Aloha, Oahu! What It’s Like for First Timers
Hello, it’s Brian & Rhonda here. We have been wanting to make a trek out west for years now and we finally got our travel westward adventure off to a good start!
It all started on a sleepy Monday morning at the tail end of June, when we took off on our first-ever adventure to Hawaii. It’s a trip that we always put off for one reason or another. This time all the stars aligned perfectly.
With the Fourth of July holiday approaching and our belated 35th wedding anniversary from early June to celebrate, we planned a tropical getaway just for the two of us to the Aloha state and was it ever a good time with perfect weather and a lot of tropical beauty.
Spoiler alert: Oahu didn’t just meet expectations — it danced the hula on them, threw in a lei, and handed us a Dole Whip on top.
Chapter 1: The Journey Begins
We flew Southwest Airlines, departing bright and early at 6:00 a.m. from Nashville International Airport (BNA). It was a long haul — over 12 hours including a quick 45-minute layover in Las Vegas.
And yes, we squeezed in a little slot machine action without ever leaving the airport. Consider it our tiny Vegas honeymoon before the main Hawaiian course.
We’d been warned about the jet lag that hits when flying from the Mid-South to Hawaii, and honestly… they weren’t kidding. It personally took me 3-4 days to get back on track.