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The Oahu Surgery Trip, Day One
Aug. 24th, 2021 07:22 pmOur third trip to Oahu in August. Ay. But it's the natural follow-up to last week's appointment. The orthopedist that Kimberly saw agreed that surgery was the only possibility to try and somewhat alleviate the constant pain Kimberly has in her foot. And they scheduled us for nine days later, so here we are.
Kimberly had major annoyances before our trip because she spent Monday trying to contact various medical people, leaving messages, and having absolutely no one reply to them. So by evening, we didn't know the result of her COVID test, we didn't know if had been sent to Oahu, we didn't know if her nephrologist had any additional advice on remaining hydrated prior to the surgery, and we didn't know if her surgery had been moved from its original 3.30pm time to help with her hydration.
We could do something about the first two, so when we drove into Lihue Monday night to get post-surgery snacks and sundries, we also stopped by the place that did the tests and made them print a copy of her results (which were negative, of course, though we'd previously had slight concerns that an asymptomatic case could mess up all our plans and there was some danger of it given our recent trips to Oahu).
My dad was kind enough to drive us to the airport, and to watch over and pay attention to our cats while we're gone.
The airport bit was uneventful, other than the fact that Nellie, Kimberly's adventure scooter, necessary for the sidewalks of Honolulu, got pulled over by the TSA, I believe when they did their swab for potential explosive material.
The TSA staff seemed upset and unbelieving, like they didn't want to deal with the annoyance. But then they gave Kimberly and her bag a thorough screening. And naughty Nellie too.
It was still only 10 minutes or so from curbside to our gate. We definitely know the speed of the Lihue airport at this point. At least with TSA Pre/Global Entry. We can't ever let those expire.
We'd been having some very wet weather in Kauai in the morning, because we're getting the remnants of a tropical storm that blew itself apart. But it was like night and day when we landed in Honolulu. Oh, a bit of overcast, and we had rain spitting at us a few times, but it was generally hot and dry.
Which has been our general experience of Honolulu. There's a reason Kauai is/was the wettest place on Earth and Oahu isn't.
Kimberly finally talked to the surgery people on our ride from the Honolulu airport to our AirBnB. She's still set for 3.30pm (and they later advised her to drink some Gatorade this evening to help with the hydration).
Of note, our Lyft from Daniel Inouye airport to our AirBnB was $76 before tip. (We _always_ tip when a driver has to deal with Nellie the explosive adventure scooter.) Our tickets from Lihue to Honolulu were $33 before fees. It literally cost us more to get that last several miles than the 100 miles over the ocean.
We got a nice AirBnB, because I wanted to make sure Kimberly was very comfortable on the night after her surgery and because we wanted to make sure there was plenty of room for her scooter, particularly after the surgery when she can't put any weight on her foot. So it was a bit more than $200 a night, which is not obscene for Waikiki, but at an AirBnB you add on a similar amount to a night's stay for the cleaning fees after your visit, and then of course there are all of Hawaii's tourist taxes.
But it indeed is quite nice. Decently sized, filled with sunlight when we arrived, and well furnished. It's actually got two bedrooms, mainly because that's what it has, but if Kimberly wants her own bed after the surgery, she has one.
The funny thing is that if you go and sit on the balcony (which is one of those semi-circle balconies jutting out from the building, which always freak me out a bit because they don't seem to be supported), you can look directly at the balcony of the place we stayed at two and a half weeks ago. (We'd actually looked at that place first, but it wasn't available on the short notice, but on balance this new AirBnB is better under the circumstances, even if it's a few hundred dollars more.)
That's not coincidence. AirBnBs in Honolulu are restricted to Waikiki as far as I can tell, and for both of our overnight trips we got one in the northwest corner of Waikiki, last time to go to the convention center, this time to go to the orthopedist.
We had dim sum again for dinner, at the same 'ole place by Ala Moana. It was surprisingly empty for dinner, after being quite busy for lunch.
And we're now settled in for the night.
Tomorrow I need to sneak off for lunch because Kimberly can't eat or drink after 4am. But she's suggested I go to Popeye's, one of my favorite fast food restaurants not available on Kauai. We're right at the Ala Wai canal, so it's an easy ride along the length of Waikiki, with Popeye's on the other side. Hopefully it's a safe eating establishment. (Hopefully it's too low-brow for tourists.)
