I shot this picture this morning from the lanai of our hotel room.

(You can view all of our photos from Hawaii at Flickr.)

As the pictures show, however, so far the Margaret and Zach Hawaiian experience has been a lot of looking and not much doing.

Margaret is, of course, here for work. As such, she’s in the office for regular business hours. And while I was hoping to have time to explore the islands immediately, a nasty mix of work has left me tied to my PowerBook (albeit it sometimes a PowerBook that finds itself at the poolside lanai).

Anyway, we left our apartment Monday at 9 a.m. EST and entered our hotel room at 4:30 a.m. EST. It was strange waking up on my own at 6 a.m. local time (11 a.m. EST). My previous experiences starting a trip with jet lag have been eastward, which just further reinforces my natural disposition to sleep it off late.

Our hotel is lovely, the other guests seem lovely, and the neighborhood is, yes, lovely. Whilst I appreciate clean space and complimentary drinks, the stale environment reminds me of how much better the experiences can be at a hostel. Of course I’m 31 now and would probably earn the moniker “The Old Guy” if I were to stay at one.

The main drag near our hotel, Kalakaua Ave., reminds me of the insipid stretches every city seems to have that I feel obliged to stroll, if only to kvetch: Times Square, Lincoln Road, Kurfürstendamm, Champs d’Ellsyes (although the history, views, and architecture make it worthwhile), Las Ramblas, the Spanish Steps, Rodeo Drive.

Exhibit A:

The area reminds me of Miami, although with less silicon and more Asians. There are also two Starbucks nearby, but as Margaret thwarted my attempt to lug our espresso machine with us, I’ll refrain from complaining about their presence.

When traveling sometimes soul just deposits itself in your lap. Other times you’ve got to search for it. Waikiki appears to be the latter, but it’s a small island so hopefully we’ll be able to have some authentic Hawaiian experiences soon.

Anyway, while hanging up our clothes, I discovered Margaret packed eight pairs of shoes, which is one fewer than the number of kimonos I packed. (Do you know how many tea services I plan on having?) I guess a combined 11 pairs of shoes is another reason why we’re not at the hostel.

This weekend we’re planning on watching some outrigger races, a movie being shown on the beach, and, yes, the AFC Championship game. It’ll be nice to put work aside for a few days. Working from a lanai that overlooks the ocean is far better than working in front of the wall of our apartment, but oh the temptations…

(And in case you are wondering, “lanai” is one of my favorite words.)

Rumor has it that the Hamilton Crowne Plaza has been telling folks that our reserved block is full.

It’s not.

If you’ve been given such bad information, please let me know and I’ll contact the hotel. And if you’re yet to reserve your room, but are told the block is full when you do call, please correct the person on the phone. If he or she insists that it is booked, please ask to speak to Felix.

(For details about the hotel, please visit our accommodations page.)

Also, we’re still a go on the White House tour, although it is, if course, subject to last-minute cancellation. Anyway, the tour will be around 10 or 11 a.m., so if you are interested in it, please keep those times in mind when booking your trip to Washington, DC.

On behalf of the Secret Service, we’ll be hitting up those of you taking the tour for your social security numbers shortly.

As word got back to us that the hotel was telling guests our reserved block was full, Margaret had more rooms added to it. So you should be able to get the discounted rate for both nights.

But if you still have a problem, please let me know. They guy we’ve been dealing with at the Hamilton Crowne Plaza has been fantastic (Margaret said she wants to leave me for him, only he’s not probably interested in women).

And for more details about the hotel, please visit our accommodations page.

The Hamilton Crowne Plaza hotel, where we secured a discounted rate for our wedding guests, just sent us the list of rooms already reserved on our block. As of this morning, half of it is full. So if you haven’t made your accommodations and are planning on staying at the Hamiton Crowne Plaza, you might want to do so soon.

Also, the hotel has been extending the discounted rate to additional nights should you want to stay longer to enjoy Washington, DC. Margaret and I aren’t leaving for our honeymoon until Monday, September 24, so if you’re thinking of staying over Sunday (or even just leaving late that day) please let us know. We’d love to hang out with you!

Of course, if you’d like to save even more money, you could just sleep on the Metro.