I was off to Honolulu this past weekend. My best friend is turning 60 this month, so 3 of us whisked him off to Hawaii for a long weekend. Yes, we whisked ourselves off too! It wasn’t a seamless weekend, but still a great one!
Our flight on WestJet to HNL was fine…but HNL airport a bit of a shambles. Buddy who dispatches taxis announced “there’s no taxis; call and book your own.” I invoked the spirit of Mrs. Egan (my mum) and went back to the terminal to query this. A very helpful woman marched out and told dude he was out of order. By then there were over 100 people queueing, so we opted for the shuttle to Waikiki.
While waiting I checked my voicemail–good thing–and found our hotel room was flooded and we were moved to a different property on the other side of Waikiki. Except our mate Brian (from Austin TX) was already at the hotel we booked. And the new hotel didn’t have a room that could accommodate 3 adults not involved in an intimate relationship. Mrs. Egan’s spirit prevailed for the night and the birthday boy got his own room for a night.
The next morning I called the guest services manager at the Aqua Bambook Spa and Resort (STAY THERE!) who was empathetic and sorted everything for us to move back to our preferred hotel. The Bamboo is 2 blocks from Queen’s Surf beach, has a lovely little pool and patio, and the most helpful and lovely staff you could imagine. No wifi in the room (free in the lobby and by the pool though) would be my only complaint.
Did I mention I got sick? On the flight over? So during all this I felt like a bag o’ dirt. We went to the beach while they prepped our room; as soon as possible I put myself to bed and largely stayed there for Thursday and Friday.
Saturday I was much better, so I still got some sun and fun. Saturday evening we took the birthday boy out for a fantastic seafood meal at the Hau Tree Lanai restaurant at the New Otani Kaimana Beach Resort. The ambiance–on the lanai overlooking the beach, under a hau tree–was truly special for a truly special occassion. Whilst munching we talked about how each of us got to know Tony, some of our favourite memories. And there were a lot of them.
Sunday we had planned to drive to the North shore, but the car rental we booked was stuffed up by a remarkably badly managed vehicle depot. After waiting a looong time to move 1m in a lineup we bailed and went back to our hotel. Instead we hit the beach, swimming, laughing, mocking–you know, family time. Dinner was a teppanyaki meal.
Check in for the flight home was fine, though the eejit American security folks felt compelled to hand search both mine and Tony’s checked luggage. As we left the country. We boarded the flight and as I suspected a 737 isn’t a plan designed for sleeping–which bites on a red-eye. Of course my developing a mild case of of food poisoning. No sleep for me.
Got back to my place around 9am this morning and my “lie down for a bit” ended up 7 hours of coma. Still, we had so much fun! By tomorrow I should know well my underwater video camera works–it’s drying out now before I can download the videos to my computer.
