Travel Diary

Day 1

I would leave at 9:30am Saturday flight. I could have left on a Friday, but the flight was much more expensive and I was already taking Monday off. Two days would just kill pay for the week. Plus, there was Memorial Day coming up (another forced holiday). I had to draw the line somewhere.

A Saturday morning flight would take five hours, but there was the three hour reduction in time, so I would still have a good deal of Saturday to visit and explore. That would suffice.

On Friday night, I packed and prepared to get to sleep early.  I actually pretty much did that. Maybe it wasn’t too early, but it was 11:30pm and that’s early for me.

At 7am, I woke up. Sleep was done. I showered and killed time until I needed to head out. Getting to Oakland airport only takes a half hour with no traffic. I wasn’t sure of the crowds at 8am in the morning (Note: they’re very small at 5:30am on Saturday), but hated to risk it so I left with time to spare.

And had exactly zero problems.

Check-in went fast though boarding took forever. Some people were very anxious to get on the plane. I wanted to shout out, “Hey, what’s the hurry? Got a plane to catch?”

We finally boarded...and waited. The captain said there were a few maintenance things to take care of before taking off. Hmm...that’s not something one really likes to hear. You want to hear them say, “Everything is awesome and perfect. This jet is brand new!” Fortunately, the problems were just the forward latrines, which would be closed during the flight. No big deal. I would survive.

The bigger challenge would be the screaming babies. There were several of them. One has to wonder why people bring infants to Hawaii. They won’t remember anything and it will make the trip a nightmare for the parents, but alas, the only time this affects me is during the flights, and I had my earplugs. You only make that mistake once in life. I also had my in-ear headphone buds and those work fantastic too. Yeah, I was well prepared. Bring on the screaming babies. One cool addition was getting to fly over SF. Since most of the flights I’ve taken over the past five years have been east or north, I haven’t gotten to take overhead SF shots (only from the east side). I got several good ones of PacBell Park at 9:50 in the morning. (Digital photos now have time stamps, so I checked later. What will they think of next?)

Once I arrived, it was a fast deplaning. My friend Lauren came and picked me up in her nice new car. We then headed east. Our first stop was for some food. Since they now pretty much only sell it on planes, I always pass on the airline food, and the drinks too since that would mean more trips to the latrine, and again, they were only half working.

(I had accepted their offer of a free Mai Tai though. It was tasty.)

We found a little coffee shop and I bought a curry chicken wrap--something that seemed a bit odd to me. I’m used to my Indian food with rice and naan.

We were also getting a little rain. Despite the myths, Hawaii isn’t always warm, especially when it rains. It wasn’t terribly cold either, just a little uncomfortable for a guy who freezes when the AC is on too high at work.

Heading north, we found a beach area. I forget the name, but it means “beautiful seawater” in Hawaiian. Funny that I can remember that part only. The rain was coming down pretty hard, so most people were bugging out. The line to exit the place was very long. But entering the neighborhood was no trouble. Finding parking was a bit of a problem. We get lucky and found essentially the very last space before we would be in the very long line exiting the area.

The beach was beautiful--even with the rain. The sand was white, soft, and inviting. Out across the water were two little islands that people can boat or swim to. It was a long distance for swimming, but I would have been game. Still, leaving our gear for that long might not have been terribly wise.

We did get a little sunlight, but it was in short moments. Nevertheless, the clouds weren’t too thick, so lying on the beach was still beneficial. I covered myself in sunblock and of course kept my face blocked completely with a t-shirt. The best way to protect the face is just not to directly exposure it at all (when possible). The flip side is that if you never expose the face, then there’s no tan for protection, and the first time you’re caught in the sun for a long period without protection means a pretty damaging sunburn. Darned if you do...

In time, we drove out and headed for beach number two. This was Sandy Beach (is there just one?) and it had quite a break. Many surfers were out there braving the choppy waters. Several signs warned against swimming out there. I didn’t bother trying. The biggest issue with situations like that is having the water level drop fast and getting my feet cut on the sharp rocks or coral. I didn’t want to be hobbling the rest of the trip, though that would come, but from different reasons.

At beach two, we also explored the tide pools. If you’re patient and look closely, you can find all sorts of neat things in those pools. I saw a lot of little fish and even some tiny, tiny crabs.

After that, we got some food at the Hawaiian Brewery. The plan was just for a drink or two, but the aroma of the food was too much to resist. Soon, we were splitting a pizza, and it was divine. I saved half for later. I think I drank two beers at that place, but it was still early. I of course had to try out my accents, but again forgot which server got which accent. I imagine there are some interesting conversations in the break room whenever that happens.

We traveled a ways and into a special neighborhood which gave us an entry onto a cliff wall facing the sunset. It was a great spot to view the sun descending over the island. The clouds blocked the actual sun, yet it still offered a colorful view. I was also informed that I should not geo-tag the location as it’s more for locals than tourists. So sorry, that info cannot be shared.

And I actually have no clue where the spot is actually located. With the cloud cover, I often couldn’t even tell which part of the island we were on. There are green places, and there are blue places. That part I got.

It was finally time to check into the hotel, which was located in downtown Waikiki. There are pros and cons about staying there--the biggest con is parking. In fact, it was hard to even find the hotel, but when we arrived they said they had no parking spots for their customers. That wasn’t something I wanted to hear. But some other guests checking in looked like they’d go postal when they heard this. For me, it wasn’t something to ruin the trip over. I would simply write it up in a Yelp review later. That’s another nice thing about the Internet. If a hotel wants to try and get away with poor service or a bad attitude, the world is going to know. Or at the least the world can know if it investigates.

The room wasn’t bad. It was what I would call “serviceable.” It got the job done, and it was clean. I still wouldn’t really recommend the place to others. The location is next to an apartment which seems to have people partying all night. The noise is a bit loud at 4am.

After getting ready, we headed down the street to the Tiki Bar. It was a fun place and we were able to eat outside. Drinks were the main part of the dining. I think I had a Mai Tai or two and then we all had a fireball shot. In hindsight, I probably should have stopped drinking then and there. But we moved on.

The next place was a bar up on a hotel ledge. It had a nice view, although all you really saw was a view of the streetwalkers. No kidding, there are a lot of them there. Guess tourism brings in a lot of business. I imagine it’s similar to other places in the world--one has to arrive early for the best selection.  

I had a drink or two there, and then we walked onward. Our next stop was a karaoke place. It was a cool one where you rent the room and choose from thousands of songs, probably all on hard drives now. The system sounded pretty good and we spent several hours singing quite a number of songs. I didn’t want to leave that place, but at 4am, it was last call. And last song.

From there, we walked home, although I heard that a few people still went out for food. By the time I crashed, I had been up for past 25 hours. Nice to know it can still be done when necessary.

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