Hawaii Travelogue, Day 1
Jul. 23rd, 2006 10:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ladyspriteFor those of you who are interested in the actual details of what I did in Hawaii, I'll post a more detailed travelogue here. I set out with the highest hopes of keeping a day-to-day journal of what we did and where we went, but I'll admit that after the first few days, that fell by the wayside as the appeal of actual vacation and relaxation overwhelmed almost all ambition.
However, what writing I did turned out fairly long, and I'm sure that as I note down the last couple of days, the same will hold true - so I'll break things up into bits and pieces, and hide them behind cut-tags so that those who aren't particularly interested in what beaches we saw and where we ate don't have to wade through those details.
(written Thursday, July 13)
It's 7:40pm local time, here in Honolulu. We've been in Hawaii for less than six hours, two of those in the airport and on the shuttle bus, and I've already decided that I never want to leave. I have never seen anywhere as beautiful as Oahu, and I don't know if I ever will. And while I know I can't abandon my life to stay here, I do know that there's a part of me that honestly wants to.
Flying here was a bit of an ordeal - at 2am I got a phone call telling me that our 8am flight had been cancelled, and we had been rescheduled onto a 6:55 am flight. This, of course, meant leaving the house by 5am to get to the airport on time. The United agent was actively surly at the airport, and I spent the first leg of the flight being kicked in the behind by a small child sitting in the row behind me.
Once we reached Hawaii, though, none of that mattered. Oahu is a smallish island, so no matter which direction you look in, there are mountains and flowers and city and ocean. Our hotel is literally on the beach (although I suppose that, technically, everything in Waikiki is on the beach). There are no doors on the first floor; just outdoor walkways that gradually become covered paths until eventually you've transitioned into a hotel lobby without noticing it, and without losing the ocean breeze. The back walkway lets out directly onto the beach, and the ocean is beautiful. Our room is small, but the view makes up for it. We've got a west-facing balcony, so we can sit outside and watch the sun set over the ocean.
Dinner was in the hotel restaurant tonight, which had one of the most eclectic buffets I've ever experienced - an odd mix of local food and safe tourist food, with everything from sushi and slow-cooked pork to prime rib and spaghetti with marinara sauce. The food was good, but being able to eat on an open terrace with the ocean just feet away and live music and hula dancers on the patio was even better.
Even the weather here is perfect. It's warm, but not hot. Clear, not humid, sunny.... I can't quite find the words to explain just how amazing everything is here. Maybe that's because, according to my computer and my internal clock, it's nearly 2am and I've been up since 4.
Time for sleep. Tomorrow is our trip to the Polynesian Cultural Center, and the next day the conference starts.
I'm in heaven.
However, what writing I did turned out fairly long, and I'm sure that as I note down the last couple of days, the same will hold true - so I'll break things up into bits and pieces, and hide them behind cut-tags so that those who aren't particularly interested in what beaches we saw and where we ate don't have to wade through those details.
(written Thursday, July 13)
It's 7:40pm local time, here in Honolulu. We've been in Hawaii for less than six hours, two of those in the airport and on the shuttle bus, and I've already decided that I never want to leave. I have never seen anywhere as beautiful as Oahu, and I don't know if I ever will. And while I know I can't abandon my life to stay here, I do know that there's a part of me that honestly wants to.
Flying here was a bit of an ordeal - at 2am I got a phone call telling me that our 8am flight had been cancelled, and we had been rescheduled onto a 6:55 am flight. This, of course, meant leaving the house by 5am to get to the airport on time. The United agent was actively surly at the airport, and I spent the first leg of the flight being kicked in the behind by a small child sitting in the row behind me.
Once we reached Hawaii, though, none of that mattered. Oahu is a smallish island, so no matter which direction you look in, there are mountains and flowers and city and ocean. Our hotel is literally on the beach (although I suppose that, technically, everything in Waikiki is on the beach). There are no doors on the first floor; just outdoor walkways that gradually become covered paths until eventually you've transitioned into a hotel lobby without noticing it, and without losing the ocean breeze. The back walkway lets out directly onto the beach, and the ocean is beautiful. Our room is small, but the view makes up for it. We've got a west-facing balcony, so we can sit outside and watch the sun set over the ocean.
Dinner was in the hotel restaurant tonight, which had one of the most eclectic buffets I've ever experienced - an odd mix of local food and safe tourist food, with everything from sushi and slow-cooked pork to prime rib and spaghetti with marinara sauce. The food was good, but being able to eat on an open terrace with the ocean just feet away and live music and hula dancers on the patio was even better.
Even the weather here is perfect. It's warm, but not hot. Clear, not humid, sunny.... I can't quite find the words to explain just how amazing everything is here. Maybe that's because, according to my computer and my internal clock, it's nearly 2am and I've been up since 4.
Time for sleep. Tomorrow is our trip to the Polynesian Cultural Center, and the next day the conference starts.
I'm in heaven.
