4 islands, 5 cities, 14 days…
The Journey Begins…
We left Reagan Washington National Airport around 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, June 17, 2006, bound for Atlanta’s Hartsfield International Airport.
Oahu
Predictibly, we arrived at the Honolulu airport about 3 hours late – around 10:40 p.m.
On Sunday morning, June 18, we woke up really early – no surprise there, since we were still on Eastern Daylight Time – and had the breakfast buffet at Duke’s. Excellent food, good service, and a table not 20 yards from the beach – highly recommended!
After breakfast, we found a bus stop for route #58 to Diamond Head. While we were waiting for the bus, along with a family of 4 that was also going to Diamond Head, a mini-van taxi came by and asked if we wanted a ride to Diamond Head for $2 per person (the bus costs $1 per person). We all said “yes” and climbed in. Not only did we not have to wait for the bus, the the taxi took us all the way up to the gate – about a quarter-mile closer than the bus would have gone.
When we got back from the summit, we shared a “shaved ice” (a glorified snow cone) and while we were eating it we saw the same taxi that had brought us to Diamond Head waiting for a fare to return. He said if we wanted to wait for a full load (4 or 5 more people) it would be $2 each, but if we wanted to leave right then, it would be $5 each. We went for the $5 and left immediately. Enroute back to the hotel, we asked if he could take us to Pearl Harbor instead. He said that was a long way and that he couldn’t do it for less than $25. That sounded good to us so off we went. We also arranged for him to come back and pick us up around 4 p.m., so we had efficient travel for the entire day.
For Monday, June 19, we had Super Ambassador tickets to the Polynesian Cultural Center, which is near the northern end of Oahu. We paid just a few dollars extra to have a shuttle pick us up at the hotel at 10:15 a.m. So after the somewhere-between-continental-and-buffet breafkast at our hotel, we went downstairs and go on the shuttle. We spent the entire day at the PCC, including dinner and the show, and got back to the hotel around 11:00 p.m.
On Tuesday, June 20, we slept a bit late (well, until about 7:30 a.m., since we were *still* a little bit on EDT), had breakfast at our hotel, then packed and called for our transportation back to the airport for our inter-island flight to…
Kauai
We arrived on Kauai, got our rental car, found Poipu, located our hotel, checked-in, put our stuff in the room, got some lunch, and booked a two-hour introductory SCUBA lesson for mid-day on Thursday (which would be Nancy’s 49th birthday) all in time to spend an hour on the beach before our dinner reservation at the Plantation Gardens Restaurant at 6 p.m.
We slept a *little* later still – until about 8:00 a.m. on Wednesday, June 21. We had breakfast at the Pool and Tennis club, which is part of the resort where we were staying. After a leisurely breakfast, we headed off in the rental car to find Wimea Canyon and do some hiking.
After spending all day driving and hiking around the breathtaking views at Wimea Canyon, we had dinner at the Tidepools Restaurant at the Grand Hyatt a mile or so down the beach. The Frommer’s guide said it was a good place to eat, and they were right!
On June 22, 2006, Nancy’s 49th birthday, we started off the day with breakfast at the Island Burger Cafe, then headed over to the Air Kauai terminal at the airport for a one-hour helicopter tour of the island, then went to our SCUBA lesson, *then* went to our first Luau (at the above-mentioned Grand Hyatt) – a day of firsts for both of us.
The helicopter tour…
The intro SCUBA dive was…
The Luau was okay; the food was great, but the show paled in comparison to the show at the PCC. Blah, blah…