Hawaii Trip - Day 2

Nov 24, 2018

One beautiful day starts with a great breakfast, so I checked Yelp for nearby highly rated brunch/breakfast place. On seaside ave, there is one called Heavenly which is quite popular. There is a waiting line before 8am. I ordered their first item on the menu called Loco Moco. On their website (http://www.heavenly-waikiki.com/menu/), the description to this item is as follows:
Heavenly's Organic Veggie & Beans Loco Moco. 100% Big Island Kulana beef, local eggs, local ginger soy glaze, and 10 grain rice with local farm green beans, broccoli, organic carrot, organic lentil beans, and organic black beans. It is delicious, and total cost is $20 after tax and tip.

After the breakfast, I took TheBus to Pearl Harbor (Route 19 or 20 from Waikiki). The most famous and most visited place on the island. It took around 50 minutes to arrive, passing downtown, airport etc in the north direction. USS Arizona Memorial is one of the four POI to visit there. Usually visitors also select to visit another one like Missouri battleship. It is free to visit the Memorial, but there is a $5 bag deposit fee as they don't allow any bag into this historic place due to security concern. I didn't know to get the free voucher first before taking photos, which caused me stay 1 hour longer than my plan. Ideally right after entering the Pearl harbor, I should head to the ticket office to get the free Voucher which allows me to take the ship tour to USS Arizona Memorial. The free tour starts with history, theater movie, and ship tour. The attack to Pearl Harbor on Dec 7, 1941 forced USA into world war II. Japan, German, and Italy were finally defeated.The world needs peace rather than war.

I ate hot dog and soda on site. After lunch, I headed to Polynesia Culture Center via TheBus. This is a long ride but nice coastal ride. If you sit at the right side, you will see fabulous coastal scenery. There are more than 100 bus stops, so be patient to enjoy the bus ride. Finally I arrived the PCC center at 3:30pm, got a late entry discount ticket with center visiting, buffet dinner and night show at $78. The business address is 370 Kamehameha Hwy, Laie, HI 96762. The discount is not a real deal because most travel agents ask for $80 to $100 per person for PCC visit.

There are six different villages and live shows which open till 6pm. For me, it is a bit tight schedule, but I got enough time to tour the six villages as they are small. However, I could not find time to enjoy all villages' live shows as they present every half an hour. I took the canon tour for sightseeing from different angles. Frankly speaking, the culture center is small, and half day is enough, but it deserves watching the shows from different villages. I am impressed by the show from Tango village which made me laughing a lot. They also provide tram tour to some nearby places like church etc. After I talking to one staff in the visitor center, I learnt that this PCC center is owned by an non-profit organization, and provides funds to its college and its church. After 6 o'clock, I went to the theater to watch movie about Hawaii. It is a great one, highly recommended, as it provides many island views from the sky.

The dinner buffet was good. After enjoying the buffet, it was time to watch the show. The seating position was okay to watch the show. HA in Hawaiian means breath of light, the show tells a story about HA from birth to king. I don't fully understand the first half of the show, so many local music, dances, but the second half about fighting, fire show etc are great. It is worth watching if you have never watched a Hawaiian-style show. I also took TheBus back to hotel, which cost around 1.5 hours. Again, Google map helps a lot for self exploring.

Keywords: Heavenly, Pearl Harbor, Polynesia culture center

Hawaii Trip - Day 1

Nov 23, 2018

One carry-on bag is good enough to bring some t-shirts, sandals, sun-scream, sun-glass, swimming gears, toiletries etc. I spent half an hour to pack all these items, and it was perfect for one carry-on luggage plus a backpack. I was quite excited at the night before departure, so iPhone alarm woke me up at 6 o'clock in the morning. I called Uber to San Jose Airport after a quick breakfast. On Thanksgiving day, the traffic was pretty smooth on the highway and airport. Departure flight from SJC to NHL via Alaska airline was on time at 8:30am.

The domestic flight only needs DL (drive license) which is a legit photo ID. After boarding, just sitting and relaxing with reading on the flight. There is no TV entertainment on the Delta flight. The 5.5 hours flight has some free beverage and snack, but no lunch. I purchased one which is really hard to eat for me.

