Last day - Oahu

It's our last few hours in Hawaii. We're sorry to see our holiday end, but glad to be going home. We miss the dogs and are looking forward to sleeping in our own bed!

We were a little slower than usual to get off the ship this morning. The pier Carnival uses in Honolulu is smaller than the other piers we've disembarked in. To help things from becoming too crowded and chaotic, they only let small groups of passengers off at a time (approximately 100 or less). We were in about the 13th or 14th group to get off the ship, so we had a leisurely breakfast in the dining room around 7:30 am and then relaxed on our balcony until our group was called about 9:45 am.

Next it was time to stagger to the rental car company shuttle under the weight of all our luggage. We really need to learn to be more streamlined packers! There was no overnight parking available at this pier, like there was in Maui, so we had to return our rental car yesterday and get another today. Our car today was a Lincoln Town Car - not what we had reserved, but it was what they had available. It was very different in size and ride from the Jeep Wranglers we've had the whole trip. It was sort of like being back on the ship! The upside was that the massive trunk held all our luggage and was smooth as can be on the road. The downside was that most people drive smaller cars here so parking spaces are tight.

Our first stop after getting the car was Pearl Harbor; Andrew was very much wanting to go there. We wandered around there and then took a tour of the Missouri ship, which Andrew found fascinating.

After Pearl Harbor it was time to head over to Waikiki. We booked a hotel room near the beach for the day so that we would have a place to have a shower and relax for a few minutes before we embarked on our 9+ hour plane ride. The drive over reminded me why I don't love Honolulu - it's a big city with big city traffic! It took us well over an hour to drive the 15 miles to the hotel. It was the road to Hana all over again, minus the hairpin turns!

Finally, we arrived at our hotel and, with the assistance of air traffic control, managed to get our car wedged in to the ramp. By this point we were very hungry and a bit cranky from the drive (refer to the Hana post, if needed), so we dumped our things in the room and then walked a mile down the beach to a restaurant that was recommended in our guide book. All signs of crankiness dissipated as soon as the first bite of Thai lettuce wraps hit my lips - delicious!! See photo above.

In a better mood, we walked back to the hotel along Waikiki beach. It is beautiful here but crowded, and we both agree that we would not come back to Oahu again. We would more likely return to Maui, which we loved.

Now we're in the room for a couple of hours before we launch our giant car back toward the airport. We'll leave here at 10 pm Hawaii time, and get home tomorrow at 2 pm CST. We've had a great time and are already looking forward to our next trip in November. That will consist of back-to-back cruises totaling 12 days: a 4-day cruise to Key West & Cozumel, then an 8-day cruise to Aruba, Curacao, Dominican Republic and Grand Turk. I'm sure there are still cabins available for both if any of you want to join us!