Arrival - Day 1

We pulled into the terminal 15 minutes ahead of schedule, despite our little scare during the landing. It really was a very, very close call, but we are here safely. As we walked through the terminal we came to a little open air atrium, where we got our first glimpse of this island paradise. Palm trees and exoctic flowers and birds.

First order of business is to retrieve our luggage, that task accomplished we headed outside to catch the shuttle, into town. $14.00 bought us a round trip ticket, which works out drastically less expensive than a cab.

We had a tour around Honolulu in the shuttle and finally arrived at the Aqua Aloha Surf. What a great looking hotel! Staff members are incredibly friendly, and the lobby is completely open air, with no doors. The lobby is bright and friendly and has free wireless internet connections. We are an hour early for check-in and our room is not ready yet. So we sat in the lobby and enjoyed the sights and smells.

Three O’Clock rolled around and we moved up to our suite. We got a free upgrade because I am over fifty, as well as being a retired police officer. Along with that came some free coupons and a box of chocolate macadamia nuts.

After settling in and changing into shorts, we headed out to scout up some food. Where better to do so than at the beach. We walked down to Waikiki Beach, some 2.5 blocks away and our first glimpse of the ocean is enough to take your breath away. -6 degree celcius when we left to just under 30 degrees and sunshine. Boy is it hot, but great.

We grabbed some nachos and the most incredible vanilla milkshake and sat on the beach chowing down. We had finished our food and went to set out and look for the statue of The Duke, and the Waikiki web cam. Turns out we were sitting right next to it.

We still had an hour to kill so we went walking along Waikiki Beach. Its incredible watching the surfers and the waves. They tell us these are just little ones though, even though they are crashing over the breakwater.

Finally, it is back to the area of the web cam where we spent about 15 minutes waving, and not knowing if anyone could see us. Afterwards, we grabbed some strawberry shave ice, wow is it ever good, and continued our walk. We kept going and got fairly close to Diamond Head, where we are planning on hiking another day. Then headed for the canal and walked back to our hotel. We had planned on taking a short rest and then grabbing some dinner, but, we are to burned out and headed off to bed instead. Good night for now.