Aloha!

Part 1

We had a great start to the trip thanks to Doug and Lisa. We spent Sunday afternoon and night at their house and had a fabulous dinner. Doug offered to watch our car for the duration of our trip. All we had to do was to take a limo to the airport in the morning. Our flight was at 9:30am so there was no rush.

Click on the photos- each one is actually a slideshow.

In the morning we got up early and walked out on a pier near the hotel. There were early morning swimmers and surfers here and there. We checked out the local park and ticked off some local birds, most of them introduced species, and then found ourselves near the Honolulu Aquarium. It was nice, compact building, with very nice displays of local sea life. Little Pig really enjoyed it!

Later that afternoon we walked south along the row of hotels and shops. There were hawkers along the way for everything from face cream to cruises. We stopped at one spot offering tours of Oahu. It was with smaller buses than the Greyhound size that you saw a lot of but more substantial than the little trolleys that gave an overview of the city area. So we booked a full day tour for the next day. Our guide, Eddie, took us on a very informative tour around the island. He is one half Hawaiian and grew up in the area now being developed as multi-million dollar mansions. He pointed out Jackie Chan’s home, visible from the street, and others, like Barak Obama’s home, which were more secluded. He was especially fond of pointing out the famous surfing locations and included stories of famous surfers and their adventures. He offered surfing lessons to anyone who would show up at the beach at 5:30am- only 1$ per hour! The tour included stops at the Dole Pineapple Plantation (we saw mostly the gift shop) and later the beautiful Waimea Botanical Garden.

What’s a visit to Waikiki without a glass-bottomed boat tour? This was a one hour spin out into the ocean looking for sea turtles, dolphins, fish and anything else of interest. Again, the guide was informative and there were lots of references to Gilligan’s Island and Magnum, P.I. We saw some fish and turtles, no dolphins. The other tour we passed was a group of snorkelers. Another highlight was lunch after the tour. The guides recommended a few Hawaiian restaurants that were not geared toward tourists. We walked to the restaurant and took the bus back to the hotel.

We got back to our hotel and switched rooms to the one that the tour had booked for us. We relaxed before going to “The Deck” for the dinner with the other tour participants and our guides, Chris and Mandy. We knew Chris from a tour we did last year. Mandy is the Hawaii bird expert that we were meeting for the first time.

Stay tuned for more episodes!!!