Australia/Hawaii 2002, part 13: Oahu (day 3)

I mention below that one of the graves I sought out at the Punchbowl was that of Space Shuttle Challenger astronaut Ellison Onizuka. In 2011, ten years later, I got the opportunity to meet his widow Lorna at a NASA function, and told her how much his death affected me as an aerospace engineering student at the time, how it inspired me even more to get into the job that (as it turned out) I loved, and that it was out of respect for all that that I visited his grave. She was very touched and thanked me for thinking of him like that and for telling her that story. Today's pictures are here.

(Turns out this post has been in draft for over a year, I thought I published them all. Oops.)

Thursday, October 3: Oahu
I can see for miles and miles …

Like all "last days" somewhere, this was the day to think about doing all the stuff I didn't have time for – I wanted to go up to the top of Diamondhead, go snorkeling in Hanauma Bay (both off to the east), go up to the Punchbowl and maybe do some shopping (both off to the west). As usual, I didn't get to do all of that. I quickly decided to blow off shopping and reluctantly pushed snorkeling to the bottom of the list. Yeah, it would have been cool, but I had just gone scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef and anything else would have been anticlimactic. So with just Diamondhead and the Punchbowl left on the list, I could be somewhat leisurely.

Australia/Hawaii 2002, part 12: Oahu (day 2)

The music I listened to in the car in 2002 was on CDs. Now I would have hooked my iPhone up to Bluetooth, or at worst plugged the phone into the AUX jack and listened to mp3s. But it still would have been the Beach Boys and Jimmy Buffett. Today's pictures are here.

Wednesday, October 2: Oahu
Chasing a rainbow on the Kamehameha Highway

I had decided that today was going to be my day to explore the island outside of Waikiki – get a rental car and just drive, stopping where I want and seeing what there is to see. All within reason, of course, as I had to drop my rental car off by 7 pm, so that left me roughly 12 hours if I picked it up when the place opened. I actually picked it up at 8, and then drove down the H1 Highway to Pearl City to see the USS Arizona Memorial. Tunes for the trip are courtesy of the Beach Boys Greatest Hits and the 4-disc Jimmy Buffett set, "Boats, Beaches, Bars, and Ballads".

Australia/Hawaii 2002, part 11: Oahu (day 1)

I called my family and friends on my cell phone from the beach in Hawaii, and everyone was amazed. In 2011 I talked to my friends and family via Skype, text message, and FaceTime, and nobody thinks twice about it. Today's photos are here.

Tuesday, October 1 (again): Oahu
Aloha from the beach

I woke up and it was October 1st again. Hmm, déjà vu… didn’t I wake up yesterday in Sydney and it was October 1st then too? Ah, the joys of crossing the international date line. I experienced the night of 9/30 to the morning of 10/1 twice, in exchange for not having a 9/15 on my way out to Australia. But it’s Hawaii, what’s there to complain about?

Australia/Hawaii 2002, part 10: SYD to HNL

For a 3-week trip to Australia and Hawaii in 2002, I took a 30" suitcase and packed it with 32 kg (70 lbs) of stuff. In 2011, for a 10-week trip to Europe, I took a 26" suitcase and packed it with 19 kg (43 lbs) plus a 4 kg (8 lb) backpack. I think I had about 8 days worth of clothes on this 2002 trip, including 2 pairs of jeans, vs 6 days in 2011; also, I packed all of my scuba gear to save a few bucks on rentals, my suit and dress shoes for the wedding at the end of the trip, and I had bought a few books to take home.

Tuesday, October 1 to Monday September 30: Sydney to Honolulu
The Time Zone Shuffle

Sigh. I don’t want to get up, I don’t want to have to leave. But circumstances demand it. I checked out of the hotel and caught the second shuttle to the airport. I planned to take the Airport Shuttle bus as part of my SydneyPass (which includes a free round-trip to and from the airport). When I inquired at the front desk they insisted that the shuttle would pick me up at the front of the hotel, which conflicted with the official map of the bus route, as that indicated the stop was a couple blocks away. Sure enough, at 7:30 the airport shuttle showed up – a shuttle VAN, hired by the hotel and requiring a payment, not the shuttle BUS that I had already paid for. Luckily the next bus stopped at its regular place about 14 minutes later, and it was off to the airport.

Australia/Hawaii 2002, part 1: Honolulu

Flashback to my "Down Under: World Tour 2002", part 1, wherein I go from Houston to Honolulu to Sydney (IAH - HNL - SYD). In retrospect, reading this seems almost quaint - I had a new digital camera for the first time, and I had my new-ish Palm m505 PDA to take notes on and to keep my calendar straight (and as I found out much later, the m505 problem was caused by a buggy game that I loaded right before I left). Apparently it was the first in-flight entertainment system flight I had taken, too. Except for the stuff I spontaneously did, I did most of my planning for this trip over the internet on my own.

Saturday, September 14, 2002: Houston to Honolulu
The longest day (or: Delayed and De-lei’d)

Well, I’m off to a flying start – pun intended. After a restful 3-1/2 hr sleep, my alarm goes off at 5:30 so I can leave at 6. Which I actually do, surprisingly. On my way to the airport I took a wrong turn (I misremembered how the highways and airport are laid out) and lost nearly a half hour while I backtracked. That got me to the airport check-in line at 7:11, just within the 30-minute check-in rule for a 7:45 flight. Oops, they changed the time of the flight, it’s now at 7:40 so I’m 29 minutes before the flight. And therefore I can’t take that flight. Originally, I was to have left at 7:45 with a 40 minute layover in LA, getting into Honolulu at 12:30 local. Now they’ve got me on standby for the 9:40 direct to Honolulu (gets in at 12:45), and if that doesn’t work, I have to hang around until 11:35 for the next direct flight (gets in at 2:40). If I have to take the later one, at least I have a confirmed aisle seat for the 8-hour flight. Good thing Continental has a hub in Houston with so many flights out to Honolulu. Scratch one flight segment from my pre-trip estimate of 14…