Vacation Day #2 - Waikiki, HI
Nothing had been going right on our vacation. Our Southwest flight from Albuquerque was late to depart because a plane had been struck by lightening. We landed in Las Vegas, then sat on the backed up runway another 30 minutes. We called our hotel for their courtesy shuttle and we waited. And waited. A follow up call revealed that they had forgotten to send the shuttle to pick us up.
By the time we finally made it to our hotel room, it was after midnight. It seemed best to scrap our idea of walking to the strip for our one and only night in Vegas and just go to bed.
But things were going to go better now that we were in Hawaii!
We pulled up to our hotel, the Wyndham Royal Garden at Waikiki, and it was nicer than we had expected. Actually, it was probably one of the nicest hotels we have every stayed in! A friendly valet instructed us to reverse out of their parking area until after we were checked in. He guided us into a spot in front of the hotel where we could zip in, then return to be valet parked once we were settled. Inside, the hotel lobby was gorgeous! Enormous, sparkling chandeliers lead the way to the reception desk, where we received prompt, cheerful service. Our vacation had gotten off on the wrong foot, but clearly we were just getting all the badness out of the way.
Checked in, we turned around just in time to see a parking enforcement officer place a ticket on our rental car!