Hawaii 2024, August 31

The same routine once again with breakfast, but with waffles finally making a comeback to the menu, then a pretty similar 11 kilometre route at the canal. Both of my feet were feeling a bit rough after the run, but no blisters, and even my legs were sweating afterwards.

I had only about 2.5 hours to occupy before heading towards the football game, so didn't have any specific plans for the morning. Like the Pearl Harbour attractions they had a similar policy of no bags except small clear plastic at the football stadium, so I couldn't pack a bag. I decided to just do a bit of roaming around Waikiki wherever I hadn't been to yet.

Starting with the bus down to Kapiolani Park I did a loop towards the far end of the park, which was quite close to Diamond Head. Walking back along the Waikiki beachfront for a while, I stopped at a couple of shops like Lulu Lemon but didn't find any good prices.

Getting on a bus going towards the football stadium, but got off early to visit the same Taco Bell for lunch as previously, and a drink from nearby 7-Eleven. Then I had to wait a very long time for the next bus to continue to the football stadium, but after getting off there was another like one minute behind.

Just following the small crowd got me to the stadium, it was very strange that there was some proper looking arena right there, but the game was next to it at a small outdoor athletics field. They just had metal bleachers at both ends, but the seats on the sides looked a bit better quality. Apparently the capacity used to be even a lot less than it is now.

Because it was so hot in the sun without shade everyone was waiting around outside, wherever they could find shade rather than going to their seats. I went in with about 15 minutes to go, which was plenty of time, getting to see the national anthems and the teams entrances.

The first quarter went quickly and Hawaii were up 7-0 with a passing touchdown. The second quarter was quite slow with lots of penalties and no scores, until a Hawaii field goal in the last seconds to be 10-0. Even with a hat, sunscreen, and sunglasses it was quite a challenge so I didn't stay for all of the game. The game was going much slower and I had to finish packing and planning for the morning still. The experience was good overall, it was just the conditions that made it a bit challenging.

Back on the bus to the hotel, picking up a lot of drinks to stay hydrated before the flight tomorrow. The end of the football was on TV with UCLA winning on a final minute field goal. I also picked up two footlong churro snacks from Subway to have with dinner, meanwhile the ice cream in the freezer had somehow melted since yesterday.

Steps = 22,000 including 11km running

Hawaii 2024, August 30

My college football ticket transfer notification come through overnight via email. To get the mobile transfer you need to register an account, except it only accepts USA mobile phone numbers in the form. So in order to get around that I did a quick search for a place nearby with cheap SIM cards before breakfast. I headed down for the usual breakfast and a run for 11 kilometres, with a bit of rain but it was still warm so you dried out very quickly.

I got a bus down to the local phone shop selling SIM cards, the guy was quick and got everything installed in five minutes, even knew his Australian Vegemite and Tim Tam references. Stopping off back at the hotel I was able to create an account and get my ticket into Google wallet. Probably I could have put in any random number as the ticket was then accessible via website rather than a text message, but I didn't know that beforehand and didn't want messages going to a random phone number. Having a cheap SIM card meant a couple of days not paying Optus roaming, and the data limit was enough to get me through until the end of the trip.

It took another two buses to get into the suburbs of Moana via Ala Moana. There was only a few other people on the bus by the end and they also seemed to be going to Manoa Falls. It was only a short walk from the last bus stop to the entrance, with a bit of rain coming and going.

The trees and scenery on the lower part of the trail were quite impressive in particular, as the long walk uphill began. I thought it would be about 15 minutes or so but it was probably double that and took a bit of effort. There was an old shipping container to walk through and a few sections that were very muddy before reaching the top.

The waterfall at the top was good, but sadly due to a rock collapse some time ago you can't get up close anymore. On the way back down the rain became quite heavy, but it was still too early to make much difference to the trail conditions. I finally got to the bottom where luckily they had some pressure hoses to clean all the mud off your shoes. Near the exit there was also Lyon Arboretum but it said at the entry an advance reservation was required, but I can't imagine it's that popular.

Back to the bus stop, but it wasn't coming for at least 30 minutes - it seems it comes only about once an hour during the day. I decided instead of waiting I'd do a slow run downhill, besides one small incline. I ran for about 3.5 kilometres before I'd had enough, and the sun was out so now I was dry and sweating again. Jack In The Box was the closest restaurant so I tried my luck again and they had the French toast sticks this time, much better than their fries.

