Hawaii | Where shall we go to next?

Posts Tagged With: Hawaii

Aloha Waikiki!

Posted on September 29, 2018 by julieallen36

After our long journey we finally arrived at Honolulu Airport and caught our SpeediTranfser bus to our Airbnb. I’m pleased to report that this is quite splendid and Olivier our host has been very helpful so far. We are in an apartment on the 20th floor of this big tower block called the Island Colony. The room itself is fine and we have a great balcony overlooking the Ala Wai canal, some other tower blocks and with a partial view to the sea. There are also views beyond to the lush green mountains which were shrouded in smokey clouds.

It was stiflingly hot and humid yesterday when we arrived and so we decided to just spend the day relaxing locally. We went down to our pool which felt lovely to swim in and then did some shopping at the mini mart shop also on the 6th floor. It gradually clouded over more and more and eventually there was even a bit of rain and thunder.

We were started to struggle a bit with jet lag so we decided to head out for early tea at the Cheesecake Factory. This turned out to be a huge , busy place on Kalakaua Avenue just two blocks from our Airbnb. We had a drink at the bar whilst we waited. I had a Pineapple Mojitos and Jane had a Longboat lager. For dinner we just had a Hawaiian pizza to share and then we each had our own cheesecake. I had mango key lime pie cheesecake and Jane had pumpkin and almond cheesecake. They were very sickly and we had to ask for about half of both to be boxed up.

The next day we woke up terribly early still due to the fact that I turned the air con back on and it was very noisy. So by 5-30 we were up and drinking tea. We phaffed about quite a bit getting very hot in the apartment but eventually we set off for our walk along Waikiki Beach. We started off by catching the Number 20 bus to the Honolulu Aquarium. When we arrived here the views to the sea and beach opened up and so we walked across the park to take a closer look. It really was quite stunningly beautiful with all shades of blue in the sea and sky.

Anyway after Jane thought she was going to be eaten alive by red ants that got on her shoe, we went to visit the fishes. It was really good and we enjoyed seeing all the things in the tanks that we hope to see for real through our own masks next!

After watching the nice man feed his Hawaiian Monk seal, we started our walk back to the busy part of Waikiki. It was absolutely stunning despite slightly iffy weather. We watched surfers and body boarders and even saw some fish whilst standing on one pier.

Eventually, we came to the statue of Duke , the founding King of surfing and decided it was time for a drink. So we wandered into the Outrigger Hotel and found Dukes barefoot bar . We had lovely cold beers and Shane spotted that we were actually hungry so we ate here too, sharing quesadillas and salad.

This seems to me to be a very odd thing here. Basically anyone can wander into these hotels and enjoy the facilities and to prove the point later on, we went into the pink palace that is the Royal Hawaiian village and found the Mai Tai bar . I went for a swim in the beautiful surf here and then joined Jane for a Mai Tai . Well I had to didn’t i?!

I must admit I hadn’t expected to like Waikiki , thinking it would be way too busy and commercial, by actually I love it . After this we went back to our place and cooled down in the pool. What a fab day.

Categories: Hawaii | Tags: Hawaii, Honolulu, Oahu | 6 Comments

Staying in da hood LA.

Posted on September 28, 2018 by julieallen36

Quite a journey to get all the way here to Honolulu! Seems like we have been travelling for three days. Luckily it’s all been pretty pain free up to now. (Touch wood…). Clear journey down to Heathrow and a nice stay at the Crowne Plaza ..despite not upgrading to club class there Dave! Made pleasant use of their wine bar and the Indian restaurant although afterwards thought this not the ideal preparation for a long distance flight…

Woke early the next morning to catch the shuttle bus to airport and whilst checking in were persuaded by the machine to upgrade our seats for extra legroom. It turned out the Virgin flight was half empty so not only could we upgrade but also we could have a spare seat in the middle of us. This was a great result as the flight was then extremely comfortable. Watched lots of movies on the plane to while away the ten plus hours flight time.

We arrived at Los Angeles airport and even customs and immigration checks were very painless so we were soon in a yellow cab going to our hotel. It’s was only something like 10-30 in the morning. We were staying at the Diamond Inn. It was a bit of a rough Diamond . Classic old style American motel…the sort you get in Dexter where it generally turns into a crime scene. I stood watching an army of ants parade up a plant all the way out of the rubbish bin as Jane checked in. It wasn’t promising to see the man spraying the rooms with imsecticide but perhaps even worse to hear the man shouldn’t bother with our room. The decor was more Huggy Bear than Dexter mind you. I particularly liked the sign that said you could upgrade to a jacuzzi room but on this occasion we didn’t get pulled in.

After a short rest we were on our mission to stay awake until 8pm. This is Janes theory for preventing Jet lag ie you must stay awake not just given in the the urge to sleep. To help with this Jane had arranged to meet up with Sonya her friend from the Legal ombudsman, who had recently moved back to LA. Sonya came and picked us up and drove us across town to the Manhattan and Hermosa beaches. It was very lovely and busy with locals ..not tourists. We went for Happy Hour at Hennessys Irish bar and had drinks and something to eat. It was all very sociable and I think we coped with the tiredness well.

Sonya told us that she lived not far from where we are staying and said it really was a bit of a ‘hood’ what with the Harley bike gangs, the prostitutes and their pimps and of course the drug dealers. Lovely.

Anyway it all passed off rather uneventfully and worked v well in terms of staying awake. We slept pretty well and then the next day continued our travels onto Honolulu with another 5hr 25 mins flight.