We’ve been planning this 11-day trip to Hawaii for quite a while. We told Kate and Sara about the vacation on Christmas Day and gave them each a lei and a special countdown chalkboard to track the remaining days. They started at 204 and this morning they hit zero, which meant the travel day had arrived.
Olivia and I have been to Hawaii once before, but that was before we had kids, so it has been quite a while. Our plan for this trip is to spend three and a half days in Waikiki and then board a 7-Day cruise that will visit Maui, the Big Island, and Kauai before returning back to Oahu.
The day began early with a 3am alarm and a 4am Uber to the Nashville airport. We flew through Minneapolis / St. Paul on our way to Honolulu. The second flight was supposed to have been 8 1/2 hours, which would have been by far the longest either girl has ever been on. However, once we boarded the plane, we sat on the tarmac for over an hour while they replaced a bad radio.
The most important thing was that we arrived safely in Honolulu just after 4 pm local time. The NCL folks gave us each a lei at the airport before boarding the shuttle to Waikiki.
After checking in at the Hilton Hawaii Village Waikiki Beach Resort, we attended the Waikiki Starlight Luau that was on top of the parking garage. It was actually a way cooler environment that this sounds, but I did find the location amusing.
Our hostess for the evening was named Sia, who lives on the north coast of Oahu and has 8 children (1 son and 7 daughters). She sang lots of Polynesian songs throughout the evening.
We has a yummy buffet dinner where both girls got to try poi for the first time and Sara even tried sushi, which was quite a shock to me. Her diet usually just consists of mac n’ cheese and chicken tenders.
After dinner, we were treated to a show that portrayed the voyage of the ancestors of the Polynesian people. During the show we got to see dances from Hawaii, Tonga, Tahiti, Samoa, and New Zealand. Everybody’s favorite part was the fire dancers.
After the show we settled into our room and mercifully got some sleep after a very long day. Tomorrow we begin to explore Oahu.