Wald's World On Wheels: Cheeseburger in Paradise

So in the midst of all my travels around the country with the family in the RV I am also doing plenty of traveling for work...yes I am still working for those of you who may be wondering. My amazing employer was willing to accommodate a flexible work arrangement that allowed me to follow my dreams and still work part time while on the road with the family. At times that requires me to hit the road to visit clients across the country.

Most of these trips are pretty ho hum and not a lot to write about, but not this time! I was just, recently sent to Hawaii for a client meeting. I was absolutely excited about going to Hawaii. I have traversed this country by vehicle six ways from Sunday but Hawaii was a trip that I had yet to make. What better opportunity to travel to Hawaii than on my companies dime for a client meeting. I flew into Hawaii on Friday and my flight out was on Monday. This basically allowed me just enough time to adjust to the 5 hour difference in the time zone.

With a Monday departure I had one full day without meetings to make the most of a trip to Hawaii. So I wanted to give a travelers guide to experience Hawaii if you ever have the misfortune of only one day in the tropical paradise.

First things first, transportation. There are a number of different options to tour the island, a tour bus, a taxi, or of course a rental car. I went with the latter. It was the cheapest and most flexible way to see as much as I could in a short amount of time.

I rented Mustang Convertible (it is all they had left available on short notice) which had a self guided tour through the available GPS system. I was able to hit just about everything on the island in about 8 hours and still finish with time to grab a Mai-Tai. Here was my trip in a snapshot.

I did the circle island tour and was able to see the following sights in a single day:
1. Pearl Harbor - A must see
2. Dole Plantation - Ummm...if you really like Pineapples go ahead and pull in...I mean, if you Really like pineapples!
3. Laniakea Turtle Beach - This was really neat. Just pull in for 30 minutes or so and check out all of the sea turtles hanging around.
4. Pali Lookout - A great view of the island from the top of the island
5. Diamond Head - A 1.5 mile hike up the local volcano. This was a neat hike and a great view of Waikiki Beach. They had lots of warning signs about drinking water and preventing dehydration. This out of shape dude did it in about 45 minutes without water, so don't panic.
6. Waikiki Beach - This is a beautiful beach which is worth some time hanging out on.

One funny story I wanted to include. So I'm eating lunch in Subway (yep that's right, nothing fancy for this guy). I'm sitting there enjoying the music they have piped into the joint. First a little Lady Gaga, then Garth Brooks and I'm thinking, wow they really have a diverse playlist. I leave Subway and they have the music playing outside as well. I don't mind, it's some pretty good tunes. I get to the cross walk and there it hits me... it's my IPOD in pocket playing music at full volume! There were about a dozen people eating in Subway with me and I get a kick out of thinking about how they felt about my music collection.

Anyway, here are some selfies (yep I just did that) of my trip to Hawaii.

Me at Waikiki Beach.

My Cheeseburger in Paradise at Jimmy Buffet's restaurant Cheeseburger in Paradise. It was OK. I'm a bigger fan of Five Guys.

Cruising in my Mustang with the Hawaii shirt. My taxi driver told me that only Tourists where Hawaii shirts...so of course I bought three. Stay tuned for Hawaiin shirt week!