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Aloha! Hawaii – Day 0 and Day 1
Day 0
Whew! After 23 hours in transit, we had mechanical problems with our plane that lead to significant delays and rearranging of flights, we finally arrived in Oahu at about 10pm. That means it was about 4am in DC time. Unfortunately, Renee’s luggage didn’t make it.
We’re staying at the Wyland Waikiki Hotel. It looks pretty neat, but with the low ceilings and poor air circulation on account of being surrounded by other buildings, it is a bit warm. Although, let me just say, they have one of the MOST comfortable pull-out beds I have ever slept on.
Day 1
Today we visited the Iolani Palace. The short and sweet description (summarized mostly from Wikipedia – because it is too late and I am too tired to write up my own detailed description) is:
Iolani Palace is the only royal palace used as an official residence by a reigning monarch in the United States. The Iolani Palace structure that exists today is actually the second Iolani Palace to sit on thepalace grounds. King David Kalakaua dreamed of a royal palace befitting of the sovereignty of a modern state such as Hawaii. He commissioned the construction of a ”new” Iolani Palace to become the official palace of the Hawaiian monarchy. The building was completed in 1882 and cost over $360,000. It had electricity and telephones at a time that such a thing was so rare and that many had never even heard of it. And served as the official residence of the Hawaiian monarch until the kingdom was overthrown in 1893.
Iolani Palace
I have to admit, the inside looked very beautiful with a lot of decorative woods and carvings. And the building has an amazing history. Just as a neat note – On April 30th of this year, the palace was “overtaken” by a group of native Hawaiians called the Hawaiian Kingdom Government to protest what they view as illegitimate rule by the United States. Cool, eh?
This is us indulging in a limo to ride over to the palace. Actually, the limo was the same price as a taxi. Brenda was our driver and she absolutely rocked. The other photo is of the state seal in the ceiling of the entrance to the Iolani Palace.
Judy, Ron, Don, me, Renee and Rhonda
State Seal at Iolani Palace
Waikiki at Sunset
Sick – Would you like me to share?
There isn’t much more to say than that. Disgustingly, completely, snifflingly, bone-achingly, fatigue-filled, ill. It is definitely the flu and having slept straight through two WHOLE days and now I’m hopefully coming out the other side. Either that, or my fever’s broken for a little bit and I’ve got a sort while before it all goes to heck…again. I’m so tired and there is so much to do. Aaargh. Whatever. I don’t even have the energy to groan appropriately.
You’d think after thousands of years and all of our investments in medical technology and innovation we’d have something to combat things as common as the cold and the flu.
Labor Day Weekend – Escape to Richmond (and writing)
This last long weekend was a great getaway. We headed out about 4pm on Friday to visit our friend, Meriah who is a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University. I’d forgotten how good it is to brainstorm with her. I have a big script deadline set for tomorrow (September 2) and we were able to talk through a lot of problem areas. Yay. Although not directly writing related, I managed to get to watch L.A. Confidential. I thought it was a great movie and with some awesome scripting and fabulous acting. It’d set the audience up with certain expectations and then punish us for those assumptions. I loved it. And of course I spent the closing credits, lamenting my own inadequate skills.
On the down side, Renee spent almost the entire weekend on the couch sniffling and coughing. She’d been pretty ill with this flu for most of the week. Unfortunately, I’m the one now with a scratchy throat and sniffling nose. But in spite of that, we all stayed relatively on track and managed to really move forward on the writing front. Of course, considering the availability of extra space and the recent damp, it was also the perfect opportunity to take out a little time late in the evening to do some fire spinning. (Hopefully, pictures will be coming soon). It also is/was N.R. Brown’s birthday and we had to celebrate with cake and icecream and presents. I shall leave it to her to discuss those details.
All in all, a great relaxing weekend. AND being able to purchase gas at $3.38 a gallon and then coming home to see prices at $3.71 did not hurt our mood one bit either.