Book 'em Danno

This year my in-laws are celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary on Maui and most of the entire McKay clan is showing up to join in the fun. There will be 22 of us staying at a villa on the beach, but more on that when the time comes.

Today is Day 1 of our Hawaii trip. Although we saw several police cars, Steve McGarrett and the rest of the Hawaii 5-0 team were nowhere to be found.

Since no one in our immediate family has ever been to the Hawaiian Islands, the three boys and I decided to get started a few days early and be typical tourists in Oahu.

We arrived at Honolulu International Airport around 1:00 p.m. and after waiting in a very slow, long line, I was able to pick up our rental car at Hertz. I had high hopes for Hertz, especially after our adventure at Christmas time with Alamo and Enterprise. Ahh, but that's another story.

We found our little car and realized that our four suitcases weren't going to fit in the back, so David's suitcase was relegated to the third spot on the back seat. Note to self: I need to get a bit larger car when we get to Maui since Matt will be joining us. After fumbling around in the back for a while, Zach announced that he would be sitting in the middle spot since apparently the passenger seat behind the driver was missing the part that the seat belt clicks into. Weird. What is it with us and car rentals?

Once we were all cozy and buckled in, we headed to the Dole Plantation where we hoped to learn about pineapples. On the way, David commented that he thought it was strange that Hawaii would have Interstate highways. We drove on Interstate H1 and H2, but last I checked, there isn't a way for the highway to go into other states. Isn't that the definition of "interstate"? Plus the numbering systems was the opposite of the rest of the U.S. The odd number was traveling east/west and the even number was north/south. As we drove, we listened to the soundtrack from Lilo and Stitch to help us get into the Hawaiian mood.

The Dole Plantation was your typical tourist trap, but for Joe our pineapple lover, we had to go so he could get a Dole Whip. We walked through the garden and read about some of the different plants, and then took on the challenge of the World's Largest Maze. The race was on to collect the icons from 8 different stations. David was first and was through in about 35 minutes. I was last to finish with a time of 70 minutes.

It was time to check in at our Airbnb, so we drove back toward Waikiki and one of the freeways we drove on was H2O1. How fun is that? We found the house and met our host, Chris. Turns out we are just down the road from the Rainbow Drive-In, a classic dive for tourists and locals alike. So that was where we had dinner. David and I had cheeseburgers and fries, but Zach and Joe tried the famous Loco Moco which is a hamburger patty covered in gravy on a bed of rice and a fried egg on top of it all. While eating outside at the picnic table, it began to rain and we got to see a rainbow in the sky which was quite apropos.

A 15 minute walk in the opposite direction took us to the beach where we walked out on a pier  and watched the surfers and the kids in the water. Even with the intermittent rain and breeze, we can definitely tell that we are in the tropics. Fortunately, our room has air conditioning. It's only 9:00 in Hawaii, but my body says it's midnight, so it's time to put this head to rest. Tomorrow will come early and we have more planned than we have time for.

Want to read about our first day from another perspective? Here's David's blog: favoritesonsspiels.blogspot.com