October 1, 2022
This trip to Hawaii was delayed,
rescheduled, postponed and transformed a number of times over
the three years or so it has been in our travel plans. So
when our departure day finally rolled around with no new
roadblocks we were delighted. You really cannot imagine
how delighted!
We began our journey with a drive to
Toronto and a 2:00 p.m. flight to Vancouver. Then our
'red-eye' flight from Vancouver to Honolulu got even 'redder'
when we sat on the tarmac for over an hour while WestJet
decided what to do about a medical emergency aboard the
aircraft. |
|
Vancouver Airport has some amazing
aboriginal art on display.
It's a beautiful facility. |
They finally taxied us back to the
departure gate, offloaded the sick passenger and her family, and
we left two hours behind schedule.
We landed in Honolulu about 10 minutes
before the Alamo Car Rental desk was due to close at 11:00 p.m.
so as soon as we left the aircraft Carol bolted toward the Alamo
desk while I headed to the baggage carousels to gather our
luggage.
The bags came surprisingly quickly and I
was waiting on the sidewalk outside the Arrivals level when
Carol pulled up in a white Toyota Corolla. By this time we
had been travelling for over 24 hours and it was almost midnight
in Hawaii. We were exhausted, but had an hour-long drive
remaining to get to the Marriot Courtyard Hotel at Leia, on
Oahu's north shore.
It was after 1:00 p.m. when we tossed our
bags in our room and flopped into bed! |
|
October 2, 2022 |
Our first day on Oahu was overcast with off and
on rain showers. We were still very tired from our 24 hour travel
day, but we did manage to see a bit of the North Shore and eat
shrimp on the side of the road. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
We were back to our hotel
by mid-afternoon and enjoyed a nap followed by dinner in the
hotel dining room, and a relaxing evening. |
|
October 3, 2022 |
On our second day in this tropical
paradise the sun shone all day. We did some
more exploring up the North Shore, stopped for a shave ice and
had lunch at the Polynesian Cultural Center located next to our
hotel.
After lunch we enjoyed a swim
in the pool followed by another nap. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The view from our hotel room was amazing.
We overlooked the hotel's magnificent pool and hot tub with a
volcanic mountain range covered with tropical rainforest as a
background.
This gave us a beautiful vista to look at
as we recovered from jet-lag! |
|
|
|
October 4, 2022 |
Our third day was spent at the Polynesian Cultural
Center. What an amazing place. Even though it rained most of the
day it was extremely interesting and enjoyable.
The Cultural Center represents six
Polynesian islands, Hawaii, Tahiti, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji and
Aotearoa (New Zealand).
Almost all of the workers at the center
are students at the nearby Hawaiian campus of Brigham Young
University who seem proud to present the culture and traditions
of their homelands. |
|
|
This is Loco Moco. Steamed rice
topped with grilled hamburger patties, gravy and scrambled eggs.
It tastes better than it sounds! |
Carol wasn't as adventurous . . . she had
a BLT |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
It's luau time! |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
October 5, 2022 |
On our last day at Leia
we had nothing planned. We spent a nice day driving around
checking out the sights all around the North Shore area of Oahu |
|
|
|
|
|
Dole Whip with pineapple chunks! |
|
Mmmm! Malasadas - Portuguese
pastries! |
|
|
|
|
October 6, 2022 |
After a leisurely breakfast at our hotel we drove through the mountains from the
north shore, past Honolulu, to the west coast and the beautiful resort Aulani.
This is where we will spend 5 days with our friends from
Florida, Michigan and California. It's a paradise!
Our room was ready when we arrived so we
settled right in, then spent a few hours roaming the lush
resort, getting our bearings. |
|
|
|
|
Later in the day we met our 'gang' of
friends at a poolside bar for some libations. A Hawaiian
beer for me, something exotic and fruity for Carol! |
We all met again for dinner at The 'Ōlelo
Room. Linda took a 'selfie' with Raleigh, Mari, Deb, Lee,
Laura and Sandy in the background with Carol and I. |
|
|
October 7, 2022 |
We started our day with an amazing breakfast at
Aulani's Makahiki Restaurant
with Mickey and his friends. We then spent several hours by the
pool and beach. We are really enjoying the resort. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
October 8, 2022 |
We had another relaxing day, just soaking
in the magnificent resort. We spent the
morning by the pool and swimming in the ocean.
When it got too
hot we went back to the room to watch the Blue Jays in
post-season play; that was a
big disappointment! We finished off the day enjoying
Disney's version of a Luau. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The show was entertaining and had a few
Disney elements included, but Carol and I agreed that we enjoyed
both the food and the show more at the Polynesian Cultural
Center. |
|
October 9, 2022 |
We spent a few hours baking in the sun
beside the pool, then it got too hot.
Warning: Aulani can accommodate four
or five times as many guests than there are lounge chairs at
poolside. If you want to have a chair to plop your butt
into beside the pool you must be up early and sit in the chair
of your choice by about 7:30 a.m. When the towel stations
open at 8:00 a.m your accomplice should be in position to pick
up towels which you can use to 'reserve' your chair for the rest
of the day.
