Arrival and a bit of exploration of the island

  Honolulu, Hawaii, United States
Friday, April 18, 2008

Ben's Birthday

Well, we actually made it to Hawaii, due to months of planning on my part to make Ben's dream come true of spending some time away from home on the island of paradise known as Oahu, which means The Gathering Place.  This trip to Hawaii is Ben's birthday present from me for his 39th year and was a total surprise to him when I presented him with it last week on his special day.  The week went by quickly and before we knew it, we were driving to Seattle yesterday to catch the plane from there to Honolulu.  Because of the drive prior, I didn't want to leave too early on the flight, so I booked the 5:20pm flight, which would get us to our destination at 8:20pm (a 5 hour flight).  At our arrival we very quickly made our way to the Alamo car rental place at the airport where we picked up the convertible car that I had reserved.  Despite me being told on the phone that they had "all kinds" of convertibles for me to choose from, they only had one for us: a silver Chrysler Sebring, which was fine by me since I don't really know any better when it comes to cars.  And Sebrings turned out to be a very popular car on the Island (we imagined the day that they shipped all of the 2008 Sebrings to Oahu, like on a big barge in the sea just covered with shiny metal.) It was a very warm evening, about 24 degrees, so we put the hard top down right away on our trip into Honolulu, which was only about a 15 minute drive.
 
Wow!  We are finally here!  Here in a place where we can temporarily leave all of our stresses and other serious issues at home and take a one week "time-out" just to enjoy and bask in the revelry of sunlight, warmth, sandy beaches and crystal clear waters that we so rarely get a chance to experience.  Not only that, but just getting away, a vacation, is something I was really needing.  And for Ben, going to Hawaii is his dream, and I want him to live out his dreams!
 
We checked into our hotel, the Waikiki Sand Villa, which is along the canal on Ala Wai Blvd., and just a few blocks from the Waikiki beach.  It's a really nice budget hotel, and after much time spent researching on the internet, I believe it's the best 2 star hotel accommodation in Waikiki that money can buy!  It has a nice open-air lobby entrance, valet parking (I got the parking at a half price special ($7.50/day - very cheap for Honolulu) because I booked through Travelocity), a bar and restaurant, and a very nice outdoor pool with a hot tub, plus a complimentary continental breakfast every morning.  Apart from that, our room is nothing special.  As promised on the online reviews, the carpet on the floor is worn and pretty gross, and our balcony (nice that we have one at least!) faces another hotel - although there is a side view of the canal from the balcony.  I had tried to get Ben to get us a free upgrade like he had in L.A. last year (which was awesome), as they have studio apartments with kitchenettes in this hotel, but when he called ahead they said that we had to ask in person when we were there.  So I asked when we checked in and the front desk person told me I had to ask in the morning to see if there were any available studios, since they were all currently completely booked.  (In the morning, Ben went to ask and they said they said they could upgrade us for $60 more a night - not exactly what we were looking for....  And they said that we had already been upgraded to a Deluxe Room!  Ben asked what was so deluxe about it and they said the carpeting and the view!)
 

On the beach with first dose of pineapple

Anyways, after checking into our room, we wanted to get out and take a walk.  It was after 10:30pm by now, but there were still lots of people in the streets with lots of activity going on.  We walked through the dense Waikiki area past lots of shops and hotels towards the beach.  We went out onto the beach and I dipped my toe into the ocean (cold!).  There were stone walls along the beach, that one could rest or sit on, and Ben said that the last time he was here, the walls were covered in cockroaches at night, and he had to see if that was still the case.  He went up to one of the walls and peered closely in the dark, and sure enough, covered with cockroaches!  Yum!  I can only imagine the many unsuspecting tourists who lean against those walls at night, say, to pose for a photograph, only to experience the horror of the little creatures getting all over them!  
 

Strawberry Sorbet

There is a Baskin Robbins near the beach and we went in and inquired if they had any non-dairy frozen treats for me to eat, and they did!  So I had their strawberry sorbet, while Ben had a raspberry one.  Heading back to the hotel, after a long day of travelling, we called it a night and rested up for our first full day in Hawaii.
 
