Annual Honeymoon - Hawaii for Lunch - Take TWO

Ted and I have been planning to go to Honolulu, Hawaii for our tenth anniversary (or annual honeymoon) for the last couple of years.  Before I left my old life and began my new life, we had planned on going in May and spending about a week there.  When my new life started and I happened to work it out that I had ten days off, we decided that a quick trip to Hawaii would be a great way to go.  We had looked at Galveston Island and Orlando to do, but then decided to just throw caution to the wind and head to Hawaii.

In order to go, there had to be space on a flight for us to get there.  Now, when I began watching the flights, the flights looked really, really good.  January is supposed to be a good time to go.  Then the last couple of weeks, they started to tighten up.  We started to look at going through Seattle or Los Angeles and finally figured LA was probably going to be the only way to get there.

Thursday, the flights through Los Angeles started getting tighter and tighter.  I was scared we weren't going to make it.  We had four flight chances and I wasn't sure we were getting on any of them.  On Thursday, I took my mom to Wendover for the day.  We got home a little after 7:00 and I still had to pack and get ready, so that's what Ted and I did when I got home.  I started looking at the flights and was really getting worried that we weren't going to make it.  So Ted started saying, look at Denver, look at Chicago, look here, look there.  Well, I knew none of them were going to have flights, they weren't hubs.  So, I said that I could look at Atlanta - that one was oversold.  So, I thought to myself, what about JFK??  They had seventy open seats!!!  I told Ted we were completely crazy to even contemplate it.  Next thing I knew, we were throwing our bags in the car and heading to JFK on the red-eye to get on the flight to Honolulu at 8:45 out of New York City.  We were INSANE!!!  Now, what I didn't realize until we got on the flight was that it twelve hours!!!  It took us longer to get to Honolulu from New York than it did to get to Paris from Salt Lake.  I was lucky and got first class - Ted was very gracious and said that I had earned it and should take the first class seat when it was offered and he sat in coach.  I was spoiled rotten - but, then Ted got a little spoiled, too.  The flight attendant gave him free food and drink - and I snuck stuff back to him, too.

When we got to the hotel, we were pretty exhausted.  We went and had dinner and got back to the room and got ready for bed.  Ted put his knee on the bed (we had two doubles, we each took one) and grimaced thinking it was uncomfortable, laid across it sideways and said, "oh I guess it's not as uncomfortable as I thought" and passed out.  Completely fell asleep and didn't move again, except to get up and pee during the night one time.  We both slept about ten hours and woke up around 8:00 in the morning.

The first day we just kind of wandered and shopped, went to the pool/hot tub.  That night we went on a sunset dinner cruise.  It was so beautiful to be out on the ocean and see the sun set.  The next day, we caught the bus and headed to Pearl Harbor.  Since we went to see the Arizona Memorial the last time we were in Honolulu, we went to the Missouri.  It was an amazing sight.  However, if you ever want to see the dirty and seedy side of Honolulu, take the #42 bus.  Holy cow!!  We went to dinner at Cheeseburger in Paradise and headed to walk in the ocean.  On our last day there, we did what was called a Circle Tour.  We got on a bus, and were driven around the entire island stopping at some of the sights around the way - Hanauma Bay, the Blow Hole, a beautiful cemetery with a beautiful Buddhist temple, a ranch, a macadamia nut store and the Dole Plantation.  It was a little disappointing, but still enjoyable.

We got back to the hotel, had some dinner, got our luggage, changed our clothes and headed to the airport to come home.  Short, sweet, wonderful.

I think I've had enough of Honolulu tough.  If I go back to Hawaii, I'm heading to Maui or one of the other islands.  But, this was an amazing way to spend a weekend.  I love getting out of the cold and gray of Utah in January to see a beautiful and wonderful warmer beach area.

Pictures!!!!!

View from our room

Foot shot on the balcony - one of my favorite places to hang out

Hanging out with this guy - wandering around Waikiki

Pretty flower!!

Pretty birdie

Toes at the pool

With MaiTai's at the pool

Waikiki from our sunset cruise

My Blue Hawaii and Ted's tropical deliciousness on the cruise

The sun just went down

Hula dancers - they gave us a show, too!!

This guy can fall asleep anywhere!!!  On bus #42!!!  

The Kiss - in front of the Missouri

The Missouri.  The Battleship.  The place where World War II
came to an end

Suns Out - Guns Out!!!  Sorry, I watched 22 Jump Street
on our twelve hour flight!!!  

The Missouri was put back into commission during Operation
Desert Storm.  This is how many times the one large gun was fired
during it's time in commission there. 

This was the 31-star flag that was on board.  Ted noticed instantaneously
that it was not the 48-star flag that would have been used at the time of the
war.  The tour guide explained it was the one that McArthur wanted on the
ship during the signing of the surrender.  