I do like our balcony, despite its unnerving nature. Beautiful views of the sunset in the skies earlier, from up here on the 11th floor, and fun views of the city by night now, including the Waikiki Landmark condos right across the street from us. Easy to see why this condo is $200-something a night rather than $100-something, and I think that's actually somewhat of a deal given Waikiki prices.
Kimberly had major annoyances before our trip because she spent Monday trying to contact various medical people, leaving messages, and having absolutely no one reply to them. So by evening, we didn't know the result of her COVID test, we didn't know if had been sent to Oahu, we didn't know if her nephrologist had any additional advice on remaining hydrated prior to the surgery, and we didn't know if her surgery had been moved from its original 3.30pm time to help with her hydration.
We could do something about the first two, so when we drove into Lihue Monday night to get post-surgery snacks and sundries, we also stopped by the place that did the tests and made them print a copy of her results (which were negative, of course, though we'd previously had slight concerns that an asymptomatic case could mess up all our plans and there was some danger of it given our recent trips to Oahu).
My dad was kind enough to drive us to the airport, and to watch over and pay attention to our cats while we're gone.
The airport bit was uneventful, other than the fact that Nellie, Kimberly's adventure scooter, necessary for the sidewalks of Honolulu, got pulled over by the TSA, I believe when they did their swab for potential explosive material.
The TSA staff seemed upset and unbelieving, like they didn't want to deal with the annoyance. But then they gave Kimberly and her bag a thorough screening. And naughty Nellie too.
It was still only 10 minutes or so from curbside to our gate. We definitely know the speed of the Lihue airport at this point. At least with TSA Pre/Global Entry. We can't ever let those expire.
We'd been having some very wet weather in Kauai in the morning, because we're getting the remnants of a tropical storm that blew itself apart. But it was like night and day when we landed in Honolulu. Oh, a bit of overcast, and we had rain spitting at us a few times, but it was generally hot and dry.
Which has been our general experience of Honolulu. There's a reason Kauai is/was the wettest place on Earth and Oahu isn't.
Kimberly finally talked to the surgery people on our ride from the Honolulu airport to our AirBnB. She's still set for 3.30pm (and they later advised her to drink some Gatorade this evening to help with the hydration).
Of note, our Lyft from Daniel Inouye airport to our AirBnB was $76 before tip. (We _always_ tip when a driver has to deal with Nellie the explosive adventure scooter.) Our tickets from Lihue to Honolulu were $33 before fees. It literally cost us more to get that last several miles than the 100 miles over the ocean.
We got a nice AirBnB, because I wanted to make sure Kimberly was very comfortable on the night after her surgery and because we wanted to make sure there was plenty of room for her scooter, particularly after the surgery when she can't put any weight on her foot. So it was a bit more than $200 a night, which is not obscene for Waikiki, but at an AirBnB you add on a similar amount to a night's stay for the cleaning fees after your visit, and then of course there are all of Hawaii's tourist taxes.
But it indeed is quite nice. Decently sized, filled with sunlight when we arrived, and well furnished. It's actually got two bedrooms, mainly because that's what it has, but if Kimberly wants her own bed after the surgery, she has one.
The funny thing is that if you go and sit on the balcony (which is one of those semi-circle balconies jutting out from the building, which always freak me out a bit because they don't seem to be supported), you can look directly at the balcony of the place we stayed at two and a half weeks ago. (We'd actually looked at that place first, but it wasn't available on the short notice, but on balance this new AirBnB is better under the circumstances, even if it's a few hundred dollars more.)
That's not coincidence. AirBnBs in Honolulu are restricted to Waikiki as far as I can tell, and for both of our overnight trips we got one in the northwest corner of Waikiki, last time to go to the convention center, this time to go to the orthopedist.
We had dim sum again for dinner, at the same 'ole place by Ala Moana. It was surprisingly empty for dinner, after being quite busy for lunch.
And we're now settled in for the night.
Tomorrow I need to sneak off for lunch because Kimberly can't eat or drink after 4am. But she's suggested I go to Popeye's, one of my favorite fast food restaurants not available on Kauai. We're right at the Ala Wai canal, so it's an easy ride along the length of Waikiki, with Popeye's on the other side. Hopefully it's a safe eating establishment. (Hopefully it's too low-brow for tourists.)
I do like our balcony, despite its unnerving nature. Beautiful views of the sunset in the skies earlier, from up here on the 11th floor, and fun views of the city by night now, including the Waikiki Landmark condos right across the street from us. Easy to see why this condo is $200-something a night rather than $100-something, and I think that's actually somewhat of a deal given Waikiki prices.