Looking Forward to 8 Great Days in Hawaii With Honolulu Lulu

Our first glimpse of Hawaii was Kailua - on the northeast tip of Oahu. This is where the president and his family spent last week. Kailua has one of the prettiest beaches in the world - also has one of the best school libraries. Lulu and I visited it in 2010 - we plan to go back to see it again this week. Darrin Tanaka is the librarian there. In the foreground is old Bellows Field - where the Japanese strafed the B-17's coming in from the mainland. The bombers flew right into the war - unarmed.

This is the Punch Bowl. It is an extinct volcano in downtown Honolulu. Inside they crafted the Pacific National Cemetery - soldiers that died fighting Japan in the Pacific are buried there. Ernie Pyle - the famous army journalist is buried there. What a beautiful setting.

It was a little hazy yesterday - but Pearl Harbor was easy to see as we were landing. This picture was taken on our westward flyby - we circled and then land eastward.

We are settle into our condo on the 22nd floor overlong Waikiki Beach. Lulu was asked to make a presentation at a convention here - then we are free to enjoy the rest of the week.

The flight from the mainland was uneventful. In the 5 hours - I watched 3 movies on our Delta Boeing 767. We only had carry-on bags - so we were quickly out of the airport in our rental Nissan Versa heading to our Waikiki Banyan Condo. Long ago we met our friend Doris from Nebraska on the net - and she has been renting her "heaven in the clouds" place to us ever since. I will send a video of the place soon. We never met Doris - but I think she is coming to visit on our last day.

We enjoy the jet lag - since we are 5 hours behind you guys back on the East Coast. We got really tired and went to bed last night at 7PM and we were up at 3 AM admiring the city lights from the balcony. The temperature here about 70 right now and goes up to around 80 in the day. There is always a gentle breeze. The news of the North Shore is winds creating high waves - we want to see that.

Honolulu has a Walmart now - the busiest place on the island - last night we went there to get our groceries for the week. It is interesting because it is a double decker - right downtown - Walmart on the bottom floor - Sam's on the top. Both stores have a distinct Hawaiian flavor.

One of our gifts for Christmas was surfing lessons. Drew decided that the two greatest surf bums must "catch a big one" before we die - or maybe die doing it. Stay tuned.