to take the bus! Working on a ship really makes you savour any moments that make you feel “normal” - even riding a city bus. We arrived in Waikiki and spent some time just wandering. We walked through the International Market Place - an area packed with booths and shops all geared to the millions of tourists who visit Waikiki. I did most of my souvenir gift shopping there. Then we stopped for lunch. ... read more

When we got to Honolulu we were a little bit surprised because the guy with whom we were supposed to be staying, Marty, decided that rather than letting us stay with him, he was just going to pick us up at the airport and drop us off at the curb of some hostel in downtown Waikiki. We couldn't camp because the offict to get the permit was closed due to a furlough day and couldn't see spending $60 a night for the two of us to stay in the hostel. After a bunch of information gathering we found a place to stay that wouldn't cost us much at all. After a long, heavy walk from Waikiki to UH, where the Prin group was staying at the moment, Austin and waited under a tree, ate a dinner ... read more

Aloha from Hawaii and Mele Kalikimaka! Today is Christmas and here on Christmas Island it is warm, sunny and beautiful. Here are a few photos for now...more to come. Aloha! Boxing Day...had an early morning swim and back for breaky (forgot my sunscreen too...oops). I think I will go to the beach by Duke for the rest of the morning and will periodically wave aloha. Hope to see you! Later that day...Spent hours at the beach and am covered in salt water and sand (and still St. John). Ahhhh so good. I think I'll do this and only this for the rest of the week. Tonight the sky is clear and I'm hoping for a perfect sunset...we shall see. Aloha for now. This just in...it was it was a perfect sunset and I saw the 'flash ... read more

Started today with an orientation breakfast supplied by the company that picked us up from the airport. Nice food, and they gave us information of several tours we could do. Since we are both stuffed decided to just do a Sunset Cruise on Sat night. After the breakfast they took us to a jewerelly factory where they make things out of coral. Pretty interesting. Walked over to the Ala Moana shopping centre and finished our Christmas Shopping. Got the free shuttle back to our hotel and wandered the streets. Headed over to the beach, but weather was a little cooler so only Andrew had a swim. Spent the afternoon relaxing. Decided to head to the movies. We found a bus and eventually found the movies. The bus didn't go directly there, so we walked a lot ... read more