HONOLULU, HA - DAWN ON WAIKIKI BEACH

The day breaks on Waikiki and the beach lies waiting for the daily throngs of visitors.

HONOLULU, HAWAII - A LITTLE WINTER DREAMING

View of the Halekulani Hotel on Waikiki Beach from her sister property 

the Waikiki Parc, our favorite spot to stay for visits to Oahu.

We were gifted with two nights at the Halekulani for our honeymoon. The hotel is listed
among the very best in the world, and deservedly so. We stay at the Parc for budgetary
reasons and, frankly, the view. As you can see, it's tremendous.

Just the thing for wishful thinking on a cold winter day.

Pic of the Day: Room with a View

One of my favorite hotels is the Waikiki Parc in Honolulu.

This is the view we usually get. Why is why the Parc is one of my favorites...

Pic of the Day: More than Two Hours Before Your Flight

I admit. There are days when even I know I've gotten to the airport a little early.

Honolulu International

Pic of the Day: Finding Aloha

As I have mentioned before I spent a good part of my youth traveling with my family. Dad was a career Navy man, and one of the deployments took us to Pearl Harbor. 

It was in the mid-sixties, and the "Jet Set" were in full fashion. As an impressionable six year old I saw the airport as an amazing and wonderful place. It was an exciting world which led everywhere you needed. We would go to pick up a visiting relative and I would hear announcements for flights to Hong Kong, and Tokyo, and San Francisco...etc. Then the roar of 707 engines as they taxied to the gate, and the spilling out of people to be greeted by friends and relatives -- at the gate! -- there on the island. The excitement was palpable, the energy unique. It was the the jet age, and the golden era of air travel, with Honolulu as one of the most exotic destinations.

It made a profound impact, I'm sure, on the Traveler I am today. Constant excitement and a desire to find out what's just over the next ridge. To me, the tower below is an icon of my childhood, but also a gateway to where I want to go next. The word Aloha, as displayed on the control tower, holds a very special place in my heart.

Pic of the Day: THE EMPTY AIRPORT

As a traveler, I understandably spend a significant amount of time in airports. I've blogged about them before.

Last August I was in Honolulu for a meeting. Hurricane Iselle was, simultaneously, making a head-on approach to the islands. My flight out was scheduled for 11pm, and the general assumption was that the hurricane would disrupt air travel -- and, indeed, ended up canceling flights that night.

I arrived at HNL several hours before my flight, figuring the place would be a madhouse.

Not so much.

(Incidentally, our flight was the last out of HNL that night, after two other flights had actually canceled because of the oncoming storm. Our pilot quite correctly considered it would be a bit bumpy on the outset, but not too bad afterward. Everyone else got to spend the night at the airport....)