After lunch I walked down to the giant Walmart near Ala Moana. Sadly since it was my second last full day I couldn't buy too much, so just some snacks and drinks. I was a bit disappointed their bakery section didn't have a lot, only some mini donuts.

My feet were quite sore from the hiking and extra running so I headed back to the hotel for a mid afternoon rest. I was considering between visiting the hotel pool or the nearest beach, which was about 750 metres away. I decided on the pool which turned out to be quite small, only about 5 x 5 metres. There was only a few people around because of the drizzling rain, but was refreshing to just sit in the water.

Due to the college football happening in the early afternoon I didn't need much planning for tomorrow. I finished off watching the Sprint documentary series, it was good but only focused on the 100 and 200 metres instead of more events and athletes. I was able to see the fireworks from my hotel window at 8pm coming from the Hilton near the beach.

Steps = 28,000 including 14.5km running

Hawaii 2024, August 29

Up for a 6:30am breakfast again, still the same range as usual except for the one special item each day, which hasn't been good since the waffles on day one. Afterwards a bit shorter run for 9 kilometres back at Ala Wai canal again, since the bike path there is better. I quickly got ready for the express bus to Pearl Harbour, and didn't have to watch too long for it to show up.

I had already purchased a combined ticket for all of the attractions, plus a separate $1 reservation for the boat to the Arizona memorial. With an hour to wait for my time slot on the boat I picked up the self-guided audio tour and walked around the exhibits near the entrance, which wasn't bad.

Next I got in line for the boat and had a quick ride across to the memorial. It's not intended to be a tourist attraction as such, so there wasn't much happening there except one piece of the ship remains and a list of people who died on board.

After returning back to land I got on the shuttle bus across to the Ford Island attractions to get them done first. The first stop was the Battleship Missouri memorial which was the best one. The above deck area didn't have much to see, but there was a impressive amount of rooms to walk around below, with good directions to follow. The best part was probably all of the old computer rooms, and a donut kitchen for some reason. After getting a few photos of the Arizona memorial from closer it was back on the bus to the second stop at Pearl Harbor aviation museum.

The aviation museum wasn't as good as it was mostly just a lot of planes both indoor and out, that aren't that interesting to look at really. There was a special Disney World War 2 collaboration exhibit which had some great stuff, but I was a bit disappointed that photos weren't allowed. That was the second and final stop on the island, so the bus returned us to the main land again to check out the Pacific Fleet submarine museum.

The submarine museum was also just alright, but going through the submarine was better, even though I've been through a few of them before. Surprisingly with my back problems I managed to get through the submarine well enough.

My legs were quite sore from standing more than the walking - the step count wasn't too high for the day. I purchased another magnet from the gift shop then the express bus back to Ala Moana shopping centre for a very late lunch. I was going to try the pizza from Sbarro but a whole XL was $40 USD or $60 AUD which was crazy, single slices weren't much better. Most places were selling chicken so I settled instead for fries, French toast and a thick shake from Jack In The Box instead - but they had no French toast... The thick shake was good though, nearly impossible to drink with a straw.

One more quick bus ride and I was back to the hotel in the late afternoon after a long day of travelling. After a rest I went out for another short 3.5km run around Fort DeRussy park. I had a bit of planning to do for a more simple day coming up, just trying to decide between Koko Crater and Manoa Falls - somehow it was already down to the last two days of the holiday.

Steps = 24,000 including 12.5km running

Hawaii 2024, August 28

Due to yesterday's experience I left a few minutes earlier for breakfast and it was slightly less crowded this time. After breakfast I attempted a different run near Waikiki beach along Fort DeRussy boardwalk, but it was only a short loop of a couple of kilometres. Instead of trying to navigate through the docks I went back to the start then head over towards the Ala Moana park where I was yesterday afternoon. Overall I managed to get in a longer run but it was nearly all hard concrete footpaths, not even bike path surfaces.

