During our last day in Honolulu before flying out to LA, we spent the day travelling up the east coast of the island of Oahu. The menu for breakfast this morning was again Starbucks, however, this time I got the blueberry bagel, and this was a slight disappointment from the original bagel.
Our first destination for the day was Hanauma Bay, which was about an hours ride from Waikiki on Bus number 23. The bus was pretty much packed with tourists who all had the same idea that we had of heading up to the north of the island and up to the beaches there, away from the hustle and bustle of Waikiki and Honolulu city. Upon arriving at Hanauma Bay, we walked over to the cliff face to look down onto the bay and the reefs that were clearly visible from the shore. The crystal blue waters and the coral found beneath the surface of the waters looked fantastic and seemed like a beautiful place to spend the day. Unfortunately, we didn't have our swimwear (as we were to fly out on the red-eye tonight to LA, it wasn't really a good idea to go swimming seeing as we didn't have anywhere to shower before the flight). The weather also looked like it was going to rain soon, so after spending enough time and taking some photos, we headed back to the bus stop to wait for the bus to head up further along the coast.
It began to pour rain down while on the bus and so that meant we had to be content to watch the coast go by from the bus windows instead of getting off along the stops. We continued to ride the bus until the end of the line and stayed on for the return journey back into Waikiki. When we finally got back into the city it was around lunch time and so we made our way to a little shopping area called King’s Village where a lot of retro/souvenir stores located, especially one particular one called Rock Island café, which was decked out in Elvis, Betty Boop and other artefacts from centuries gone by. It was classic American Retro Diner; Shauntelle got the pizza while I got a pizza hot dog and both of us had the soda float (basically a coke spider). Full from lunch, we made one last trip over to Ala Moana to do a little more shopping, getting a t-shirt for both myself and Daniel (thanks Dan for letting me shop!).
Back at the hotel, we rested a little and had some dinner (combination of Cheesecake Factory take out and sandwiches from one of the thousands of ABC stores found on Oahu island (they are literally like Starbucks on every corner, sometimes there are two within 100ms of one another!). All set and our shuttle arriving to take us to Honolulu airport, we checked in with American Airlines ready for our flight bound for Los Angeles, California. What we didn't bank on was the need to pay to check in baggage, as there had been no notification from the online agent that I had booked the tickets through. That solved, we were through TSA (Transport Security Authority?) and at the gate with an hour or two to spare. Our flight was also slightly delayed due to headwinds coming in from California but once we had boarded and settled on the plane, we were told that we would be able to make up most of the time because this headwind would become tailwind on the return journey.
Now onboard, I made a comment to Shauntelle as other passengers were still filing in that it would be funny should one of the homeless looking guys that had just stepped on board the plane sat in the seat next to us. Lets just say it wasn't so funny when he came down the aisle and plopped himself right next to Shauntelle. Shaggy beard, dirty clothes and a little bit of a smell to him, he was rude, annoying and most of all, non-compliant when it came to moving to an empty row, even when suggested by the flight attendants. I didn't really have a problem with the situation, as I was asleep for most of the 4½ hours, however Shauntelle barely got any sleep and so the flight did in fact turn into a red-eye. We had left Honolulu just before midnight and arrived the short 4½ hours later into LAX, at around 6.30am Los Angeles time.
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