Keep Smiling: Waikiki

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

New Year's Eve

A group of us decided to go into Waikiki for New Year's Eve. We didn't really have a plan, just figured we'd eat dinner somewhere, hang out, and ring in 2013 with fireworks on the beach! Since we were making plans the day of, most restaurants were already filled with reservations, and we didn't want to eat at 10pm. So we actually ended up eating at Buffalo Wild Wings. Not your typical New Year's Eve spot, but there was no wait and being with friends was really all any of us cared about.

We figured we'd hang out at the restaurant until it was pretty close to midnight, but to our surprise, BWW closed at 9pm (understandable, I guess). So we walked around for a bit, but eventually just made our way down to the beach...with 3 hours to spare. For a while, we doubted if we were in the right spot because there was no one else on the beach. But hey, we got our pick of seating! Surprisingly enough, though, it was freezing (well, no, but very chilly) down by the water and we were all wishing we brought more blankets! When we first got to the beach, we thought the 3 hours were going to drag. And they kind of did. We all felt old, since we were struggling to stay awake until midnight. But it was a fun memory - trying to keep warm, trying to stay awake, and stargazing on a beautiful, clear night - and a special way to ring in the new year.

Funny story: we were on the beach in front of the Hale Koa hotel, where there was a big New Year's Eve party going on. So for our 3 hour wait, we at least had music in the background...ha! But the DJ of this party, well, his timing was definitely off. He started counting down to midnight way too early and sure enough, at the end of the countdown there were no fireworks...until 4 minutes later. Very awkward. And anti-climactic.