Hawaii Day 1 (2006-10-30)
We are back! We came back to Tokyo on 23rd. Here's my recount of our trip over the next three weeks. I need to break down the entry into smaller posts so I don't need to put up tons of pictures in one day, otherwise it may take a long time for some people's computers to download. Okay, here goes:
Oct 16, Monday: When KL and I were at the vet's handing over Daifoo to him before we were to make a very early departure for the airport, KL's phone rang. The travel agent informed us there was a big earthquake in the Big Island on Sunday and Oahu had widespread power failure. We had to go home and wait for her call later to confirm if our trip was a GO or NO GO. A worrisome three hours later, she called back and said there could be a flight delay but we should head to the airport. A GO. Yay! Looked like there wasn't any major damage in Oahu and the power should come back before we arrived there. Fingers crossed.
The flight to Honolulu was uneventful. We got window and
middle seats in the
first row in the second section which enabled us plenty of leg
room and we were the first ones to be served. Score! The
dinner was surprisingly tasty which was so
unlike Northwest Airlines' usual crappy meals. The curry chicken
was spicy and tasted of rich spices and a touch of tanginess from
yogurt. I polished the whole thing. Brekkie was a different
story. The cold and hard croissant dipped right back to the
suck-ish NWA food. Not much else was offered with the croissant,
so I got off the plane pretty hungry and ready for some good ol'
American chow.
Emerging from the airport at 8 am local time, we were greeted by
warm and humid Honolulu weather and our tour guide. Our suitcases
were to be delivered right to our hotel while we boarded another big
bus and driven to a duty free shop in Waikiki to get our paper work and
orientation. After that, KL and I were free to start our vacation.
Our first order of the day was to do the check-in at Hilton and get
lunch. Our room wasn't ready, so we went to a well-known burger
joint and had a thoroughly enjoyable lunch (more on that
tomorrow). After that, we took a stroll along Kuhio Ave, the main
touristy strip, which borders the beaches and soaked in the Waikiki
atmostphere. It took us fifty minutes to reach our hotel.
There was some room mix-up and misplaced luggage at first but it got
sorted out at the end. But the woman we dealt with was
unapologetic and rude, and the man who finally delivered our luggage
shoved our bag into the room standing way outside the door and ran
away. They were bad
employees.
Our room was quite large with a good ocean view if you stand on the
right side of the lanai. The lights from the streets and
buildings at night were pretty too. After taking a nap, we were
off to dinner. We walked around the hotel and didn't see many
places we liked. We tried to get into Red Lobster but the line's
too long. There's a cheap Chinese buffet place, an Outback
restaurant (also had a long line), a sushi place and some other small
eateries but none appealed to us. We settled for a diner across
the hotel where I liked my meal but KL didn't his. We found a
nice ice cream shop inside Hilton after dinner which helped to offset
KL's bad meal at the diner. And that's it for day one.
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