After getting back to the hotel I left around 9:30am to get a bus over to the entrance of Diamond Head state monument before 10:00am. Entry requires an advanced bookings and you have a one hour slot to arrive. Luckily I came a few minutes early as it was about 15 minutes just to walk from the closest bus stop to the entrance through a long tunnel, then after the entrance it was another long walk to reach the base of the hike too.

There was quite a crowd of people but nobody was slowing things down too much and everyone was keeping to one side. It was a moderately challenging climb in parts, so I'm not sure why lots of people had brought small kids along. Most of the view on the way up was on the less interesting side of the crater facing away from Waikiki, the best view of Waikiki was saved for the final lookout at the very top.

It was interesting to see how the houses had been strategically built up some of the hills on the island too. On the way down I went up this annoying 99 step climb only to find it was joining back onto the loop I'd already seen. Since I had both my watch and phone with Samsung health today the whole trip came out to about 12,000 steps and 1.5 hours.

The return bus took a long time to show up, I got off after a few stops and found a Jamba Juice and an unexpected Taco Bell. The Taco Bell store had a great deal on bean and cheese burritos for only $2 USD so I got three of them, very filling.

Back on another bus after lunch and I got off near Kapiolani Park and Waikiki beach at the far west side. It's quite an impressive beach front that goes for a few kilometres at least, all the way towards my hotel at the other end. I walked along the street closest to the beach, which had a lot of hotels and high end fashion stores. The only purchase I made was a good magnet, I also found the Duke statue and a banana stand shop.

It was getting towards mid afternoon so I made one more stop at the US army museum, back at Fort DeRussy beach park near the hotel. This was a small free museum mostly focused on the war with Japan that featured Hawaii quite prominently. There was some interesting facts but it didn't seem to have as much information about the conclusion and victory as the build up. One the top floor there was also a helicopter, and some tanks out the front.

I picked up the usual assortment of snacks from 7-Eleven for dinner again, and another drink from Jamba Juice, while watching some more shows off the USB drive. After getting the last plans arranged for a long early trip out to Pearl Harbour in the morning I had another go at the TV channels. Every night it seems the comedy channel has nothing but South Park for hours, Tru TV has Impractical Jokers, and MTV has Ridiculousness. Similar to Australian TV there might be one or two shows each night on the major channels ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC.

Steps = 29,000 with 11km running

Hawaii 2024, August 27

I turned off the air-conditioning unit early in the evening since it was so loud I couldn't even watch TV, but didn't expect it would quite get some warm overnight. Like usual there was also a loud fridge that kicked off every half hour.

The breakfast hours started at 6:30am so I went down at 6:40am but it was already nearly packed full with people. They were serving similar stuff to usual at these breakfast buffets, and the area was well organised to deal with the crowds - the hotel has 44 levels.

After breakfast I went for a slightly longer run around Ala Wai canal again for 10 kilometres, the longer bike path on the other side of the water was better but it started to drag on by the end. Back at the hotel I finished up some basic plans for the first day and left around 9:00am.

The bus near the hotel turned up right away but was quite slow heading through the business area of town - west of the Waikiki beach and hotel area. I got out near Foster botanical gardens but first dropped in at the local supermarket. I thought the prices would be a bit better at a large supermarket but was still around $3 USD for drinks, on the way to the botanical garden I got through a whole 800ml Gatorade. The gardens were quite small, just one city block, but only had a small entrance fee and was a relaxing start to the day.

A bit of luck with the next bus also turning up right away to go back into the business area. Getting out near the old state capitol building and Iolani Palace grounds for a walk around, I hadn't planned to go inside but decided to get a ticket at the last minute. The palace was a self-guided audio tour around two levels of the palace. It was not a particularly large building and the audio was a bit long, but overall not bad.

Now it was time for lunch so I got another quick bus across to the Ala Moana shopping centre, which had a large food court with many of the USA chains. I decided to get the vegetable curry from Curry House Coco Ichibanya which I could remember having somewhere else before, plus a large Jamba Juice that was actually good value for the size. On the way out I tried to find an Asian bakery somewhere else in the large mall, but was walking too far and wasn't finding it.

After finishing lunch I left the shopping centre to nearby Ala Moana regional park and Magic Island, but not sure why it's magic. There was some good spots for swimming with lifeguards, in particular a great lagoon section. The location was a little strange though, being a bit far away from Waikiki. From the end of the park there was also got a good view of Diamond Head.