The exact spot where the surrender papers were signed and
the war was ended

A kamikaze plane hit the Missouri during her commission during
World War II.  These are some of the dents that were left when it
hit the deck of the ship.  Nobody on the ship was killed.  The pilot
was dead before it crashed into the ship.  

Ted and I in front of the flags on the ship.

Cheeseburger in Paradise

Yeah - what I said!!

Feet in the sandy water

This explains a lot!!!!  They make a factory for it!!

Diamond Head.

Hanauma Bay.  Lots of snorkling and scubaing going on down there

There were chickens everywhere in the parks.  Here are some baby ones

Ted and I

At the cemetery.  This is where rich Japanese people put the ashes
of their loved ones.  

Buddhist Temple.  So beautiful

Buddha.  I thought he was beautiful

Koi in the pond at the temple

Tikis

Chinaman's Hat Island - the one behind it is Turtle Island
Turtle Island is an active military base.

Interesting facts about Hawaii:

• Oahu is just one big mountain.  Made out of lava.  It looks like a bunch of mountains, but it's actually just one.  Some of the island is millions of years old, some of it only 30,000 years.
• Hawaii is made up of around 100 islands.  Most of them are not inhabited.  I wonder if Gilligan's Island has ever been found.
• Diamond Head got it's name because hot lava over the coral made glittery looking crystals that looked like diamonds.  They were quickly realized to not be diamonds.  The other story that we were told was:  a Chinese guy was selling heads of cabbage and when asked what it was, he replied, "dime a head".  OK, so I don't remember the whole joke. 
• There are only two snakes on Oahu.  Both in the zoo and both male.  They don't want any snakes to be brought in, fearing it will annihilate the bird population.
• Termites are in almost every home there is in Hawaii.  Unless they are made of steel beams and boards.  Even those houses that are owned by the extremely wealthy.
• The median price of a house in Honolulu is $700,000.  Yeah, I guess I am not looking for a transfer and sending Ted to work at McDonalds and making our own shuttle business now - SHEESH.
• Most of the plant life there has been introduced from other countries.  Especially the trees.
• Hanauma Bay has become the prime place to go snorkeling and to scuba dive.  However, they didn't like that the coral was being damaged and such.  So the government stepped in and anyone that goes there to enjoy the water has to go through a 30-minute movie with instructions on how not to damage the coral and it closes down every Tuesday to clean up the park and make sure there is no damage.
• Del Monte was on the island and had to close up shop because it couldn't compete with Dole.  Now Dole only grows pineapple there for fresh pineapples, not for canned pineapples.  They moved their canning facility to the Phillipines because they couldn't get any workers to pick the pineapples in the abundance that they needed - the young people now don't want to work in the fields.  The Del Monte lands have sat empty for years because they can only be sold for agricultural.  Pineapple Ice Cream with pineapple chunks is freaking delicious.
• If you sit at the bus stop by Pearl Harbor, some guy in a ratty van with torn up seats may stop and offer you and anyone else a ride for $5 a person to get back to your hotel in twenty minutes instead of the one hour it may take you otherwise and who knows when the bus will get there.  If you are smart, you take him up on the offer as it's only $5 more than you would spend on the bus.  I think Ted thought I was nuts for a minute when I said, "let's go!!"  Hey, we made it there alive!!!  I figure the guy made $70 in that twenty minutes.  I still don't think it's enough for Ted and I to make the move there.
• On a twelve hour flight, you can watch five movies and still have not watched movies the entire flight - I saw Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (I fell asleep for a couple of hours at the end), 100 Foot Journey, This is Where I Leave You, Alexander and the Terrible, No Good, Horrible Day and 22 Jump Street.  My first class seat was awesome, it had the power recline seat that laid all the way down to flat if you wanted to make it a bed, I got fed two meals, all I wanted to drink, and an awesome travel pack with cool things in it.  Ted watched four movies and four television shows.
• Ted and I were going to climb Diamond Head - it was our goal.  But, he had injured his foot a couple of days before we left.  According to him, he can trip over a paint stripe.  I actually think I've seen him do it.  But, it makes it impossible to make the hike if you aren't 100%.  There are 175 steps and some tunnels and rough terrain to make it.  We may have to try again some time.
• On our Salt Lake City to JFK flight, Ted and I were in the very back row.  Ted in the window and me in the middle seat.  We were sitting next to a 105 pound Jewish man.  He sure took up a lot of space for such a skinny kid; spread legs and leaning on the inside arm rest into my seat.  But I digress - I kept trying to figure out how these young Jewish kids kept their yamulkas on. It was making me insane and I still can't figure it out.   OK, I know this has nothing to do with Hawaii, but I really want to know.