We took a drive up the west coast and went
all the way to the northern tip at Ka'ena Point State Park. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
We joined our friends for dinner at Noe,
an elegant Italian restaurant at the Four Seasons Resort next
door to Aulani. |
|
|
|
October 10, 2022 |
We were up bright and early; by 7:30 we
had staked out a couple of chairs in a shady spot beside the
former adult pool, and we spent most of our last day there
hopping in and out of the water.
We joined our friends for the last time
and had a nice dinner at The 'Ōlelo Room. |
|
|
This pair of talented
performers serenaded us as the sun went down and our time at
Aulani came to an end. |
|
October 11, 2022 |
|
We left Aulani in the morning, drove
through Honolulu to Waikiki Beach and checked in to the Marriott
Hotel.
After being at a Disney
Deluxe resort you can expect a bit of a let down. When we opened
the door to our room it was more than a bit of a let down, it
was a complete crash.
It was like going back in time to when all
you could afford was a musty dim basement apartment. It took a
few minutes to adjust to the disappointment before Carol picked up
the phone and called the front desk. We were not spending 5 nights
in this dungeon.
They were very apologetic but couldn't move us
until the next day.
We settled on that and immediately left to
drive around and take in the scenery. We drove up to Diamond
Head and all around Waikiki. The best part was we found a
Baskin-Robbins. Ice cream always makes things better! |
|
|
Inside the Diamond Head caldera! |
|
|
October 12, 2022 |
|
We got up early, showered off the musty
smell of our room, put our luggage in storage and hit
the road. There are so many beautiful places to see on
this island.
We drove up the coast
past Diamond Head and stopped at the Holona blow hole.
Then on
to the Byodo-In temple. It was lovely and tranquil, except for
when Gary rang the bell. BONG!
Carol enjoyed feeding the birds, ♪♫ Tuppence a
bag ♫♪
From there we went on to Nu'uanu Pali Lookout.
When we got
back to the hotel our new room was ready, this one is lovely and
when I look out the window I can see the ocean in the distance
rather than a dumpster. |
A blow-hole in black lava rock. |
|
A Buddhist Temple nestled in the Hawaiian
mountains! |
|
Some people made this big bell go 'ding.'
I made it go 'BONG!' |
|
|
|
|
Carol became a 'bird-whisperer'!
Who looks happier? Carol or the
birds? |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
When dinner time rolled around it was
pouring rain so we dashed across Royal Hawaiian Avenue and had
an unexotic dinner at IHOP! |
|
October 13, 2022 |
|
We started our day of
tourism at Pearl Harbor then took another drive
up the western coast of the island. The beaches along Ka'Ena
Point State Park are breathtaking. On the way back to the hotel
we stopped for a Dole Whip at the Dole Plantation. A beautiful sunset finished off the
evening. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
We saw plenty of riders in the back of
Hawaiian pickup trucks, but these two were certainly the most
unique! |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Carol hit King Kamehameha in a drive-by
shooting! |
|
The sunset from our
window. |
|
October 14, 2022 |
|
Our day was all about sea turtles on Kawela
Beach, mongoose, flowers, big surf and scenery. Also shrimp at
the roadside shrimp truck on the North Shore. |
|
Volunteers monitor the honu (sea turtles)
and place red ropes in the sand to keep tourists at least 10
feet away from the basking amphibians. |
The volunteers can identify individual
turtles. |
We were watching Makana. |
|
|
We wore our bathing suits today, intending
to swim in the pond at the bottom of Waimea Falls.
Unfortunately there had been no rain for days, the falls were a
mere trickle and the pond was almost dry.
Drat! |
|
|
|
As we ate at Fumis one of the employees
tossed a plate full of
shrimp tails out beside a patch of shrubs
and long grass. |
About a dozen mongoose scampered out of
the grass and entertained us as we finished our lunch. |
|
|
|
October 15, 2022 |
|
We wanted to spend more
time at the Polynesian Cultural Center so we traveled back up the North Shore
and spent a perfect day enjoying
the facility without rain. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Carol got a new
tattoo! It washed off later that day. |
|
|
|
|
|
Everything we wanted to know about coconut
oil . . . and more! |
|
|
|
|
|
|
This is the Tahitian temple where Carol
and I renewed our vows! |
|
Tahitian weddings involve a great deal of
dancing! |
You may now slap the groom! |
|
|
|
He's playing a Tongan nose flute.
Yup - that's how you play it!
Use your thumb to close one nostril and
honk away with the other side! |
|
|
|
October 16, 2022 |
|
On our final day we had no plans until
we had to head to the airport for the red-eye home.
We drove around the
historical area in Honolulu, then up the west coast with a stop
at Costco to put in time. |
|
King Kamehameha's palace.
(pronounced Ka-may-a-may-a) |
|
Ua Mau ke Ea o ka 'Āina i ka Pono
is a phrase coined by King Kamehameha. It is now the
Hawaii State Motto.
It means 'The life of the land is
perpetuated in righteousness'. |
Across from the palace is the Hawaii
Supreme Court building
and a statue of King Kamehameha. |
|
|
|
|
At Costco in Honolulu - 8 12oz. cans of
Spam for only $16.89
Spam is very popular in Hawaii! |
|
October 17, 2022
Home we go! |