Our Summer 2009 Vacation To Oahu Hawaii
June 13-21, 2009
By: John B. Holbrook, II
 

WARNING:  I decided to dump all the photos I took from this week into one long, 200+ photo report.  It may take a while to load and view.

If you're reading this article, then you likely know me well enough to know that I travel quite a bit.  It's something that I consider a blessing from the good Lord - I love to travel.  But the thing is, there's a big difference between a trip and a vacation.  And the fact is, prior to going to Hawaii, it had been too long since I've had an actual vacation.  No work, no responsibilities.  Just relax and enjoy.  So June 12th we caught an obscenely early flight to the Atlanta airport, then on to Honolulu Airport - it's about a 9 hour flight from Atlanta.  From there, we picked up our rental car, and drove approximately 14 miles to our accommodations while in Hawaii - the fabulous JW Marriott Ihilani Resort.  Here's a map of Oahu - you'll see most of the points of interest are on the southern part of the island, and that we were staying west of Pearl Harbor, the Honolulu airport, and Waikiki.  Also notice the scale on this map - one inch equals about 4 miles.  So it's really not that large of an island:           

 

Once we got off Highway H-1, we began seeing the signs for the resort almost immediately:

 

Across the street from the resort is Ko Olina Golf  Course - it certainly looks inviting doesn't it?

 

We finally arrived at the resort:

 

 

 

 

We enter our 9th floor suite:

 

I burned some Marriot points for the stay here, but paid extra for the upgraded room and view - it was well worth it!

 

 

 

 

John came out on the patio and was really digging the view!

 

The beach view from the patio:

 

The pool right below us:

 

Roomy bathroom:

 

 

After we unpacked and got changed we went downstairs to grab something to eat.  Here's one of three restaurants on the property just off the main pool area and overlooking a pond which runs throughout the back of the property:

 

The pond was stocked with some pretty intimidating hammerhead sharks and huge stingrays:

 

 

 

John REALLY enjoyed the Saturday night seafood buffet!

 

After dinner we decided to go for a walk and explore the resort:

 

 

 

 

 

We were pretty tired from our long travel time (we'd been up about 20 hours at this point) so we enjoyed the sunset from our room and headed to bed.

 

Sunrise on Sunday:

 

 

 

Karen walking down to the dining area for breakfast:

 

The breakfast buffet was incredible!  The Polynesian style sausage and coconut pancake syrup was a daily favorite to me...and of course the fresh cut pineapple and other fruit were awesome!

 

Several days during our trip, we'd have breakfast, then head down to the beach:

 

This may have been my favorite part of the trip - listening to reggae music on my iPhone, and sipping virgin pina coladas while working on my tan.  :D  :D

 

Me and my "snorkel buddy" also spent quite a bit of time snorkeling during the week:

 

We both brought our diver watches along for the trip so we were well equipped for underwater adventure.

 

I brought along my Pentax Optio point-and-shoot camera which is water resistant down to about 15 feet and got some decent photos taken underwater. Some are a little blurry - keep in mind those little suckers swim fast!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Underwater wrist shot! :D :D

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sometimes in the afternoon we relaxed by the pool:

 

Or enjoyed the view from the Jacuzzi!

 

John learning the fine art of relaxing on vacation...

 

In the evenings we ventured out to sample some of the local cuisine, with varying levels of success. Traditionally Hawaii is NOT known for good food, and only in recent years with the whole "fusion" trend has Hawaii even had reasonably good food choices to offer. One of the bright spots for me was dining at Roy's - a Hawaii tradition. The closest one to us was in walking distance - part of the Ko Olina Golf Club:

 

I had several friends recommend Roys prior to going to Hawaii. The atmosphere and the view of the golf course were great. The sushi was good - I got the basic California Roll.

 

 

Speaking of Ko Olina Golf Club - WOW! What a course! John and I played the course twice during our stay.  Here's some photos from the course:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just BARELY stayed dry on this shot!

 

 

 

I'd have to place the golfing experience at Ko Olina just behind Pebble Beach - great course! One of the highlights of the trip for us was that day we spent at Pearl Harbor. We toured the USS Bowfin (WWII Submarine), the USS Missouri (WWI, WWII, and the Gulf War), visited the USS Arizona Memorial, and the Pacific Air Museum.  But before our trip to Pearl Harbor, we enjoyed a fantastic breakfast on the patio:

 

We then drove out to Pearl Harbor:

 

 

The marble markers here are a memorial to all the brave men and women who died aboard military vessels during WWII.

