We were all excited and ready to go to Hawaii, the 50th US state, on the morning of 24th. The Hawaiian islands are situated in the North Pacific Ocean, 2,300 miles (3,700 km) from the mainland and comprises of eight main islands and we were visiting one of them, island of Oahu.
We had a 7:00 am flight to Las Vegas and we got to the airport by about 5:30 am. After reaching the airport we were told that our flight to Vegas was cancelled because of bad weather. We didnt understand the bad weather part because Denver was the one with the problems and not Las Vegas.
Anyway this was such a bad start to our trip. The airlines had to rebook our flights. We stood in the line for 5 long hours until our turn came up. We were so frustrated since we didn' t know whether we would get any flights for that day. America West airlines had such a lousy customer service that it was unbelievable. There was only one person in the counter to rebook flights that were cancelled and that lady was so slow. When our turn came up the lady was busy ordering pizza for her lunch!!
Anyway after venting out all our frustration, finally we were going to Hawaii. Our route to Hawaii was to fly to Philadelphia first and then to Las Vegas and then to our final destination Honolulu. We were flying to Philadelphia at 11:45 am and were to reach there by about 1:30 pm. Our next flight to Vegas was around 4:30 pm. We had some pizza for lunch at the airport and landed at Vegas at around 7:30 pm (Vegas time). We were already quite tired waiting at the airports and travelling. Deepak hadn't slept on the plane and so he immediately dozed off in the airport. I happened to carry a book "The Mango season" and I finished reading the book while waiting in the airport ! If our orginal flight had not been cancelled we were supposed to be in Hawaii by this time and we were still in Vegas !!! :(
Our flight to Honolulu from Vegas was at 2:45 am on the morning of Christmas day. We landed at Honolulu International airport at 7:00 am (Hawaii time).
25 th December 2006
We were glad that we were able to start our trip finally after 16 hours of delay in our arrival. We had booked our hotel in Waikiki, a neighborhood of Honolulu, on the south shore of the island of Oahu. Oahu is the third largest of the Hawaiian Islands and most populous island in the State of Hawaii.
On arriving at the airport, we had a shuttle bus taking us from the airport to our hotel in Waikiki. Waikiki is considered the center of the tourist industry in Hawaii, with an abundance of high-rise resort hotels.
Our room had a beautiful view of the Diamond Head mountain. We freshened up and headed straight to breakfast. I had pancakes and Deepak had Spanish omelettes. After breakfast we headed towards hiking the Diamond Head Crater, one of the most popular attractions in Oahu. The crater is a tuff cone formed by eruptions that took place long after the Ko`oalu volcano formed and had gone dormant.
We decided to use the mass transit system called "the Bus" to get to the Crater. Established in the 1960's "the Bus" is considered one of the best transit systems in the country. It costs only $2 per person one way. To get to the top of the Crater, we had to hike 0.8 miles one-way. The distance seems very less but at some places the trail has very steep steps and it becomes tiring after some time. Also may be we should have hiked in the morning than at noon, when the sun is not right above. But, after getting to the top of the Crater I thought the effort was worth it. The view was just awesome with incredible 360 degree views of Waikiki and the turquoise blue Pacific Ocean.
After enjoying the view we headed down and I had to have some "Watermelon Shave Ice", a very popular treat in US. Shave Ice is shaved from a solid block of ice and the ice is shaved so fine that it absorbs the flavors completely. It was a nice treat that was needed to quench my thirst. The crater was very near to our hotel and hence we decided to walk back. We took a nap in the afternoon and went to the Waikiki beach, the shoreline in front of Waikīkī and one of the most famous beaches in the world, by about 4:00 pm. The beach was quite crowded and we spent the whole evening in the water and watched the beautiful setting of the Sun.
We later went to dinner and found out that Vegetarian food was really hard to find. While I had some salad and (virgin) Pina Colada, Deepak had a Veggie Burger and finished off with a Mud Pie.
The weather in the Hawaiian islands is perfect - neither too hot nor too cold. It is a perfect getaway for people coming from Mid-West during winter months, who can escape the bitter cold for a few days..
