Diamond Head – There and Back Again

When I was planning my trip to Diamond Head I was thinking I’d take TheBus.  Diamond Head is 4 or 5 miles away and that is rather a long walk.  However, when I checked how long each would take the route that used TheBus took an hour and 50 minutes while walking only took 2 hours and I was pretty sure I’d beat the walking time.  So I ended up walking it.

The route I took to get to Diamond Head was an inland route passing through the mauko suburbs.  I passed a couple of different schools, one of which was founded in the 1840s.  Initially I was going through urban areas.  Later though the area turned more suburban.  Some of the houses in that area looked like nice places.  In several cases I saw big boats in driveways.

When I got closer to Diamond Head I encountered some wild chickens.  I got a picture of a rooster and a couple of hens.  Then just down the street I found a tree where the hen had laid her eggs in the fork of a large tree.  The eggs had hatched and the chicks were stuck up the tree peeping when the hen flew down to get food.  I tried to get a picture of that but wasn’t able to since the chicks ducked out of sight.

I also saw a couple of other birds that I got pictures of.

On my way back I decided to go through Waikiki.  I passed Kapiolani Park and the Honolulu Zoo on my way there.

Waikiki is composed of four different beaches from Kapiolani to Fort DeRussy.  One of those beach sections is also called Waikiki Beach.  I got a couple of pictures of the beaches though.  The beach looked nice, but it was incredibly crowded with tourists as was the road through Waikiki.  In the future I suspect I’ll either go to Ala Moana beach or maybe to Fort DeRussy beach.  The fort has some military connection still, so while the beach is public it isn’t crowded with tourists and Ala Moana beach is similarly open though without the military connection.

I did get a pair of pictures.  The first is the Diamond Head end of the beach.  The second was taken facing down the beach.  The pink hotel in the distance is on the section called Waikiki Beach.

News of last week

I’m mostly done settling in at my new apartment.  At work the settling in process continues.  I’ve been able to contribute some while I wait for the permissions I need to be granted.  We’ve been occasionally going out to lunch together.

The weather last week warmed up a little, but didn’t get into the 80s.  Next week looks like it will be a little bit warmer, though probably just into the mid-80s.  The office, on the other hand, was downright chilly.  Especially Friday when the blower by my desk was going full tilt.  It’s cool enough that I’m wearing the exact same clothes to the office that I wore in Naperville.

I’ve started going to events through meetup.com.  The first one was Thursday.  A get together at Dave & Buster’s for the happy hour.  I met a couple of interesting people there.  There is another with a different group this Sunday afternoon.

Today I walked up Diamond Head.  I’ve got enough pictures that I’m planning on doing two posts on that in the next few days.  Looking at myself in the mirror it’s clear I got quite a bit of sun

Hawaii – Apartment hunting

It was an interesting time and I learned a couple of things.  The first is this.  If you plan on moving to Hawaii find a place to stay for at least two weeks rather than the one I took.  Also, you should use several different sites.  I ended up using ApartmentList.com, Zillow.com, and Honolulu.CraigsList.com.

Everything I looked at and almost everything I found was owned at the unit level.  I saw one complex in Waikiki where the apartments were all owned by one group and rented out from an onsite leasing office.  Everything else was individual units owned by someone and rented out sometimes through a management company.

There’s a lot of variation between different managing agents.  Some want a big application fee, some don’t care about that.  There is variation on what is meant by Furnished and Partially Furnished.  The one partially furnished place I had included a stove and refrigerator and called that partially furnished though I’d call that unfurnished, at least as far as an apartment is concerned.  The place I ended up is fully furnished and includes plenty of kitchen appliances, like a rice cooker, and even had the cleaning supplies the prior renter had left, which was quite convenient when I went to do laundry on Saturday.  Another thing that matters is the personal rapport with the managing agent.  They’ve got plenty of leeway to make demands and when then they can pick and choose regardless of what they say while showing the unit.  The one thing all of them require is a showing.  You can’t even get serious about talking to anyone until after you’ve seen the unit.  Another thing most of the places liked was personal recommendations from folks already in the Islands.

Overall you might want to consider it more like buying a condo than it is like picking an apartment complex in Chicago or Indy, though the turnaround is faster since you don’t have to get financing.

Hawaii – News 3/8/2015

I got an apartment and moved in last Sunday.  I’m at 1710 Makiki St for at least the next year.  It’s about a 20 minute walk to work each day.  I’ve got almost everything sorted out now.  The internet will be over a cable modem when that gets set up on the 28^th.  Until then I’m using the “internet sharing” feature on my phone 5 GB a month should cover my needs if I’m careful to do stuff on the phone that can be done on the phone.  It’s an older one bedroom that came fully furnished even including some cleaning supplies.  It doesn’t have a lanai, but the way it is oriented I can open the windows in front and back and get excellent cross breezes more or less all day.  It also comes with a small potted plant on the front porch that I’m to keep watered.  Fortunately, I’ve been told it doesn’t need much water.

I’ve found a grocery store in walking distance and there are two farmers markets nearby on different days.  One is outside my new office on Friday around lunch time.  The other is an all afternoon affair just down the street in the parking lot of the Episcopal Church at the corner.  Below is a picture of that farmers market and a picture of the sign for the church.

