Taking on New Adventures

Normally the work trips are on my end. Being in the journalism field means I do a LOT of last minute travel. But this time, it was Chuck’s turn.

I can’t say the trip was 100% last minute. We knew the possibility of him going to Hawaii to help with the changeover of one of the company’s largest and newest hotels was high. However, they didn’t solidify the trip until two weeks out. And my adventurous self decided to tag along.

I’d never been to Hawaii and there was no way I was passing up this opportunity, even though I knew things wouldn’t be as open or as welcoming as pre-Covid times but that was ok for me. Once we figured out how long Chuck would be at his hotel, I started planning my trip.

Chuck’s hotel is located on the island of Kauai, which had the strictest Covid restrictions of all of the Hawaiian islands. At the time, there was a mandatory 3-day quarantine at a “bubble hotel” with a prior negative Covid test that was taken within 72 hours of flying over from the mainland.

Chuck was allowed to have me come over on Wednesday or Thursday, but we’d have to leave on Tuesday. Given the 3 day quarantine, I just didn’t think that short of a time would be worth it. So I put on my “planning hat” and came up with an option that worked for both of us.

I decided to fly to Honolulu on Saturday, stay 4 days and then fly to Kauai. This way, I could avoid the 3 day quarantine in Kauai since I was coming from another island. Plus, I had to start a new gig while I was there so figured a few days of quiet, with some early start times, would not be a bad thing.

Flight and hotel booked, I scheduled my Covid test so I could get into Hawaii ok and proceeded to start packing. About a week later, I filled out the necessary forms to travel to Hawaii, got my negative test in hand and headed to the airport for a super long day of flying.

Mask on for all day, other than the few times I grabbed a bite or a drink, and 16 1/2 hours later I landed in Honolulu. Sadly, I had a row with no window so I couldn’t see a thing as we were landing. But the drive to the hotel gave me a few views of the mountains and some peeks of the water.

Hawaii is 5 hours behind New Orleans, and with any travel like this, my body clock was OFF. I woke up around 4am on Sunday and although I tried to sleep, just couldn’t. So as daylight was hitting, I hit the road for a walk around Waikiki.

I’ll defer to an upcoming travel blog posted on Pedacitos for details on my walk. But it was so cool seeing places I’d only seen on TV or in movies.

Exploring the area while spending some time working was not all bad. I was able to have the afternoons to myself and spend plenty of time going to places I wanted to go. Unfortunately, a lot of what I wanted to do was made difficult due to Covid restrictions, but I still managed to make the best out of the trip.

Three days in, I scheduled another Covid test and walked over to the office to take it. All I needed was a negative test prior to my flight to Kauai and I was set.

My final day in Honolulu was a long one since my flight was not until 7:55pm. After I finished working, I checked out of the hotel, did a lot of walking and grabbed some food and a few drinks at some interesting places along the way.

I hit the airport early thanks to my awesome driver that I met a few days earlier. And my four day adventure in Honolulu was complete.

It was now time to meet up with Chuck in Kauai and take advantage of his paid-for-by-work hotel room overlooking the beach in Lihue and explore some more.