Honolulu, Oahu

This was my mom's first vacation in seven years, so it was long overdue. She wanted to go to Hawaii and see all the islands. She loves watching 10 Best Hotels and whatnot and had seen the one for Hawaii and was deadset on staying at the Hilton that was so large it required boats to get from one end of the property to the other. So we booked the Hilton Hawaiian Village. Turns out it was actually the Hilton Waikoloa Village on the Big Island that she had seen, so we were at the wrong place. Oops. Oh, well. The Hawaiian Village was still nice. A giant place, like a mini Hawaii. Our plan was to stay here two days before hopping on board Norweigan Cruise's Pride of Hawaii, which would take us to all the islands over seven days.

We landed in Honolulu on Saturday afternoon and spent the rest of that day exploring the hotel.

The view from our room. All those other buildings are towers of our same hotel, that's how big the Hilton Hawaiian Village grounds are. Down below, those blue tiled roofs lead to a very nice Japanese-themed shopping area. The room itself is meh. It reminded me of a Holiday Inn. Considering we were paying over $600/night, I was unimpressed. At night it was nice, though. We'd sit on the balcony and listen to the music playing down on the beach without it being too loud.

Heavy Asian themes throughout the hotel. Interestingly, there were more Japanese guests than Caucasians. I'd say the ratio was a staggering 7:1. Contrast with the ratio of Asians to Caucasians on board our cruise ship, which was probably 1:12

You can tell the hotel caters to their overseas clientele, too. All of the concierges, I'm talking all of them, are Japanese women. Obviously they speak fluent Japanese, but their English is so heavily accented that I could never understand what they said. I felt like I was in Japan asking for directions. And of course the breakfast buffets offered traditional Japanese foods (reminding me of the buffet we all had in Tokyo, remember girls?)

Funny thing about the breakfast buffet: you can purchase the Continental buffet (pastries, coffee, fruit) for like $14.99. The full breakfast buffet (meats, eggs, etc.) is $24.99. But all the stuff is served on the same buffet line. If you go in thinking you'll only get the Continental but you weaken and add one sausage link to your plate, guess what? You just purchased a full breakfast! Congratulations! It happened to one guy while we were there. It was pretty funny watching his face as the waiter explained why his check was so high.

Here's my mom by one of the many pools and streams throughout the hotel. Tons of koi fish everywhere, and some of them were HUGE. Like giant catfish.

They do koi fish feedings in the morning but we missed them.

Lots of great landscaping at this hotel.

These are 'lesser' flamingos. The hotel also had parrots and some penguins, although the penguins looked to be a boring photo so I didn't bother.

Mom on Waikiki in front of our hotel. You can see Diamond Head behind her. She kept screaming every time the water touched her. It was pretty funny. The water was a comfortable temperture and the sand was soft. It was a beautiful beach, especially with the sun setting. I was dying to go in the water, but somehow never had the chance. I really regret that.

Sunset on the private beach in front of the Hilton Hawaiian.

That night we had the All-You-Can-Eat Alaskan King Crab buffet. It was a steal at $34.99 because the crab was the real deal. Huge legs and claws and a ton of them. You never had to wait for them to refill the tray. Tons and tons of gigantic crab. We ended up eating that buffet both nights that we were at the hotel. Awesome.

The plan for our only full day in Honolulu was to hit Pearl Harbor (figuratively) and then sightsee. I'd read that you needed to get to the Arizona Memorial around 7 to beat the crowds, but my mom didn't want to wake up at 6. So we ended up showing up around 10. Bad, bad move. The line was down the block all the way to the parking lot. We got our tickets for our show (you watch a show in groups and then are ferried out to the memorial) and discovered our group wouldn't be called for a very, very long time. A very, very long time. At least the show, which featured footage and news clips from the time, was very interesting. The memorial itself, well....

This was a very moving place and it was worth going to in order to get a sense of perspective and to say you've gone. My mom has wanted to go for a long time. But it was a tad underwhelming. Personally, I don't see the purpose in having people actually come out to the memorial because there's little to see besides some rusted bits sticking out of the water, which are attached to the Arizona. There are about thirty seconds worth of sightseeing there, and then you're ready to leave. But you're there for longer than that, of course, because you're waiting for the next boat to come pick you up. I think having a nice memorial built around the site is wonderful, but the money spent on ferrying people out there would be better spent elsewhere, like improving the museum or paying the employees, etc. We spent nearly four hours waiting to go out there and in my opinion that was three and a half hours too long.

The names of those Americans who died on that single day. So sad. My mom cried.

This was next door where all the rockets were.

This is by the U.S.S. Bowfin and Missouri, which are both next to the Arizona Memorial. The plaques tell you about the fate of each of the ships that were stationed at Pearl Harbor.

So now that nearly all of our day was eaten up by Pearl Harbor, we realized we didn't have time to do much besides hop on one of the trolleys that run through Oahu. Most are free or cheap ($2), but we wanted to ride the blue line, which is $25 and takes you all the way up past Diamond Head and back. This was a bargain and a half. I highly recommend this to anyone who visits Honolulu. You hit all the beautiful coastal sites and receive informative narration along the way.

This is where they filmed the "From Here to Eternity" beach scene.

The larger island is Rabbit Island and the smaller one is something silly like Flat Island. This is a famous area for body surfing, called Makapuu Beach.

Hanauma Bay. I look like I'm pregnant here. I swear it's the wind.

Side view of the bay. I MUST return here and go snorkeling. It looks like it has awesome snorkeling.

This is at Halona Blow Hole.

We weren't on Oahu nearly long enough. Basically we were there one full day, and half of that day was consumed by our wait at Pearl Harbor. Next time I go, and there *will* be a next time, I want to hit up the entire island. I kept all my maps and coupons and stuff, so I'm all set! Who's with me?