I booked the transportation from airport to hotel (Courtyard by Marriott), right after I landed and headed to baggage claim area, the travel agent from Roberts Hawaii called me for airport pickup. It is not that far from airport to hotel (Waikiki beach area), and actually there is TheBus public transit. However, $30 for airport pickup and drop off is a good deal too, esp. for first time single visitor. For a small group, TheCab, TheBus, Uber and Lyft are good options too. NHL airport is kind of old facility, no wonder Trump looks for infrastructure boost and investment across the nation.

I headed to Waikiki beach right after hotel check in. I didn't remember if I had lunch or eat something now because I didn't take any photo during hotel check in and walk to Waikiki beach. (This is one reason why I need take more photos during the trip, and why I need write up the trip experience on my blog). I bought a Hawaii style t-shirt at ABC Store. I should not bring any t-shirt and shirts. :-) Waikiki beach is a world famous beach, with hotels sitting along the beach, with water sports esp. surfing, swimming, sailing etc. There are many shops, statues, plants besides the beach. Honolulu Zoo is also close to the beach. It might be a good place for toddlers.

Watching sunset is another great memory on the Waikiki beach, but I selected Chinatown near downtown Honolulu for a tour. Taking TheBus is very convenient using Google Map, which gives me the directions, waiting time and transit info. For $5.5, I got a daily pass for unlimited ride, so it is a no-brainer to get a day pass to go here and there. It took about half a hour to arrive Chinatown. Google map gave me the wrong direction, so I missed the theater and small Chinatown but I saw many homeless.

 

After visiting Chinatown, I headed to Hilton Village for a dinner at Benihana Teppanyaki. (It was renamed to Rocky Japanese Steak Teppan Restuarant @2005 Kalia Road, Honolulu) There are some visitors recommending this restaurant, but after dinning here, it was very disappointed. I shared the table with one Indian family and one Canadian couple. The food is not as good as I have at Bay Area. Spending $46 for such a dinner is a waste, I'd better to take some Luau like Germaine's Luau for Hawaiian-style fun with dinner at around $80. Highly recommend for other dinning option than this one.

The good thing is there is firework at Fridays, so either you sail for sunset and fireworks, or you sit at the beach, or you stand on some park, you can enjoy the firework. It seems to take about 10 minutes, but definitely a fun to your trip at Friday nights. After dinner and fireworks, I went to hotel swimming pool before sleep.

Keywords: Airport, Waikiki beach, TheBus, Benihana, Chinatown

Hawaii Trip - Preface

Paradise camp fire caused lots of life loss, house destroy, property damage and air quality pollution. It has been a while since last long vacation at Cancun (I traveled between China and California quite often in past 2 years), so I definitely need a break to relax and enjoy some fresh air. I firstly looked at Chicago and New York, but gave up after knowing the cold weather, then I looked at Florida and Hawaii. After comparing price and POI (points of interest), I decided to go by myself to Honolulu, the Oahu Island for a Thanksgiving break. It cost $1050 for flights+hotel+airport pickup on Expedia.com, actually if I decided earlier, the price could be around $900. I didn't rent car as the island has convenient TheBus and Trolley public transit.

Hawaii is the top vacation destination, and it is indeed such a great place for relax, dining and shopping. Hawaii became the 50th state on August 21, 1959, the same year Alaska joined the union as 49th state. There are over 140 islands that make up the state of Hawaii, but tourists only visit the six largest islands out of eight major islands. In order of size, the islands are Hawaii, Maui, Oahu, Kauai, Molokai, Lanai, Niihau, and Kahoolawe (which is not populated). Those same islands in order of population are Oahu (including Honolulu), Hawaii (The Big Island), Maui, Kauai, Molokai, Lanai, Niihau, and Kahoolawe.

The most famous parts of the state of Hawaii, Waikiki Beach, Pearl Harbor, Diamond Head, and the Polynesian Cultural Center, are all on the island of Oahu.  More people visit Oahu than any of the other Hawaiian islands, because of those sights, and because there are more direct flights from the United States and other countries to Oahu, than to any of the other islands. But each island is unique and each island is worth visiting. Oahu is the highly recommended one for first time visitor.

My trip started with direct flight from SJC to NHL on Nov 23, and ended with 1-stop flight from NHL to LAX to SJC on Nov 27 morning time. It was a fantastic and unforgettable 4 days 3 nights trip to the Aloha State.

Aloha is the Hawaiian word for love, affection, peace, compassion and mercy, that is commonly used as a simple greeting (hello or goodbye) but has a deeper cultural and spiritual significance to native Hawaiians.

Keywords: Hawaii islands, Expedia, Aloha