Mistakes of Oahu

There is a lot to talk about with Hawaii, but there were several things we did wrong, and I think it makes more sense to treat them here, all at once, and then focus on the individual attractions.

While this was before I had gone digital with cameras, so there wouldn't have been a lot of great pictures regardless, a friend who loves Hawaii and was thrilled that we were going snorkeling gave us four disposable cameras for underwater use. That was way more than we needed for underwater pictures, but I was using disposable cameras then anyway, so I thought fine, they're still cameras.

What I did not know was that they are set up differently for the focus, and they do not do well out of the water. It makes sense, but I had never thought about it. In a nutshell, there will be even less good pictures for this than there were for the Toronto trip. That being said, I still think disposable cameras make sense for underwater photography, unless you do a lot of it.

The biggest mistake was not understanding the logistics of the island. If we didn't travel on the cheap, we would never travel at all, and it usually works out for us. We were going to do everything by bus and walking, and that worked pretty well around Honolulu and Waikiki, but we lost a lot of time for the other side of the island, which led to us missing some things.

We took the bus to the Dole Pineapple Plantation, and then we were supposed to stop off for shave ice at Aoki's, which is the traditional place, and then hang around Waimea Falls before heading back into town for our dinner show.

The bus ride took much longer than originally planned, even though I had checked schedules. That has us running later, plus the other thing we did not realize is that the windward side of the island gets a lot more rain. We ended up not making either of those two stops, and in fact did not have shave ice at all, so we missed something iconic for the area. (We had chances for Spam and eggs that we just skipped.)

Transportation to and from the Polynesian Cultural Center was included with our package, but that did add several hours, and your ticket allows you to go back and see more of the villages, without the show, but it was logistically impossible for us to take advantage of that.

The other issue is that for Hanuama Bay, the first bus that goes there leaves around 9, but there are real advantages to getting there when it opens, around 7.

For all these reasons, it may be worthwhile to consider renting a car for the trip, at least for specific days. It could also make sense to switch hotels, starting by staying on the windward side for those attractions and then moving into town for the rest of the trip. It's at least something to think about. Because of too much time spent in getting around we missed out on Diamond Head and Punchbowl as well, and though we passed by the Iolani Palace, we did not have time to go in.

(The International Market was missed not because of time but because we ended up inside another market and did not immediately realize we were in the wrong place. There's actually a lot of shopping there.)

There was another big mistake that was manageable but it led to a small mistake that was pretty horrific, but even that was combined with another mistake that was pretty stupid.

One sister invited a friend along. Traveling together is kind of a risky proposition, and because we had such different goals for the trip, that ended up causing various frustrations. She learned her lesson.

It was this same sister who likes being tan and thinks getting sunburned is a good way of doing that because it will fade into a tan and last longer. She learned a lesson here too, I think, but not before she had picked up a really bad burn that caused her to be hobbling everywhere. Don't do that.

Anyway, the way these worked together is that we bought her some aloe vera, and the friend suggested putting it in the freezer first so it would be really cold. I don't know if I was out of the room or what, because that seems like the kind of thing I would have stopped, but putting chilled aloe vera onto the burning hot skin could have easily sent my sister into shock. As it was her teeth were chattering for the rest of the night. That's not to say that she wasn't uncomfortably warm before, but no, that was just stupid. Don't do that ever.