It's been a while since I've done a trip blog, and my recent
weekend in Oahu made me realize how much I missed going on and writing about my
various excursions. The focus on this particular blog is a 3-day weekend in
Oahu. It isn't very foreign or exotic, but if I'm being honest I was in need of
some serious shopping time and the sweet smell of luxury items, people with too
much money, and air pollution.
Day 1: History
Lessons and the Usefulness of Social Media
The flight left at 7:15 AM from Hilo and we were in Honolulu
and outside the airport waiting for the bus by 8:30 AM. The flight was so
short, I didn't even fall asleep and that's saying something. I'm usually
passed out before the place even leaves the tarmac. We opted for the bus this
trip because we didn't want to pay exorbitant taxi fees and renting a car seemed
like a huge headache when everything I wanted to do Sunday was within walking
distance. The bus is $2.50 and you have 2 hours to transfer to your final
destination.
The first order of business was dropping our bags off at our
hotel, the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani. I got our room off Priceline.com and I used the "Name Your Own Price"
feature for the first time. While it was definitely significantly cheaper than
the list price and we certainly got way more than we paid for in such a popular
tourist destination, I'm not sure I'll use the service again and this is why:
Priceline doesn't include resort fee
costs in the price. That means that while you might have signed up
to pay $120 a night, you're actually paying $120 a night PLUS a $24 per night
resort fee. Lovely, right? That's an additional $50 for a weekend trip and, in
my opinion, isn't worth the "low price" I got from Priceline. Next
time I plan a weekend away it's a hostel for sure!
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| That's my snobby tea face. |
Our hotel let us stash our bags without a fee and then we
went in search of the closest, biggest breakfast we could find. That turned out
to be Jimmy Buffet's at the Beachcomber with an all-you-can-eat breakfast
buffet for $14. Normally I would have turned my nose up at such a franchise but we had a big
day ahead of us and I was already starting to get crabby from lack of food. The buffet was what you'd expect in Hawaii -
lots of starches, meats, miso soup, and fruit. It wasn't remarkable but it kept
me full until dinner so it ended up being a pretty good deal. We left the
restaurant and got on the bus headed toward Pearl Harbor and, lucky for us, our
bus transfer ticket was still good so we scored that ride for free.
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| My breakfast companion! |
I was completely
unprepared for Pearl Harbor. First, the prices are way higher than I've ever paid at any park or attraction with the exception of maybe Angkor
Wat. . . for 3 days. After some serious
debating, we settled on the $28 package that let you see the Pacific Aviation
Museum and tour the USS Bowfin. I would have loved to see the Missouri (Battleship) but the cost just
wasn't justified. Something else worth
noting is the ban on all backpacks, purses, and anything tote-like. They have a
bag check and it's required - at $3 per bag.
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| Inside the USS Bowfin, |
The second thing I was unprepared for was how much of my WWI
and WWII history I had forgotten. My trip here might have been a lot more
informative if I had brushed up a bit on the sequence of events leading to the
war and some of the immediate repercussions of the Pearl Harbor attack. Even if
you don't remember high school US History, the audio tour for the USS Bowfin is well organized and
interesting. You pick up the headset and audio device at a kiosk in front of
the submarine and listen to the tour at your leisure. If you're taking your
time and exploring, you can expect the walk through of the Bowfin and the corresponding museum to take around 2-3 hours.
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| They let you climb in some of the aircraft they're restoring! |
The Pacific Aviation Museum is a bus ride away over the bridge
on to the naval base. If you've never seen aircraft up close before, this
museum is impressive. However, if you've been to the National Naval Aviationmuseum in Pensacola or
the Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC,
you're going to find the PAM a bit lacking and tired looking.
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| As we wandered we found part of the museum where they stored reclaimed items or things they hadn't gotten around the restoring. Something tells me they don't have a maid. |
We took the bus back to Waikiki to check in and put our bags
down in the room before venturing out to find dinner. I was in the mood for
seafood, and after looking at all the lines, the shortest one we found was at
Atlantis Steak and Seafood. Prices weren't awful for dining on the main
drag, but the food wasn't super memorable. What was memorable was the
fact that I checked in on Yelp (my preferred method of finding restaurants while
traveling) and finding out my check-in got me a free calamari appetizer! The
appetizer may have been the best part of the meal, actually.
After dinner, we did a lazy stroll back to the hotel and
promptly fell asleep. I hear the nightlife in Honolulu is pretty amazing but I
wouldn't know anything about that.
FYI: This post was actually from quite a while ago. It's part of a 3 day adventure but I never actually posted it up. It's a shame to let it go to waste, so here is one day. That's it!
FYI: This post was actually from quite a while ago. It's part of a 3 day adventure but I never actually posted it up. It's a shame to let it go to waste, so here is one day. That's it!
