Aloha from Hawai'i

I had the opportunity to travel to Hawai'i to visit a client on site. Poor me! So, off I went to Honolulu. I haven't been there since '89 when my sister graduated from high school. The trip this time was for three days in Honolulu to visit two clients. I got really lucky on the way out and was upgraded to first class AND I got a window seat. The upgrade was greatly appreciated as it's an 8 hour flight from Dallas to Honolulu.
Here's a birds eye view of the island flying in.
Here's a lovely welcome in the Honolulu airport. This was just past the 'point of no return' in security. When I stopped to take the picture, I was yelled at by the security guard. I'm glad I didn't end up in the pokey!
My first view of Waikiki Beach.
Diamond Head.
Beautiful flowers. So one thing I did discover. You know how on tv when people always get flower lei when they get off the plane? That doesn't happen in real life. I got nothin'! Well...they did put a flower in my mai tai....
Mai Tai anyone?
David, my boss, went out earlier in the weekend so he was already relaxed. It didn't take long for me follow. The mai tai was REALLY helpful in that regard.
This is Lili'uokalani, the last queen of Hawai'i. She was deposed in January of 1893. She relinquished her power to the United States hoping they'd restore the monarchy. No way, Jose!
Hawai'i at sunset. It was so pretty. Our hotel was right across from the beach, which was very nice. Most of my time was spent visiting clients instead of enjoying the island. I was there, after all, on business.
I did walk around a little. The views were just amazing. The traffic, however, was not. It took us 30 minutes to go around the block. It was awful. It was a bit of a drive between the hotel and the client offices that we visited so we saw a little of the city. Outside of the touristy areas, I thought it was really congested and kind of run down.
This is the only picture of me in Hawai'i. On the last night there, I realized I hadn't even walked on the beach or anything. I hate the sand but since this was Hawai'i, I had to at least walk on it. So, I went across the street and put my feet in the water. The sand was very fine (but just for the record, it was still sand).
View from my hotel window. I had a lovely view of the parking garage but when turning a little to the left, I could see the mountains.
Even the airport has nice views. They had this little courtyard in the middle of the airport - within the secured area so that you could do down there and enjoy the....plane fumes?

It was a nice visit. I would like to have spent more time looking around but it's hard to be a tourist when you are on a business trip. I did let the clients know that if they need me to come back for any reason, I would be most happy to do so....

Aloha!