Hawaii 2022

Technically, this is Day 9 of the trip, but there really is not much to say,  Our flight from Honolulu to Vancouver arrived a few minutes early, at 7AM this morning.  Customs was a breeze — people love to complain about the need to complete the ArriveCAN app before arrival, but honestly, it speeds things up a great deal.  Our flight to Toronto left exactly on time at 9AM and arrived on time at 4:30PM.  The Toronto flight was delayed 45 minutes, leaving at 6PM and arriving 9PM. (It was supposed to arrive 8:20PM.) But given the Summer 2022 travel horror stories — especially for flights transiting through Toronto — we did extremely well. It has been 20 years since we last visited Hawaii and 24 since our first visit there.  It was definitely busier this time than we remember from the past, but August is a peak month for Hawaii.  Despite the busyness and the expense (the cost of visiting Hawaii has skyrocketed compared to our previous visits), it truly is an inc...

We were up at 7AM on our last day in Hawaii.  After another breakfast on our patio, the day held three major planning elements prior to catching our first of four flights back to Nova Scotia this evening. First, we wanted to walk the beach that runs in front of the hotel and do a final swim in the hotel pool.   Second, and the thing that made us most giddy, was a flight over the island to see a variety of things up close that we weren’t able to access by car.  Third, we wanted to drive up the eastern and northern coasts as far as Haneli. Fortunately, we were able to do all three things before heading to Lihue Airport at 5PM to return our rental car and check-in for our Southwest Airlines flight to Honolulu at 6:45PM.  That flight was on time, and we had two hours before our Westjet flight to Vancouver started to board.  Westjet ended up leaving 20 minutes early!  Our morning walk on Kitchens Beach: The overnight activity of the sand crabs  The last di...

By the time we had breakfast and were ready to leave the resort this morning, it was 9:30AM - the latest morning start we’ve had.  (Neither of us had much rest - lumpy mattress, bad pillows, etc.). Despite the late start, we still covered everything on our list for today.  We wanted to cover the south coast to the end of the road in the west of the island.  Then, we planned to explore part of the Waimea Canyon, before working our way back through a few historical communities along the south coast — with an afternoon snorkel inserted somewhere along the way. Check, check check and check! At 4PM, on our final leg of the drive back to the resort, it started to pour rain.  By the time we made it to the resort, it had stopped enough to permit a late afternoon swim at the resort.  That was followed by a truly wonderful dinner — the best one of the trip. Tomorrow marks our last day in Hawaii and the start of the long trip home.  We are hoping for a very full day b...