My Recent Vacation

My most recent vacation was a trip to Hawai'i at the end of July 2003 that totaled 7 days. This included both travel time and actual vacation time. The purpose of the trip, however, was school related. But that was never an issue. As an officer of Beta Alpha Psi, the honory accounting fraternity at the University of Central Florida, I was allowed to partake in this trip. There is an annual national meeting for Beta Alpha Psi where all chapters across the nation are invited to attend. The meeting takes place in a different city every year. As luck would have it, the 2003 meeting was scheduled to take place in Honolulu, Hawai'i. Aloooooooha!

Below is a recollection of events that took place and sites visited. Seven of us went on the trip. One of these days was spent doing community service, the other two in sessions for the meeting. The rest was ours to explore.

Day 1

Waikiki Beach, with a view of Diamondhead.
  1. After 2 hours of driving from Clearwater to Orlando, went to bed around 1am.
  2. Woke up shortly thereafter at 4am in order to make it to the airport.
  3. 7am Orlando time: Plane takes off headed for San Francisco.
  4. After about 5 hours in a fairly empty plane, finally landed in San Francisco to a 2 hour layover.
  5. To our amazement, one of the members of the group managed to leave the airport, do the quickest tour of the city ever, and make it back to the airport just as we are boarding the plane.
  6. Shortly after 9am San Francisco time: A much more packed plane takes off headed for Honolulu.
  7. Shortly after 2pm Honolulu time, after another 5 hour flight, plane finally lands in Honolulu.
  8. The rest of the day consisted of some very expensive McDonald's food, in which all meals come with fresh pinapple; then a visit to the beach (Waikiki Beach), followed by an early end to the day by going to sleep.
  9. Literally, the longest day of my life.

Day 2

Me mimicking a statue.
  1. Woke up sometime before 7am after a really, really deep sleep.
  2. Today was the first day of the meeting, which we were all scheduled to do community service.
  3. Four members of our group went to the top of a dead volcano to pick up trash and logs.
  4. I, along with 2 other members of our group, headed off to Child & Family Services to paint classrooms and landscape.
  5. Afterwards we were free for the rest of the afternoon, so went back to the beach. What amazing beaches!
  6. That night we went to a luau put on by the organization. No performers but great food- mahi mahi, coconut chicken, salmon salad, purple sweet potatoes, and of course, fresh pineapple.
  7. The rest of the night was spent walking through locals shops.

Day 3

Me with the scary parrot. Can't you tell I'm nervous?
  1. Actual meeting days begin - another early day.
  2. Sessions over by 3pm - time for sightseeing!
  3. Can you guess? Went back to the beach, spent lots of time in the water, and took plenty of pictures.
  4. That night we walked around and managed to find a local seafood restaurant with great food.
  5. After dinner, we spent more time walking down a local strip filled with shops, vendors, and street performers. Apparently, haggling is the way to go when trying to make a purchase from a street vendor.
  6. One minute I'm enjoying the sights, the next there's a parrot on my shoulder. Freaked me out but turned out to be a great photo opp.

Day 4

The spectacular view from atop Diamondhead.
  1. Yet another early day, but the last day of the meeting.
  2. The sessions finished early, so we had plenty of time to explore the area.
  3. We took a limo taxi to Diamondhead, an inactive volcano. There we hiked to the top of the crater, which took us on a winding uphill path, over a 100 steps, and a pitch black tunnel. But the view was spectacular from the top. You could see all of Honolulu and the vast Pacific Ocean in front of you.
  4. After the Diamondhead visit was over, we split up into small groups, and we went to eat at a local pizza restaurant. A large pizza could cost up to almost $30, but they were packed with toppings.
  5. We did some more walking around and souvenir shopping. Every five stores was literally an ABC store. It was like a convenient store that also contained every possible Hawaiian souvenir you could think of.

Day 5

Where we snorkeled at Hanauma Bay.
  1. Today was completely devoted to sightseeing. It was difficult to remember that we were still technically in the United States because being in Hawai'i felt like being in another country.
  2. Shortly after 7am, we took a cab to Hanauma Bay for a morning of snorkeling. The bay was paradise, and the coral and sea life were amazing. I, along with another member on the trip, was lucky enough to see a sea turtle. We were several inches away from the turtle and wanted to touch it, but touching any marine life in the bay was not permitted.
  3. By mid-afternoon, we had rented a mini-van and decided to drive to the North Shore. The drive from the south end of the island to the north end was about an hour. Along the way we saw some amazing landscape, atypical of Florida's flat land, and passed the Dole Plantation with acres and acres of pineapple fields.
  4. We ended up at Waimea Beach, which is home to a huge rock near the shore that's about 30 feet tall. Despite the two signs clearly posting the dangers of jumping and the possibility of death, people were climbing up the rock and jumping off without thinking twice. I thought many, many times. We agreed to jump off the rock into the deep shores of the beach, considering we were in Hawai'i and how often did we get the opportunity to do something like this? What a rush!
  5. After our death-defying jumps, we drove down to another beach to enjoy a spectacular sunset.
  6. We finished the day by checking out the local shops eating some authentic Hawaiian plates for dinner.
My death defying jump at Waimea.

Day 6

  1. This morning we were invited to visit the Honolulu office of PricewaterhouseCoopers. Their office was quite impressive with a wave and paddle theme throughout, complete with real sand in the office.
  2. After the visit, we stopped at the local Hard Rock Cafe to buy some authentic T-shirts.
  3. Once we returned, 3 of us had decided to take a cab to Pearl Harbor. We didn't take the tour considering it was 4 hours long and we were scheduled to fly back to the mainland in several hours. But we still managed to get a good look at the monument from a distance and browse around their museum, gift shop, and the sights around the area. It was quite a powerful visit.
  4. Before we left we made one last visit to the beach and headed off to the airport.
  5. After an incredibly long time in the security check line, we boarded our plane and took off around 10pm Honolulu time.
  6. Headed back to Los Angeles, we all already longed to return, but slept soundly on the entire flight back to the mainland.

Day 7

Taken from inside an aquarium in a store. Almost looks like it's flying in mid-air, doesn't it?
  1. Day 6 quickly transitioned to Day 7, literally the shortest day of my life thanks to the change in time zones. We had another two hour layover in Los Angeles on our return.
  2. Learned how to play poker on the flight to Orlando.
  3. Once we landed in Orlando in the early afternoon, we still had to wait 3 hours for our luggage due to a thunderstorm. But I didn't care. I was sitting there enjoying my Hawaiian tan (slightly different glow to it, I think) and planning my next visit to Hawai'i.






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