UMTravels

Such a deal! $423.77 round-trip for BOTH of us Bellingham to Honolulu. And parking in front of the airport is just $12 a day, a mere 100 feet from car to counter.

A beautiful day to fly, especially when you get upgraded to First as a freebie:

And the meal that comes with that seat:

Alas – because of a last minute airplane swap, no DigiPlayer Tablets, just our own laptops which take up a TAD more room – almost pushing out the black cod with bok choy.

The first two nights we are staying at the Royal Kuhio, in a one-bedroom:

Our room is on the third floor over the garage in, oddly enough, room 911. Hard to forget what room you are in with that number.

The view by day:

The view by night:

The room:

And a really cool alarm/clock/outlet/USB port device on the nightstand:

Our first full day (we got in at 9:45pm on flight day), first stop is the Honolulu Salvation Army Thrift Store to hit the rack of Aloha Shirts. Tuesday is Senior Discount Day (25%), though half of what we found was 50% off since it had been on the racks for over a month. $55 for 6 shirts and a sweater – DancingBear made out better with 4 compared to my 3:

Several of those are Tommy Bahama shirts that usually run $70 and up. Here is DancingBear in one of his finds:

Next up is a walk to the Aloha Tower:

While waiting for the Waikiki Trolley (tip – buy your tickets online and save 25% during certain sales) we did a little fish watching:

Luckily the Trolley shows up fairly quickly considering that the Purple Line only runs every 50 minutes:

That’s the last shot you’ll see of me in my Mount Gay Rum Yacht Race hat – it blew off on the Trolley – made more ironic because I bought the hat at the Salvation Army on a previous trip to Honolulu.

And some scenery shots:

We swung back by the condo (very close to the Trolley Terminus) for a quick nap for DancingBear and a quick snack for me – can you say poke?

Clockwise from upper left, edamame, ahi, shrimp, octopus. Yum.

Speaking of food – my dinner:

I got the Polish, mild sauce, star fruit relish, and Hawaiian Guava Mustard on a purple bacon taro sweet bun.

Those metal spikes next to the dog roller are to toast the bun from the inside out.

Our final day in Waikiki we took Uber to the Dollar Rent-A-Car and picked up wheels for our island tour over the next two days – and it turns out we have a mutual friend in Honolulu – Rick – and he works in the governor’s office so we are off for lunch and a tour!

Burger and fries for Rick.

Lobster roll for me.

Chicken Cobb for DancingBear.

It was a great lunch at Café Julia, nestled inside a 1920’s YMCA building. And soon it was off for a personal tour of the Hawaii State Capital.

The Senate Chamber:

The Governor’s Formal Office (for bill signing, ceremonies, etc.):

And a great shot of us all, with a giant mangrove in the background (and me in one of my Sally Ann
Tommy Bahama finds):

After our tour, off we went on a circle tour of the island, starting headed south:

Thanks to Hawaii Activities for the image – and I’ve toured with them on previous trips. Since we were in a car, no commentator other than me! Please notice my back-up hat – my Hello Kitty hat that I bought a couple of months ago in a Maui thrift store.

We are staying at the Marriott Courtyard (founded by the Mormons) right next to the Polynesian Cultural Center (founded and run by the Mormons):

The place is only nine months old, and has some very good design elements like a huge lobby for hanging out with some workstations:

And a dedicated stand up “business center” for printing boarding passes:

But in the end, it’s really only about the room comfort:

I grimaced at the $200+ a night price (and that they charge for parking), but it really was a nice place to stay, and almost one only hotel on the North Shore.

Dinner tonight is takeout from these folks across the street – Kauula Korean BBQ:

Thursday brings more of the driving tour around Oahu:

That would be Sunset Beach – famous for surf contests.

Lunch down the road at The Beach House restaurant at Haleiwa:

DancingBear went for the Black Bean soup and he talked me into the Lobster Cobb Salad.

Seriously good food for a restaurant that’s only been open three weeks!

