Best Buckeye;1824382; said:
Congrats on your trip Hubbard. Here some items you might find interesting.
1. Be very careful of the sun for the duration as you can burn severely in just 15 minutes. I'm not joking.
2. get your butt into an outrigger and ride it in on the waves.
3. Get into the island proper to see some of the people. Also get a Hawaiian style hamburger. See a luau and hula dancing.
4. Go see the punchbowl and give the men a salute from me.
5. Take the cruise to see Pearl Harbor. Give the men interred there a salute from me.
6. Meet up with Milani if you can and get him to pay for all your drinks for the whole week.
7. Forget about Dan Ho as he can't sing anymore, He might even be RIP'd.
No shit about the sunblock. My first full day on Maui I rented a cabana, and as the day went on the sun eventually began to shine into the front and on my feet and shins. No more then twenty minutes of exposure with no sunblock, and my skin turned red/purple. If if feels like you might be starting to burn, it's already too late. I went in early October, and I was still peeling two weeks ago.
If you play golf, definitely get a tee time or two. I brought my own clubs, but decent rentals didn't seem to cost that much, and might be comped based on your resort/prize/course you choose.
Dine local. Don't eat anything you can eat on the mainland.
Don't do bus tours under any circumstances. Rent a car and explore for yourself. That's my biggest regret about spending only two days on Oahu - that's the only option we gave ourself for seeing Pearl Harbor and Punchbowl. I was really disappointed with my visit to the USS Arizona Memorial. I feel it's a really important thing to see and pay your respects to, and I was appalled to be around all of the people who didn't seem to treat it the way it deserved. Maybe it was the group I was with, but I didn't like being around all of the people who were cheesing for pictures like they were in front of the Corn Palace or something. Definitely make sure you see the USS Missouri though. I took one of the walking tours, and our guide had served on the ship and provided a lot of cool insight.
Finally, I'd skip Waikiki Beach. While it's still better than any beach you'll find on the Atlantic coast, it's crawling with panhandlers, pigeons and people wearing fanny packs. I was constantly solicited by Greenpeace volunteers and people trying to sell firing range excursions. There has to be better places to go to the beach on that island, but I didn't have time to find them.
Finally, who the hell is Dan Ho? Is that Don Ho's younger, less successful but still-breathing brother? :tongue2:
