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Stopoff in Honolulu

We had a great trip to the Cook Islands. But when we started home, it didn't mean that our vacation was over. We flew on Hawaiian Airlines, so of course we had a connection through Honolulu. Our flight from Rarotonga was a red eye. It left at 11 pm and didn't get into Hawaii until about 5 am. Continuing on, we would have to wait several hours for a flight to the mainland, which is also a long flight. Then we would have another layover in San Francisco before our final flight home, arriving very late in Boise. That would have been brutal, so we decided to stop over in Honolulu for a couple of days. It's not really my ideal tropical destination. An urban setting. High rise hotels. Crowded beaches. And lots of people everywhere. That's Waikiki. But for a day or two, we thought it would be fun - exploring the shops, restaurants and tourist attractions while enjoying the warm weather. It was certainly better than the alternative. We were there anyways, so it was basically a free trip to Hawaii, except for the hotel, of course.

Since we were arriving early in the morning after a red eye flight, we did splurge on one thing. We booked our hotel for the night that we were flying. That way when we got to the hotel at 6 am, we could get right into our room instead of having to wait till late in the afternoon. We both laid down for two or three hours, not really to sleep but at least to rest. Then we got cleaned up before heading out to explore. Like I said, it was a splurge, but it made our first day in Honolulu enjoyable rather than grueling. Otherwise we would have been zombies that day.

We were staying right in the heart of Waikiki at the Outrigger Waikiki Beachcomber Hotel. It was on Kalakaua Boulevard, the main drag through Waikiki. We were across the street from the hotels that were on the beach, so basically half a block from the water. That's about as central a location as you can get. Our room was pretty high but our view was mostly of other high rise hotels. That's Waikiki for you.

First order of business when we went out was to get something to eat. Right next door to the hotel was a huge shopping mall, the International Market Place, which had lots of stores and restaurants. We decided on the Liliha Bakery on the third floor. The bakery section was actually quite small but there was a very large, open air restaurant attached where Sandy could order breakfast. She loves breakfast foods. I'm not a big fan of breakfast but I could order lunch. It worked out well for both of us.

Fortified with some food, we set out to explore the shopping center. We found a fascinating business called Cat Cafe MOFF. It was a place set up for cats. At first I thought it was pet day care, a place where you could leave your pets while you were shopping. There are stores in Boise that have play areas where parents can drop off their kids while they shop. I thought that this might be an idea for my daughter-in-law Allie, who runs a dog-care business.

When I looked at their website, it turns out that I was wrong. The cafe is somewhere you can go to hang out, relax and have a drink while interacting with the cats which are there. Paying money to do that seems very weird to me but then I'm not a cat person. And if someone really did want to spend time with cats, why not just get your own cat?

We didn't get much sleep on the flight over so we didn't feel like trying anything ambitious after brunch. We spent the day checking out the area around the hotel. We crossed the street and walked along Waikiki Beach. It's a pretty beach but since it is lined with high rise hotels there are a lot of people there. It's one of those tropical beaches where you have to get out early in the morning if you want to stake out a spot to sit or lay in the sun. The contrast to the beaches we had just been on in the Cook Islands was pretty dramatic. There we would often be the only people on the beach for a quarter mile or more in either direction.

After a walk on the beach we spent the afternoon checking out the shops on Kalekaua Avenue. We walked through the Royal Hawaiian Center, a huge shopping mall that went for three blocks. The high point there was the food court, where we found Penny's Malasadas. We had developed a taste for malasadas on our trip to Kauai in September. These were made fresh on the spot and were delicious. Sandy and I shared a three pack so that we could try different flavors and fillings.

There were shops and restaurants along both sides of the street, extending out of sight in both directions. Lots of places to check out and we enjoyed browsing through them. I was mainly looking at tshirts (no surprise there) and I found a lot of them. Of course there was a Crazy Shirts since they originated in Hawaii. I used to get a lot of tshirts from them back in the day, but now their stuff is really expensive. As much as I love tshirts, I can't bring myself to pay $50+ for a simple short sleeve tee, no matter how cool or colorful the design is.

I had better luck at ABC Stores. They are all over Hawaii, and in Waikiki it seemed like there was one on every block. Basically a minimart, they also have lots of tshirts, aloha shirts and Hawaiian gift items, and at a reasonable price. They had almost but not exactly the same stuff in each store, so I had to check out every one. It's a good thing that Sandy is patient. I ended up buying several tshirts and Sandy and I got matching aloha shirts.

We also went through Duke's Marketplace, basically a collection of open air stalls that was right next to our hotel. I found the best deals on tshirts there. I never buy stuff right away though. I always want to look around at everything, consider my options, and then decide what I want to buy before I go back to get it. The guy in the tshirt stall was getting pretty irritated with me by the third time I came around to look at his stuff. Gee, everybody is so impatient.

While I made us stop at every place with tshirts, Sandy wanted us to stop at every jewelry store. And there are a lot of them in Waikiki. She found a very pretty turtle pendant at Na Holu, a jewelry store just across the street from our hotel. She was just like me with the tshirts though. She wanted to check out all the jewelry stores, and then went back multiple times to look at the pendant she liked while she was deciding whether or not to buy it. But it was all fun and we had two days to make our decisions.