Stopped at an old sugar mill turned coffee roaster/souvenir place…

…on our way to the Dole Plantation for a Dole Whip and a train ride:

Time to return the car and return to Bellingham – but, I have lounge access in the American Airlines Admiral’s Club at Honolulu which they share with Japan Air Lines (soon to be a codeshare partner with Alaska Airlines):

Big, and they are expanding it. Spam Musubi anyone?

A great view from our workstations…

And because it’s shared with Japan Airlines, fancy bidet toilet seats in the bathrooms:

The Honolulu Airport was originally built in 1962 and still has some remnants:

Yes, that is a non-working mechanical flip-number clock – and some working (though I didn’t check) payphones – another dinosaur technology.

Time to board and take our favorite seats – though on both legs we’ve had to swap seats with other people in row 1 to sit together (note DancingBear’s
Sally Ann find):

Not much in the way of food on the return flight – I guess they expect you to sleep since it’s a red-eye! At least the DigiPlayer Tablets are on board this leg.

Thanks to DancingBear for this flight takeoff photo (and a couple of other photos in this post):

And my arrival photo…

Got to Bellingham around 7:30am, and I’ve decided (after sleeping the entire drive home) that I’m done with red-eye flights. Luckily, June 4^th is the last of the BLI-HNL flight.

And a final thanks for DancingBear for driving home while a snored (and driving there as well).

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This morning I get to sleep in…until 10 – it feels SOOOOOOOOO good. Rache is out discovering the city. The plan is to meet back up at noon latest so we can get to our afternoon mission.

What did Rache do with his usual early rising? Explore Waikiki? Nope. He grabbed an Uber to Pearl Harbor and snagged a ticket to the 8:45am tour, leaving his enough time to explore some of the other exhibits.

I don’t have his pictures, so I grabbed one from their site:

I did the tour many years ago, and more recently, Rich (while he was alive) did the Aviation Museum at Ford Island. Sobering is how I describe the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument. It reminds me that I should revisit – through you really do need to get there before the tour busses arrive.

We met back up at the hotel, and headed out to grab some lunch at Aloha Sushi which is a block or so away, nothing fancy, but not that expensive either:

While they look like they are pre-made, they are made to order, and placed into standard containers.

Next up is a tour of the Hawaii State Capitol led by Rick, but we had a little bit of time to kill, so here’s what is on the grounds:

Soon, we are on the tour!

There were some great mountain views from inside the open atrium:

After the tour it was off for a little stroll past the Iolani Palace…

Ending up at the Supreme Court building of Hawaii…

After no security at the Capitol, we had to go through metal detectors set to “useless” to get into the building:

Complete with 1930’s courtroom:

And displays about WWII, including internment of residents and other topics:

Having our history lesson for the day it was off for cocktails and snacks at Tiki’s, which overlooked the beach:

And on the way out, a most lovely restroom sign:

We walked back to the hotel passing the DUKE statue on the beach:

Rick joined us for cocktails after he got off work, and well into the evening. Quiet night at the hotel, other than the clinking of ice.

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After the long trip to Vietnam and travelling with other people, it felt like a good idea to take off on a self-holiday. Time for a little pre-takeoff breakfast!

Got the upgrade after I’d already checked in so it was a window bulkhead seat rather than my preferred aisle, but an upgrade is an upgrade!

And it being a Hawaii flight – a POG Mimosa while we were still on the ground!

Once in the air, the food really started to flow…

Hard to tell, but that was the mushroom stuffed ravioli.

Might as well take advantage of the window seat!

Once landed, grabbed the city bus ($2.75) to Waikiki and walked the couple of blocks to the condo:

Here are daytime and nighttime videos of the condo:

If you don’t want to watch the video, here is a still photo from my balcony:

Even with the snack basket an hour out of Honolulu – I was in need of something more substantial in my stomach so walked over the Cheeseburger Prime (formerly Cheeseburger in Paradise).

Got the sliders which came with fries and a cocktail (West Side Smash) at happy hour prices.

I’ve liked their food in the past, but this time the fries obviously weren’t cooked to order.

