The flight...oh the flight. This was the longest distance I've ever been, so I didn't know what to expect with an 8.5 hour flight. We flew from here to DFW and then DFW to HNL. We were in a 767, so 7 across and of course, we had middle seats. DH and I couldn't get comfy and barely slept. I got off the plane so sore, even though I got up a few times and stretched. The HNL airport is HAM and it took us over an hour to get our luggage. They played Fast 6 on the plane and even without my headphones on, it was hysterically terrible.
After we got to the car, we went directly to Pearl Harbor. We were too late to get to the Arizona, so we went out to the USS Missouri. It was cool, but after about 45 min., I was over it. DH was mad that I wasn't 'appreciating history'. I would have appreciated it more with a drink and a nap.
We drove through Honolulu rush hour to get to the hotel. We stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. That place is a madhouse all.the.time. It is its own damn city. After 14+ hours of traveling, our first thought was "Fuck this shit." We got checked in and up to our room. The room was OK. A little dated, but it was a fine hotel room. We resisted the urge to crash and headed down to find food. We wandered around this little shopping area outside the hotel and ended up at Benihana for dinner. Not my first choice, but we were hungry and they had beer. We met a lovely couple from CO. He's an air force pilot and they have 4 kids. I barely remember the conversation because I was in the floaty exhaustion phase.
After dinner, we wandered around the resort. We got a drink from the bar and talked to a couple from Belfast and a British couple who currently live in Qatar. There was a cheesy ass Hawaiian-themed show going on in the main pool area outside the bar that we half watched and then at the end there were fireworks. After consuming our $20 beers and watching fireworks, we went to the ABC store to buy more reasonably priced alcohol and retreated to our room. We were going to try to stay up to meet our friends (M and B ), but they weren't getting in until midnight Hawaii time and we finally crashed after being awake for 25-ish hours.
The next morning, we woke up and met M and B for breakfast at the resort. After breakfast, we wandered around for a bit and then went over to Diamondhead for a hike. Diamondhead is no fucking joke. It's pretty much straight up. Lots of uneven trail and a ton of stairs. It was also mid-morning and the sun was beating down on us. I almost overheated, which would have sucked.
After our hike, we headed over to Kona Brewing Co. for lunch. I love their beers, so I was excited to try the stuff you can't find locally. The food was really good too. We got roasted garlic (OMG, so yum) and their pizza. After lunch, we went in search of a spare GoPro battery and a hat for DH. B was looking for something else too. We went to the mall to find these things. The main mall in Honolulu is laid out in an odd format and half the stores are in the parking garage. We found a hat for DH, but no battery or the thing B was looking for.
Once we went back to the hotel, we went to happy hour for a few. B and I ended up going to take naps in our rooms while DH and M caught up (DH and M grew up together on the same street. They've been friends for almost 30 years).
Dinner was at Morimoto Honolulu, which is at the Modern Hotel. DH and M had some crazy expensive Japenese scotch and I got a weird cocktail that was just OK. B got a cocktail she couldn't even drink. I had never really had sushi, so we just let our friends order. We got some fried shrimp, eel, tamago, and other stuff I can't remember. It was pretty good. I liked the eel and shrimp.
The next morning, we went to Eggs 'N Things. The food was good. The coffee sucked. After breakfast, we headed to the airport to fly to Maui, which was a short 40ish min hop.
Pt. 2 coming up later today...hopefully. I need to shower and DefConn wants to go outside.