I’ve been attending church at Ss. Constantine & Helen Greek Orthodox.  It has been interesting so far.  The priest is of Asian descent and comes from California.  He’s assisted by a priest that is a Navy Chaplain associated with the Pacific Command.  I spoke to him after church today and he spent a little time talking about writing doctrine for the Navy and assisting our allies with developing shipboard chaplaincies.  Church is about 25 minute walk from my apartment and maybe a 15 or 20 minute walk from work.

Work is going well so far.  It’s a large insurance company so they’re picky about security and require reams of paperwork for change management, which makes sense.  The people are hardworking and their attitude on matters that don’t relate to security are surprisingly laid back.  I’m finding ways to contribute while all the permissions issues are sorted out.  They’re talking about a crunch time towards the end of the month and I expect I’ll be fully up to speed with my required permissions by then.

One brief comment on the weather; I had the windows closed today as it has been a touch chilly the last few days with lows in the low-60s and highs only in the mid-70s, Fahrenheit.  This next week looks better as the highs are projected to be 80 all week with lows in the upper-60s or low-70s.

I’ve got three other random pictures I took while wandering around Honolulu.  The first is a view down the canal towards the sea.  If you look closely you can see the masts of a marina holding a bunch of small boats.

This second is of Ala Moana beach.  It is right next to the Ala Moana shopping mall and not far from Waikiki, though it is much less crowded.

The third is a picture I took because I was asked for a pic with palm trees.  This one is on Ala Moana Blvd in Waikiki not far from the bridge to the Ala Moana neighborhood.

I'm working on a couple of other posts still.  One on what it was like renting a place in Hawaii, another as a review for the place I stayed through Airbnb, and a couple of restaurant reviews.  I'll try to keep posting regularly.

Amina Pizzeria, 1694 Kalakaua Ave Honolulu HI 96826

Last night when it came time for dinner I pulled up the Yelp website and checked to see what restaurants around me were affordable and well rated.  There are at least a dozen well rated Asian restaurants near me with a good mix of Korean and Japanese with a few Chinese places.  Looking at the list I realized I wasn’t in the mood for any of those and I ended up going to Amina Pizzeria. 

It’s a tiny, only 4 tables, hole-in-the-wall local Italian place.  It’s the sort of place where most of the orders are carryout and the soda comes in cans.  The spaghetti and meat sauce I ordered was good and the garlic bread that came with it was excellent.  I’ll probably go there again when I’m in the mood to try a pizza or calzone.

You can call and place an order at 808-949-3584.  The prices are very reasonable.  I spent 10.95 on the spaghetti plate with a soda.

Move to Hawaii – First Day

I got into Honolulu just fine at 7PM.  The recruiter picked me up at the airport and took me to the place I’d booked a room through Airbnb.  I'll post a review of the place I got through Airbnb later in the week or over the weekend, I think.

In the morning I spent my time calling and emailing several different people about places to rent.  I got one, “Come to the viewing tomorrow”, an “I’m sorry but that property isn’t available anymore, have you considered buying”, and a “You can come by and see the property now if you’d like”.

The woman managing that last rental took me to the place, which is a bit north of where I’m staying.  The place is a little small, older, and in a more residential area.  It reminded me of the sort of place grad students I’ve known lived in and apparently that’s who usually rents the apartment.  In the process of hearing about the apartment I also learned that the current tenant is moving out to live with her boyfriend.  There was also something about them living on a boat, but I didn’t get any more details than that.  In many ways it’s a good place despite being old.

After that I walked to the office I’ll be working in just to get a feel for what that walk is really like.  The walk was fine at something like 15 or 20 minutes.  When I got to the HMSA building I ran into my recruiter walking another contractor back to the HMSA building after doing lunch with him.  We chatted very briefly.  After that I got myself some lunch and went back to the room to catch up on the news and wait for a couple more of the places I contacted to get back to me.  In the evening I did get two more contacts.  One waffled thoroughly but made it pretty clear things wouldn’t move quickly with her.  The other setup an appointment for me to see the apartment tomorrow at 5:30 PM.

I also looked up the two Orthodox churches in Honolulu.  It looks like the closer of the two is Ss Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church.  I was thinking of going to the Presanctified Liturgy, 6 PM on Wednesdays, but I can’t get there from the 5:30 appointment in time.  The Sunday morning service starts at 8:30 AM.  If I keep waking up when I am at the moment that will be no problem, but past experience of coming to the islands tells me I’ll revert to my normal schedule and probably before Sunday.

I’ll let keep posting as I get things settled down.

Chelsea's Kitchen - Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, AZ

In the long layover I have before my plan leaves for Honolulu I met my Paupau and step-grandmother, Mary, for lunch.

We went to a restaurant in the Phoenix airport called Chelsea's Kitchen.  Paupau and I had cheeseburgers while Mary had the soup of the day, a tomato chicken soup.  The fries that came with my burger had a very nice seasoning salt.  The food was all good and the service prompt.  It was no more expensive than I've come to expect for good food in an airport.

Before I went Mary got a picture of me alone and a picture of me with Paupau.