Tuesday morning, I took a bride of 20,000 points (should have held out for 30,000) to attend an “update”. There goes an hour and a half – but it replaces most of the points I gave to Conan for the father/daughter trip to London and Paris. I covered their first two nights in London with a place in Hyde Park.

Next up was my usual Tuesday in Waikiki – lunch at Liliha Bakery, which was, as often happens, out of the fried chicken, so it was the grilled ahi sandwich:

My other Tuesday stops were strikeouts –Salvation Army for Aloha shirts, along with Ross which is across the street.

In my evening stroll, noticed that Dean and DeLuca now has an outpost – mostly a café:

And that a new Tiki Bar has opened up down the street – The Lava Tube, better email Joe from Indianapolis!

Wednesday started off with one of my Waikiki traditions – the 55+ IHOP breakfast…

But it’s time to check out some new stuff to do in Waikiki…like fabric from Fabric Mart:

And these are the goodies I picked up with the exception of the napkins, which came from the quilting store on the Beachwalk:

And in this new neighborhood (well, to me), I found both a major Korean Grocery Store (Palama):

And a big Japanese Grocery Store (Don Quijote) complete with outside food court:

Thought “Oriental” wasn’t and acceptable phrase anymore…well, it is here.

Afternoon snack time found me at the restaurant at Tommy Bahama:

In the photo above, you can see one of the two $20 off regular items cards I scored on my last trip for just making a $5 donation called Kids Don’t Go Hungry. It makes the blue crab lump salad below just $2.00 (and the drink was happy hour priced at $10.00

Score!

Afterwards, I made my final ABC store run – and had enough receipts to get another Hello Kitty shopping bag for free:

Dinner was eating up all the leftovers in the fridge – a common practice.

Following day found me poolside for a bit…but sitting in the shade reading:

Didn’t even bother to put on my suit and jump in, even with the hunky long-haired young dad in the pool. And speaking of hunky guys – look what I’m missing this weekend in Honolulu!

Afternoon found me back at Tommy Bahama to use my second $20 Off card. Today it was different cocktail (only $8 – a Classic Margarita) and the Panko Breaded Fish and Chips ($4 after my $20 off):

Forget what the local fish was, denser (and more filling) than Halibut – I would have been just as happy with two pieces.

Feeling bloated from a mid-afternoon lunch is no mood to hit the Waikiki Farmers Market which happens every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday in front of the Wells Fargo Bank. Jen, Kennan and I hit it when we were here a month ago. Thought about getting some food for later, but they didn’t open for half an hour, and I needed a nap. It will be cheese and crackers for dinner tonight!

Walking home I discovered that another of my favorite restaurants has closed. Probably didn’t help that they didn’t have a full liquor license. Last time I was here was with DancingBear and Rick Rodrigues – our mutual friend that dropped dead about a year ago (and was about five years younger than me). Farewell Rick and Agu Ramen.

Final morning in Waikiki I was greeting to this view from my bed.

How magical is that!

Took the bus back to the airport – another whopping $2.75, which beats the $30 Uber. From city bus, through security, and into the lounge in a little over an hour. Not bad.

My return flight takes me through Portland because I wanted a freebie upgrade to First Class from Premium, comes with plenty of food and drink:

Had to get to the other end of the Portland terminal for the last flight of the day…which was supposedly on time except we were on the ground for 40 minutes waiting for last minute passengers. Wish they’d served a cocktail on the ground to first, because we got nothing in the air because of turbulence. The downside of going through Portland.

Some people join gyms, I get my steps being a tourist:

For comparison, Sunday I was at work. Means I walk at least twice as much travelling. And speaking of travelling, with my return back to Seattle I hit Alaska MVP Gold 75K status. Milestone benefits are 4 more Gold Upgrade Certificates, and 50,000 bonus miles. Takes 75,000 miles of flying on Alaska, or 90,000 miles of flying on Alaska and their Partners – that’s PER YEAR.

Back in time to work the weekend. Whew.

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The plan for today of on the water by 9 was more like 10:15, with the scouting the big rapid of the day, first thing.

I’m on Jamie boat today, with EMT Matt who also is learning to row. Matt does most of the rapids after the first biggie.

Wonderful stop at a waterfall, then lunch, and another stop at a spring to fill water bottles — from spring water dripping off a limestone ledge. I really hope someone got pictures.

Camp tonight is sparse, I’m sleeping in the kitchen after preparing boneless beef short ribs, mashed potatoes and onion peas for dinner. There wasn’t a scrap left — whicj is good for a meal on the river.

WhiteWater did the first rapid of the day with Uli and Rick as the strong paddlers — and most of the rest of the day Uli was on the oars — makes me feel better with a couple of strong paddlers on his boat — it also makes me feel like dead weight on this wilderness experience. Thank god the dinner was a hit!

When is a mileage run more than a mileage run – when you actually go someplace warm for a couple of days.

This was supposed to be surprise trip number two for Rache – amusingly spoiled by the TSA agent that said, “Have fun in Hawaii.” So much for THAT surprise. Rache still didn’t know the island until we got to the gate. Stopped at a couple of the lounges along the way for food and drink since we didn’t get upgraded to First, we were merely in Premium (extra knee room, snack box, free booze).

Uneventful flight and our driver was waiting for us even though our flight was about half an hour early…but hungry we were, and it was almost 11pm by the time we checked in. Off to Wailana Coffee House for us.

The place has all the charm of a Denny’s, which other than some bamboo accents, seems to be what it was at some point. Oddly, cash only.

The $4.50 drink special was a Mai Tai – which can often be WAY too sweet. Blessedly, this wasn’t the case, and it was amazingly good!

That would be Beaumont the Basset — Rache’s travel companion (other than me).

We split a Rueben, which was the perfect amount of food, though the sandwich was a little thin, and the fries a little soggy. Maybe we should have just had another cocktail and call it done. Instead, we poked our head into the Karaoke bar attached:

Heavy on the Tiki!

We both stayed up too late – me longer than Rache, considering we have a plan for Tuesday, a 10:30am tour of the Kamaka Ukulele Factory.

This was probably my fifth tour, sometimes by myself, often with travel mates. It really is an interesting tour, which these days is started by the 91-year-old son of the founder:

With the history out of the way, it was time for one of the grandsons of the founder to take us out into the plant:

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The tour runs about an hour and is offered at 10:3am, Tuesday through Friday. It must be popular because it used to only be offered on Tuesdays. And as you can see, Kamaka Ukuleles are not cheap – and there is at least a two-month wait for one since they are all custom made.

After the tour off we went in search of The Salvation Army, which I was having a hard time locating on an Uber map – but knew how to get there, but not before we ended up at a closed store miles away. Our driver took us the rest of the way for cash. Nice Mercedes S-class ride:

I snagged some glassware and six Tommy Bahama shirts (average cost was $12.25 each), of which five fit, and I’ll find someone for the other.

Needing food, we tried to eat at Liliha Bakery, but they were out of fried chicken (which we both wanted), and more importantly, panic set in when I discovered I’d left my phone in the Uber. Further panic when we realized that Uber’s Help System was offline. Nothing to do but head back to the hotel and get some food to calm my nerves.

Goofy Café and Dine was the choice:

I went for the Pork Belly Eggs Benedict, Rache went for the Grilled Shrimp:

Of course, there were nerve calming cocktails. Here is a picture that Rache took of Grumpy at Goofy:

The remainder of the afternoon was spent fretting, checking to see if Uber Help was back up, changing passwords on any apps on the phone that auto-logged in….

Around seven we headed to a Gay Karaoke Dive Bar in Waikiki which is on a hard to find pedestrian alley:

This was when a miracle happened. We got a call from our Uber driver who had my phone! He needed to finish a ride but agreed to bring it to the bar. Uber has a $15 lost item return fee, and I gave him a $20 tip – so happy to have it back.

The plan was to meet my friend Rick for drinks for happy hour which lasted until eight – he was running late, so we finally met at a noodle place instead:

We had three appetizers and split a noodle bowl:

After our dinner, we all went back to the bar where I was able to get a pic or two:

Another late night for both of us!

Tomorrow, I’ll post about our next day in sunny Waikiki.

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