Our connecting flight to Honolulu left Los Angeles at 11:30 am only to arrive in Honolulu at 1:45 p.m., after about a five hour flight in the air. Your watch tells you that it's early afternoon. Your body wants to insist that it's almost bed time. Our last hour in the air was fantastic as we flew past the Big Island of Hawaii, Maui, Molokai and then directly over most of Windward Oahu. We had fantastic views of Diamond Head.
From touch down at Honolulu International Airport to pulling onto H1 for our drive to Waikiki, it took less than 45 minutes. The baggage handling in Honolulu is very impressive as is the rental car service.
We arrived at our hotel, the New Otani Kaimana Beach Hotel by 3:00 p.m. We both decided that after 17 hours we needed a shower which really does help pick you up since the one thing you don't want to do is fall asleep in mid-afternoon.
Invigorated, we decided to take a walk. We wandered to the Natatorium which is undergoing a ten million dollar renovation. We walked through Kapiolani Park and then down Kalakaua Avenue past most of the major hotels until we reached the Royal Hawaiian where we crossed over to the beach. We returned to our hotel by walking along the beach, stopping to view the late afternoon surfers.
We arrived back at our hotel in time to order dinner from room service. We decided that for our first night in Hawaii, we would stay in and watch the sunset from our corner room at the New Otani. The views from these corner rooms with a lanai that wraps around two walls made up of floor to ceiling windows is indescribably wonderful.
Tomorrow we have a busy day planned as we visit Pearl Harbor and the USS Missouri Memorial. We'll then explore downtown Honolulu on what is called "Capital Day Down Capitol Way" where many of the public buildings are open, free of charge, to the public. We then hope to see Tantalus and Round Top Drive as well as the Manoa Valley.
We hope you'll stop by tomorrow. Oh, by the way, we both missed the correct answer in the "Halfway to Hawaii Game". Oh well, no champagne for us.
