Eleanie at the Cheesecake Factory suggested that we had breakfast at “above Dukes” – so we had a walk and found Hula Grill! The place is kinda stuck in time, but it was all very charming and had a relaxed atmosphere. The view was amazing – who can’t love the sight of sea and palm trees while having breakfast. The food itself wasn’t that good, but it was a filler that kept us going the whole day long.

I don’t know why I just had to try it (again), but I ordered pancakes – which means you get those heavy american ones. And not 1, but 3! I had mine with banana and macademia nuts – yummy, but I had ordered bacon on the side and ate another (almost all of it) with bacon and maple cyrup (yup – when on vecation… ). JO had breakfast burrito with omelette and some other stuff and chipotle sauce. We also had tea and JO had a smoothie of some kind, which mostly tasted of water. So – take the breakfast at Lulu’s and the view from Hula Grill and you’d have the perfect meal. Oh yeah – I also had pineapple – I love pineapple and I think I’ve had some every day from the day we got here

After breakfast we walked through town – picking up brochures about car rentals – we might rent a car for a day or two next week. We walked out on the pier (in the warm sun – too hot for us Norwegians), so we went back to the hotel and relaxed a bit before I jumped in the water and then relaxed on the beach with my book. JO went for a walk around the lovely park by our hotel. Suddenly it got all dark and grey – and we both thought for sure it would start to rain. I packed my stuff and went back to our room – JO was minutes behind me. We decided we didn’t want a big dinner and I went back out on the balcony since – of course – there was no rain! (just the normal tease weather here in Hawaii). At 5 pm (or about that) Kim called and said “Sorry I’m late” – I had no idea we had plans, but that’s how we went to dinner We usually just say “take us to a place you haven’t been in a while” – so we ended up in this small place – that we”d probably just past if it was only JO and I. But Kim knows all the small places there are and the food was yummy! We had salmon – cream cheese – onions and bread! Kim had some sort of sandwish!

Kim wanted to see the first episode of the new season of Big bang Theory, so we all went to our hotel and watched

Another great day and evening!

For Friday we have no plans. We migth we really touristy and take a ride around town with one of the tour busses (we didn’t do that last time either) It’s nice to just relax a bit – it’s after all our holiday

We finally had breakfast at Lulu’s! As we were seated the rain pour down – plain luck we were inside Rain never lasts long here though – and rain during hot weather is never a big problem (although you will bet a wet either way). We had a really nice omelette with kaluha pork and onions. Kaluha pork is just slow-cooked pork – really yummy! I had some fruit on the side – all very tasty.

The rain had stopped when over breakfast was over, so we decided to walk across town. Browsing through a posh shopping center – with a Japanese toilet (for men..) – a Harley Davidson motorbike displayed in the middle of the make-up section… expensive handbags etc. And of course you had your typical japanese girl wearing hotpants and UGG’s. The latter must be expensive in Japan cause it seems that the store is crowded with japanese ppl. – and it’s still funny (as it was two years ago) watching ppl in 30 degrees with UGG’s – for me that’s winter shoes.

From the mall we walked past all the famous brands – Cartier – Tiffany – Vuitton etc etc. I hope for their sake that rent is cheap cause I couldn’t see a single ppl. inside!

We went to Fort Derussey park. Which is a place we the armed forces and their families can come and relax. They have hotels to stay at etc etc. Military is a big thing in America. At the airport in San Francisco there were certain areas just for the armed forces and their families.

Fort Derussey is almost on the other side of Waikiki than where we’re staying. It was very quiet – just like where we live, but I still like our side of town better (must be the big park we have outside our hotel)

We didn’t have any lunch today cause the breakfast was – as all meals here – LARGE sized portions, but we stopped by cheesecake factory and shared a piece of banana cheesecake. Kim had to cancel dinner due to her contact lenses hurt one of her eyes (she had a great evening though with her new Iphone and chocoloate from Norway).

Jan Ove googled and found a place called Uncle Bo’s – so we went there. It looked like a … place that you’d pass if you didn’t know about it, but the food was good enough – again large portions and prices are fairly low.

We had an early morning – so we fell asleep early – which was nice. I guess it’s all the walking and the fresh air that makes us so sleepy

No plans for tomorrow – maybe just relax in the sun or checking out rental cars

We had a walk into town again. Our hotel is on the edge of Waikiki towards (or should I say under?) the famous dead crater – Diamond Head. Read about our visit to Diamond Head last time we were here. It’s nice not to have a hotel right in the middle of Waikiki. It’s very noisy and busy, so to have to walk the 10 min into “town” is no big deal.

