Aloha

So we made it to Honolulu. We've been off the ship for two full days, and depart at midnight tonight bound for French Polynesia - which should take us another five full days at sea.

Since almost everyone I know has been to Honolulu several times, I thought I'd give you my "virgin" first-time impressions:

• Honolulu is a big American city that has nice weather and a nicer beach.
• Traffic in this city reminds me of LA. It took us a half-hour to travel about 10 blocks on a bus yesterday afternoon (a Monday, at about 2pm - so not rush hour).
• The place looks like Banff - there are more Japanese here than anyone else.
• It's expensive - but I knew that it would be. $27 for a hamburger in Tahiti, though, puts it all in perspective.
• We were going to go to see Pearl Harbor, but were warned that if we weren't part of a tour, or arrived very early in the morning and were willing to wait for a few hours to get in, don't bother. We'll have to come back to do that.

We did venture down to Waikiki again today, and ended up spending a few hours at the Honolulu Zoo. We'll see about hitching another bus ride around Diamond Head as soon as I finish syncing my email.

The next dispatch will likely be from New Zealand in a couple of weeks, as I have no idea about WiFi in Tahiti and Bora-Bora.

Hopefully, some of the photos we've taken have uploaded here.