Day 1 in Hawaii: Leaving for Hawaii & Honolulu

November 11, 2010

We left Philadelphia at 5:45am flying on Continental to Houston, TX. We left Houston, TX at 9:50am and flew into Honolulu, HI arriving at 1:50pm. We had two smooth flights. We arrived at the airport and received our Lei Greeting from our shuttle guide and we waited outside of the airport to be picked up. Turns out it was Roberts' Hawaii that they used to pick us up. We did wait a little while due to lack of communication from the headquarters and the bus. But once he arrived, he hulled our luggage into the van and off we went. 

He was very informative and told us a lot of information about Honolulu and then Waikiki as we arrived in the area. He explained what we were passing and where to go to eat/shop, etc.

We arrived at our hotel, which was the Waikiki Beach Resort. Check in the hotel was fast and easy. The front desk staff was friendly. We went up to our room. 

Lobby area

Front desk

The room is simple. Definitely not a "honeymoon suite." It had two double beds, with your typical polyester flowered comforters. We had a city view room, aka views of apartments and the alley. The bathroom was two separate areas. The first area was the sink to your right and a closet rack to your left, above the rack was the safe. The second area was the toilet and shower stall. The second area was small. My DH and I did not mind the room as we knew were only using it for two days and it was basically a space to change and sleep. 

Our room

We freshened up after our 13 hours of traveling and headed out to explore Waikiki. We were only one block from the street where you will find much of the nightlife, restaurants and stores, as well as the beach if you go to the opposite side of this street. That street is Kalakaua Avenue. 

Banyan Tree

One of the many beautiful Hawaiian flowers

We had made dinner reservations ahead of time at Hula Grille, which is located inside the Outrigger Waikiki Hotel and requested a rail seat. We made our reservation for 4:30pm so we could enjoy dinner while watching the sunset. We made reservations at 4:30pm because we thought they switched like PA/DE for day light savings time. Hawaii, we found out does not! So we talked to the hostess and had her hold our table until closer to 5:15pm and we headed to the bar at Hula Grille to enjoy a few Happy Hour drinks. Happy Hour at Hula Grille provided $3.50 beers, $4.75 wines, and $4.50-$5.75 mixed drinks as well as appetizers ranging from $4.75 - $7.50. We decided to try an appetizer and we choose their Crab and Mac nut wontons. THEY WERE AMAZING!!

Mai Tai and Happy Hour Menu

Crab and Mac Nut Wontons

Around 5:15pm we headed to our table, a perfect view of the beautiful scenery! Our waitress was fabulous, very attentive and knowledgeable on the food items. My DH ordered a special, surf & turf. It was a veal chop, a LARGE shrimp, mashed potatoes and a vegetable. I do not like veal but he convinced me that it was the best he had ever had! I tasted a small bit and he was right. It melted in my mouth. It had a lot of flavor as well. I ordered Kuala pork potstickers and a side Caesar salad. Both were delicious. We were both too full for dessert. Sunset was beautiful and we had the perfect seat to view it from. It was a great start to our time in Hawaii. 

Mr. H's dinner

Our view from our table at dinner

Sunset

After dinner we walked down Kalakaua Avenue and went to the International Marketplace. The International Marketplace is an area on Kalakaua Avenue that has outside vendors with carts selling merchandise, souvenirs, etc. It was fun to just browse. 

Next, we walked down Kalakaua Avenue to the Duke Kahanamoku Statue. 

 
We took a few pictures and then headed toward our hotel, stopping at the ABC store, what a great convenience store! We did not feel that the items were too over priced inside the store, as they normally are in PA. We purchased a six pack of Kona Brewery’s Big Wave and headed back to our hotel room around 8:30pm (1:30am in PA). The time change had not caught up to us and we were exhausted…