Damon's body was still confused with the new time zone and he awoke before the sun came up. Our first sunrise in Hawai段! He snapped a few pictures of the morning from the balcony window and waited for Amy to awaken. For breakfast we headed down to the breakfast buffet at the hotel. Our first breakfast in Hawai段! After waiting in line to pay, and discovering the meal would be $22 for the both of us, we took a table right next to the open windows on the beach. We were right at beach level and close enough to throw our French toast into the ocean. We watched someone giving surfing lessons to tourists and munched on some eggs and bacon, fruit (including fresh papaya and passion fruit), fresh baked fish and a nice assortment of other breakfast items while we talked and enjoyed the morning. The food was very good. The weather was amazing. The only flying pests we discovered were birds. Everywhere. But no gnats or mosquitoes of any kind. The weather is supposedly always in the low 80's and the breeze makes everything feel comfortable. The hotel lobbies are expansive and all exposed to the outside air. They don't bother to enclose anything. You walk from the beach into the shopping area into the pool area and straight to the front desk without walking through any doorways. It's all beautiful and well laid out. You know that you just walked into a hotel lobby but it takes a minute to realize that you're still not indoors. The airport is the same way. We tried to snap a few pictures to demonstrate what we mean, but as usual, pictures just don't measure up.

This morning started off with a surprise after breakfast. We were back in the room, Damon getting ready for the day and Amy with her binoculars out on the balcony. Then Damon heard an announcement over the intercom (do all hotels customarily have intercoms in the rooms??) that the fire alarm system had been activated. Meanwhile, Amy was outside getting her bird's eye view of the story (we were on the 10th floor) and gesturing for Damon to come out. As he got to the sliding glass door there were a couple of fire department vehicles approaching the building. It was exciting to watch but anticlimactic. We never figured out what exactly happened or why the fire department showed up.

We had two goals for the day. One was to visit the Hawai段 Department of Health to obtain our wedding license, the other was to go to the swing dance that night. Both events were in downtown Honolulu, about 3-4 miles from our hotel. We weren't sure how were we going to make this all happen but we just set out assuming we'd figure something out. Although it would be nice to get it done and out of the way, it wasn't absolutely necessary that we get the license that day, as we had a number of days left and could get it on any island. The swing dance, however, was that night and we didn't want to miss it.

In Florida, just before the trip, we had bought a Garmin GPS receiver - the cheapest we could find. This was a discontinued model, the yellow eTrex. Turns out they only sell serial cables for the GPS and Damon's new laptop is void of any serial ports. Luckily, there was someone online selling eTrex cables and usb-serial adaptors online for the same cost as Garmin sells just the serial cable. So before we left the hotel Damon put the waypoints for the Department of Health and the swing place in the GPS. When we got outside he marked where the hotel entrance was and we started out on our Honolulu adventure.

Looking at the map it appeared that we didn't fully explore Waikiki beach the previous night, so we retraced our steps along the same route. We walked down the beach past a number of hotels 'til we found the famed Waikiki beach. Lots of surfers. We took some pictures of the numerous surfers out in the water. The ocean around the islands is rather rough but the Waikiki area has protective walls under water to protect the swimmers from the rough surf. Right at the center of Waikiki beach there is a statue of Duke Paoa Kahanamoku, this full-blooded Hawai段an having lived from 1890-1968 and represented the surfing culture in the early 1900's to millions of people. He is known as the "Father of International Surfing" and the "Hawai段an Ambassador of Aloha," was in movies and was an Olympic champion for swimming. When we saw the statue there were actually fresh leis at its feet and draping over the arms and around the neck. At that point we also saw some people getting on a nearby free trolley. The trolley sounded like a neat idea and could possibly take us towards downtown, so we got in line.

A word, first, on Honolulu weather. It's mostly sunny, partly cloudy, and always breezy. Damon is usually quite miserable walking outside in the Florida sun and heat. This place was just really nice. Out in the distance we could usually see continual clouds pouring over the mountains and disappearing. We kept expecting to have some storm show up but it never did.

So - the trolley. We're standing in line and we're the only ones who weren't Asian. That alone isn't incredibly unusual, but everyone had a map with them - written in Japanese. The trolley showed up, the "pink line", and everyone had passes to show the trolley driver. We realized that this wasn't the free trolley that we saw earlier and we had been just blindly waiting in some line without knowing what it was for. But before we could say, "I'm an idiot tourist" the free trolley showed up and we saw another touristy couple getting on it. "Where does this thing go?" "Hilo Hattie. I don't know if it goes anywhere else." We jumped aboard, figuring at worst we get a little tour of Honolulu. Our first adventure in Hawai段!!

Hilo Hattie is a store that sells Hawai段an outfits and various other goodies. It's kinda like the Ron Jon's of Hawai段. You would expect it to be the typical tourist crap but it actually had some good quality stuff. It even had a separate room for selling school uniforms. Rather odd for a tourist place. The prices were a little high but what do you expect from a store that has its own dedicated trolley system. Crazy. And they give everyone a little shell necklace upon entering. Cute!

The trolley ride was really nice. Amy and I sat in the back and I held the GPS receiver out over the edge to make sure I got a good track of where we were going. We were taken past the swing dance and marriage license locations but not too far past. We shopped around at Hilo Hattie, dumped a few hundred mainland dollars into the Hawai段an economy, and escaped with our obligatory bounty of souvenirs. With rejuvenated enthusiasm we whipped out the GPS and commanded it to direct us to the wedding license place. We walked out of the docks area (where Hilo Hattie was) and down the highway towards downtown. It was a little over a mile, a nice Friday noon-time walk. We ended up cutting straight through Chinatown and the whole Asian district. We approached some palace and a funky looking "Logan's Run" type building when it started to sprinkle. The weird shaped building turned out to be the State Capitol and right behind it was the Department of Health. Success! And just in time.