We were looking for a place called Lulu’s, but since we just had the name and an idea of where it was – well – after walking around the block a few times we gave up on the idea of a breakfast there. So we walked around a bit – bought a new bathing suit and eventually ended up having another brunch at Cheesecake Factory. We asked to be seated where Eleani worked and she was happy as ever! We were seated outside – which might look nice, but with the huzzle and buzzle from the traffic it’s just ok I – Anett (who seems to be the desinated blogger for this trip) had a nice pasta dish with chicken and Jan Ove had some sandwishes with sallad – both tastes yummy as ever – and again we got our drinks to go

We went to the International Marketplace and saw a man with two cockatiels on his shoulders. As we were leaving we saw him again and just had to go and talk to him. One of the birds where 24 + years old – the other one was a youngster called Pocket – since the owner used to carry him around in his pocket when it was young. We got to hold and pet Pocket – what a cute bird! We miss our Kitty!

Kim picked us up at the hotel at 1645 (pm 4:45) and we drove off to Chinatown – which was a bit boring really. We saw mostly homeless ppl. and no cute shops. After a bit to and from Kim took us to her favorite restaurant – some kind of dim sum place. Dim sum are just a lot of small dishes – mostly steamed meat of some kind. It wasn’t too bad – not my best meal, but far from the worse!

I think Kim is a bit bored since her hubby got a job contract in California and left before we got here – so she was so nice to drive us to a comic book store! The kind you see in the tv show ”The big bang theory”. We haven’t counted them all, but came out of that store with comic books for $300 +

We then took Kim back to our hotel – showing her the view Not as good as last time, but still worth a look. Then she got her chocolate! If you’ve ever tastes Norwegian chocolate you know what I talk about! Compared to most American chocolate – this is a taste of heaven

Another nice day here in paradise Meeting Kim again tomorrow for some new adventures

 - and it’s just as we remember it!

Last time we were here – the very first thing I did was to buy a white leather jacket at the Harley Davidson store (and we had to carry it across town to get our marriage licence – and the bag broke!) . Guess what I did this time – oh yeah – I fell in love with a black and pink leather jacket, but I haven’t bought it (yet).  There are a few cars here that I’d like to bring back home – like the Dodge Charger with a Hemi engine that the Honolulu Police use in their work – would be nice (and probably way too expensive to even think about buying).

Just as we remember – the weather here is a bit.. strange. You can wake up to grey and foggy weather and you think it’ll rain, but then you get blue skies and the sun in shining. That’s how our morning started. Very windy and grey, but oh so hot and humid.

Even though we thought we’d sleep in – we didn’t, so we went out early. We planned a breakfast – brunch – at The Cheesecake factory. Of course it opens at 11 am, so we had to walk around for a bit – down on the beach – sitting in the garden at the Royal Hawaiian hotel (the pink hotel you see on our photos). We had this very cute waitress from Brazil named Eleanie – show charmed her way into our hearts. We decided to have a huge lunch (brunch) – we were both kinda starving, so the Chicken enchillada was the perfect choice (as it always is). I also got my favourite drink – the tropical icetea (I call the Passion fruit cause that’s the main flavour). Eleanie was so kind to give me the rest of my drink to-go when we left – yummy!

After looking through the International Market place (read – tourist trap) we went back to the hotel relaxing on the balcony – reading and eating fresh pineapple! For dinner we went back to the Cheesecake Factory, but we had a late dinner as it was 1.5 hr waiting time for a table. We knew that from earlier that for dinner you should be there before  pm, but I fell asleep and just couldn’t get my body going any sooner

The fact about The Cheesecake factory are their cheesecake that you never have any space left for after dinner. We tried explaining this when we were here last time “sorry, we’re not used to such large portions” – now, they tell you that the portions are large! I’m amazed, but why not make them smaller so ppl. can have cake as well!? It’s the American “value for money” all the way. We bought cake and brought it home – it’s in the fridge and I think it will stay there for a good 1-2 days

That was our first day here. Sun and rain and a bit cloudy, but 99% sun and warmth and of course the usual redness since we always forget how close we are to the equator! Tomorrow Kim is picking us up in the evening and we’re going to Chinatown – a place we didn’t visit when we were here last time.

We left home at 5 am Sunday morning and landed in Honolulu 9:30 am Monday morning (Norwegian time – we’re 12 hrs behind – so we landed in the evening).