When we had finally checked out all the shops within walking distance, we stopped for dinner at Cheeseburger in Paradise. Sitting at a table right next to the busy sidewalk reminded me of when we used to people watch while we ate at restaurants on Orchard Road when we lived in Singapore. There was a constant stream of all different sorts of people passing by. After dinner we went back to the hotel and crashed early as we really had very little sleep the night before.

The next day we had some serious tourism planned. Our first objective was to hike up Diamond Head. The mountain is protected as a state monument and the hike to the top is very popular. Because of that, access is limited. You need to have a ticket to get in, valid only for a specific time. Turned out it was easy to book online and we had done that the day before. Since we didn't have a rental car we took a taxi. That worked well as parking was very limited. Plus the taxi dropoff was closer to the entrance, so we could save our energy for climbing the mountain.

Diamond Head towers over Waikiki Beach but the hike doesn't involve that much climbing. The road goes half way up the mountain where it ends at the entrance to the park. The rest of the way, you have to walk. According to AllTrails (and my GPS) the hike was only 2.25 miles round trip with 581 feet of elevation gain. It took us a little over an hour. The trail wasn't very long but it was steep. In places it was fairly narrow so it was a good thing they limited the number of people. There was a steady stream of hikers going both ways.

As we climbed the views became more expansive. It allowed us to see that unfortunately there were threatening looking clouds building up on the mountains just to the east. We continued up, hoping that we could get up and get down before it reached us.

Near the top the trail split to make a one-way loop over the highest point. When we reached the summit, the clouds which had been threatening earlier were starting to roll in. The wind picked up and there were a few drops of rain. Although the summit view was impressive, the weather was starting to look nasty. It convinced us not to stay on the top too long. We admired the view, took our pictures, and headed down.

As soon as we left the summit we pased through a series of old fortifications. In one section we had to go down a steep, winding stairway inside a dark tunnel. People had to use their phones as flashlights to see where to step. This was the reason for the one way loop. Two way traffic was not an option. By the time we got out of the tunnel, the worst of the weather had blown over and the sun was starting to come out again. Oh well, hurrying off the summit was still the right thing to do. Better safe than sorry when dealing with possible bad weather high on a mountain.

Another taxi ride and we were back in plenty of time for brunch at Duke's Waikiki, in the Outrigger Resort, overlooking the beach. An iconic Hawaiian restaurant, we had gone to another Duke's on Kauai in September to celebrate Sandy's birthday. This one was quite busy but they were pretty efficient. We didn't have to wait long, the service was fast and the food was good. Now we were fortified for our afternoon excursion, which was the Pearl Harbor National Memorial.

Our #1 priority was to visit the USS Arizona. The shuttle boat ride to the memorial was free but there were limited spots. Just like Diamond Head, we had gone online the day before and reserved seats on one of the shuttles. To be safe, we got there well ahead of our time slot. That gave us plenty of time to look around the Visitor Center at the various displays. Although I am a history buff and a wargamer, I have to admit that most of my knowledge about Pearl Harbor comes from watching the movie Tora, Tora, Tora. It does provide excellent historical background but the displays in the Visitor Center added a lot of interesting detail. Then after checking out the gift shop, it was time to line up for our boat ride to the memorial.

Visiting the Arizona Memorial is a very emotional experience. The mood is solemn, with people moving slowly, silent or speaking only in hushed tones. It reminded me of being in one of the great cathedrals of Europe, the feeling of being in a sacred place. There are a few displays which identify how the wreckage is lying with respect to the memorial, but the main focus is the wall with the names of all of those lost on the Arizona on Decemeber 7, 1941. We were there on November 12, the day after Veteran's Day, which seemed an appropriate time for our visit.

Afterwards it was back to the hustle and bustle of Waikiki. That evening we had dinner at Maui Brewing Company, which was in the same building as our hotel. Sandy went back to the jewelry store and got the turtle pendant that she had been eying. I went back to the marketplace and bought some tshirts from the guy with the cart, even though he had hassled me earlier about window shopping. If he had known me, he wouldn't have been worried. He would have known that I would eventually buy a couple.

One other event took place that was worth noting. I almost got wiped out by a suitcase. Our hotel was in a highrise building and the lobby was on the third floor. The lower floors were other business - Maui Brewing took up the second floor. An elevator went up to the hotel but it was quicker to take a long, steep escalator that stretched from the sidewalk right into the lobby. At the top of the escalator was a big sign that said "DO NOT TAKE LUGGAGE ON THE ESCALATOR. PLEASE USE ELEVATOR INSTEAD."

Of course, people didn't pay attention. One time as we were returning to the hotel and approaching the bottom of the escalator, we heard someone shriek "Look Out!!!" and heard a series of loud booms. Some lady had tried to go down the escalator with two humongous suitcases. Of course she couldn't control them and one got loose and went shooting downward. When it reached the sidewalk I was right in its path. Fortunately the noise had alerted me and I was able to jump up and hurdle the suitcase as it zoomed over the sidewalk and out into the street. Who would have thought an old guy could jump so high? It was fortunate that I did, as it was definitely a leg breaker. Of course the lady was very apologetic when she got down. I don't think that was good enough though, since someone (namely me) could have been hurt. Be less stupid, not more sorry.

And that was the end of an otherwise excellent vacation in the Cook Islands and Hawaii. Early next morning we caught our flight to the mainland and got home without incident.