Aloha from Oahu...

We're in Oahu, on the west side of the island, about 16 miles from Honolulu. I wasn't sure we'd all want to stay at a hotel right in Honolulu, so I did some research and decided on this place -- it's outside of the city, but close enough that we can drive in whenever we want. I read a bunch of reviews for several Honolulu hotels on Trip Advisor, and a lot of people complained that the hotels in the city were crowded, noisy, and had really small beaches. This one, on the other hand, is more secluded, doesn't seem to be too crowded, and has its own protected cove beach. So far, we're all pretty happy with it.

I was a bit worried after some of the Trip Advisor reviews for this hotel mentioned the "horrible" Honolulu traffic and how difficult it was to get from the airport to the hotel... but we've had no problem at all. In fact, we spent much of the day wandering around the island exploring scenery, and we realized as we drove back this way that we'd be hitting Honolulu right at rush hour -- but I have to say that anyone who has lived in even a moderately-sized city has probably experienced much worse. The Honolulu rush hour was really not bad at all.

I'm still trying to get used to the time change... it's only about 9:45 Hawaii time, but I already feel like I should've been asleep about an hour ago. (And no doubt I'll be wide awake by 6 or 7 am.) So with no further ado (because I want to go to bed...) here are a few pictures we took while we were out today:

View of the beach from hotel balcony...

We drove up to the North Shore to see the waves and surfers (and, unfortunately, I was unable to find the set for "Lost"...) and saw these signs on the beach...

Surfer on the North Shore...

A lone tree at a state park along our drive...

We stopped at a place called "The Valley of the Temple" -- you drive through this huge cemetery, and eventually reach a Buddhist temple...

Buddhist temple...

Buddha inside the temple...

There were tons of these very tame birds around the temple, looking for food -- apparently they're quite used to tourists feeding them...

The bird was eating out of this little girl's hand...

There was also one hungry little cat...

To the cat, this must look like an all-you-can-eat buffet...