At some point in my life, I want to visit every state in America. It is kind of an unofficial bucket list item for me and my wonderful wife, Cecelia.
Last week, we got a little closer to that goal by visiting our southern-most state and our second most western state, Hawaii.
The 50th state in the union did not disappoint.
Hawaii’s Waikiki is pretty much everything it is billed to be. It was warm and somewhat humid, but not too warm nor not too humid like Florida’s Keywest or Louisianna’s New Orleans. (Seriously, only go visit those two places in the winter unless you really want to sweat…LOL.)
The vibe in Waikiki is very relaxed. It is peaceful to walk along the beach early in the morning, which I did a few days trying to get a good sunrise picture. Unfortunately, I was not very successful as there tended to be low cloud cover each of those mornings when I went out early. Still, those turned into pleasant days.
I saw Pearl Harbor and we did a luau one night. Yes, the female dancers wear those grass looking skirts as they perform. The show was quite fun. The food varies, but was alright.
If you ever go to Hawaii, I recommend going to one.
Pearl Harbor was a sight to see. Unfortunately, the group I was with didn’t have a chance to take the boat right out to the USS Arizona Memorial.
My wife’s cousin, Anne Craig Lum, who has lived in Hawaii for more than 40 years, served as mine and Cecelia’s unofficial tour guide for a good portion of the trip. She chauffeured us all around the island the weekend we arrived and drove us to the airport Friday night to catch our flight back.
She knows a bunch of great restaurants and the best locations on the island for shave ice, which they make a little differently in Hawaii than they do back here on the mainland. You can get it with a scoop of ice cream, followed by the shave ice on top, the flavoring and then some sweetened condensed milk on top.
It is quite delicious.
I would recommend that everyone visit Hawaii at least once during their life, if they get the chance.
While Hawaii is a great place to visit, getting there isn’t quite as much fun. We started with a flight at 6:30 a.m. from Cincinnati to Seattle followed by a three-hour or so layover. Then we hopped on another flight from Seattle to Honolulu. We were in the air about 12- or 13-hours total. I did manage to watch four movies during the flight over, so it wasn’t all bad.
We never did get used to the time change. Hawaii is five hours behind our time zone.
The flight back was a little rougher for me than the flight over. We left shortly before 11 p.m. and got back to Cincinnati about 4 p.m. or so the next afternoon. I couldn’t get to sleep during the flight, but if you can, then a night flight is probably a good choice for you.
Speaking of flights, I wish TSA and the airlines would get on the same page with TSA PreCheck®. Theoretically, you pay TSA $100 and give them some additional information. If approved, which we were, you qualify for the TSA PreCheck®, which is supposed to let you bypass the regular security line and instead walk a shorter security line and through a metal detector instead of the body scanner, which are not very accurate from what I can tell.
Cecelia usually sets off the body scanners every time. Why I do not think those work very well is that it usually goes off in a different spot each time when Cecelia walks through it.
Unfortunately, the TSA PreCheck® never made it onto our bordering passes either time. So, we had to go through the longer regular security lines both times. I had this happen once in Knoxville too. I am not sure what I paid TSA for if I can’t use it.
Before I conclude this column, let me tell you about an opportunity you have to potentially win $100.
The News Journal People’s Choice Reader’s Poll begins appearing in the newspaper this week.
Here is your chance to help recognize your favorite businesses, servers, public officials, and so forth. Entries are due back to us by Friday, April 3.
There will be two ballots pulled from all of the entries. One will receive a $100 cash prize and the other will receive a $50 cash prize. It could be you if enter.
