Honolulu, Hawaii |
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Honolulu, Hawaii |
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We were very happy to just settle in our room. Seth settled inside
and Tara settled outside on the balcony.
Seth did a lot of TV watching while Tara studied Japanese and enjoyed the view. Unfortunately, our balcony was not in the sun until about one hour before the sun set. But, as the week progressed, that didn't make much difference since we had poor weather most days.  |
| The view from our room was very nice - especially since we expected only a garden view. As we stood on our balcony, we could see a harbor to the left with the ocean beyond. The view to the left was especially nice since there was a sloping hill off in the distance where we'd see planes taking off and landing from. We saw not only commercial aircraft, but also military planes. Also off in the distance to the left were the tall high-rises of downtown Honolulu. Looking to the right, we could see numerous high-rises up close. And through a narrow corridor of tall buildings, we saw single family houses that were built into the mountainside. Especially at night, this view of lights sloping upwards into blackness was kool. | |
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| We enjoyed cooking in our room's kitchen. Seth was extremely happy
since the room contained a toaster. It was even a brand new toaster that
had never been used before! The culinary delights that we prepared ourselves
included: tacos with nachos, ramen noodles, brownies, watermelon juice,
eggos with butter and cream cheese and oatmeal (taken from the Best Western
in Seattle). Seth's delicious creation on the last day was a nice surprise.
He took various left overs and created yummy breakfast burritos.
In addition to eating in we received four free meal coupons since we were assigned a dirty room when we checked in. We had lunch at a cafe alongside a lake right next to Waikiki beach, a breakfast buffet next to a small fish pond and a fancy Chinese dinner. We gave our last breakfast coupon to two Japanese women since we didn't have time to use it. |
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We could see the sun set from our room. Unfortunately, in five nights,
we really enjoyed only one nice sunset due to overcast weather.
Tara also thought the sunrises in the morning were pretty. One early AM she saw the moon setting over the sloping hill in the distance. The moon was really, really big and surprisingly clear in the sky. |
Our hotel
put on a fireworks display on the beach Friday night.
This face sculpture is in the courtyard of The Bishop Museum.
Here is Seth in front of the Bishop Museum. We visited three main exhibits.
The area focusing on "Science and Discovery" was good - except that the
glow-in-the-dark mice were not going to be displayed until the day after
we visited. The international space station explanation was a good presentation
- especially since two months ago we'd seen pieces of the Space Station
that were currently being added on by astronauts at that very moment. The
Polynesian Hall showing how the people in the pacific triangle of Hawaii,
New Zealand and Easter Island shared a common culture and history was especially
relevant to us since we plan on visiting many Pacific islands over the
next few months. The planetarium show depicting ancient navigation between
Hawaii and Tahiti by the stars was neat. The bit at the end where we saw
our night sky over Honolulu was also kool. Seth was so inspired by the
planetarium show that he bought star-gazing software that he'd been thinking
about getting for a long time.
| Category | Rating | Comments |
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| Overall Experience | 6 | We can't quite pinpoint why we didn't have a great time. Some factors could have been that we had bad weather and a rough start checking into our room. |
| Ease of Journey | 7 | The flights were what we expected. |
| Accommodation | 8 | We did enjoy just spending time in our room since it was very comfortable inside and on the balcony. |
| Activities | 5 | We hardly did anything. The genetically altered glow-in-the-dark mice that we did want to see who were advertised in the newspaper were not actually on display the day we went to The Bishop Museum. |
| Coolness | 7 | It was kool to be staying right on the beach in Waikiki. Plus seeing the Japanese influence everywhere was very kool. |
