Post Recession Scramble

When I got to Hawaii, I had to reorganize a lot of my plans because of our companies cutting back on tours or even going out of business due to the recession.

Wednesday 16 June 2010 - Flying to Honolulu

My grandson's camera was back from the repair shop.

My daughter took us to the airport and we gate checked two bags.

Only $20 each because I bought the tickets a long time ago. I tipped the skycap $5.00. Waited for the wheelchair and went through security. This time they wanted my grandson's ID but no questions about whether I should be traveling with him. I've never gotten any questions except for the first trip.

I waited for the flight in the wheelchair. They have this weird ice sculpture thing in the airport waiting area. Since Dallas temps were running around 100 deg F, it wasn't that appropriate IMHO

Ice crystal sculpture in gate area

My grandson bought himself a root beer. I was wheeled down to the plane and walked to seats 40 H and J - behind the wings.

Taking off

My grandson did not sleep much. (I bought him earphones so he could watch the movie.) He watched the first movie (Me and Orson Wells) and played with his game during the second movie (Bride Wars). We each got a sandwich

Turkey sandwich

and I got two cookies. I did sleep some. I periodically took photos.

Buttes

Island-Coming into Honolulu

When we came in to land, I saw that Honolulu has HUGE runways. Very long. The 13,097-foot runway was declared the longest in the world in 1953. The principal runway designated 8R/26L, also known as the Reef Runway, was the world's first major runway constructed entirely offshore. Completed in 1977, the Reef Runway is a designated alternate landing site for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration space shuttle.

Reef Runway

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the military took over the airport and grounded civilian aircraft. Rogers Field was designated Naval Air Station Honolulu. The Navy built a control tower and terminal building. Some civilian commercial traffic was allowed during daylight hours. By 1946. when the airport was returned to civilian control it was, at 4,019 acres, one of the largest airports in the U.S., with four paved land runways and three seaplane runways It still has four major runways, which it shares with the neighboring Hickam Air Force Base.

It is a Hawaiian Airlines hub

Landing

Runway area after landing

Arrived in Hawaii on time and had a wheelchair to baggage claim - my bag was one of the last to come out. My grandson insisted that there was only a 4 hour difference (according to his phone). He called his mother and checked - he hadn't accounted for daylight saving.

I decided not to try the downtown shuttle. We got a taxi from the airport.

Waiting for a taxi from airport and Taxi drivers ID

Since I had decided not to rent a car (I didn't want to have to worry about parking.),

Taxi in Honolulu traffic

there were a couple of occasions when we took taxis. By law, the charges for taxi are set by the City Counsel. They apply to any taxi or limousine with a dome light on its roof. They may not be altered by taxi drivers. Most taxi companies will offer flat rates to various locations on the island, or will quote you a flat rate for a destination you determine. The rates quoted Do NOT include tips. Tips at 20% suggested, must be added to the final taxi fare.

Palm trees at the airport

Most of the drivers wanted to be paid in cash which wouldn't have been a problem except that I didn't have that much cash with me as I expected them to take a credit card. Fare from the airport was $35 - no credit cards accepted. I gave him a $50.00 and got ten back.

tiki torches

We checked in to the Ohana Waikiki Beachcomber.

Ohana hotel sign

I booked this hotel through AAA after extensive research because I wanted to be where I could get inexpensive transportation to see Honolulu. The hotel has a ride coupon for rides on the trolley which had a stop right in front of the hotel. Waikiki Trolleys are classic street reproductions of San Francisco cable cars with authentic brass and wood trimmings and best of all,

Red Waikiki Trolley

no windows to reflect when taking photos. Before I came to Hawaii I carefully planned out our routes on the trolley. In actual practice, the trolley routes had been considerably shortened, so some of the places I wanted to go were no longer available on the trolley

The hotel is on a small street (alley) and about a block from the beach. The front desk is up on the second floor - there is an escalator. They take your bags on the ground floor and you go up the escalator. After you register and get your keys, you use the keys to operate the elevator. The hotel has no intrinsic restaurant, but also on the second floor with the pool is a Jimmy Buffet's Restaurant.

Pool area

I thought it was a very nice hotel. We had a Partial Ocean View room with a balcony where we can see the beach from one side of it.

Taking a photo from our balcony

View of the ocean

View toward the mountains

Nice bathtub like ours at home where I can sit down on the corner to shower

Bathtub

Sink

and a microwave and fridge. They gave us a beach bag - we could get towels from the pool to go to the beach. In addition to the balcony, the microwave and the fridge, this was the list of amenities from their website.

