Hawaii Part One

Day One: Reunited and It Feels So Good!

On Monday, May 9th, Katie and I were hopping on a plane and heading to Honolulu, HI to meet up with the Johnson and Kimble parents. Fortunately, I had taken the entire day off, so I did some last-minute preparation, packed the car, picked up lunch, and was ready to walk out the door when Katie got home from working half a day at 11:30.

We made the one-hour trek over to Nagasaki Airport and checked into our 2:30 pm flight to Tokyo. After a quick hour flight, we made it to Narita International Airport in Tokyo and had to change to a new terminal. Unfortunately, we couldn't check into our second flight while in Nagasaki, so we had to wait about 45 minutes to check-in at the JAL counter. No big deal, we had a nearly four-hour layover! We grabbed a quick bite to eat, made it through security, and explored a little bit of the international terminal. During our exploration, we found a Neo-Hokusai exhibit so we grabbed a few pictures. Its funny- of course, we would run into an art exhibit on our way to visit Mrs. Cindy!

After walking around the airport for a while, we grabbed some chu hais, settled by our gate, and waited for the plane to embark. Our flight left at 8:30 pm and we made the 7.5-hour journey to Hawaii where we landed on the morning of May 9th at 9:00 am. So we began our travels at 11:30 am on Monday and after nearly 17.5 hours of travel, we make it to Hawaii at 9:00 am on the same day! Nothing like starting a vacation with some time traveling!

After landing, clearing customs, grabbing our luggage, and taking a short shuttle over to Economy Car Rental, we were able to secure our rental car for the week. We then headed towards the Hilton Hawaiian Village on Waikiki Beach to meet up with the Kimbles! Katie hadn't seen her parents since November at Kelly's wedding and I hadn't seen them since Memorial Day Weekend 2021, when they visited us in California right before our international move. We made it to our hotel around 10:30 where Richard and Cindy were waiting for us in the lobby. They had arrived in Hawaii a few days prior to us and stayed at a hotel down the street; they wanted to make sure we had a welcoming committee whenever we showed up!

After a brief reunion, we checked into our hotel room, grabbed a quick lunch, and explored the resort some. We weren't all impressed with our first, real Hawaiian shaved ice, but being together made up for it! We were impressed though with the size of our resort hotel room- we ended up with a two-bedroom suite, that had a full kitchen and washer/dryer! The Kimbles also brought a new suitcase for us, so I spent a few minutes adding all our travel stickers to the new luggage. Soon after, we headed back to the airport to pick up the Johnson parents!

Mom and Dad landed around 2:00 pm and Katie and I met them at baggage claim! It was great getting to reunite with them; Katie nor I had seen my parents since they dropped us off at the airport in San Diego on June 5, 2021, for our journey to Japan. It had been 338 days since I had last seen my parents, but who's counting! It was great getting a much-needed long hug.

After they got their baggage, we all piled into the car and headed back to the resort to drop off the Johnsons' luggage and find food. We stumbled upon Betty's Burgers food truck a few blocks away from our hotel, where we got some great food before heading back to the resort.

Along the walk home from dinner, we decided to make the trek along the beach so we could get some great pictures of the sunset along Waikiki Beach. That view though- it never gets old!

What a long, but great day! After being awake for well over 36 hours, it's time for some much-deserved rest so we are all ready to hit the ground running tomorrow!

Day Two: Hiking Diamond Head & Visiting Pearl Harbor

I woke up around 7:00 am to a box of doughnuts sitting on the kitchen counter; Mom and dad usually get up early to walk, but with the six-hour time difference for them, they got up even earlier! Well, they found a great doughnut shop during their morning grind, so I'm not going to complain any! After a quick breakfast, everyone got ready to head to Diamond Head State Monument. Diamond Head is a large dormant volcano and is known for it's great views of the southern shore of Oahu!

We made it to Diamond Head around 8:00 am to find the parking lot was already full. We dropped off the Kimbles and drove back down the volcano to find parking farther away. Once meeting back up, the Kimbles had purchased our hike tickets and we began making our way to the summit. The hike is a 2-mile there-and-back and has plenty of great views of the tuff cone and Waikiki Beach. There is also a fort built into the mountain from WWII, so once we reached the summit, we made our way through a bunker and down a set of spiral stairs to make the return trip a little bit quicker.

Check out the view from the lookout point at Diamond Head: (Thanks Cindy for the video!)

After hiking down to the base, Cindy and Katie thought they earned a treat, so Cindy got a fresh coconut and Katie enjoyed a Dole Whip out of a pineapple! Check out Cindy's video of the guy cracking open her coconut- doesn't get fresher than that!

After our hike, we visited Duke's restaurant where we enjoyed our buffet brunch with a great views of the ocean! Pancakes, french toast, mimosas and killer omlettes filled us up after our morning hike!

There was also a Tesla dealership across the street, so we made our way inside to grab some pictures in a red Tesla Model S. (And when I say "we" I mean the four parents went inside while I stayed outside embarrassed as they asked to climb in for pictures.)

There's never a bad time to take a nap! I needed to catch up on my sleep given our crazy travel the day before. Like father, like son.

