On My Way to Australia: Hawaii

I'm at the JFK airport in New York with a bit of time on my hands before my flight leaves, so here's a quick update.  I left Columbus this morning (Friday the 31st of January) and will spend the weekend in Honolulu - eventually.  I first flew Columbus to JFK; next will be JFK to LAX, then LAX to Honolulu.  I'll arrive in Hawaii at 8:50 pm local time, or 1:50 in the morning back home.  Definitely a long day of travel!

After reaching LA I still had nearly 6 hours of
flying ahead of me to reach Honolulu
Honolulu, Hawaii's largest city, is on the island of Oahu.  I'd like
to visit the other islands too, but that will have to wait till next time!

While in Honolulu I'll stay with a friend who goes to law school at the University of Hawaii.  After a few days seeing the sights and, weather permitting, enjoying the beach, I fly to Australia!  I am scheduled to fly Hawaiian Airlines, leaving Tuesday morning and arriving in Sydney Wednesday evening.  The flight is long, but not that long - the time difference is a whopping 21 hours!  So when crossing the international dateline we will lose a whole day.  At least you add one on the way back.

Flash forward a few days - I'm in Honolulu with my friend David.  On Saturday I got soaked on a run through Waikiki, took a drive with David around Oahu, and went out for drinks at a chill bar with lots of travelers.  The weather today was better so after getting a needed long sleep I soaked up some sun on the beach and explored the area of Waikiki around David's apartment.  Tomorrow I'll sit in on his law class at the University of Hawaii, where Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is visiting.  Should be an interesting talk.  Then Tuesday morning I am heading for Australia!

David lives a short walk from Waikiki Beach, the touristy area
of Honolulu with lots of high rise hotels and expensive shops
US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia
will be visiting the University of Hawaii
on Monday.  Hopefully he will talk with
David's law class while I visit!
View from David's balcony

I've booked a hostel for the first three days in Sydney, where I will start my job and apartment searches.  I don't have much planned out at this point, but finding work and getting acclimated is supposedly pretty easy.  Fingers crossed that is the case!  The next few weeks will surely be eventful, so I will try and update the blog soon!

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