• Air conditioning
• Alarm clock/radio with MP3 player

Beds

• Cable TV
• Card key access to guest room
• Coffee maker

Mirror and coffee set-up

• Complimentary wired high-speed Internet access
• Daily maid service
• Direct dial telephone/data port/voice mail
• Hair dryer
• Half bathtub/shower with hand-held shower head
• In-room safe
• Iron and board

My grandson went out to get himself a snack. I got a call from my friend and we arranged to meet at the Ala Moana Center and have dinner. The Pink Trolley is free and does a round trip out to the Ala Moana Center and back to the Galleria Waikiki. Ala Moana Center, commonly known simply as Ala Moana, is the largest shopping mall in Hawaii. It is also the fifteenth largest shopping mall in the United States, and the largest open-air shopping center in the world. We went out there and met an internet friend of mine and ate in the Food Court. Keep in mind that the pick up and drop off for the Pink Trolley are in different places

I called the tour for tomorrow - they would be picking us up at 6:20, but the restaurant here doesn't open until 7.

Problem.

We can get pizza delivered the night before so not so much of a problem now.

Just as we were leaving for the Ala Moana Center the tour place called. The air part of the tour is canceled because the company went out of business and the land part is now going to be Friday instead of tomorrow because they are having trouble with their van. There is now a problem with the changed tour times and that is that another guy I was going to meet on Friday can not wait as late as the Pearl Harbor tour will be and I have no way to get in touch with him to ask if we can to it tomorrow instead.

We went out to the trolley stop to get the pink shopping trolley.

Some of the yellow and blue route trolleys came first.

Yellow and blue trolleys

When the pink trolley came,

Pink trolley

it took us on a tour of downtown

Along the beach

A cruise ship - not ours

and then went out to the Ala Moana Center - we met at Zippy's for dinner.

Friend and grandson

Zippy's root beer

My grandson had a hamburger steak

Hamburger steak

and couldn't eat all of it. I had a corned beef sandwich and cornbread and a float. Then we followed the footprints

to get the pink shuttle back to the hotel

Going back to the hotel

and went to bed about 9 am.

Thursday June 17th

My grandson was up at about 5:30 our time. He says he has no jet lag. I'm not so sure about myself. We were supposed to have Pearl Harbor tours on two days but the part of the tour in an airplane fell through because the company went out of business. So we had a free day. So plan B - We were getting the trolley to the Bishop Center this morning.

We ate breakfast at Jimmy Buffets.

Jimmy Buffet's for breakfast

Table at Jimmy Buffets with a photo of Diamond Head light, and J's photo of the lights over our table

Waiting for his breakfast with his new camera in front of him

He had an omelet

His breakfast from my side of the table and His picture of his cheese omelet

and I had oatmeal.

Raisins and brown sugar and cream for my oatmeal - J's photo

We get a 20% discount if we are hotel guests.

I'm not much of a beach person because I don't like lying on the sand in the sun, and I've had two melanomas removed. I did not expect that my grandson would be either since he had remarked "My mother made me take swimming lessons". I picked up beach towels from the pool as my grandson suddenly decided he'd like to go to the beach - he said he would try surfing if I would!!!! Then I asked him about the Bishop Museum and he changed his mind about going to the beach this morning and so as noted above we went to the Bishop Museum. Before we left, I went to a cash machine to replenish the money that I had spent on a cab.

I knew the hotel gave us a one day pass on the Trolley. I wanted to use the a one day pass to go to the Bishop museum and then transfer and go out to Diamond Head. I ran into two problems. One was that the Bishop museum was taken off the trolley tour and so we took the bus. The second problem was that when we got back to the hotel from the Bishop Museum, I could not find the ticket place.

We were told that the #2 or #13 bus (The Bus) would go to the museum, but we just missed a #2.

Waiting for TheBus

The Bus

The fare was $2.25 for adults and $1.00 for kids and there is some kind of reduced fare for disabled seniors but I don't know what it was. I had the fare out, but only managed to find $1.25 and the driver said that was enough.

Close-up of the door

I guess I look like a disabled senior. The driver and other pax were very helpful about where to get off and where to go after that. We got transfers.

Walking to the Bishop Museum

Grounds of the Bishop Museum inside the gate

The bus doesn't go directly to the museum - there is a two block walk, plus the gate is about another block from the buildings

Science Adventure Center

We went first to the Science Adventure Center.

