Honolulu, Waikiki, and Lihue

We took off from Denver around 5am, which meant we were already feeling that "sort of hung over" feeling that comes with an early morning wake up call, but without the fun night of drinks before hand. I had been given a copy of the first Harry Potter book for an early birthday present by a coworker who couldn't believe I'd never jumped on the bandwagon. I knocked that out between Denver and Phoenix. Two hours into the Phoenix to Honolulu jaunt I'd finished another book. I'm a speed demon like that. And then I fell asleep in that wonderful position I wiggle into while on a plane, head first on the beverage tray so that I'm literally folded in half - because it always feels so awesome afterwards (not).

Thanks to time changes, we landed in Honolulu around 3pm with plenty of time to catch a bus, drop off our bags at our hotel, and head to the beach. Knowing that we were leaving in the morning for our next island we decided to see what we could - walked the beach all the way down the Waikiki area, found fresh seafood for dinner, and even got suckered into buying a lei. I broke my feet in for sandal season (who am I kidding, I've been wearing flip flops since February).  We came back to the room around 8, watched the fireworks over the water (via a reflection from the neighboring hotel's windows since we didn't have a straight line of sight to the beach) and called it a night. In reality it was about 2am Denver time, so we were exhausted.

We woke up easily the next morning thanks to still being on Denver time, and headed right back to the airport for our inter-island flight to Lihue, Kauai.  Next time I think we'll just fly directly to Lihue (or maybe Maui) from the continental US.  I mean, Waikiki was fun, but it was too touristy for us.  Unless we're meeting friends there in the future (ahem, Brent and Kelsey we've gotta make this happen!) I think we skip the extra step.

Kauai, now, is a different story.  It's chickens, and farming, and wide open views, and not a high-rise in site.  Pure, old, Hawaii.  Sugarcane and coffee, herbs and spices growing roadside.  And by road, I mean the only real road on the island.  :)  Our inter-island flight only took about 30 minutes, and after landing we casually walked through the itty-bitty airport to our rental car spot (where they gave Drew a red Mustang...)  Apparently that screams "tourist" just a little less loudly than, you guessed it, a Jeep Wrangler. 
 
We made our way to the Aston Islander on the Beach for our one-night-stay before heading out on the trail.  We chatted up the very talkative staff member at the desk, stocked up on trail supplies at the local Walmart (yes, sigh, they had a Walmart), grabbed lunch at a little fish market next door (so good, we'd come back later in our trip for seconds) and then put on our suits.  We chalked the rest of the day up to the beach, knowing that the next day brought with it a serious adventure on the trail.  I wish I could say I had birthday cake that night - but I settled for a fish burger, fries, and an ice cream cone.  And by all that I mean I really didn't have to "settle", since it was amazing.