Hawaii, Day One

After 23 hours of travel, I went right to sleep, but woke up at 4am Hawaii time.  And I was starving because I hadn't eaten a real meal since lunch the day before.  Rob, however, was still sleeping, so I was nice enough to wait until 5:30 for him to wake up.  Next stop, Denny's!

Oh, wait, a word about our hotel.  We were 1 block from the beach, staying at the Holiday Inn, Beachcomber.  It was a great location, right in the heart of everything.  And Waikiki Beach has changed a lot since I was last here.  It is now more like Rodeo Drive.  If you can think of a luxury brand, it has a giant store here on this street.  For example, this was right outside of our hotel.  

Rob asked me if I wanted to go in and look at the shoes.  I said I'd rather feed the kids for the rest of the month.  Seriously, who goes on vacation and thinks, I'd like to drop $600 on a pair of shoes?

So we walked a few blocks to Denny's and had a not bad breakfast for the price.  Everything in Hawaii is imported, so everything is expensive!  Then we walked to the Outrigger and Rob got another cup of coffee and we went to drink it on the beach.  

There was much talk of stealing this sign.  Instead, let's just settle for a picture of it.  Usually when Rob goes to an exercise, it's a hush, hush affair.   Apparently RIMPAC isn't like that.  Every store had a sign inviting the participants in.  It was pretty cool to see an area so inviting to the Armed Forces.

So we sat in the sand and stared at the ocean while Rob drank his coffee.  That sounds really boring, but it wasn't! Maybe pictures will help set the scene. 

Then, it started to rain, so we took shelter under this tree.

When the sun shower was over, it was about 8:15.  We knew that the places that rented beach chairs had a deal, $30 for two chairs with an umbrella for the whole day if you rented before 9am.  So we hustled back to the hotel to change and grab our beach gear.  This was our view at 8:55.

Those chairs were worth every penny!  We had shade and a table.  There was a little food court behind us where Rob bought lunch and we ate on the beach.  Luckily, we had our own beverages.  

Since the whole point of this trip was RIMPAC, some of the crew had to fly that day.  The runway was a few miles beyond Waikiki, so we sat on the beach watching for them to take off.  And we waited.  And waited.  Turns out, the jet was broken, so they never took off.  Hooray!  We met the crew back at the pool to hang out before heading out to dinner.  

We ate at Giovanni's Pastrami (or something like that) based on the recommendation of a guy Rob talked to in the elevator.  It wasn't good, everything was super spicy.  Even those in our group that liked spice said it was too much.  We got the bad taste out of our mouths with a stop at the Honolulu Cookie Company.  Love the free samples!

​First day over, in bed by 9:30.