September Travel #1: Hawai'i Hiatus (Part 3)

Sunday, September 1: Union on Strike, Waikiki Walking, Dinner Cruise

My longer morning walk led me towards Waikiki, and I noticed that the hotel union workers were getting organized for the 3-day strike that had been activated that day. Our hotel wasn't impacted, but we could hear them from where they were striking at the Hilton and also saw and heard them at several of the properties along Waikiki Beach. Good for them!

I was able to do a full swim workout thanks to the morning reserved time, although my inflatable pull buoy finally decided it was done, so I had to forgo using that piece of equipment after a couple of laps. Mr. E and I enjoyed brunch, reading time, and planning for our upcoming temporary relocation to Evanston.

In the afternoon, we did some browsing and shopping along Waikiki, and Mr. E fit in a short workout. Then we set off for our evening dinner cruise on the Star of Aloha. We had opted for the package that included lobster and steak, so Mr. E graciously gave up his lobster to me while he enjoyed my steak. A perfect pairing! We were seated at a table for two on the "good" side of the ship (i.e. in the shade as we headed out towards Diamond Head). 

We took advantage of our two drinks per person offering to order martinis and enjoyed wonderful service from Allie along with pleasant jazz music and vocals while dinner was served. I thought I might have leftovers of the lobster to somehow bring back to the hotel, but I managed to eat both of them after all!

Once we got back to the dock, the cruise wrapped up with a hulu show and then some audience participation to the song YMCA at the very end. We were docked near the Aloha Tower, which includes dorms for students at Hawai'i Pacific University, and we could see several of them dancing along with us!

In our Lyft back to the hotel, the driver was playing the movie Moana, which was very appropriate. Mr. E went out to procure a nice bottle of Stag's Leap cab to accompany more Hawai'i 5-0 as we wrapped up the evening.

Monday, September 2: Rough Water Swim, Mr. E Diamond Head Run, Laundry

The Labor Day holiday started off for me with a sighting of some local wildlife and a pretty sunrise over the boats in the marina.

Earlier in our visit, I had noticed the t-shirt of a gentleman in the elevator promoting the Waikiki Rough Water swim. We learned that it was happening on Labor Day, so we made sure to catch part of the finish line on the beach near Duke's Lagoon. Amazing. I'm totally good with swimming two+ miles in a pool, but I'm so not an open water swimmer. So cool to see all of these folks who could complete this adventure!

We took our time wandering through some shops before returning to the hotel for lunch and reading time. In the early afternoon, Mr. E took advantage of the somewhat cooler temperature to do his Diamond Head run. Impressive! I enjoyed a longer yoga practice instead, and we spent the evening relaxing at the hotel and doing several loads of laundry (particularly important this time around because our own all-in-one washer/dryer unit had given up the ghost just before we left for our trip!).