Hawaii, Day 1

Recognize these cliffs? From a few scenes in Lost!

We arrived safely last night at Honolulu's airport around 10:00 or so. The night was great. The  ticketing agent in Bellingham gave us exit aisle seats both for the way down here and the way home. Sam drove us through the border to Bellingham, and the border was fast. Morgan's dad and Randi are staying at our place watching the cat.

First, coming into Honolulu last night was not too magnificent. We couldn't see much. The airport was around a seedy area. Our hotel is pretty basic, but in a touristy area. We got up this morning and walked up to a mall a little over a mile away, hoping to get a Sim card for our phones so we could use the internet while here. I'd forgotten to bring our printouts for this and that tour. Anyway, we couldn't find a T-mobile store that sold Sim cards until a lot of walking, then driving, and it was like 1:30 already! 

Our fun started around 2:30, when we met on a Big Kahuna yacht and went on a whale watching tour. It was gorgeous being out on the water. I have never been on a boat in the ocean (only in a harbor), and did not get seasick, so that was good. We saw lots of humpback whales, and had a great time. We'll be uploading to Flickr sometime this week or when we get back.

Afterward, we came back to the hotel to freshen up and walked down to the beach, which is about a 15-minute walk. We found a restaurant, and noticed that along the surf beaches are probably about a mile of similar outdoor patio type pubs and places to eat. The sunset was great. The surfers were a good 400-500 yards out, and surfed until sunset. The breakers here do break up near to shore but also further out, which is where people were paddling to. Once the sun set, the tiki torches could be seen up and down the beach. 

We had a nice dinner (after eating from our kitchenette and a few groceries for breakfast and lunch), and waded afterward. The ocean water is good. It felt good on my callouses from walking so much today!

We are not far from Diamond Head (can see the crater from the beach). It has that ridged mountainside you see on Lost. So far, it is much like being in California here, but there's also a Polynesian  flavor throughout. I feel like a tall, pale European! But I think I got some sun today.

Tomorrow we're going on a luau, and then not much else planned until our Lost tour on Saturday. I personally can dig the local scene. Lots of drifters, surfers, etc. But really want to get out of the city and into the mountains. We can see one right outside our hotel that is foggy in the distance. Very beautiful.