This morning I first wanted to go grocery shopping to stock our mini fridge with some food to last us for the week.  I had read about the vegetarian grocery store Down To Earth on Happy Cow and it seemed like the most logical place for me to find food to eat on what I suspect will be a very unveggie friendly island.  Lucky for us, Down To Earth is not too far away at all - just about a 7 minute drive across the canal.  Once we were there, I was dismayed to see how expensive the food was.  Some of their veg products were about twice the price as what I've bought them for in other American States.  This must be because we're on this isolated island, so I guess they can charge whatever they want for food, since food is a necessity and all.  Despite the gross expense of the food there, what I did find to be affordable were the very tasty-looking items in their deli, which were too hard to resist trying anyways.  I bought a container each of mock chicken salad, potato salad and macaroni salad, which I just had to because 1) they were all vegan, and 2) I'm on vacation and deserve a treat!  Also for these 2 preceding reasons, I purchased a piece of chocolate cream pie and a piece of banana cake, which both looked very decadent and delicious - can't wait to try them out!  They also had a salad bar and a hot food buffet near the deli, so I got some food there for lunch and to eat later on. I didn't go for the salad bar, fearing it would be as exorbitantly priced as the salad bar at Capers (the Down to Earth equivalent in Vancouver), so I just got some rice, vegetables and yummy cooked tofu from the buffet, which was quite good.  Ben didn't want to eat anything, so I just ate quickly myself, and then we left and took our groceries back to the hotel.
 
After that, we decided to go for a drive of exploration along the Island's coast.  Thanks to our handy GPS, we don't have to worry at all about getting Lost on this island (though, ironically, this is the very island that the survivors from the tv show "Lost" are lost on - pun intended!!).  Seriously, though, the island is not that big and I believe you can drive from, say, the south end to the north end in just about 2 hours.  I hope we can do lots of island exploring while we are here, which we did a bit of today.

Random scenery

It still feels very surreal that we are in this place of paradise that is like another world unlike ours back in Canada.  Driving along the shoreline today, we made several sight seeing stops (as depicted by my photos).  Then we drove inland a bit and towards Haunama Bay (the famous snorkelling spot in Ohahu) that Ben wanted to show me, where we will definitely be going this week.  We stopped in at the bay for a little bit but couldn't do much as getting any decent view of the bay required entering the parking lot, which required $.  We did see a little stray orange and black kitty, though, which Ben tried to catch, but he ran away. 
 
We then proceeded on the roadway and then made another stop at a 'rest area', which overlooked the crazy ocean waves slamming onto the shoreline.  It was a spectacular view, and then, if you turned around, you were facing a volcano! 

Volcano!

How cool is that?!  We could actually see the deep ridges alongside this mountain next to us that apparently avalanches of hot, teeming lava once rushed down many years ago.  At this area, Ben could hear the tempting sweet sounds of... gunfire o'er yonder, and wanted to investigate what that was all about.  We turned around and headed towards the gunfire sounds and came upon nothing other than a shooting range.  Ben wanted to practise his gun firing there, but we found out that you had to have your own gun to fire with, which he did not.
 

Chicken and chicks

Next to the range was a wide, open field (on the non-shooting side of the range) with some wild chickens living on it!  Cool!  On the other side of the field was another shooting range, where Honolulu police officers were practising their skills.  While Ben went to go check that out, I took the more interesting activity option and pursued the chickens for some petting and photographs - although they wouldn't let me get anywhere near them to touch them!
 
After that we stopped once more and explored a beach shoreline covered in slippery black lava rock, and then headed back into town so we could rent our snorkelling gear for the week before the rental place (Snorkel Bob's) closed for the day.  After that, we went back to the hotel.  We took a nap, sun stroked out from our overexposure all day in the car, and when I woke up, Ben had taken the liberty of ordering just about every vegetarian item on the hotel restaurant's menu, and brought it to our room!  What I had specifically been craving was a big green salad, and a big, green salad is what I got!  There were also onion rings, and nacho chips with copious amounts of sour cream, guacamole and salsa for Ben, as well as a quesadilla he got to eat.  It may turn out, that due to any better options, this is the type of (very un nutritious) food that we will live on for the rest of the week.