Hawaii
Woke up yesterday morning to the city repaving the street outside of the hotel, today they were repaving the other side? Had no idea you could repave a main road so quickly... but once away from the smell of fresh asphalt, it was a short walk the rest of the way to the Royal Hawaiian Dining Plaza and The Happy Hawaiian Cafe for breakfast. Turns out the hot food items here look pretty good, but their malasadas, which I got, are terrible. Sigh. At least the next stop on my morning walk was Ala Moana Shopping Center, which was also the site of breakfast #2 (really brunch) after running a few errands.
While Laihana Chicken Company's roast chicken is just okay, their prime rib is actually pretty good, with three sides for (as of this visit) less than $20. It's not the best prime rib, but for under $20 it exceeds expectations, down to being a proper medium/medium-rare inside. Bernard was nice enough to chauffer me to the airport for both my arrival as well as my departure (thanks Bernard!), and we passed by one more unexpected sight on the way to the airport: a chicken restaurant called Itchy Butt. I am both intrigued and somewhat terrified at the consequences of eating there... was glad I was on the way to the airport and did not have time to stop.
United flight attendants were striking at the airport on my arrival (they badly need a new contract and a massive pay raise), but their strike was kind of too small to be effective. As it was, I repacked my bags, cleared agricultural inspection, checked everything I needed to, then met up with Tim for the flight home. Tim lucked out and scored the last upgrade in first class (woohoo) through some sorcery he won't talk about, but at least I kept my window seat in economy, and had some great views of Waikiki, Diamond Head, and Hanauma Bay on the climb out. Arrival was great too, with some solid views of Dodger Stadium during a night game before touching down at LAX.
t'was great to see everyone, and special thanks to Mike for getting all of us together to hang out in Hawaii!