 

 

This memorial over looks Pearl Harbor - the USS Arizona Memorial and the USS Missouri are over John's left shoulder.

 

Next we toured the USS Bowfin

 

 

The deck of the Bowfin:

 

We went below deck:

 

Torpedo launchers:

 

 

 

Crew sleeping quarters:

 

 

 

Back above deck:

 

 

Had to get a wrist shot of the Submariner on a Submarine.  :)  :)

 

 

 

  

After touring the USS Bowfin, we took a tender out to the USS Arizona Memorial:

  

  

  

  

  

  

The names of all the servicemen who died on the Arizona:

  

White markers have been placed where other vessels were sunk during the Japanese bombing at Pearl Harbor.

  

The Arizona Memorial is sits over the sunken remains of the Arizona itself, which still sits at the bottom of Pearl  Harbor - part of the vessel sticks out of the water, as you can see below.  To this day, about a pint of oil bubbles up from the ship everyday.

  

  

  

After the Arizona Memorial, we headed over to the USS Missouri - one of the most famous battleships in the history of the US Navy:

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

Our extremely knowledgeable tour guide:

  

  

John sitting in the Tactical Officer's chair.

  

  

General Douglas McArthur accepted the unconditional surrender of the Japanese on board the USS Missouri - here's a duplicate of the instrument of surrender.

  

After the tour of the USS Missouri, we went to the Pacific Aviation Museum. It pales in comparison to the fantastic Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, back home in Dayton, OH, but it was enjoyable:

  

Directly across from the museum is this old air tower - just as it was the day the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.

  

  

  

  

  

Another of our Day trips was to up highway H-2 North to the Northern part of Oahu. Our first stop was the Dole Pineapple Plantation:

  

John and I went into the their maze - one of the world's largest:

  

  

And here we are "cheating" by crawling out when I grew impatient to find an exit....

  

John wanted to explore the maze some more, so Karen and I took a walk in their botanical garden...more my speed. :)

  

  

  

Karen was fascinated by the banana trees.

  

  

We then discovered their coy pod...all it took was a handful of fish food to create a feeding frenzy that would have frightened Jaws....

  

  

  

  

We then continued North to Oahu's famous "North Shore" - the part of the island that has some of the best surfing in the world.

  

The waves are best during December and January, so we didn't see much surfing activity, but we did enjoy exploring all the beautiful beaches up and down the North Shore:

  

  

  

  

  

People braver than myself dive from this rock...

  

  

  

We then headed back South to our resort in time to catch the sunset on the beach:

  

Karen and I stole a few romantic moments:

  

Here's a picture of the resort from this point where we were down the beach:

  

We came back several times during the week to enjoy the spectacular sunsets from this spot:

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

A couple of times during the week we braved the heavy traffic and drove down to Waikiki:

  

  

The shopping is fantastic in Waikiki:

  

  

We did of course do a little window shopping:

  

Rolex fans should not miss the all-Rolex boutique store in Waikiki:

  

Uh-ohhh....gotta get her away from that window...this could be expensive!  :D  :D

  

We ate twice in Waikiki - once at this local, non-chain restaurant. Nice seating with a view, but disappointing food:

  

And once my son talked us into eating at good old Senior Frogs:

  

One evening during our stay, the resort put on a huge fireworks display which we could see from the patio of our suite. It was certainly one of the most spectacular fireworks display any of us had ever seen:

  

  

  

  

  

  

But even that paled in comparison to the magnificent rainbow we awoke to one morning...again, our patio was the perfect view. It was like God made it just for us. :)

  

  

  

As hopefully these photos have shown, we had a positively wonderful time on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. All of us have always wanted to visit this part of the United States and experience the beauty and history it had to offer - we're so very glad we did. It turned out to be a much needed dose of "rest and relaxation."  By the end of the trip, I had very much gotten into the Hawaii lifestyle - I'll close with a final photo of me in the requisite Hawaiian shirt and lei.  Aloha, and mahalo for viewing!