My toes in particular weren't adapting too well to the increase in walking, and I didn't want to get blisters already so started heading back towards the hotel. I stopped in at a Foodland Farms supermarket but didn't find much.

After a good run with buses all day I had to wait forever for the last bus back to the hotel in the late afternoon. Getting off just before the hotel to stop in at the closest 7-Eleven for a few snacks and drinks, since I didn't want to do more walking for dinner. The hotel location was not bad, but most fast food restaurants were about a kilometre or more away, which isn't too bad unless you're tired.

After making some quick plans for Wednesday and a small dinner I settled for some shows off my USB drive. Again it found it hard to find something to watch on TV without an accurate cable TV guide and so many commercials when I cycled through.

Steps = unknown since I didn't wear a watch with 10km running

Hawaii 2024, August 26

Like usual I wasn't too excited about this upcoming trip. I'm not really sure the reason, maybe just all the stress of organisation and being at airports. I probably need to remember other trips where everything afterwards is generally worthwhile.

The outbound travel was a never ending journey across the international date line.

• 1:15pm left home
• 2:45pm arrived at airport
• 4:30pm boarded plane to Sydney, got moved to a flight 30 minutes earlier and an exit row
• 6:00pm arrived at Sydney domestic terminal
• 6:15pm had to wait for the Qantas bus from domestic to international
• 6:45pm got some USA money with a terrible exchange rate
• 6:45pm bought some dinner from limited options in the international food court, banana milkshake at least
• 8:30pm got to board early with premium economy, except called into a bonus security check line and overtaken by all of economy class

 

Somehow I got bumped to a different seat on premium economy for no reason, the result being stuck in a window seat, instead of the aisle in the middle group of three. Soon after leaving I picked the couscous vegetarian meal option at about 9:30pm that wasn't very good. After the meal service I tried to sleep instead of any screen entertainment, having a bunch of 15-30 minute sleeps but kept waking up like usual, mostly since my left knee was sore from sitting upright. Eventually we got another meal for breakfast a couple of hours before landing, this was much better with muesli, muffin, and fruit. I managed to go the whole trip without leaving my seat, my legs didn't feel too bad however.

The flight landed at about 9:30am Hawaii time Monday, or 5:30am Melbourne time on Tuesday, but I was not as tired as expected due to a bit of sleep. From the international terminal there was a bus waiting to take us to the border control, customs, and baggage area. Everything was quick and easy except the baggage took forever to show up, but at least nothing got lost or damaged.

I turned on my phone expecting to get Optus daily roaming activated for $5 for 5GB - which seemed  a slightly better option than getting a SIM card for a week since they had low data limits. After a few minutes later I got a text message saying that the roaming had failed to be paid, right in the middle of trying to book an uber.

Possibly the stupid Optus credit card details on record didn't work - I just had to update the expiry date for a new card a week earlier, but there was no option to set a new CVC code when doing that, which could have caused a rejection. As a temporary solution I used the airport wifi to book a car, but it was quite confusing to find the pickup point as it's above on the departure level - not arrival - and in the middle of the road. The trip to the hotel was quick but I wasn't able to look around since I was busy trying to work out how to get mobile data working.

I arrived at the hotel about 11:30am so a bit early to check-in, but I got to drop off my luggage at least. The next half hour was spent in the hotel lobby - and using most of my phone battery - in an Optus chat session to try and get mobile data working. After a whole range of random experiments and reactivation attempts from the Optus stuff I finally had mobile data going, so now I could walk around and use online maps to avoid getting lost on my first day. For the first day at least I would have been fine with a paper map from the hotel information desk too.

I decided to got out for a walk to kill some time before check-in. I picked up a new flavour Monster energy drink from 7-Eleven - over $3 USD was much more expensive than I remembered from previous USA trips. At the same time I picked up a seven day bus pass for about $35 AUD, but for some reason had to pay in cash. Lucky I still my full reserves of cash due to booking uber with credit card instead of a taxi.

