ParadIce, Day Six

**wizardmickey** · 12-15-2008, 01:25 AM

DAY 6, Dec 11th: “And the rain rain rain came down down down…” It’s our last day we awoke to rather nasty weather. We checked how late we could check out and were told 1pm and were also told we could utilize the Courtesy Suite as well. So it was off to breakfast and then up to our room to try and ride out the rain.

By 1 pm it had partially cleared up, but was still windy. We checked our luggage with the bellhop and headed out to explore the Eastern Shore of Oahu.

We hit many spectacular view points along the way – beaches, canyons, mountains, blow holes and some truly MAGNIFICENT sights! We made stops at Kahala Beach Park, Maunalua Bay, Koko Head, Hanauma Bay, the
Halona Blow Hole (absolutely FANTASTIC!), Sandy Beach Park, Makapuu Point from where we could look out and see Manana (Rabbit Island), we saw as we drove along Mount Olomana (apparently the highest point on Oahu) and ended up at Kailua Bay.
We cut back through the Koolau Mountain Range and the Pali Pass and Pali Tunnels & Lookout Point back to Ko Olina and got lost in Honolulu traffic once again. Once back at the Ilihani Resort we used the Courtesy Suite to rest and freshen up before heading to the airport.

Continental told us we would be flying with Northwest so we go to check in and are told “flights have been canceled due to maintenance issues”…. Aargh!!!! Don’t know if that had anything to do with the storm that flooded, closed roads and knocked out power to 15,000 homes on the island, but then again, travelling with Christy is always a gamble! So we got bumped to United which meant we had to clear the FDA station again and from there on through everything got better. But of course, there had to be one more shopping stop in the Honolulu Airport!

John enjoyed the open air atmosphere of the Honolulu Airport whereas Christy was a bit freaked out since her travels generally have her in such highly secure airports. We left Honolulu at 10 pm Island Time and by 5 am PST we were in San Francisco, a very strange airport to say the least. 3 hours later we took off for Houston and spent some time in the President’s Lounge since we had a 3 hour layover there. Finally, it was time to head for home… Surprise news when we got home; All was well and the cats hadn’t taken down any of the 4 Christmas tree’s inside the house! Ah, how nice to come home to any kitty catastrophe’s after our time spent in Paradise!

http://s194.photobucket.com/albums/z...emanvx/HAWAII/

**chrisb26** · 12-15-2008, 11:08 AM

Great report Ice and Lady Ice!

It sounds like you had a great trip! The tattoo is awesome by the way!

**Thumper03** · 12-16-2008, 08:47 PM

We LOVE the pictures!!

I want to see Hawaii so much. Thanks for sharing a wonderful trip with us.

That was an amazing tatoo BTW Ice!

**wizardmickey** · 12-17-2008, 12:15 AM

I was a bit "trepidacious" at first about doing the tattoo...
Back in '82 I had a lightning bolt put on my upper left arm. For years I've had the urge to do "something" to it, and had a temporary tattoo painted on it at the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet. After it started to fade and crack (guess it didn't like being pummeled about in the ocean) I started considering a real one - as fate had, we passed by the North Shore Tattoo -
The guy spent about 2 hours doing 3 sketches for me to pick from, and I chose what I now have. It's a PANEL; not an armband. Polynesian tattoos favored storytelling in panels... I forget where he said the practice of armbands came from.