Well, we made it to Honolulu! After a delayed flight in Houston, running to catch our flight to Honolulu (and JUST making it) and then having a nearly 6 hour flight with a crying, screaming, kicking baby in the row behind us... we made it. Then, we were shuttled to a car rental place to find out that we couldn't rent a car (for a number of reasons including not having a major credit card that isn't also a debit card and Daland lacking a credit score since he hasn't had any means of establishing credit in this country yet). So we had to take a cab all the way from the airport to our hotel in Waikiki which cost us about $45. So thank you again to all my lovely family and friends who donated to the "Help Chelsey & Daland not go broke in Hawaii fund" at our going away party, as every little bit helps!!
So we got to our hotel around 6 pm, unloaded our stuff and decided to head out for a wander. Waikiki is just as I remember. Busy, busy, busy and full of tourists. We walked around for quite a while trying to figure out where we wanted to have dinner. We ended up at the food court at the Royal Hawaiian Center (I think) and had some typical food court fare- a burger for Daland and a wrap for me. We went back to the hotel and fought to stay up until a whopping 9 p.m.
I woke up at about 6 am this morning and we've been going ever since. We went downstairs and had some coffee and pineapple and then went to a little cafe down the street for some breakfast. After that we decided to go look at an apartment that was within walking distance from our hotel. The leasing office was not quite open, but the lady inside let us in anyway and showed us one of their largest studio apartments (a HUGE 550 square feet) *note the sarcasm*. It was a decent building and pet friendly, but just too small. So after that we decided that we'd just have to wait until Daland's Dad arrives tomorrow with a car rental so we can look further out and cover some ground. We went back to the hotel and watched some TV, checked our E-mail etc. and then the jetlag started to hit again. We were both falling asleep. So we got up and decided to walk to the Ala Moana Shopping Center (which is a good 2 miles from our hotel). On the way, we passed my office building! It's a huge glass building at 1601 Kapiolani Blvld and looks very nice. It's pretty much right down the street from the Ala Moana center.
We finally arrived at the Ala Moana center and went into several different stores to get a feel for things. We checked out Foodland (an equivalent to Publix in Florida) and looked at some of the food prices. With the local discount, some of the prices weren't too bad... but definitely at least a couple bucks more for most items than on the mainland. For example, a gallon of milk was $4.50. One thing that made me VERY happy was that they carry Boar's Head over here! So I don't HAVE to live without my Boar's Head maple glazed honey coat turkey! For most of our shopping though, we're going to have to stick with Wal-Mart and Sam's/Costco. It'll be a lot cheaper.
We also checked out the food court and decided that for lunch we would get some local Hawaiian food. We got the "Local Boy Special" which came with LauLau, chicken long rice, Kalua pig, Lomi Lomi salmon, Poi, and some coconut pudding for dessert. It was definitely different, but my favorite (by far) was the kalua pig. It's basically a smokey flavored shredded pork. The poi on the other hand is something I could do without. It's a greyish colored paste and I couldn't tell you what it taste like if my life depended on it.
After lunch we decided to walk back to the hotel and relax for a little bit. We had been invited to a "Magnum Night" social event at my boss's condo that happens once a month, so we needed to take showers, get ready, etc. We walked to my boss's condo which is just up the street several blocks from our hotel and all I can say is WOW!!! His place is amazing! It's on the 15th floor of basically a 20 story (I think) building and it faces makai (towards the ocean). He offered us drinks and a tour of the condo and asked again if we'd be staying there while he's on vacation. There is a wrap-around lanai that basically overlooks Waikiki Beach and you can see the sunset over the ocean between a couple buildings. Needless to say, we are VERY grateful that he so generously offered us to stay there! After about an hour and a half (and one very strong lemon drop martini) other people from the office started trickling in. Everyone was soooo nice and the "Magnum Night" began. I guess the tradition is- my boss provides the booze and everyone else brings some food to munch on while they watch cheesy, funny Magnum P.I. episodes from the 80's that were filmed on Oahu!
Around 9:00 p.m. me and Daland started feeling the jetlag and we decided that it was time to leave. We said goodbye to everyone and my boss showed us out and proceeded to give me a key to his car to use and even showed us where his surf boards are if we were so inclined to use them. I'm seriously in shock- I can't believe how lucky I am to not only have a great job in a great location.... but to have such awesome people to work with.
I think I might just love it here...
Pictures to come soon... the internet connection at this hotel is just too slow.
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