The first 2 hrs from Oslo to London went quite fast. Jan Ove met a co-worker who was taking the same plane – she was off to Los Angeles. As we went to our 2nd security chech of the day we were asked to tear our tickes in two – I asked if I got new ones – no answer so I tore then, and then we were given two business tickets for the London to San Francisco flight. We didn’t quite believe it, so we checked the British Airways lounge - if we could get in – and yes we did The seats were very nice – the food was yummy. The two men beside me were also upgraded, but the air hostess managed to spill tomat juice all over one of their computers… so much for working on the 10+ hrs flight. I think that they - as we – thought it was nice to be upgraded, but really – it’s not a big fuzz. For a long flight – sure. Jan Ove put his seat in bed mode and got some sleep. I watched movies.. and more movies. I wanted to sleep when we were close to San Francisco and the Norwegian time was more like bed time. So thanks for the upgrade, but if I had to pay for it – nah – don’t think so

So heading for our 3rd security check – could the guy at the immigration desk be any more slow – I don’t think it’s possible (and after more than half a day of travel you’re not in the mood to talk to slow people!) (ppl = people)

We managed to get our baggage – and went through the last check “No, we do not have any food”! (learned that that the hard way last time and had to get our bags checked…. !! ) Well – I actually had food – I forgot about some “knekkebrød” that I had brought, but who cares

The check-in for United Airlines – now that is something. Last time we checked in our baggage at a self check-in – we did the same now. You have to pay for each bag you check in  – which is ok, but you have to wait for someone to come and print the tags – and there were few ppl at work. To top this the first UA flight to Honolulu was changed due to some problems and instead of being a 4 pm flight it turned into a 8:45 pm flight. The 6 pm flight to Honolulu was cancelled due to weather conditions (have no idea where – the planes ususally fly in from somewhere else). So our flight was the only one that was on time, but now it was completely full and ppl were asked to wait till next day for $250. That was not a question for us as I had upgraded our tickets for better leg space, but yes, the flight was just very full. People were waiting in line to get an upgrade – not sure that the 16 seats would somehow be empty.. We went to get a nice sandwich at Subway since we had 3+hrs to kill before the flight – good food!

After 5 hrs – the longest hrs of the day (we were both dead tired and I even felt asleep in my chair while waiting to board the plane) – we eventually got to Honolulu and it was so nice to see the ALOHA sign! Even better – Kim picked us up at the airport – drove us to SAFEWAY so we could buy some fruit and something to drink – and the drove us to the hotel. It’s the same hotel as last time, thought we didn’t get and upgrade on our room this time the view is still very nice!

So – that was our “how you get from Oslo to Honolulu adventure! Mahalo for reading this very long and (not) interesting post

Today we booked hotels in Salt Lake City, Cheyenne and in Omaha – where we’re staying for a few days!

Since we’ve been to San Francisco a few times now, we’ve decided to pick up our car and then stay at some place we’ve never heard of Our plan is going to Omaha as fast as we can, but since we didn’t have a nice experience flying domestic (long story – ask us and we can tell you about it), we’ce decided to drive

We could have taken the trip through Las Vegas, but we’ve “been there – done that” and it’s not a very exciting city during the day – so our first stop is – Truckee! Yeah – we hadn’t heard about it either

Hampton Inn & Suites

Since our travel agent couldn’t give us a nice deal on rental car, we chose to take the offer we have on the membership from Norwegian AAA (NAF) and rented a car through Hertz.

We’ll have a car like this one (or similar – depends on what they have “in store” when we pick it up)

Last time we went to Hawaii we stayed at this really nice hotel on the “outskirts” of Waikiki. Since we were on a honeymoon they upgraded our room, and of course I – Anett – would like this view again This room is – of course – way too expensive (Nkr 33555 – or $$5616) for our 14 nights stay. So – I’ve mailed to hotel asking them for prices and availability, and haven’t heard anything yet. I mean – 7 days! *sigh* Anyway – if I don’t hear anything within a few days I’ll just go ahead and book a room with an ok view Like the one in the picture!

I heard from the hotel today – July 4th – so  booked a room like the one in the picture

We’ve paid and booked our plane tickets from Oslo – London – San Francisco – Honolulu – Honolulu – San Francisco – Chicago – London – Oslo.

Last time we were a bit late with our seatbookings and had to sit in a 4-seater (with a drunken swede who – luckily – fell asleep and slept all the way to SF) – this time I’ve managed to book us 2-seaters all from London and back from Chicago. I also upgarded our seats from SF til Honolulu and back – extra leg space! We need that extra leg space when we’re gonna spend too many hrs on a plane. Gotta love Economy Plus seats