Tsaiberspace

This is our first trip to Honolulu, and in a short time we learned and saw some new things:

• Honolulu does not use Daylight Saving Time (timezone abbreviation is HST). This caused my auto-synchronizing atomic-clock timezone watch to get confused.
• Ala Moana is not in the middle of things at Waikiki. We are right next to the Hawaii Convention Center, and adjacent to the Ala Moana Shopping Center (an upscale-but-not-quite-high-end mega-mall). It is within walking distance to Waikiki (a hike), and a few blocks away from the Ala Moana Park and its beach.
• We saw many red-crested cardinals at Ala Moana Park (apparently, a.k.a. “Brazilian Cardinal” - an imported species).

Ala Moana Beach Park is 100 acres and is more of a local beach than a tourist beach. There are no fish in the shallow water, but the sand is very nice, the beach is very un-crowded, and the water very swimmable (no currents or rocks).

We are staying at the Ala Moana Hotel for a few days for a conference. Many things we read about this place were rather negative, but the hotel is undergoing renovation, so perhaps they completed the renovations just in time for our stay. Our room and the grounds are great: new and clean. The whole hotel is non-smoking; there are little signs in the rooms that say there will be a $200 room-cleaning charge for smoking.

The rooms are all very modernly-furnished and laid out, with lots of right-angled furniture and artwork everywhere. Each unit has a private lanai (we can see the ocean if we lean out over the railing), a dorm-room refrigerator, and free cabled internet access (WiFi is handled by BlueSocket and costs $10/day):

There are two perks to this hotel’s location:

• It is a five-minute walk to Ala Moana Park.
• It is a two-minute walk to the Ala Moana Shopping Center. For the hardened traveler, the benefit is not so much in the shopping (although there is a Foodland grocery store there) as it is in the large food court for quick meals.