Ahoy the shore from Hawaii (part 1 in a series)

Day one: Friday October 9

I am currently traveling with a group of three (along with Gary and his sister Cathy), making my first trip to the Hawaiian island group. We are on a 7 night cruise of the Hawaiian islands aboard the NCL cruise line’s Pride of America. We left our Toronto apartment at the crack of dawn on Friday October 9th in order to make our 7 AM flight to Vancouver’s YVR airport, aboard Air Canada. Check-in at Pearson went without a hitch. The 767 was fully loaded but boarding went smoothly and our flight remained on time. The seatbacks were equipped with a VOD system and I watched “My Sisters Keeper” (featuring Cameron Diaz)—a real tear jerker and the intense Iraq war drama “The Hurt Locker” (excellent).

We had arranged our travel plans so we had an 8 hour stopover in Vancouver to tour and stretch our legs before begin the second leg of our flight to Honolulu. We picked up our rental car—a Toyota Corolla sedan from Thrifty—at the airport and were soon on our way. Unfortunately, enroute from YVR airport to the city, a wide load truck carrying a heavy load of stone sideswiped us on the drivers’ side knocking off the back of the rear view mirror. The driver—a 22 year old kid--- didn’t even realize that he had hit us and continued along. I was in the passenger seat and so jumped at the next red light intersection to confront him. He pulled over to the side, admitted he was at fault and we were able to get his name, company name and vitals to lay a claim for damages.

Thereafter we proceeded on to Stanley Park. We stopped in the park at a few points--- the aquarium, the prospect point look-out near the Lions Gate Bridge (where we had lunch), near the totem poles / sea wall / lighthouse and finally at the tea house (where we enjoyed afternoon tea). Lunch ot the Stanley point deck was delicious. Gary ordered a cheeseburger with a smokey and peameal bacon and fries. Cathy ordered a club sandwich and I had haddock fish & chips. At the teahouse Cathy had a cup of Earl Gray tea, Gary had a chocolate mouse and I ordered a poma-tini (a cosmopolitan type martini with pomegranate juice substituted for cranberry). Before we knew it, it was time to head back to YVR to catch our flight! We reported the damage to the rear-view mirror when we turned the rental car in, passed on the information we had collected from the at fault driver and were advised that a claims agent would be in later touch.

The second leg of our flight from YVR to HNL was also aboard a 767 and was similarly crowded. On this leg of the journey, I used the seatback VOD system, I watched the comedy The Hangover (about a bachelor party in Vegas gone wrong) and an interesting feature documentary (Art and Copy) about the advertising business.

By the time we arrived at HNL we had been awake for over 20 hours and were feeling quite groggy. After collecting our luggage from the carousel (it all arrived in one piece) we caught our cab to the hotel—the Best Western Coconut-- we had booked for a single night pre-cruise to catch some shut eye. The hotel was surprisingly clean and tastefully decorated for a Best Western, although the mattresses were a bit on the soft and lumpy side. We retired around 10 PM, exhausted, to ensure we would rise in time to get out to Diamond Head around dawn to begin our hike to the summit.

Still to come—Diamond Head, Waikiki Beach stroll, Embarking the NCL Pride of America