Friday, May 31: Day One
We made it! Pretty sure I start every travel post with those words but, phew, it felt a bit challenging to be ready to go this time. Just the busy season plus work plus Asher’s graduation on Thursday night… (more on that later! It was great.)
Maybe sometime I’ll write a whole post on what travel prep entails for me but jeez it feels like SO MUCH! I think it’s amplified when it’s a two week trip and many extra household things need to be left in order.
Airport!
We had an 8:55 am flight yesterday right out of our regional Madison airport – A DREAM!! It’s about 15 minutes from our house and small and just so easy. When it works out to fly from here it is life-changing good. Haha.
Then a nice and smooth, pretty seamless 7 hour flight from Denver to Honolulu! I watched Mean Girls (the new one) and Bohemian Rhapsody (which I saw before but we love Queen and I wanted to rewatch).
Picked up our rental car, a Denali SUV:
And we were on our way!
Driving out of airport, a pretty little rainbow greeted us:
The highway looked backed up ahead so we had a few minor moments of confusion and “snappiness” between driver and copilot 😆 but we eventually got on a route NOT on the highway to our hotel. Pretty quick 25 minute drive or so and we got checked in, the valet took our car, and finally – yay! Officially here.
Room view:
We paid extra for more premium view rooms- ours look at both Diamond Head and is ocean view! LOVE. I generally highly prioritize great views and/or balconies on our trips.
There are very few ACTUAL beachfront hotels in Waikiki area, but this one is super close. 2 minute walk? It’s just one block up and the hotel still provides beach chairs etc.
Wandering around
We explored the hotel, the lobbies, the great gym!, and stopped on the pool deck by the very cute and good looking bar/restaurant overlooking Diamond Head.
Then of course we had to check out the closest beach!! I am sure we will get to many different beaches- this is just “our” local closest one.
The boys were itching to get in but we said not now… with time change our 3:10 pm flight arrival already felt like 8:10 pm and by this time it was even much later.
We walked around, stopped in a couple convenience stores and walked a ways down the main street. (I think our hotel location is perfect!!! Right next to several little stores that have everything we could need and also on the quieter end of Waikiki, yet still seems incredibly walkable and close to all.) 👍
Dinner
We stopped at a restaurant I had heard of and bookmarked just a block or two from our hotel. They had live music and a killer chill Hawaiian vibe and great views of beach and sunset.
Fortunately nothing seemed too crazy busy as I haven’t made a single reservation. We had to wait like, 5 minutes.
We didn’t linger as long as usual since we were all getting pretty tired! I think it was maybe 8 pm (1 am our time) by the time we headed back to the hotel.
The boys were even tired and crashed pretty soon after! I think everyone else was asleep by 9:30, and I was out by 10 or so.
And now, off to our first day!! Our only firm plans are reservations to hike Diamond Head between 10-12. It’s only 5:47 am right now and I have been up since like 4:30… oh well.
The boys definitely want to connect somehow with some boogie boards either via renting or just buying some, so I think we’ll probably do a little exploring + beach time in the afternoon.
Current view:
GRATEFUL KAE 
This is all AMAZING. I’m so glad things went smoothly on the trip there; I feel like having a great first day/settling in nicely makes such a difference for the rest of the trip. It really sets the stage and mood for what’s to come. Can’t wait to read all your trip recaps. ❤
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Thanks! Yes, especially with already a long trip, I was so relieved to not have any travel delays etc…
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So beautiful! I know 3 couples in Hawaii right now! I would love to teleport myself like I said in text. It looks so gorgeous and I bet the humidity feels nice. Our dry midwestern skin feels so much better with a bit of humidity (in our opinion – I know some hate it but the humidity in Hawaii didn’t really feel oppressive to us like it can in some parts of the US).
I can so relate to the snippiness between driver and co-pilot. That is so us at times especially after a long day of travel with young kids. Even with all the map access it can be confusing to figure out where we are supposed to be going at first.
Can’t wait to hear all about your trip. We just adored our time in Hawaii and hope you have a great experience too!!
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Yes, we sometimes seem to have issues getting the map to play on the car play from my phone vs his phone or if I have the map going and then I need to look for something then I can’t always do that while the map is running to a destination… ahhhh hahaha. 😂
I agree on the humidity and skin thing – I just feel sooo much better and more like, moisturized!!
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Oh man, that brings back memories… I stayed in Waikiki for two nights after a worktrip to Hawaii (I KNOW) and must have stayed very close to where you are because it all looks so familiar. I hope you’ll hike Diamond Head… it was such a wonderful experience for me! Have the best time.
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We hiked Diamond head today! Just beautiful!
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Thanks! Looking forward to hearing about all your WI adventures too!! Oops- this was supposed to be in response to Birchie.
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Yay for a smooth arrival! I always love it when we can fly out of the smaller airport.
Can’t wait to hear more about your trip!
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There is a Facebook group that does Hawaii swap and freebies. It’s usually tourists who bought items (boogies boards, Costco food, sunblock, etc) that they are trying to unload before they get back on a plane. I can’t remember the name of the group offhand. But definitely try to get it for free before buying!
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I did hear about that and planned to look that up, but then never did… and we found some boogie boards at ABC for $15 so just grabbed a couple of those. Hopefully we can pass them on to someone else later!
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Love those sunset pics. I remember the jet lag, with Sofia at 1 year old, it was pretty tough. She was grumpy most of the time. We even had to rent a crib during that trip. Oh I need to go back to Hawaii with the whole family again. If only not that crazy expensive. Looking forward to follow you along.
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Sucha gorgeous place! I have been to Hawaii just once, and that was last October. We went to the Big Island as it seemed you could experience so many different things there – hike the lave fields, visit a rain forest, enjoy beautiful beaches & swim. We loved it so much!!
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ALOHA!!! What an amazing start to your trip. Getting a room with a beautiful view really does make a huge difference. Your hotel seems like it’s in a perfect location and everything looks so pretty. I CANNOT WAIT to hear more about this trip!
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Flying out of Madison is a real treat! Yay! I’m glad you made it there safely.
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