I am breaking my own rule and talking about upcoming travel plans. Ever since the Morocco thing that was supposed to happen this summer went to pot, I’ve been keeping mum about upcoming plans lest they also fall through.
But I’m gonna need some help on this one, guys, so get yer typin’ fingers ready.
Ray and I went to see my folks this weekend for dinner, to see the dog who, against my mother’s emotional preparations to the contrary, is still alive after their two and a half week trip to Guam and Hawai’i. We dutifully sat through my father’s photo slideshow in which he insisted on giving each photo a narrative of its own, even when the photo was self explanatory (“Here’s your mother and me at dinner. I think this was the night I had the mahi-mahi. Honey? Could you look at this photo? Was this the night I had the mahi-mahi?”). At the end of the night, my mother handed me their AAA TourBook (I never did get around to buying them the Lonely Planet) for “inspiration.”
Well, as it happens, I’ve been saying for years that when I accrued enough miles, I would cash them in and get Ray and me tickets to go to Hawai’i. As it also happens, I reached that level of mileage accrual two years ago and never did anything about it. This in itself is quite a feat – whenever I travel on state business I’m supposed to fly with whichever carrier has the contract for that route, so I’ve got miles spread across several dozen frequent flier programs.
And so, last night I cashed in 70,000 of my hard earned frequent flier miles in exchange for two round-trip tickets from Austin to Honolulu in April. (Yes, you really have to book this far out – I actually had problems finding available flights.)
Here’s where I need help from the vast blogosphere: OK, I got the tickets to Hawai’i. Does anyone have got recommendations on where to stay and what to do? I can figure some of this out for myself, but the only people I know who’ve been to Hawai’i are my parents, and I’m really reluctant to take any travel advice from them since we have slightly differing ideas on what constitutes “reasonably priced accommodations” and “interesting things to see and do.”
We’ve got 8 months to sort all of this out, but I’m all ears, er, eyes.
Oh, and Happy Thursday!
[...] through some of the magazines and brochures that my parents gave me when they found out that Ray and I are going to Hawai’i (like, five minutes after. We’re not going until [...]