Metal disc mural imitating water

Tunnel with UV drawings - represents undersea life

We were told that there would be a lava melting demonstration in about 10 minutes, so we went up to see that. There was a very noisy furnace going behind a steel mesh curtain, heating up the lava rocks. The demonstrating person passed around various kinds of lava to the audience, and then he opened the curtain a little and put on turnout gear (like firefighters wear)

Melting Lava demo

and poured out the lava in a red glowing stream.

Lava behind the curtain with flash

Glowing lava

My grandson played with the remote control underwater robot.

J working undersea robot

Remote control robot

We looked down into where the underwater robot operates.

Looking down into the robot water tank

and looked at the volcano model

Grandson's photo of the top of volcano demonstration

We also saw information on volcano tubes.

We had lunch

Quiche and salad

(I had quiche and my grandson had grilled cheese) and then we went to the Planetarium for a talk on how the Polynesians got to Hawaii using the stars.

From the Science Adventure Center planetarium window

Planetarium in Bishop Museum grounds

Although I thought it was semi-interesting, I almost went to sleep (maybe jet lag) and my grandson thought it was boring.

BIshop museum - main building

My sister was sad that we missed all the stuff in the main building like the feather capes, but I think my grandson would have found that just as boring as the planetarium.

Cattle egret

Leaving the Bishop museum

As we walked up to the bus stop i saw there was a bus there - I told my grandson to run up and tell the driver I was coming, but he misunderstood and thought I just wanted to know what bus it was. So we missed it.

The BUS

Eventually got on a #2 and went back to where I thought we could buy a ticket for the trolley that went to Diamond Head. But the map that the hotel marked for me was wrong. The Royal Hawaiian Hotel was right across the street from our hotel and that was where the map had been marked to get tickets so I went in and asked. They said the depot was at the Royal Hawaiian Center several blocks away. I was tired of walking, and I figured the tickets would be about $22 each ($44 total), so I asked how much a cab would be and the girl at the Royal Hawaiian's excursion desk said she thought $20 each way. No contest - I would get a cab. The guy at the desk of the hotel called one for me. I felt I probably ought to tip him because I wasn't even a guest there, but didn't think of it in time.

I looked up the lighthouses I might see in Honolulu and found that Diamond Head actually had an active lighthouse. I thought I could get out there on one of the trolleys, but it turned out to be more expensive and less convenient to do it that way than just to take a taxi out. I also got a photo from the plane when we were leaving, but it was out of focus.

Photo from the plane

Anyway the cab whisked us out to the lighthouse.

Entering the crater

Diamond Head Crater

The station was established in 1899 and the original lighthouse was similar to the present one, but it was an iron skeletal tower enclosed by coral rock walls.

Historic coast Guard photo

The lighthouse is a square pyramidal reinforced concrete tower, topped by a round watch room and lantern. It is an active lighthouse. The red sector warns boats about the nearby reefs.

The present lighthouse is painted white; lantern roof is red. The 1-story wood keeper's house (1921) is the residence of the Coast Guard district commandant. The historic Coast Guard photo of the lighthouse is photo 5. Site and tower closed

Diamond Head Lighthouse

The sign says in part:
Diamond Head Lighthouse is a prominent symbol of Hawaiian history to residents and visitors alike. The lighthouse rests aside a tuff-cone volcano formed by explosive eruptions thousands of years ago...

Sign about Diamond Head light

The first lighthouse on this site was built in 1899. It was rebuilt in 1917 when cracks developed in the earlier structure The Diamond Head Lighthouse still uses the original Fresnel Lens. The flash of a modern 1000-watt electric bulb is focused by the lens so it can be seen more than 18 miles out to sea.

The lantern room of Diamond Head Lighthouse

Then the driver drove us into the crater and back out.

Red Line Trolley at Diamond Head

When we got back to the hotel, the fare was $35.10, and I gave him $30 and was looking for another $10 bill when he said that was sufficient. So I thanked him.

Pizza box-J. wants to know what makes pizza honest

We ordered pizza for dinner thinking that we could have some before the tour in the morning. My grandson had sausage

J's pizza

and I had Hawaiian. I also ordered cheese bread. It was delivered to the room. My grandson went to get ice and bought himself a soda. We put the leftovers in the fridge

International Market - as it was in 2010

He has been going down to the hotel gift shop and the international market which is near us and buying stuff. We decided we were too tired to go to the beach this evening. Tomorrow is Pearl Harbor

Tomorrow is Pearl Harbor.