January 2014.
Hawaii is U.S. state located in the center of the Pacific Ocean. But despite of such a distant location, the people here live even better than in the mainland. In addition to usual benefits of civilization and technical progress, these people live in the perfect climate.
For a two-week vacation, we chose the capital of Hawaii, the city of Honolulu. The hotel, where we stayed was Polynesian Plaza. The hotel occupied only a part of the building. Some souvenir shops and cafes are located in the same block. The hotel location is very convenient. The nearest beach is in five minutes of walk. Army Museum, Zoo, Aquarium are at walking distance from the hotel. The hotel is a bit old and the small repair and redecorating is needed. I did not like the dingy walls in the bathroom, also many sockets in the room were broken and did not work. But despite of these little things, in general, the hotel is worth the taken money. There is a fridge, microwave, coffeemaker, stove, toaster, iron, TV inside the room. Furniture was pretty good. Our balcony went out onto the busy street, but, I liked it. View from the balcony was beautiful. The hotel had a small pool. We almost did not use it as we preferred walk to the beach instead. Although, my daughter swam there several times and liked it.
Waikiki beach.
Waikiki is a beautiful sandy beach. There are breakwaters along the whole length of the beach. Sometimes you can see pontoons, but you can go to sea without them as there are a lot of sandy gaps between reefs. There are rental points with water cyclings and canoes along the beach and volleyball playgrounds.
Parks for relaxing with green grass, trees , benches and tables are nearby the beach. We have been in different places of the Waikiki beach, but the more pleasant part is near Army Museum. It takes 5 minutes to walk from Polynesian Plaza Hotel. There are not too much people, but everything you need for the rest is there. Waikiki is a beach in the south of the island. The temperature at the south shore is about 25-30°C in January and there are almost no waves.
Therefore, there are no surfboarders at this part of island. We have seen only sailboats for windsurfing there.
Also Hawaiian Santa Claus loves sunbathing on this beach :). He played on a violin everyone who asked.
One day we spent exploring other part of the island and saw a very different picture. It’s cold and rainy at the northern part of the island in January. When the bright sun comes it feels Like 23°C. As soon as the sun goes away the temperature drops until 15°C. The beach activities at the north are very different from what we have seen on the south side. Rescuer team did not allow children to come close to the water because of the strong waves and asked parents better watch for particularly unruly children. There were no too much families with children at the beach, though. The main contingent was young people and surfers who liked the storm.
At the same part of island we found the 2-mile mountain trail Makapuu Lighthouse Trail and decided to walk on it. We came here and climbed the hill. There were very beautiful views and we could see the neighboring island of Molokai in the haze. Once we climbed up to the top, pouring cold rain immediately started and we thoroughly soaked. However, he quickly stopped and we dried up on the way back.
Later in the afternoon, we were on the Nuuanu Pali Lookout.
It was too cold already and we almost did nbot see anything. We ran to the car to warm up a bit.
But we saw alley cats there that is almost impossible for America :).
Restaurants.
There were a lot of restaurants near our hotel with the reasonable prices.
But despite this it was not easy to find the place for supper. All tables usually were busy.
Waiters gave guests electronic devices that alarmed as soon as the table was available.
This is café with live music. Young and famous rock musicians perform there every evening. In my opinion the prices in café were a bit expensive. But, it’s quite pleasant place.
One day we had dinner in a rather unusual Japanese restaurant. The food was cooked right on the table where visitors eat. The chef was not just cooking the ordered meal, but he also gave a performance juggling by the food and cutleries. By the way, the prices were not high there.
There is a military museum In Honolulu, which is located close to the beach. The main exhibition is the old fort with artillery. There is only one cannon, however, and not on the position, humbly standing in the courtyard. Some premises are preserved inside the fort. During the inspection it becomes clear that digging this fort from the sea is quite problematic – the walls are thick, the shells are stored deep in the cellar, there is a shells feed conveyor to the guns, and a lot of guns, according to the model of the fort. Impossible by “on the palm” ships hanging out on waves in front of the fort :). Besides the fort, there is a collection of small arms and equipments, and the resting place of US troops – military mobile bar. There is a helicopter SuperKobra in the courtyard of the museum – despite the fact that it’s the old development of the 60x, it looks quite modern. Tanks are quite small and not impressive compared with tanks of Russian expositions.
In the engineering museum, which located in the building of the museum, we watched a film about the history of the port and the design of the Hawaiian streets.
They are designed in the way when the flood water will roll through the streets, it will not rinse the homes along the streets.
The battleship Arizona, sunk by the Japanese (the United States entered World War II after that), is still lying at the bottom of Pearl Harbor bay. There is no excursions to Arizona, you can only watch the top deck of Arizona from a surface in a few places. The battleship Missouri stands directly behind the Arizona. Japan signed the surrender in World War II on the deck of Missouri. You can walk on the battleship, see a copy of very surrender documents and historical photographs. It is perfectly clear – US was attacked, the battleship sunk, US fought, Japan signed the surrender. Impressive. Battleship itself was in service until 1992, and is equipped with fairly modern weapons and equipment, and quite interesting to see them.
In addition, you can take a tour to WWII submarine and Museum of Naval Aviation. But we did not go there.
Activities with children.
There is a quite big zoo in Honolulu, fifteen minutes of walk from our hotel. We have seen a lots of birds, monkeys, reptiles, including the huge crocodiles, elephants, giraffes and so on. There was even an area with interesting plants. We came there after lunch and, unfortunately, were not able to see everything. The zoo was closed at 18.00, Kiko-zoo – at 16.00. So, it is better to plan the visit in the morning.
Waikiki Aquarium located next to the Waikiki beach. It is not big. Two hours is enough to see everything there. There is a pretty unusual anymals in aquarium. One of them is on the video above. We forgot what it is. If you know, please help us. The most attractive animals at the aquarium were the seals, as they are the cleverest.
Waterpark Oahu Island is quite far from the city. We booked the car to get there.
Park is not large but we enjoyed the visit. There were not much people, so, most of the time you have fun, not stand in the line like, for example, in Orlando Waterpark. There were no slides like “kamikadze”. The most interesting slide, in my opinion, was Shaka (number 19 on the plan). Unfortunately, we did not photos from this place, as my cellphone had been discharged. Shoot yourself :). Probably, I must say that besides the payment for tickets, there were the charge for parking. Smth about 8$.