We got our wedding license, a relatively painless process for $60 cash, and were on our "marry" way. Be sure to see the picture we took of the lady helping us. She also took a picture of us right after we got our license.

Right next to the DOH building was a bus stop. We found some little map, of which we couldn't make any sense. A bus showed up and Amy asked the driver if he had any maps. If the driver had been any more unresponsive he would have been comatose, so she abandoned the inquiry. Earlier in the DOH we had asked the security guy where we could get a bus pass, and he had directed us to a bus satellite office a few blocks down Punchbowl Street and then left on Fort for a few blocks. So we decided to follow his directions and see what happens. We went a few blocks and didn't see Fort. We asked someone on the street who told us to go right. Ok, so now we don't know what's going on, but we persist. There was another bus stop and we ran over to it. I jumped on and asked the driver if we could get to Waikiki, and he instructed us to take the B express which would be along in a few minutes. So that driver was a bit more personable. Must be Damon's irresistible sex appeal. The B came along and we took it. The cost was $2 per person and all we had was a $5, which the driver happily took anyway. We rode the bus with the GPS pressed to the window, and when it said we were close to the hotel we jumped out.

On our way back to the hotel we saw a vintage store that looked interesting. We found that in this case "vintage" meant lots of eighties clothes, but they were all in really good condition. The prices were a little high but not too unreasonable. There was one Asian kid working in there who seemed bored. Damon saw a whole row of jeans that were quite worn and faded. He looked at one of the most worn pair he could find and the tag said $1400. He thought that maybe they were advertising in yen or something, but he went and looked at some other goods and the prices were surely in dollars and made sense. But back at the jeans they were all between $1k and $2k for old, used jeans. One would expect to see written on them that they were owned by some celebrity or something, but nothing. We left a bit bewildered and ultimately unimpressed, and the GPS guided us a few blocks back to the hotel. Oh well, no vintage Hawai段an clothes to have to cram into our suitcases for the trip home.

We dropped off our shopping bags (which, remember, we had been carrying since Hilo Hattie) in the room and grabbed some towels for the beach. We did all that exploring and still had the rest of the day left! After stopping at a hotel shop for a little inflatable mat, we hit the Waikiki ocean. The surf wasn't too rough outside the hotel. The sand was pretty nice until we stepped further out into the water. Lots of rocks. LOTS of rocks. Sharp, jagged, rough, lava and coral rocks. And we didn't think to bring our water shoes down. It was a bit vicious on our feet and took some getting used to, but it was still fun to get in some Hawai段 water. After a few feet there was a two-foot drop-off and as you got close you'd just sink into the sand and rocks. We used that to our advantage to break apart the drop-off and make a nice ramp for ourselves. Damon finally gave up and jumped on the raft. We played for a bit before heading back up to the room.

Evening came around and it was time for swing dancing. Damon spent some time wandering through www.thebus.org looking at timetables and routes. We found one bus that would pick us up near the hotel and drop us off near the dance venue. Its last pickup from near the dance was 12:06am so we just had to make sure we left the dance a little bit early. Probably not a problem since Damon really didn't get much sleep the night before.

We walked a few blocks north to Kohu and went looking for some of the restaurants we saw while flying by on the trolley. Believe it or not, here we were IN HAWAI棚, and the restaurant we decided on was TGIFridays. That's what we wanted. We had a nice tasty meal, but still!! The bus stop was about 200 feet from the restaurant. After dinner we wandered around until we knew the bus should be showing up soon. Sure enough, it did, and we were off. We rode the bus to Ala Moana and Ward streets and walked the remaining .75 miles to the swing dance.

The dance was in a tiny and cute little studio, in the typical warehouse industrial district where swing dances are always found, upstairs over some other offices and with Christmas lights on the ceiling. Probably a total of 20 people showed up. According to Becky, it was an exceptionally slow night due to inclement weather over the past few days and people being "bogged out." After all, there was a hurricane trio headed our way! Ugh! Hurricanes seem to follow us everywhere! Well, they did dissipate before reaching the islands, but Hawai段 saw some unusual rain and humidity right around the beginning of our stay. More on that later. At the dance we met some really nice people and learned all about the history of the scene. We got some good dances with a couple who were visiting from Sweden, as well as with a few other friendly locals. We actually could have gotten a ride back to the hotel from Candice, but around 11pm Damon was starting to fade so we packed it up. We took a few pictures, and Becky took one of us. She started to turn the lights up and interrupt a currently playing song so that we could get a picture with everyone, but we quickly dissuaded her. Sheesh! When we finally finished our goodbye's we wandered back to Ward and Ala Moana. We found a bus stop that was fairly close to the intersection but weren't certain that was the right spot. There was a sign that said "The Bus 65" and we didn't know if that meant that only bus 65 stops there or not. The sign by the restaurant had listed which buses stop there. This stop had no such signs. Don't need to be stuck in the middle of the night in a desolate area of a town we're not familiar with on an island surrounded by thousands of miles of ocean!

About ten minutes later we saw the #58 (or something like that) come down the road. We stood up and approached the curb. The driver stopped, opened his door, and asked if he could help us. Were we that obvious? He didn't stop, open his door and wait for us to board - he asked us if he could help us. Freaky. It appeared that it wasn't his stop but he just stopped there to help us. Did we look out of place, a young tourist couple at almost midnight in this part of town? Our bus driver experiences continue to improve. We said we wanted to go to Waikiki and we thought the #19 would get us there. He looked up some chart and said, "Yeah, the #19 or the #8. They'll be along in a bit." Rock on. We told him mahalo and sat back down. About 5 minutes later the #19 showed up. Our destination stop was mere feet from our hotel entrance. We climbed into bed and passed out.