DATE: Thursday, December 22, 2022

And we’re off! Sonya and I were up at about 3:45am, woke everyone else up at 4, and we were out the door a little before 4:30. Check in and going through TSA were smooth, but it was indeed crowded as this is no doubt one of the busiest travel days of the year. We flew from Indy to Phoenix and then on to Honolulu International.

The flights were long but that was okay. We were all so excited to get there. We arrived in Honolulu about 2:45pm, got our cars (two economy cars since they were out of anything for 8 passengers), and we were off.

Once we landed and headed to pick up our luggage, I “surprised” the family with leis. I believe this is usually done by family or friends meeting you at your arrival. In our case, we were met by Glenn from leigreeting.com. Everyone seemed to enjoy the gesture.

We were all a bit hungry after eating a light snack this morning and then another breakfast in Phoenix, but none of us cared what for. So it was Jack in The Box (as marked on the above map) on the east side of Honolulu. The traffic in town was pretty crazy. But once we left the city the scenery was amazing!

We then head out on a longer scenic drive of the windward side of the island toward our AirBnB in Hauula, and one of my favorite drives/rides from when I was here: past Hanauma Bay, toward Sandy Beach on H1 which turns into SR 72, past Kaloko Beach and up north toward Kanaohe and Hauula.

Overall, the drive took about an hour and a half, but it was a nice introduction of Oahu to the family. It was dark by the time we got to the AirBnB. It certainly felt like about 2am. Sonya and Zach headed off to get some groceries for the 4 days we’d be here while the rest of us headed down to the beach, fighting the urge to fall asleep. It was completely dark except for the stars, and the sound of the waves hitting the shore was so incredibly relaxing. It was the perfect end to our long day.