random_skeins (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} random_skeins) wrote,@ 2006-05-17 17:19:00 |
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Hawaii Day 1
Here is a Lewisesque recount of my Hawaii trip, before I forget it all:
Thursday:
I woke up around 5:30 after getting an hour of sleep because I procrastinated packing, and figured I could sleep on the plane anyways. I drove up to Suzy's and we got a ride to the airport from Lauren, Suzy's sister.
I hate how SFO doesn't believe in restaurant chains... or if they do I couldn't find any evidence of it. We tried to find some food in terminal B, and finally settled on some ham and cheese paninis from a random deli. I figured, it's hard to mess up grilled ham and cheese too much, right? I didn't count on the slabs of mayo they put in between the ham slices. Ick. Who puts mayo in a grilled ham and cheese sandwich?
Breakfast eaten, we boarded our Hawaiian Airlines flight, which left on time. My plan to sleep worked, and I remember maybe 5 minutes of the whole plane ride. We arrived in Honolulu and queued for our rental car through Dollar. The agent was the traditional obnoxious agent I hadn't encountered in a long time -- he tried repeatedly to sell us on the "pay for a full tank of gas" and "Bad Things(tm) are going to happen to you if you don't sign up for our insurance". On top of that they charge an extra $6/day for additional drivers. So in summary, I plan to never use Dollar again.
As we got our car, it started to rain. But at least it was a warm rain... It didn't bode well as a start to the trip though. Luckily it stopped raining after about 15 minutes and we drove to Waikiki. We found our hotel, but it was right before noon and too early to check in, so we consulted one of our travel guides to find some food.
A note about our trip: We had decided to spend 5 days in Waikiki and 5 days in Hilo, booked the air, hotel, and car stuff, and Suzy had bought 3 tour books, and that was the extent of our preparation. Through blind luck and/or fair temperament, it turned out to be just about the right amount of preparation needed.
We found what seemed to be a good restaurant in downtown Honolulu. Unfortunately we didn't take into account that it would be almost impossible to find parking there. We did find a couple lots, but they were double parking people and wanted us to leave our keys in the car, and we didn't want to risk having all of our luggage stolen. I was starving since it was 4:00 California time, and Suzy had a spa appointment with the other bridesmaids and bride in two hours, so we were running out of time.
I hate to eat at chain restaurants while on vacation, but as we were driving around looking for any place to eat, we found a Hard Rock Cafe -- and it had a parking lot! We were beginning to feel the time pressure, but the parking lot clinched it. It was funny to reflect that when I was in high school, Hard Rock Cafe had been "so cool" but now it "last on the list."
After lunch, we checked into our hotel, the ResortQuest Waikiki Sunset. We got a 2 room + kitchen condo on the 6th floor. I'm not sure how they managed to pull it off, but thanks to connections from the bride or groom (both were born in Hawaii and have lots of friends there) we got the place at a huge discount for all 4 nights.
After I dropped Suzy off at the spa I went back and took a nap. After I woke up, I made sure my camera worked (I had just bought it a few days ago, a Nikon D50), briefly explored the hotel (no arcade, $0.15/minute for internet access, self-service laundry), and wandered to the street.
I only had about an hour to kill before dinner at Sam Choy's, and I knew it was fairly close, so I decided to walk there. I made it about halfway there when I got a call from Suzy asking me to pick up her, Rene (the bride), Allison, and June (the other bridesmaids) up from the spa.
After the brief detour to get the car and pick them up, we arrived at Sam Choy's at 7 for dinner. I chose the rib eye steak, “Pulehu style,” and shared a variety of appetizers ordered for the table. In all there were about 20 people at the dinner. I met a ton of people but unfortunately have forgotten almost all of their names. Most were economists at the Department of Justice (where Rene works) or friends of Jason from the military.
Dinner was over around 10:30 which meant 1:30 California time and Suzy and I were both exhausted from traveling all day so went back to the hotel and crashed for the night.
Here is a Lewisesque recount of my Hawaii trip, before I forget it all:
Thursday:
I woke up around 5:30 after getting an hour of sleep because I procrastinated packing, and figured I could sleep on the plane anyways. I drove up to Suzy's and we got a ride to the airport from Lauren, Suzy's sister.
I hate how SFO doesn't believe in restaurant chains... or if they do I couldn't find any evidence of it. We tried to find some food in terminal B, and finally settled on some ham and cheese paninis from a random deli. I figured, it's hard to mess up grilled ham and cheese too much, right? I didn't count on the slabs of mayo they put in between the ham slices. Ick. Who puts mayo in a grilled ham and cheese sandwich?
Breakfast eaten, we boarded our Hawaiian Airlines flight, which left on time. My plan to sleep worked, and I remember maybe 5 minutes of the whole plane ride. We arrived in Honolulu and queued for our rental car through Dollar. The agent was the traditional obnoxious agent I hadn't encountered in a long time -- he tried repeatedly to sell us on the "pay for a full tank of gas" and "Bad Things(tm) are going to happen to you if you don't sign up for our insurance". On top of that they charge an extra $6/day for additional drivers. So in summary, I plan to never use Dollar again.
As we got our car, it started to rain. But at least it was a warm rain... It didn't bode well as a start to the trip though. Luckily it stopped raining after about 15 minutes and we drove to Waikiki. We found our hotel, but it was right before noon and too early to check in, so we consulted one of our travel guides to find some food.
A note about our trip: We had decided to spend 5 days in Waikiki and 5 days in Hilo, booked the air, hotel, and car stuff, and Suzy had bought 3 tour books, and that was the extent of our preparation. Through blind luck and/or fair temperament, it turned out to be just about the right amount of preparation needed.
We found what seemed to be a good restaurant in downtown Honolulu. Unfortunately we didn't take into account that it would be almost impossible to find parking there. We did find a couple lots, but they were double parking people and wanted us to leave our keys in the car, and we didn't want to risk having all of our luggage stolen. I was starving since it was 4:00 California time, and Suzy had a spa appointment with the other bridesmaids and bride in two hours, so we were running out of time.
I hate to eat at chain restaurants while on vacation, but as we were driving around looking for any place to eat, we found a Hard Rock Cafe -- and it had a parking lot! We were beginning to feel the time pressure, but the parking lot clinched it. It was funny to reflect that when I was in high school, Hard Rock Cafe had been "so cool" but now it "last on the list."
After lunch, we checked into our hotel, the ResortQuest Waikiki Sunset. We got a 2 room + kitchen condo on the 6th floor. I'm not sure how they managed to pull it off, but thanks to connections from the bride or groom (both were born in Hawaii and have lots of friends there) we got the place at a huge discount for all 4 nights.
After I dropped Suzy off at the spa I went back and took a nap. After I woke up, I made sure my camera worked (I had just bought it a few days ago, a Nikon D50), briefly explored the hotel (no arcade, $0.15/minute for internet access, self-service laundry), and wandered to the street.
I only had about an hour to kill before dinner at Sam Choy's, and I knew it was fairly close, so I decided to walk there. I made it about halfway there when I got a call from Suzy asking me to pick up her, Rene (the bride), Allison, and June (the other bridesmaids) up from the spa.
After the brief detour to get the car and pick them up, we arrived at Sam Choy's at 7 for dinner. I chose the rib eye steak, “Pulehu style,” and shared a variety of appetizers ordered for the table. In all there were about 20 people at the dinner. I met a ton of people but unfortunately have forgotten almost all of their names. Most were economists at the Department of Justice (where Rene works) or friends of Jason from the military.
Dinner was over around 10:30 which meant 1:30 California time and Suzy and I were both exhausted from traveling all day so went back to the hotel and crashed for the night.
