You can't fly direct to Hawaii from DC and even though it's the same country, it's still a really long flight. We left DC on Tuesday evening and after a 5 hour flight we arrive in Vegas just after midnight. We then had a nearly 4 hour wait for our connecting flight on to Honolulu. That took over 5 hours so we finally arrived at 5.30am local time on the Wednesday.
We were staying in Waikiki so dropped off our bags at the hotel then found a restaurant on the beach for breakfast. We were treated to some early morning Christmas carols by some soldiers then had a walk around Waikiki.
Luckily when we went back to the hotel at 11am we were able to check in. We were staying in the Illikai Hotel which from the website I thought it looked a bit dodgy but it was actually really nice and in a great location. We had a good view from our balcony of the little lagoon which was just outside. After settling into our room we went to have a swim in it. It was a freezing cold but great for me because I'm not overly keen on swimming in the sea when I don't know what's in it, I'm constantly worrying that I'm going to get stung by a jellyfish or stand on something prickly.
Later in the afternoon we walked to downtown Honolulu.
They have an interesting state capital building inspired by a volcano. You can't see it in the picture below but there are curved sides at the bottom and the building is built around a courtyard which kind of funnels into a volcano shape.
Honolulu Hale which houses the city council was completely decorated in Christmas decorations for Honolulu City Lights. Inside each government department had their own Christmas display, there was even a tree decorated in cans of spam! Then outside there were loads of huge decorations wishing everyone Mele Kalikimaka (Merry Christmas)!
Our first day ended with a free entertainment on our hotel balcony thanks to a neighbouring hotel's rooftop luau!
No comments:
Post a Comment