Two mornings ago, on Saturday January 15 2022, I woke up in Avon at 5:15am to embark on my journey to Hawaii. I flew to Dulles in DC (1.5 hours) and then to Honolulu (10 hours). A part of me was dreading the flight to Honolulu (airplanes can be pretty miserable for tall people), but the travel day went surprisingly well. After being smushed up against the window by a large man on my flight to DC, I had an aisle seat with ample legroom next to two smaller women and the flight had decent entertainment and meal service. I spent most of the flight reading, napping, listening to podcasts and music, and watching The White Lotus. I landed around 4pm, Hawaii time, and arrived at my Airbnb, a small studio on the 21st floor of an apartment building near Waikiki, about an hour later. I was pretty tired after traveling all day (even though I only stood up twice during my entire 10 hour flight, funny how that works...), but since there's some extra daylight time in Hawaii since they don't do daylight savings and are farther south, I decided to catch the sunset on the beach. I'm about a 5-10 minute walk from the beach, so it was well worth it to see this.
After dark, I went to a nearby grocery store to get some essentials for dinner and Sunday's breakfast. Almost all groceries have to be imported to the island so they're very expensive, especially coming from shopping at Trader Joe's in Maine, but maybe I'll have better luck at different stores in the area. Anyway, after shopping and eating, I was exhausted and fell right asleep.
I woke up early on Sunday feeling recharged and excited for the day. I spent the morning getting settled into the Airbnb while watching NFL playoffs. The timezone difference is pretty sweet for that reason alone. In the late morning I packed a bag and went to Waikiki beach, the renowned public beach that stretches a couple miles along the southern shore of O'ahu. Here's a view from right outside my Airbnb in the direction of the beach. The two tall buildings are part of the Hilton Hawaiian village, a beautiful resort with many hotels and shops right along the beach.
My Airbnb is near the western end of the beach so I started there and walked all the way east. For most of the walk, the beach is wide enough that I could walk on sand, but there are parts where the beach is too narrow so I had to walk on paved walkways, some of which go through these lavish resorts that are right on the beach. For a couple of the resorts I walked by, I stuck to the outskirts as much as possible, trying not to encroach on spaces and amenities I assumed were for guests only, but there was one part of the walkway that ran through the middle of a resort. I tried getting through once, sticking to the perimeter, but it ran into a dead-end. I was going to turn around, since I'd already walked about half the beach at that point, but I decided to give it another shot and was able to find my way through the pool deck and outskirts of the lobby to get to the other side where the beach continued. I could've accessed the beach via road on the other side, but I guess it's a fun perk that I can go in the infinity pools of these resorts. The beach continues with a section called Royal Hawaiian beach that is probably the most crowded of any and is teeming with surfboards, canoes, tubes, and swimmers. The Queens Beach section has several volleyball courts and the competition was fierce. I watched for a while and hit a ball around with one of the players before quickly realizing I would be the weak link on any team. I'll have to hone my skills before trying to get in a game some time. I turned around what I think was Kaimana beach and headed back. Here's a view of the Honolulu skyline in the distance on my trek back.
I stopped to read and swim at Royal Hawaiian Beach. The water is pleasant; it's warm enough that you can stay in for a long time, but still cool enough to be refreshing. I waded out a few hundred feet but the water didn't get much deeper than mid-leg/waist height. That made more sense as to why the surfers were so far out. I made another stop somewhere between Fort Derussy Beach and Kahanamoku Beach, which are the two sections nearest me. I think they might be two of my favorite sections of the beach so far. They're far less crowded than Royal Hawaiian beach, the water is deep enough to really swim, there appear to be some decent waves for surfing (I just got a board, so I'll be out there soon!), there's a volleyball court, and they're right by the Hilton Hawaiian village, which has a nice pool and resort that I can get into. They're also unique in that there's a lot of lush, green space right beyond the sand. Many of the beach sections are right along a road, but these ones connect with some beautiful parks.
I spent most of my day exploring and relaxing on the beach, as I'm sure I'll spend many of my days here. In the afternoon I walked to the Ala Moana shopping center to get some items and groceries from Target. Here's a pretty waterway I passed by on my way.
By the evening, I was wiped out from having been in the sun all day, so I hit the hay pretty early again.
Today, Monday, I had off of work for MLK Jr. Day. I left in the late morning for a hike called Makiki Valley Loop Trail and took the first leg of my bus to a transfer station before realizing it was a 40 minute wait for the next bus. At that point it was just quicker to walk, so I trekked across a pretty rundown part of Honolulu and over a highway to get up into the hills where the hike began. The walk up to the hike was on a windy road that seemed really residential. I felt like I was walking into somebody's driveway, but sure enough, after 15 or 20 minutes of walking I got to the trailhead.
The Makiki Valley Troop is a 2.5 mile loop with a few trails that can be easily added onto the loop. I did the Maunalaha to Makiki Valley to Kanealole, with a detour to 'Ualaka'a after Maunalaha. The loop starts with a steep climb, mostly exposed to the sun, and then has a mostly flat shaded area that crosses a couple streams, and finishes with a moderate descent. The route up had a couple unmarked trails that piqued my interest. After following one for a few minutes the trail became overgrown and the shrubbery dense, so I turned back, deciding it better not to get lost in the jungle on only my second full day on the island.
The trail was mostly up in the hills and covered, but I did manage to get one good view of the Diamond Head area. The jagged, mountainous range right before the ocean is one of the edges of Diamond Head Crater, a popular attraction that I'll definitely see at some point. I'm going to have to chalk up the lackluster photo to a mixture of inadequate equipment and user error, but please take my word that the view was better than it looks in the picture.
After my hike I relaxed a bit at my apartment before heading to the beach for a sunset swim, wrapping up a great first weekend. I'm excited to see all the wonders Hawaii has to offer and hopefully meet some people through volleyball, surfing, or just on the beach. That's all for now — thanks for reading!
David is the luckiest Cheezers player ever!