Off to Hawaii

Up at 4:30, in cab to airport at 5:30, and in the lounge by 6:10.  Killed about an hour and then headed to the gate.  On the way to the airport we passed a little cart driving down the road.  In the back of it were skinned pigs.  I didn't really need to see that at 5:30 a.m.

We went to the gate and immediately boarded.  We walked on the plane and realized we had business class seats.  Todd surprised us.  Holy cow were me and Cameron excited.  Cameron immediately started messing with the seat.  It was a full lay down chair.  Awesome.  The stewardess asked if we wanted champagne or orange juice.  I took champagne...I had reason to celebrate.  Cameron kept saying he didn't want anything.  He finally looked at me and said "is it free?"  We all started to laugh. He finally took orange juice.  Todd asked him when free or not has ever stopped him from getting something if he wanted it.  What a silly boy.

Look what the seat does.

FREE orange juice.

One happy family.  Todd is so good to us.

The flight was amazing.  Warm rags to clean our hands before eating. Breakfast was good.  Good movies to choose from.  Yep, we could easily get use to that kind of service.

On the ground in Tokyo.  We headed to the lounge for our 7 hour layover.  Pretty good snacks to choose from.  For 7 hours some of us read, worked, napped, ate, drank, etc.  Time went pretty fast. We went to the gate at 6:45.  Boarded at 7:15 and in the air around 8 p.m.  

Doing what he does...reading.

We realized on this flight that there was a remote control for the entertainment system.  How cool. We had all kinds of good food on this plane.  We even could have ice cream sundaes for dessert. Yum!

Landed in Honolulu and found a cab.  He took us to the Courtyard Waikiki Beach Hotel.  It sounds fancier than it was.  Not bad but not quite what we are use to.  It was a motel style with the doors on the outside.  The room was nice and clean though so that's all that mattered.  We were there for one night.

We were going to walk around but Cameron said he needed a rest.  He laid on the bed and within 2 minutes he was sound to sleep.  Todd walked to the convenient store for some drinks and snacks.  I took a much needed shower then watched some tv.

Tired.

Out like a light.

Cameron woke up and he jumped in the shower.  We had 45 minutes to kill so we walked to Waikiki Beach.  It was pretty.  The water was a beautiful blue.  We walked around a bit and then headed back to the hotel.  Our cab was coming at 12:30.

Surf boards get stored along the sidewalk.

Famous Waikiki Beach.

Very pretty.  Loved walking in the sand.

We walked down to the parking guys and Todd said "oh man, I hope that isn't our cab".  Cameron and I looked over and it was a limo size cab.  We walked over and Todd told them we were suppose to have a cab waiting for us and they pointed to the limo.  Oh great.  They said it was the same cost as a regular cab.  We took pictures and jumped in.  Cameron thought it was really cool.

Our limo cab.

Cameron was digging it.

Riding in style.

Cameron took a siesta.

We arrived back at the airport.  Cameron had a meeting with the Border Control people for his Global Entry interview.  He said he was a little nervous.  As it turned out they didn't even speak to Cameron...only me.  We had to watch a short video, they took Cameron's picture, and then took his finger prints.  The whole thing took maybe 10 minutes.  He now can use a kiosk instead of going through immigration when returning to the United States.  Todd and I already had Global Entry but they recently opened it up for kids.

We went to the baggage area to wait for grandma and grandpa Wallace to arrive.  We only waited 15 minutes.  The bags from their flight were already on the baggage carousel before they came out. Grabbed them and grabbed the rental car.  Headed  back to the hotel.  We went walking down to Waikiki Beach.  We went to Dukes for dinner.  We could see the beach and ocean.  It was nice and food was good.

The first picture with Grandma and Grandpa on our patio.

Cameron wanted to take a photo too.

Our hotel.

Waiting for our food and drinks.

We walked around the beach area looking in shops.  We then went back to the room.  Grandma and Grandpa were tired so they went back to their room.  We went to our room too for awhile.  We then went back out to a Udon noodle restaurant we walked past earlier. There was a big line so we thought we needed to see what it was all about. Long line again.  The boys both got noodles and I got some deep fried asparagus.  The boys said the noodles were really good.

Hanging at the beach.

Looks like a nice area.

This is a statue of Duke (as in our restaurant).  He
was a famous surfer.

I thought Todd was taking a picture because of the funky
tree but no...it was the cigarette holder.

Doesn't this sound yummy?  Todd had to try it.

Eating Udon noodles.

Back to the room.  Bed time.