Day 4 Hard Rock Cafe and Flying Off to Another Shore

Today was our last day in Oahu and to that I say yahoo!  We got to experience quite a bit of the island's offerings and stayed in a fantastic hotel, we really couldn't have asked for more.....but Honolulu is too crowded for our tastes.  I think 4 days was more than enough time to see the highlights of the island, without spending alot of money.  There was only one thing that we didn't get to do that we had hoped to, and that was a shark cage dive.  Oahu and Maui are the only islands that have shark cage dives and we didn't plan well, because reservations needed to be at least 1-2 months out.  Oh well, we still have an aquatic adventure up our sleeve sometime during the remainder of our time here. 

Our flight was scheduled for 5 pm, so we had an open day.  The beach was not an option....the thought of sitting all sandy and gritty on a flight was not appealing, at all.  The sand at the local beaches has the texture and consistency of coffee grounds and there is alot of it!  It doesn't seem like the kind of sand that you could build a sand castle with, but on the plus side, it also is not so fine that it blows like dust and gets in everything.  So what to do from the time of checkout til we needed to go to the airport?  We ended up sitting poolside and just relaxing and enjoying the day while the kids swam and had fun splashing around...kinda like being on vacation. 
We ate a late lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe Honolulu.  Paul and I have been to a few of their locations, back in the early days, B.C., but I don't think the kids have ever been.  The restaurant was located on the second floor above the Hard Rock store and the stairwell wall and ceiling was paved with guitars.  There must have been 100 or more guitars of all shapes and sizes.  All I could think was our musician friend Brian would have been in guitar heaven had he been there with us.  There were others that were in Hard Rock heaven as well.  Apparently, there are people all over the country that collect Hard Rock pins.  Today, about 50 of them were having a reception and comparing their treasures.  These people were major collectors owning "books" of them.  If I had to guess, I would think that each book (which just consisted of a zipper outer cover and then pages for pins to be pinned to, kind of like a photo album) held a couple hundred pins and some of these people had several books.  Hard Rock pins cost about $12 so there was some serious money in collectibles in the room today.  One guy even won some kind of special award for owning a rare pin. I guess there's a hobby out there for everyone.  After lunch we then headed to the airport for our flight.

We were there with plenty of time before the flight and all was going well until we went through security.   As Lily's bag went through the x-ray, they stopped everything and asked Paul if that was his bag.  He said yes, it was part of our group and the guy pulled the bag aside and started searching it.  He was on high alert because obviously we look like a family of terrorists.  Lily was horrified that this man was digging through her clothing (she's our resident germaphobe) and I was getting a little panicked thinking we were going to the big house instead of the big island.  Turns out Lily packed her lotion and body spray in the bag.  I can't tell you how many times, before we left last Wednesday, I explained how we couldn't bring anything liquid in the carry-on, and this morning I even told the girls again to give me their lotions so that I could put them in the bag to be checked.  Lily obviously didn't think her stuff counted and so today she paid a high price and hopefully learned a lesson....always listen to your naggy mother.  Her $20 bottle of Hollister lotion (a birthday gift, I wouldn't spend $20 on a bottle of lotion) and some  bottle of Bath and Body spray got tossed in the big-red-toxic-could-be-weapons-of-mass-destruction bin with great fanfare as he, the TSA agent, reluctantly and with a hard and  suspicious glare, sent us on our way.  Lily was really upset, not for having ignored my warnings or even for what some might consider disobedience, no, she was upset because it was her Hollister lotion, her first and only ever Hollister anything.  Live and Learn Lil....painful lesson, but at least we aren't on the FBI's most wanted list.   The rest of the flight was pretty uneventful and when we arrived on Hawaii we got a little surprise...exiting the plane on the tarmac like in olden days.  
 

Aloha from the Hula Brandts

Immediately it was apparent that we were on a different island.  Even the airport felt more Hawaiianish, as I had imagined.  It was small with a big open courtyard and  polynesian influenced architecture.  The drive to Waikoloa,  about 30 miles from Kona and  where we will be spending the next week, was desolate and through lava fields.  It was dark, but out in the distance you could see the lights of the next town.  I already feel more relaxed.  My hope was that since we are staying at a condo, we would be saving money on our food bill...um maybe not.  We went to the local grocery store to pick up a few things and were hit with a little sticker shock.  A gallon of whole milk was $7.99! A box of cereal was $8! A case of some run of the mill water was $12.69, thankfully, the clerk steered us to a brand that was on sale, it was only about $6.  Errr did I say we would be saving money???  
So another day down, and I'm beat, but excited about what tomorrow will bring.....

p.s.  Notice John in the pic above.  He really was having fun doing the hula, but he was impersonating one of his favorite comedians....Mr Bean.  The inspiration for the hula dancing came from the sculpture behind them, it was a beautiful cast of hula dancers...somehow my hula-ers don't convey the same feeling as the original piece of art.