Day 5 – Oahu

What a great day we had today!  We had a beautiful sail in early this morning and there were great big clouds over the mountains that threatened but never produced rain!  We had ordered room service for coffee and rolls for breakfast and by 9am we were in a taxi and on our way to the rental car office.  We rode out of there in our spiffy and very sporty…….mini-van!  Since Betty and Don know their way around so well they were the designated drivers although Betty did a bit more navigating! 

Our first stop was CVS since I did a bad thing and left one of my medications home alone.  Consequently, a phone call this morning transferred the prescription to the local pharmacy where I was able to pick it up.  Good thing we weren’t in Russia :O!!!

Anyway, off we went to a wonderful lookout spot with a park where we were able to overlook the entire city of Honolulu from Diamond Head to way past the airport!  It was spectacular and I never knew it was there.  Hardly anyone else up there so it was lovely and uncrowded.   We took the road across the Island to the Pali lookout and THAT’s where we found all the crowds!  Yikes, buses and cars and people, oh my!!  We whipped that sporty mini-van right out of there and managed to get ourselves on the wrong road and ended up …….wait for it…………nearly back in Honolulu!!  HA!  Ooops, meant to end up on the OTHER side!!  After much laughter we flipped a tight u-turn (remember, sporty mini-van) and headed to the north shore.

The north shore is where the shrimp farms are and the famous ‘shrimp trucks’ that we were seeking.  Eureka!  We found one just past Sunset Beach that had the most delicious shrimp and I am not kidding!!  There were tour buses there!  I guess everyone but me knew about these places and you can bet that we won’t ever miss them again if we are back on Oahu!!

Our next stop was to take a look at the new Disney Hotel and although we didn’t take the time to go inside the property looks beautiful from our vantage point.  Betty and Don own timeshares at Ko’Olina next door to Disney and that is a lovely place as well.  The beaches there are man-made coves and are just gorgeous.  The waves there are farther out and they have created safer, calmer swimming areas.

After a gas fill-up at Costco we headed back into Honolulu to return the car and head back the area where the ship is berthed next to the Aloha Tower.  We had some drinks at a restaurant near the ship and then embarked again in time for dinner.

The weather today was perfect at 81 degrees and a cooling breeze.  We sail this evening about 11pm which is in about 45 minutes and we head out to Maui.  It is a tender port since there is no pier in Lahaina for ships this size.  Our plan is to let the crowds get off first and then walk around the town. 

Today was Riley’s 11^th birthday so it was great to talk to him!

XOXOXO

M