After a brief nap, the Johnson and Kimble parents wanted to visit the King Kamehameha Statue on the way to the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor. This 18-foot bronze statue is located in front of the Hawaii State Supreme Court and is apparently in quite a few "Hawaii Five-O" episodes, a show that Mom, Dad, Cindy & Richard love and cited numerous times on this trip. (Trust me, if they mentioned the show once, they mentioned it 48 times within the span of one week!)

After leaving downtown Honolulu, we headed over to Pearl Harbor to visit the USS Arizona Memorial. We arrived around 2:30 pm and had one hour before our scheduled memorial visit at 3:30 pm. This is Katie and I's second visit to Pearl Harbor, but we have a completely new perspective on it having lived in Japan for the last year, and many of those months aboard a ship myself. One of the exhibits in the museum is about Sadako and her paper cranes; if you don't remember Sadako, be sure to check out our Hiroshima blog post here. Katie was a little too excited to see one of Sadako's paper cranes on display here in Pearl Harbor, after seeing many others just a few weeks back in Hiroshima!

After spending 45 minutes or so in the museums, it was time to head over to the memorial.

The boat ride to the memorial only took about five minutes; once we had made it, the area was very crowded with the previous tour group leaving the memorial and our group trying to get to the edges to see the remainder of the USS Arizona. This was an extremely somber experience. 1,177 sailors & Marines died onboard the USS Arizona on the morning of December 7, 1941 and nearly 1,000 of those individuals remain onboard the ship to this day. At the end of the memorial are all of the names of those who died on that day.

I learned that many of the survivors who were stationed on the USS Arizona and survived that dismal day have the option to have their remains placed within the ship once they pass. Those individuals who choose to be placed onboard after death are also recognized on the wall. We spent about 30 minutes taking in the history and remembering those who lost their lives nearly 81 years ago.

After leaving Pearl Harbor, and a short scary stint of me driving on the wrong side of the road (reminder, Japan drives on the left side of the road, so give me a break!), we made our way to Liliha Bakery for some dinner and pastries. I had the fried Mahi Mahi, while Katie ordered chocolate chip pancakes; it was amazing. I think the winner though was the buttered biscuits that came with my fish because they were absolutely to die for. After dinner, Mom and Dad ordered a half dozen Coco Puffs, a puff pastry filled with a creamy chocolate pudding. I was too full to have one then, so I planned on saving it for breakfast the next day!

After dinner, we headed back to the resort. Cindy had a rule that she had to put her toes in the ocean every day, so the Kimbles walked to the beach for another sunset, while the Johnson parents and I enjoyed the resort's hot tub before bed!

We all made it back to the room just in time to watch a firework show from our balcony!

Day Three: Beach & Pool Vibes

Since our last two days were very eventful with travel and sightseeing, we decided to stay at the resort and enjoy the beaches and pools. Today was also the day that Katie and I had to attend the Hilton Grand Vacation Club presentation; in December of 2020, Katie and I received a cheap trip to Las Vegas at a nice Hilton hotel with the stipulation that we'd attend this same presentation. Since we didn't join the "club," they offered us an extremely cheap 7-night stay at a two-bedroom at one of their Hilton Grand Vacation Resorts, so we took it, and now we're here. Not too bad of a deal, if you ask us!

Cindy and Richard got up and headed straight to the beach where Richard did some snorkeling, Mom and Dad walked around Honolulu and visited Holey Grail Doughnuts, the doughnut food truck right next to the burger truck we visited on the first night, and Katie and I got ready for the HGVC presentation and practiced our best "NO" and "Not interested" voices.

Check out the video of Richard snorkeling! He's living his best life!

While the rest of our gang was off exploring, tanning and snorkeling, Katie and I were stuck waiting for our HGVC representative. We definitely didn't buy into the timeshare, but I can say the hotel accommodations made up for the two hours of time we had to give up! Thanks to Hilton's offer, we were able to cover the hotel accommodations and invite our parents to vacation with us! In the end, it was well worth the time!

After the presentation, we headed to one of the pools to meet up with everybody. After doing some snorkeling with Mom and Dad and hanging out by the pool with Cindy and Richard, we grabbed lunch at the beachfront restaurant Tropics Bar & Grill. Katie and I each got a burger; yes, this was our second burger in three days, but Japanese hamburgers do not compare to go ol' fashioned American burgers. You know Katie and Cindy were happy to spend the day sitting in the sun!

After an afternoon of hanging by the pool and the beach, we rinsed off, got dressed and headed to Rainbow Cafe for dinner. This is one of the more famous places to eat in Honolulu (it's even featured on one of Richard's Hawaiian shirts he wore later during the trip). We got a combination of hamburger steaks, pork chops, and fried fish. It was all very good and it was worth going off-resort for! One thing you will notice about this trip: we eat GOOD!

After dinner, we walked to a nearby marina for a different view of today's sunset. Once the sun went down, we enjoyed live music at one of the bars at the resort.

Our first three days in Hawaii have been awesome, but there is so much more to come!

Stay tuned!

Mahalo,

Bryan