Waikiki...time to wake up

There is always an adjustment to be made when travelling from sleepy Kauai to bustling Waikiki. After a 30 minute, $65 flight from Kauai we landed in Waikiki and took a taxi to our condo (at $42 the taxi cost almost as much as our flight!). Check-in time wasn’t until 4 pm so they stored our luggage while we made plans to pick up our rental car. I chose to walk the 3 km route while JS took the bus so we had agreed to meet at the bus loop by Ala Moana Mall as we were both familiar with this location. For some reason JS decided to wait for me in a different location believing that I would be walking right by him. Well I didn’t go that route and ended up waiting 45 minutes for him, worried that something had happened. I finally gave up and headed to the Enterprise location nearby. Coincidentally, JS also made that decision and we ended up running into each other at one of the mega mall entrances! What were the chances of that happening?! Not off to a great start! We were given a brand new Toyota Camry and after a quick stop at the condo to change clothes we were on our way to The Proud Peacock Restaurant at Waimea Falls on the North Shore of Oahu. Although it was less than 60 km it took us almost 1 1/2 hours to get there. Most of this route is a narrow two-lane, heavily travelled coastal road.

Dani and Chris had invited all of the out-of-town wedding guests to this event. There were about 35 people there, a mix of friends, co-workers and relatives. Nancy’s group of 5 people got lost and arrived about an hour late. Nancy was navigating.....just saying! That afternoon most of this group had gone ATV/UTVing at a ranch where Jurassic Park was filmed. This was also a pre-wedding event but we had opted out. They all said it was a lot of fun except for how dirty they all got. The dinner was a typical Hawaiian meal of pork, sword fish, noodles, and vegetables, with an open bar of course.

The drive back to Waikiki went smoothly until we hit the city. We got very lost and had to stop for directions in a not-so-nice area. It was a long day.Read more