Pineapple Princess (Day 1) [a.k.a. Leaving On A Jet Plane]

As you all know, I recently returned from a trip to Hawaii with Tricia, her mom Katy, and her mom's friend Mary to celebrate Tricia's master's degree. Family members, see how Tricia's parents sent her to Hawaii when she got her master's? Remember that come next May. We had quite an eventful trip, and thanks to my pretty new digital camera, there are a million pictures to tell the story. (Some of these came from Katy's camera as well. Well, her camera via the Kodak Gallery site, which hates me and won't let me download the high resolution images. But you can still tell what they are, even if they aren't as shiny as the high resolution ones.)

So let us begin. This is Tricia and me at BWI, waiting for our flight. It is very very early in the morning.
We flew from BWI to Houston, which is far better than the last time we went, when we flew thruogh Atlanta. Except for the fact that there was a hurricane hitting that corner of Texas all morning. Note the dreariness outside, as I talk on the phone (I think to my mother).
We also discovered something super cool in the Houston airport - an iPod vending machine. I am perplexed as to why someone would buy an iPod in the airport, though. How do you get music on it? Does the vending machine do it for you? Do they come preprogrammed? I'm so confused. If anyone knows the answer, please enlighten me!
Despite the hurricane, we took off on time. And very smoothly, considering the torrential rain. Apparently we were one of the last flights they let out of Houston before closing the airport and cancelling/rerouting flights because of the weather, so we were very lucky. The plane ride was uneventful - it was one of those lovely planes that has individual movie screens in the back of each seat, so I could choose what I wanted to watch. I finally got to see Prince Caspian (which was OK...the story was great, of course, and the cinematography was impressive, but it was awfully long, and I question their casting of the role of Caspian), and I also sat through all of What Happens In Vegas just to see the episode of 30 Rock that was scheduled after it. It was the episode where Liz dates the coffee delivery boy, and they all call her a cougar. This word would get much use on the rest of the trip, as you will see in the story about the luau.

After 8 hours, we finally landed in Honolulu, where the weather was definitely NOT a hurricane. It was gorgeous. And the Honolulu airport was ready to welcome us:
We went to the baggage claim to meet Katy's friend Mary, who had flown from JFK via Los Angeles. While we were waiting, we retrieved our bags. There were quite a few of them:
Mary quickly located us (we were hard to miss with all of that luggage).

We went outside to get the rental car.
And drove from the airport to our hotel. On the way we passed the hospital where Tricia was born. Tripler is the giant military hospital; it's the big pink building in the middle of this picture. This is how awesome my new camera is - I took that picture from the window of a moving car!
We finally arrived at our hotel, the Hale Koa. It's right on Waikiki, and gorgeous. Don't get excited, though - you can only stay there if you're in the military, retired from the military, are a military dependent (of our group, that would be Katy...it was a sad sad day when my dependent ID expired), work for the Department of Defense (I think), or are a guest of any of those types of people.
This is a side view of the front of the lobby, which is all outdoors:
A close-up view of the fountains:

All of our luggage piled on a cart to go up to our room:
This is Katy checking us in at the reception desk:
Throughout the lobby and the hotel grounds there are tons of gorgeous plants. This is one of many plumeria trees throughout the area.
A red hibiscus:
Something purple:

Something yellow and orange (can you tell I'm not a botanist?):
A pink hibiscus:
We made our way up to our room, where the very nice bellhops delivered our luggage. Note how neat and tidy it looks. It did not stay this way.
The view from our balcony was great. Even though it was a city view room, we could still see the ocean from the corner of the balcony:
There was also a lovely view of the gardens at the Hale Koa (we saw quite a few weddings in this garden while we were there, particularly on 8/8/08):

And a view of a park and Honolulu:
By the time we got settled, it was dinnertime, Hawaii time (also known as "freaking late, east coast time"). We were all very tired, so we just went to one of the restaurants in the hotel.
To celebrate our first night in Hawaii, we all ordered foofy tropical drinks. The best part of foofy tropical drinks? The umbrellas:
All of us at dinner...our very nice waiter, Glenn, took our picture. From left to right (in case you forgot and don't know everyone...there will be a quiz on this later!): Katy, Tricia, me, and Mary.
After dinner, we headed back upstairs, party animals that we are, and went to bed. By 7:30. Yay for jet lag! At least we were able to get up early the next day to start sightseeing :-).

Pineapple Princess (Day 2) [a.k.a. Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend]

We got up bright and early on our first full day in Hawaii. Well, early. Not necessarily bright. Thanks to the time difference, we were up in time to see the sun rise:
After eating breakfast in the lobby of the Hale Koa, land of the greatest macadamia nut muffins ever, we headed to the Diamond Head State Monument.
This is Diamond Head. It's a volcanic crater on the end of Waikiki, and has a trail that you can hike up to the observation deck at the top.
We set off on the trail.
Along the way, there were tons of places to stop and take pictures. This is me with the mountains of Oahu behind me.
After navigating the uneven terrain of the trails, some very steep staircases, and a very scary spiral staircase with backless stairs (you all know how I feel about backless stairs), we reached the final staircase to the observation deck.

From the observation deck, we could see all over the island and the ocean. This is a view of the side of the crater, a lighthouse, and the Pacific.
This is a picture of the crater.
And one of Honolulu and the beach.
Tricia and me with Honolulu and the ocean in the background.
On the way back down, Mary stopped to pick a plant that she referred to as "monkey balls."

At the bottom, there was a giant cage for empty water bottles. I guess they thought they would escape if they weren't caged. By the way, Taryn, I drank every single one of those bottles of water.
At the bottom, there was a lovely place selling shave ice. Mine was watermelon and coconut. I believe Tricia's was raspberry.
After showering the nature off of ourselves, we headed to the beach. This is the view from where we were sitting, toward the lifeguard stand. You can see the Hilton Hawaiian Village behind it on the right.
Tricia and me on the beach. There is a lovely herd of Beach Boys who rent chairs, umbrellas, and those super cool beach paddle bikes you see in the background. I love my beach chair, but when I sit on a nice, padded, rented lounge chair, it makes me far happier than my chair ever could. I'm sorry, chair. You know I would've brought you if I could!
Tricia and Katy ventured into the ocean with one of the high quality Target rafts I brought.

That evening, we headed to a beachside restaurant called Duke's.
Meet my new friend, Crab and Macadamia Nut Wonton. I could eat nothing but these forever and be perfectly happy.
The view from Duke's dining room. Note the pink hotel. And the ocean :-).
**Taryn, bird alert. Skip to the next picture**

The one problem with a beachside restaurant is that there is no way to prevent the birds from entering. We had many such visitors, some so bold as to walk up to our table. These two perched upon a nearby table's umbrella, and proceeded to essentially make out with each other.
The very nice waiter took our picture (without any birds).

After dinner, we went to downtown Honolulu to wander around. Katy made friends with a silver drummer.
And Mary made friends with another far scarier silver person. He took quite a shine to her. (...heh.)
And this, dear readers, is proof that Satan is afoot in this world: an entire store of Crocs.
Walls and walls of the things...and there were children everywhere, exposed to them! I swear, they should keep these things behind opaque walls or something, like they do porn, so as to not damage young, impressionable minds.
After such a strenuous evening, we soon retired to the Hale Koa for bed. Even though it was barely 8 pm EST. Stupid time difference.