Our stay in Hawaii, and our seventh season of winter travel is coming to an end. After 31 nights spent in Honolulu, I have to admit that, with the exception of our Pacific Princess cruises (especially our two Polynesian seasons), and possibly our two Transpacific cruises, this has been the best vacation experience of our lives. That doesn't mean we'll become land lubbers and forego cruising altogether; it simply means that we now know how attractive this non-cruise option is for us. We
loved it here.
Naturally, hard-to-transition me might not have thought that after the first few days of figuring out the Honolulu Bus System (we both purchased unlimited passes), shopping for exorbitantly priced groceries and then hauling them home by bus/walking. But it didn't take too many days of completely unscheduled and purely casual living for me to adjust. We came here with just one roll-aboard suitcase each and had more clothes than we needed. Dressing up meant wearing a tropical shirt with shorts in lieu of a T-shirt. It. Was. Perfect.
Thank you to blog readers Pam and Jill, who have both lived in Hawaii and filled me in on grocery stores and restaurants to check out. We did eat a few meals out, but not often. Really, if the restaurant didn't offer the same amazing view we had from our condo, it was hard to find the motivation to pay so much to eat there. We did have a few meals at beach front bars and cafes and very infrequently ate somewhere else just for a taste of international cuisine. We had a fully remodeled and complete kitchen right in our condo and, after a few days, a good supply of food in the refrigerator. Most restaurants just couldn't compare.
If you are considering doing something similar and want more specifics about where we stayed and what we did, just email me. We did splurge on our condo and ended up with two bedrooms simply because we wanted the fabulous view and (after three months sharing a cruise ship cabin) two bathrooms. We could certainly settle for less in the future, and have checked out several places for potential future stays.
In the most 'just how small is this small world?' moment we could have imagined, we had checked on the availability of this unit for next year and noticed nearly seven weeks in the middle of the winter were already rented. That evening, we were walking across a bridge over the Ala Wai Canal when someone passed us walking the other direction, then turned around and came back and stopped us. She asked us if we had just been on the Pacific Princess in Europe two months ago and, and we realized when we looked at her that she had been, too. We had all enjoyed sitting in the Casino Lounge listening to Jere Ring on the piano. We asked her where she was staying and she was in the same complex that we are in but in a smaller unit. She said that next year she was coming with her parents and husband for her early 50th birthday and her parent's 50th anniversary. She said she had rented a two bedroom, two bath condo from a rental agency that was new to her and mentioned the name. It was the company we had used. Something clicked and I asked her if she was the one who had reserved our unit for almost two months. She was.
We not only ran into someone we had sailed with on the Pacific Princess on a Honolulu street, but discovered she had rented the condo unit we were staying in for next winter. Those are some amazing odds!
After almost four weeks of nearly perfect weather, this week offered one all day rain (creating all kinds of flooding issues on the islands and causing a blizzard warning to be issued for Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea on the Big Island) and a few showers. We can't complain though. We've had day after day after day of picture perfect, 78-80 degree sunny days. It was warm but never too hot for the long walks we took almost every day as, armed with our bus passes, we explored the island of Oahu.
And so I'll wrap up the posts for this year with a few more photos. As for our plans next year....I can't even imagine where we'll end up. For now, we are focused on returning home for the first extended time since October 3. It's been another five-month winter away, and, though we could easily stay here for another month (internet and phone service make all the difference in the world), it will be wonderful to be home.
March 2: We had hoped to get in a sunset sail on the Holokai catamaran before we returned home, but the combination of our long day on the North Shore and yesterday's weather stymied us. When we checked this morning, there were no seats left for this evening's sail. In the end, it was fortuitous. Though our day was gorgeous and sunny, around 5pm we spotted the (now familiar) storm clouds building over the ocean. By 5:30pm we were experiencing torrential rain, and while I was happy that we weren't on a catamaran during it, I thought for sure our final sunset would be a fizzle. Not so!
A spot of sunlight on the water gave me hope...
...and we not only had a beautiful sunset, we saw the brightest, longest lasting green flash we've ever seen
as the last of the sun sank into the water. A green flash on the last night of our seventh winter at sea!
We'll miss tomorrow night's fireworks but an experience like that more than makes up for it!
March 1: The only fully horrid weather day of our stay here.
February 28: It was a largely overcast but still dry day, and we decided to explore the entire eastern and northern shores of Oahu by public bus. It was my first time seeing some of these areas, though G remembers doing PT on Sunset Beach when he was stationed here in the Army. We were gone all day; though Oahu isn't a very large island, traveling along the coastal roads takes a fair amount of time.
Watching surfers at Sunset Beach
The North Shore is home to the Banzai Pipeline and is a surfing Mecca. It's very laid back and hippie-ish,
but every ramshackle house on the beach is worth millions, and the nice ones are five times that much. These are rich hippies. ;-)
Juice is sold beach-side out of vans...
...and the area is known for its garlic shrimp trucks.
Informal dining surrounded by the requisite chickens
Sooooo good!
February 27:
Dinner in the condo with a sunset view
February 26: We watched sunset and enjoyed our third Mongolian BBQ dinner in a row on the beach at the Hale Koa. We also enjoyed our third fireworks show in three days at the Hilton Hawaiian Village as a special group had sponsored them. However, these weren't shown until 8:30pm and we watched them from our condo.
February 27: Mongolian BBQ again (so easy and casual and delicious!) and one of the prettiest sunsets we saw all month. Also, some unexpected fireworks that we watched from our condo.
The Duke Kahanamoku Lagoon where the fireworks were set off Saturday and Sunday nights
February 26: If it's Friday, it must be Mongolian BBQ on the beach at the Hale Koa, followed by sunset, mai tais and fireworks!
The beach on Friday nights is packed in anticipation of the Friday Night Fireworks at the
Hilton Hawaiian Village. Note the outrigger canoe on the water.
There were also lots of sailboats on the water for a good view of the sunset and the fireworks
The Rainbow Tower at the Hilton Hawaiian Village is so pretty after dark.
We stayed here in 2002 after B2B cruises through the Panama Canal and around the Hawaiian islands.
My tripod-less photography skills improved a smidge over the course of a month!
I don't recall exactly which day this was, so I'll drop it in here.
I showed G the weather at home...
...and in Honolulu.
And we laughed and laughed (more mai tais anyone?).
But no matter where we are, life is good. :-) Thanks for following along during our adventure in paradise!