After a snack - which was lunch local time but all sense of time and meals was out of order - I walked along Ala Wai canal, with a good view of Diamond Head in the background, then towards the shopping area around Royal Hawaiian centre. There wasn't too much besides high end fashion and some restaurants in this area, so instead I started heading back towards the hotel. It was nearly 2pm and the best option for a late lunch was a Burger King, about $12 USD for an impossible whopper was very expensive again. I finally made it back to the hotel to check-in and got all my breakfast buffet vouchers for the week.

The hotel room was a good size, I unpacked all the luggage which was still neatly packed thanks to the packing cubes, however my brand new suitcase already has lots of black marks. I had a quick check of the TV, it seemed to have a lot of channels but somehow no guide available. Lastly I checked both power adapters and was relieved to see they still worked to charge my computer and phone, since I hadn't used them for close to ten years in Japan and USA. While moving around the hotel room I started getting some sharp lower back pain from any sudden movements, maybe brought on from the plane trip.

Since it was still late afternoon I got changed for a short run around Ala Wai canal. I covered all of the south side only, which was not great due to being narrow and hard concrete, the north side looked much better for next time with more bike path surface. On the way back to the hotel I picked up some random assortment of food and drinks from 7-Eleven. A long john donut cost $3 USD as did all of the 500ml soft drinks.

The TV was able to play from external USB drivers so I was able to watch an episode from my collection. Afterwards despite cycling through the whole list many times I struggled to find anything good on the TV channels. My back was still really sore, I couldn't really move around at all, but it seemed to improve during the night with some rest.

Steps = 31,000 with 11.5km + 7km running

July Review

Another month of winter over, which feels ever more cold and rainy than usual.

Straight into running which was a busy month with some travelling for races. The month started with the Gold Coast half marathon where I finished under 1 hour 20 minutes again, but a bit slower than I hoped. There's more details on the race in the Gold Coast report. The month ended with another race at the Sydney Harbour 10km which might have been a slower pace than the half marathon, again there's more on that in the Sydney report. In between the races I had some disappointing slow parkruns, and a new event at North Sydney.

Some other running related activities:

• Nike Zoom Fly 5 purchased a second pair from Gold Coast
• Nike shorts, race singlet, and socks purchased online
• Run Prix 10km registered for September
• Melbourne Marathon 10km registered for October
• The event was displayed as sold out, then somehow it wasn't
• Now to wait a few months for a preferred start (37 minutes) response
• Singapore half marathon also submitted a preferred start for December
• The requirement is a very easy 1 hour 45 minutes

Another money section for this month. I'm making no gains from shares like usual but getting towards of the end of bill season:

• Hawaii football ticket $150
• Hawaii travel insurance due
• Luggage $250
• MCC annual membership $850 due

It feels like a long time since the Euro 2024 championships finished, as expected England were outplayed and lost in the final. Now we're in the middle of the Olympics which has mostly been swimming for the first week, and Australian gold medals mostly coming from the women's side. The European timeslot is probably the worst, it should be a little better for Los Angeles since we're closer to a full day ahead. The event replay videos have been quite good from Channel 9, being able to rewatch some finals without spoilers.

The to do list is mostly dominated by holidays again:

• Holiday reports
• Gold Coast
• Sydney
• Holidays
• Hawaii planning started
• Should be much easier than usual with only one location and limited transport needs
• USA travel waiver confirmed
• Running holidays
• Already starting to look into options for the first half of 2025, none confirmed yet
• Hobart Run The Bridge in March
• Japan Gifu half marathon in April if it's not complicated and not expensive
• Launceston in June
• Gold Coast in July

Had a fun couple of days at work thanks to the Crowd Strike outage. Like most people my computer was crashing at the login screen and I had to wait for a bit locker recovery key to repair it. At least that was a bit of excitement as there's still not much else happening.

That's it for this month.

• Books
• None
• Movies
• None
• Music
• None
• TV
• The Mole USA 2022 season 1
• Hate how every competitor tries to lose on purpose as a distraction
• The winner ends up with almost no money as a result
• 5 out of 10
• Video Games
• Nintendo Switch
• Golf Story
• Had purchased this online a long time ago but forgot about it
• The courses and levelling are fun but not enough depth
• Some of the side quests are good but otherwise are a bit pointless
• 6 out of 10
• Xbox 360
• Gears Of War 2
• Just resumed playing
• The long replays from checkpoints after dying is a bit annoying