Following the Dream

Christian August 29th, 2009

   This post is way overdue.  Sorry for getting away from the blog for so long.  The trip to Hawaii was very long and took forever.  We flew from Phuket to South Korea to Tokyo to Hawaii.  The flight time was over twenty hours.  However, we were at least able to enjoy some time in Tokyo.  Okay, it may have just been the airport, but still had a ton of really cool electronics, toys, and strange food.  It really is a shame that we had to cut out Japan from our trip, but we home to make it back there some day.  After eight hours in the Tokyo airport, we were ready to continue on.

     Arriving on US soil was such a nice feeling, even if it was in the middle of the Pacific.  We were some of the only Americans on the flight, so Customs was a breeze with little wait.  Those words “Welcome back to the USA” sounded very nice after being stuck in Thailand for longer than we had wanted.  We did have to wait for a bus to take us to our hotel.  It was a bit strange seeing cars on the right side of the road, hear American accents again, and in a way felt a bit sad.  This was it, the final destination on our World Trip.  The bus picked us up to take us to our hotel in Waikiki Beach.  The hotel was nice and had a great location for the money.  We got settled in and took a nap, which lasted longer than we had thought.

    We had a great time on Oahu.  We filled our time by eating out, shopping for souviners, finding happy hours, and seeing the island.  One of the days we rented a car to take a drive up to the North Shore for the Pipeline Masters Surf Competition.  Along the way we stopped at Hanamu Bay which had some great views.  The surf competition was a blast, especially with some well known pros such as Kelly Slater in the lineup.  There was just such a good vibe, with people camped out on the beach watching the pros battle the huge waves. 

After staying at the competition we made our way to the Polynesian Culture Center where we saw some very interesting displays as well as a fire show.  The rest of the time in Hawaii was spent relaxing, going to “normal” restaurants, seeing some movies, buying sovenirs, and leading a semi normal life again.  It  was nice to be in the USA again.

    We did make a trip to Pearl Harbor, which was an eye opener.  I did not fully appreciate the magnitute of the attacks until we went there. 

It was just a great time spent in Hawaii, even if the weather was not on our side.  We would love to go back sometime and explore more of what Hawaii has to offer.  We suspect that getting away from the Waikiki crowds for a bit would have been nice.

     As we travel a bit more once we get home, we will continue to post.  I will also try to post any cool local outings that we take for photos.  I will post a “Final Thoughts on the World Trip” at some point, but right now we are in the Southwest USA traveling around.  Keep your eye on the site for some updates over the next month or so. 

• Hawaii
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