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Wegan In Hawaii- The Journey To Aloha

As you're well aware, we recently visited Hawaii for just over blissful weeks. We had last seen the beautiful island of Oahu back in 2011 and we had been missing it ever since. Somehow 3 years had passed in us trying to get Whitney's visa sorted to the UK and joining our lives together. Wanting to go back to Hawaii soon, we then received a wedding invite from Whitney's good friend Julia. the decision was made- we would be seeing Hawaii again! 

On Thursday 14th August 2014 we hopped into a taxi around 7.30am. Our suitcases were already very heavy and I think we nearly killed the taxi man trying to put them in his boot. Oops! Despite only going for a couple of weeks, we had packed numerous beach outfits, day outfits, evening outfits, bachlorette, bridal shower and wedding outfits... so you can imagine- they filled up pretty fast!

We decided to book our flights with Delta/ Virgin, who have merged. All my previous 5 trips to Hawaii had been with American Airlines but we fancied a change. Excitedly we went to check in at Virgin to find out that our seats were not reserved next to each other!!! You can imagine our upset- we were about to embark on a 11 hour journey that I always had to do solo and it was special to be able to do it together. Plus, we didn't want to fall asleep/ drool on a stranger! The flight was pretty much at capacity and therefore our only options were to pay for exit seats. We were so upset!! Getting nowhere, even after Whitney had told them it was our honeymoon (haha!) we spoke with a manager who eventually gave us the exit seats for free. On we went on our merry way, already needing a drink or 2! Unfortunately it turned out that the exit seats are NOISY as hell. Why you would pay extra for this leg room to be deafened I don't know (you can hear it in our Hawaii Vlog, part 1). 


We managed to pass the 11 hours and we were finally landing in LA! A quick change of terminals and we were waiting for our flight with Delta to Hawaii. Low & Behold there was not a Starbucks in the terminal (say what?!) and we were dying for an iced cinnamon dolce latte! We embarked on a further 6 hours of journey to finally land in Hawaii.


ALOHA HAWAII!!

Over 24 hours since leaving our house in Windsor, we were finally home!! What a feeling it was to finally touch ground in Hawaii. We quickly grabbed a long overdue iced cinnamon dolce latte (hurrah) and headed for our bags. What we love about the Honolulu airport is that to get to the baggage area there is a walkway outside and you can hear the rustle of the palm trees and the feel of Hawaiian breeze. It was so surreal to be landing together and walking into the baggage area, as this is where Whitney used to always wait with me holding our a fresh lei, and here we were returning as wife and wife- when we had left as fiancees! 
Back in the LDR day, this part was normally relatively easy, we'd hop into Whitney's nearby parked car, grab a Taco Bell and get home. This time we had to get a shuttle to pick up our rental car from Alamo. We had rented a jeep months ago (with my American airmiles) but they were all rented out, so we took a white VW beatle until they could deliver us a jeep the next day. 

Second task was to find our hotel with no sat nav (GPS) and Whitney's map of Hawaii being a little bit rusty. We managed to only make one wrong turn and pulled up to our first hotel of our trip- Luana Waikiki Hotel.



We walked into our room to find two champagne glasses, leis and a note from our friend Mark who works at Luana. What a lovely welcome! Their alarm clock had birds chirping from it and we immediately went to look at our view of Waikiki lit up bustling at night. We quickly opened up the bubbly, had a celebratory drink and headed for a walk around Waikiki. 


It was so amazing to be back and it soon felt like we had never left! We decided to have something to eat at The Cheesecake Factory, which brought back memories as we used eat there often on my last day in Hawaii when we were long distance. Despite it technically being 11am back home,  I decided I was fancying a margarita. Or two. Mid-eating we were approached by a lovely lady who we thought was going to ask us for directions, as we were sat outside. Low & behold she asked if we were Wegan! 

This took us completely by surprise, especially as we had only merely landed in Hawaii, having not had a shower or change of clothes yet. Woops!! It was super lovely to meet Anna from Germany though- Guten Tag!! We hope you enjoyed the rest of your stay in Hawaii!
Friday 15th August, this was our first full day in Hawaii. We were so excited to wake up and to see the sun coming through the windows. I jumped out of bed to see what our view was like and I was not disappointed!


Alamo had called to say that they would bring us our jeep on a tow truck to our hotel... how nice of them! We quickly got ready so that we could head to the beach as soon as it arrived!


It turned out we had to wait a couple of hours... but we enjoyed an Acai Bowl at the cafe connected to our hotel and were delighted to see our jeep when it arrived, and off we went!







Our first stop was to head back to Hawaii Kai- the area where Whitney used to live. It felt wonderful to be back. We grabbed a CDL from the Starbucks we used to frequent (and where I sent Whitney on her journey to getting engaged) and sat by the beautiful water.



Continuing our reminiscing we headed to our favourite beach (and where we got engaged), Waimanalo beach! It was beautiful as ever, though the hut where we got engaged under is sadly no longer there. It is such a great beach as not only is it stunning but it is quite secluded and whilst it is never deserted, it is never, ever packed.



We basked in the Hawaiian sun and Whitney even spotted a cloud that looked like a genie's lamp. This was not too long after Robin Williams sad passing and we couldn't help but think of him!


If you follow us on our social media accounts, you know that we're big fans of not only champange.. but also Kona Brewing Co beer! Aka Hawaiian made beer! It's no surprise then that on our first day in Hawaii we made a pit stop to sample the seasonal Kona Brewing beers. Ahh, what a taste of liquid Aloha!!



Later that night we had a wonder around Waikiki, had a very tasty nutty Hawaiian latte from Honolulu Coffee and ended up eating breakfast at around midnight.. jet lag!!






Come back to find out what we managed to get up to the rest of our Hawaii trip...

Not sick of what we got up to in Hawaii? Catch up on our Wegan in Hawaii Part 1 vlog:


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