Aloha from Hawaii: 2019

In February 2019, Bobby and I, along with my parents and my first cousin and his new wife went to Hawaii. It was actually my cousin's honeymoon! We chose to see Oahu, Maui, and Kauai on this trip. A local travel agent arranged our hotels and flights, because we really were not sure how to manage the logistics of moving from one island to another. But, having been, I think it is manageable to do on your own. Lesson learned, and this is an important lesson: do not fly home from Kauai. Be sure to fly home from the larger, international airports on Oahu, Maui, or the Big Island. At the time of our trip, there was one flight per day that left Kauai, and guess what, our flight was cancelled that day! It was nothing short of a disaster, but more on that later. 

Here is our day-to-day itinerary, roughly: 

2/6/19: Leave RDU at 7:15am (EST). Arrive at DFW at 9:40am (CST) and leave at 11:15am (CST). Arrive HNL at 3:49pm (HST). The last leg was a LONG flight, so be prepared!

Upon arrival, we were met at the airport by our driver and we each were given a lei. That's what the locals refer to as, "you got leid!" We were taken to the Sheraton Waikiki, where we ate a quick supper at the food court. I had a Teriyaki burger with fries. Everyone was exhausted.  

2/7/19: Uber to Pearl Harbor (we had a tour reserved). Spent most of the day at Pearl Harbor. 

Lunch at the Aviation Museum-hot dogs and fries. 

Afternoon pool time!

Supper at Side Street Inn. Johnathan, Karmen, Bobby, and I had a family style dinner of chicken, steak, pork, rice, edamame, and salad. Mom and Dad-I'm not sure what they ate. They are finicky eaters!

2/8/19: Rented a car for the day from the airport. Johnathan and I took an Uber to pick up the rental, a Chevrolet Suburban. Our Uber drive never spoke a word to us, and we listened to some kind of opera music on the radio. I think maybe the drive was Russian, so maybe there was a language barrier.

We toured the island on our own with stops at Diamond Head, the North Shore, Dole Plantation etc. We had lunch at a food truck-shrimp for everyone! 

For supper, Bobby and I took an Uber downtown to Uncle's Fish Market. We had fish tacos and poke. It was amazing, expensive, but amazing!

2/9/19: Today, Johnathan and Karmen took the rental car for some time on their own. Mom and Dad and Bobby and I just walked around Waikiki. We had lunch at Hula's Grill. I actually ordered the pancakes. 

We watched a Hula Party on the beach and then went back to the pool that afternoon. For supper, Bobby and I had pizza from Happa's. 

2/10/19: I had an Akai bowl for breakfast. Transfer to the airport. Left HNL at 10:36am and arrived in Maui (OGG) qat 11:18am. We had rented jeeps for this part of the trip, so we picked them up and drove over to the Lahaina Resort. We ate lunch at Teddy's Burger and visited Maui Wine. We had to stop at Wal Mart for cough and cold medicine for me and Johnathan.

2/11/19: Breakfast in the room. Mom and I drove up to Northwest Maui. Then, Bobby and I went whale watching (tour reserved). After the tour, we actually watched the UNC basketball game at the bar (they took down Miami) and we had pizza for lunch. For dinner, we had reservations for a buffet and luau. 

2/12/19: Road to Hana day! We ate lunch at "Shack" which was probably the best meal we had the whole trip. We had chicken, pork, rice, and fried bananas. We had supper back at the hotel, poke and fish and chips. 

2/13/19: Dopped off the rentals at the airport and left Maui at 12:36pm. We arrived in Kauai (LIH) at 1:28pm. We picked up our rentals at the airport, jeeps again! We had lunch at Maki Sandwich-daddy's favorite. You walk up and place your order, similar to soda shops at home. We checked into the Sheraton Kauai.

Mom and I drove around a bit and saw the Spouting Horn. 

Johnathan, Karmen, and Bobby and I had supper at Duke's Waikiki. I ate the chicken and rice. Again, I am not sure what mom and dad ate! 

2/14/19: Mom and I drove around the island. We saw a waterfall and went shopping. Bobby and Daddy went with us-briefly! That afternoon, we spent "happy hour" at the resort pool. 

We had supper at Bubba's Burgers. 

2/15/19: the day we were supposed to fly home. 

That morning, mom, dad, Bobby and I drove to Waimea Canyon. We did a mini-island tour where we stopped by the swinging bridge, did some shopping, and visited a coffee plantation. We had a late lunch at a Mexican restaurant and then dropped off the rental. 

Then it was the night from hell!! Our flight was cancelled. Everyone began lining up to get on other flights to no avail. I called my travel agent and I called American Airlines. Nothing to be done until the next day. The airline started making arrangements for people to stay in hotels if there were rooms. They handed out boxed dinners and blankets as we were prepared to spend the night in the airport. At 4:00am, they found us two rooms at a local hotel. We stayed there until 11:30am. Ate a free breakfast at that hotel and made our way to the airport again! 

We finally left Kauai at 4:08pm and instead of flying straight to the mainland (original plan), we flew back to Honolulu, arriving at 4:43pm. We left Honolulu at 6:29pm and arrived back in Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) at 6:00am (CST). We left DFW at 7:00am (CST) and finally arrived to RDU at 10:22am (EST). 

When I tell you I will voluntarily not fly with American Airlines again, I WILL NOT fly with them again. For all the trouble we had, not one employee apologized. Instead, they acted like they could care less that people were stuck on an island with no plan to return home in sight. And for our troubles, they offered me and Bobby a $25 voucher for our next flight! 

So, as I mentioned in the beginning, book your flights through Oahu, Maui, or the Big Island. If you are doing the smaller islands, make reservations for them in between. For example: we should have started out in Oahu or Maui, went to Kauai second, and then flew home from either Oahu or Maui. 

Another tip: the water was not warm in the ocean or the pools in February, but then again, I don't think the water temperatures in the Pacific Ocean get as warm as the Atlantic Ocean. Pack a wetsuit if you plan on doing any water activities. 

February was a great time of year to visit especially if you want to do any whale watching. I think it is also less crowded then too. 

"Travel becomes a strategy for collecting photographs." ~ Susan Sontag