One Day in Hawaii

I’m going to share just one more memory from my travels before I stop writing about my once-in-a-lifetime experience. I might share some more pictures in the future, but for now, this might be it.

Before I returned home from Micronesia, I spent about 36 hours in Hawaii. Spring Break was the following week, so I didn’t need to be in a rush to get back home. The Boyfriend had spent some time in Taiwan visiting his family a couple of weeks earlier, so I was fairly certain we would not be spending additional money to travel during Spring Break.

I woke up around 11 a.m. on Friday after about six hours of sleep. I had been very tired from the long plane ride and a week of work and activity, but I wanted to have some time to enjoy Hawaii. It was my first time on the island, and I keep saying to myself that I need to travel more.

The hotel room for the return trip was in the Waikiki Tower—perhaps because it faces the direction of Waikiki Beach—and it has much more spectacular views. The night I spent here before traveling to Micronesia was in the Kona Tower, not a particularly impressive view since it was mostly apartment and hotel buildings rather than a sliver of beach and palm trees.

I first went in search of food. The hotel was next door to the Ala Moana Hawaiian Center, reportedly the world’s largest open air mall. I have no reason to doubt it given how many stores there are and how much walking you can do there. I found a restaurant in the food court that served garlic shrimp. It wasn’t bad, actually, but the shrimp still had their shells, making them a little more difficult to eat. From what I gather, people in other countries, especially Asian countries, tend to eat shrimp with the shell intact. I’m not quite on board with that yet.

I walked around the mall a bit after that, and I happened up a performance of hula dancers. The mall advertises that this occurs every day at 1 p.m., so I lucked out that I was there on time.

I also talked to The Boyfriend for the first time in more than a week. Now that I was back in the States, I had phone service without roaming charges. I had checked with my carrier before leaving on the trip, and the amount you have to pay for calls and texts when you’re out of the service area is just outrageous. I’d like to blame the particular carrier that we have, but none of the team had better service.

I spent the greater part of the afternoon walking around the beach area in Ala Moana Park, which is close to the hotel and shopping center. It’s really just across the street. The scenery is almost stereotypically Hawaiian. I saw surfers, boats, fishermen, swimmers—just what you’d expect and want to see on a Hawaiian island. The ocean is spectacular here, so many beautiful shades of blue, and the sky was clear, almost cloudless, and a brilliant blue color itself. I also saw lots of pigeons and doves, many of them congregating in areas where they are more likely to get food.

Dinner included a couple of bento boxes (they were very small), some Hawaiian cookies, and some Spam musubi. I had to have some Spam given how well-loved it is on the islands. The dinner on the night before we left for Micronesia had included Spicy Spam Rice Bites, and I wanted to have another, different taste on the way back home.

I started to feel the exhaustion catch up to me not long after eating dinner. I got sleepy very early in the evening, earlier than I normally would be sleeping, but I couldn’t resist getting to bed in anticipation of the return flight the next day.

Saturday morning only provided time to buy a few souvenirs: a t-shirt, some chocolate covered macadamia nuts, a keychain to replace the one from Hawaii that I had lost last year, a small stature of King Kamehameha—nothing expensive.  

I had to go through TSA screening again and several agricultural inspections, but the worst part of navigating the airport in Honolulu was having to pay extra charges because one of my suitcases weighed more than 50 pounds. I was given the option of rearranging and redistributing my stuff, but I opted just to give the airline a little more money. I haven’t told The Boyfriend about that charge—or about some other charges I incurred during the trip—because he would consider it wasteful, but sometimes it’s really not worth the hassle.

Hawaiian Airlines is a much better travel option than United. The seats are larger, and they do try to keep you hydrated and somewhat well fed during your six hours in the air. I even got a free glass of wine (chardonnay, if you must know). Chuck Henry, who anchors the Channel 4 News here in Los Angeles, was on the flight with what appeared to be a dozen relatives. I guess they had a family vacation in Hawaii and were coming home too.

We landed at LAX at almost 11 p.m., and after waiting for quite a while for my luggage to appear in the baggage claim area, I walked to the street, located The Boyfriend, and started the short ride home. The trip was finally over, only a collection of memories now.