I left Wednesday night for Oahu with my family. We got back home late Saturday night. We went there for a writing assignment (mine, not theirs), which means that now I have to turn around and write a very long article covering all of the aspects of the trip. We (seriously) packed an entire week’s worth of a trip into three days. I (seriously) came home and melted on Sunday. Now, I have two more days to complete said writing assignment. Not that I’m complaining. It is very nice to go on a trip that doesn’t put a huge dent in our bank account. Of course, this doesn’t mean that the trip was uneventful.

Here are a few things we all learned:

When you tell your family that you need to get on the Dollar rent a car bus, and they wave frantically to flag down the Dollar rent a car bus, and load their luggage on the Dollar renta car bus, and ride the Dollar rent a car bus for several blocks, they are not going to be very happy when their leader (that would be me) looks at her paperwork and announces, “Um, we’re on the wrong bus. We are supposed to be on the Budget bus.” We now use the phrase “getting on the Dollar bus” to indicate someone did something less than brilliant.

Stop signs on Oahu look just like the ones on the Big Island. That’s what the police officer told my husband after he (my husband) ran a stop sign while we tried to find a place to park in a city that has NO parking (”Brah, stop signs hea? Dey look jus’ the same as on da Big Island. Same color an’ evryting”). Thankfully, the nice police officer had pity on us and didn’t write us an actual ticket.

The ladies’ bathroom has a woman on the door. Then men’s bathroom has, well, a man. Ladies are very surprised to find a man in their bathroom. Husbands are very embarrassed when they find themselves in the ladies’ bathroom.

Pictures, under the fold:

Memorial to those who perished on the USS Arizona, Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941.

USS Missouri, recently renovated and open to the public.

Model of a volcano bubbling lava, Bishop Museum.

Bishop Museum.

Feather lei, Bishop Museum.

Hawaiian Monk Seal, Waikiki Aquarium.

Waikiki Aquarium

Jimmy Buffet with Jake Shimabukuro. Did I mention the ‘Bama Breeze Concert??

Garlic shrimp from Romy’s

Street performer - downtown Honolulu.

We had to wear these little footies at ‘Iolani Palace to protect the floor.