My preparations for the trip to Hawaii were seriously sidetracked when I discovered that someone had broken into the Silver Bullet. The only damage to the car was to the driver’s door, but that damage surprisingly affected many of her functions. I had to drive her to the Kia dealership and make arrangements for the insurance company to appraise the damage and authorize payments for repairs. This was incredibly inconvenient, but I kept reminding myself that SB could have been stolen–a far from unusual event in the DMV–and the repairs would occur while I would be off the mainland, anyway. Still….
My very early flight out of DCA had a layover in Detroit with a nearly 11-hour flight to Honolulu. I was so lucky that I had the adjacent seats to myself on both flights so I could spread out and be as comfortable as possible during the flight. This would be a fond memory on the trip back, though. (More about that when I post about my return.) Below are a few pictures from the flight:
HST is five hours behind Eastern Standard Time, but I curiously never felt jet lag; however, my first couple of phone calls didn’t account for the impact on the recipients of those calls. Once I got checked in and settled into the hotel where I would stay during the three days I would be in Honolulu, I went exploring. The location of the Waikiki hotel and of my room gave me an extraordinary view of the beach and Pacific Ocean just a block away.
Norwegian Cruise Line had arranged three days of activities around Oahu before Saturday evening’s cruise launch. On Thursday, the guide who would oversee our tour gave us a lot of cultural and historical information as he drove us to the northern half of the island, first to the Dole Plantation in Wahiawa. I had a delicious frozen pineapple waffle cone that was even more enjoyable because it wasn’t dairy-based. A few pix from the plantation and scenery nearby.
The rest of the day, we wandered around the Polynesian Cultural Center in Lāʻie. Thankfully, the guide recommended that I rent a scooter for the afternoon, otherwise, I wouldn’t have covered so much of the 42-acre site. The center gives cultural presentations of six islands: Hawaiʻi, Aotearoa, Fiji, Samoa, Tahiti, and Tonga. After lunch, I was able to catch many of them. Only a few of the dozens of pictures I took are below:
I also made a couple of short videos. Below is one from the islands of Fiji:
Early Friday morning–another beautiful day and one for commemoration, we went first to Pearl Harbor National Memorial, site of the December 7, 1941, Japanese attack that precipitated the United States entry into World War II. We arrived before the mass of visitors who would fill the visitor center as the morning passed, so those of us who got on the waiting list for the trip to the USS Arizona memorial were able to go out. Approaching the center bookstore, I met and spoke with an author who kindly personalized his book for my youngest brother, who served on the USS Nimitz in the 1980s.
The entire site was clearly thoughtfully planned to honor the thousands who sacrificed on that day over 80 years ago. A few pictures:
That afternoon, we drove through the nearby National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific and made a scenic tour of downtown Honolulu. Some pictures are below:
Back at the hotel, I decided to get dinner from one of its restaurant and eat on my room balcony. I stepped out and immediately was captured by the beauty of the sunset. I grabbed my phone and captured this:
One last order of business for the day. Wes, our tour guide, told me that I could find the Kukui Nut lei necklace he wore each day at the ABC store. There happened to be a store sharing the hotel’s building, so I not only found a lei, but I also got the straw hat, both of which will appear regularly in upcoming pictures during my visit to Hawaii. I also saw a display featuring Spam. This was the second time I had seen the canned meat featured exclusively. Two days earlier, I found a snack machine that solely filled with Spam–no I didn’t get any, my childhood experience with it was too nightmare inspiring even 50 years later.
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The pictures from the second day touring Oahu are located at:
https://singin1.pics/piwigo/index.php?/category/Hawaiian-Cruise-2024-Day-2.
So much more to look forward to!