I believe that I have had quite enough of the traffic in Honolulu to last several lifetimes, and if you spend your entire time in the islands in the state capital, then you will have missed some great parts of Oahu.  But I’m getting a bit ahead of myself.  I feel that I first need to apologize for taking 3 days to make my first post of our trip.  To be honest, the drive to Charlotte and the stay at the La Quinta near the airport was not much to write home about.  Even in the most ordinary of hotels, though, interesting things can happen.  For the purpose of this trip, I’ll be referring to my girls as Lucy (my oldest) and Ethel (my youngest).  I do think that it’s time that we use an ice bucket in a hotel for the purpose for which it was intended.  Ethel was asked where I had gone at one point and she explained that I had gone to fill the “wine bucket”.  Apparently, our pre-trip bottle has become ordinary to her.  Since we had to get up at 4, we all turned in early.  Sure enough, at 3am, so I thought, an alarm sounded in the hotel for roughly 40 seconds.  Having had the stuffing scared out of me, I fell out of bed and attempted to silence the “alarm”.  It stopped on its own and I found myself on the floor, heart beating out of my chest.  I said “so I thought” because the hotel clock said that it was 3.  And since I was clearly awake after the alarm, I laid there waiting for the alarm on my phone that never sounded.  When I checked, the time was an hour early.  Thanks, La Quinta.

So we woke, we left, and we went to the airport.  There is something exciting about doing mundane tasks with someone doing it for the first time.  It was Lucy and Ethel’s first flight and they made it a joy for us all.  Such as when Lucy complained of “jet leg” and proceeded to work her leg out (clearly she meant jet lag).  I appreciated the fact that the flight attendants provide some “extra aloha” for my coke at no charge.  At 2pm we arrived in Honolulu at an airport that reminded me of Disney’s Polynesian Resort.  An rental car shuttle ride later, we were at Dollar Rent-a-Car driving off in our mini-van.  We headed north to our condo home for 2 nights and since we were all exhausted, we had some shrimp from Romy’s which, though not identified as gluten-free, left me feeling good.  I stuck with the garlic and butter shrimp and the spicy ones and had no problems at all.  So finally, we make it to today.

This morning we were all up fairly early, prior to 7, so we headed to a bakery on the advice of a friend who grew up on Oahu.  We ate at Ted’s Bakery in Sunset Beach.  Clearly, there is absolutely nothing gluten-free about a bakery but my family was so excited, I couldn’t deny them.  Lucy had a chocolate croissant that could’ve choked a horse and Ethel had a guava danish.  The boss had an omelet that looked really good, and I went with 3 eggs served with rice.  Again, no problems and the entire family left with full bellies and happy faces.  After eating, we started our circle tour of Oahu by heading east on Kamehameha Highway.  We happened upon our best view at our very first stop and after that, everything else was anti-climatic.  I will say that each stop was unique, offered a different perspective, and was pleasant.  In Kaneohe, we stopped for lunch at Mike’s Huli Huli Chicken.  Again, even though not labeled as gluten-free, the chicken left me feeling no pain and it was delicious.  I would highly recommend a stop.  After several hours we were back in Honolulu fighting traffic.  And people.  And traffic.  Our goal was the International Market and the Duke Kahanamoku statue.  We made it to both and even got a little walk in on Waikiki.  The beach was ok.  Way too crowded and it felt forced and like any other beach in the world.  So, I suppose you have to see it, but I wouldn’t dawdle.  My suggestion-go to Oahu, stay on the North Shore, and pay a brief visit to this metropolis-by-the-sea.  Our final two goals for the evening we to go to Haleiwa for shave ice and swim at Waimea Bay.  We batted .500.  Power was out in Haleiwa, so no shave ice was to be had, but we did manage to get in a chilly Pacific Ocean at Waimea Bay.

All in all, it was a good day.  Lots of time in the car which wasn’t bad and I did enjoy seeing the different parts of Oahu, not just Honolulu.  Now, how about a few photos…