The passenger gods chose wisely by giving me Jane to set next to. We were both Hawaii virgins so had tons to discuss. She has nice conversation, but knew also when to not talk. It was also nice that she had a skinny butt. Lol More room for my behind to set. On the approach to Oahu we were both amazed at the scenery and the turquoise of the water. Really it is hard to pick one color for the water. It was like a blue palette that had been smudged by the hand of god. It was quite spectacular.
After meeting Shirley at the airport we headed to the hotel. (In a limo no less.) I had googled it so knew where it was on the maps but seeing the area in 3D is much different. Honolulu is a very large city of over 1 million people with sky scrapers and all. The limo drove through the main part of the city and then traveled down Waikiki Beach to our hotel that stands right on the beach.
Our room was not ready when we arrived so we went to the bar to have a little second lunch. After we were seated I noticed that there was no south wall to the hotel. The restaurant and bar were open to the elements. And what beautiful elements they were. Waikiki Beach was a stones throw away and the salty ocean air gently kissed my face in welcome.
We had a delicious lunch and then headed up to our room. And what a room it was. For some reason we were upgraded. (Must be the good looks) Our room was on the 7th floor in the southwest corner of the hotel and had two walls of windows. One window faced the ocean and looked straight down to the beach. The other faced the city center that was lovely at night with all of the lights. Shirley has stayed in the same hotel several times a year since 1984 and has never had this nice of a room.
After settling in we went shopping of course. The mall that Shirley took me too was very interesting. The first level had a 40 restaurant food court and tons of little shops that sold a little of everything. The second level was high class shops like Tiffany & co. and the third level held a Japanese food market. It had everything. We went to Barnes and Noble and each bought a few books. Lol Just what I needed was more weight in the luggage. We grabbed some dinner to take back to our room from the food court.
We got back to the room just in time to have a lovely dinner on our balcony and to watch the sunset. There were just enough clouds to make it a breathtaking sight. Right next to the hotel is an outrigger club (up scale yacht club) and every night at sunset they take the outriggers out. I wish that I could have been on the water with them.