Sleepless In Honoluu

Hale Koa Hotel, Honolulu, 5:45 am.

    It's 5:45 am in Honolulu.  I've been wide-awake for an hour and finally decided to get up and go down to the lobby where I expected I'd find myself esconced in tranquil solitude.
    No way.  Apparently everybody's up before sunrise around here.
    Anyway, we left Los Angeles yesterday late in the day, which seemed like a good idea at the time.

    So  then we boarded our plane at 4:45 pm and 2300 miles, six hours and three time zones later - or rather, earlier -  we arrived in Honolulu, 7:45pm  local time but 10:45pm in our brains as well as by the appearance of the pitch-black night that has already descended on this part of the planet by 7:45 pm.
    We'd decided that instead of taking a cab to our hotel we wanted to try taking the Speedi Shuttle, which we'd heard was half the price of a cab, from the airport to downtown Waikiki from whence we figured we could find our way to our hotel. 
    Only we hadn't figured how dark and late it was going to feel by 7:45 pm.
    We exited the terminal and crossed to the traffic island where the taxi and hotel shuttle stands were located and began wandering around  looking for the Speedi Shuttle. 
    We'd wandered almost to the end of the island when a security guard pulled up next to us and asked, "Hey, you want to take the shuttle?"
    "Yes!"  we cried, me wondering if Hawaiians were somehow possessed of the double gifts of helpfulness and clairvoyance.
    "You see that girl sitting across the street at the bench?  You go see her, she runs the shuttles."

   So we crossed the street and approached the girl at the bench,

...a very friendly young lady named Donna who informed us that  the helpful security guard often directed people to her shuttle.

    When the shuttle pulled up the driver grabbed our bags and cheerfully informed us that he'd be glad to drop us off at our hotel, no problem.
    During our ride from the airport it was too dark to get much of an impression of the city of Honolulu, but not to form an impression of the people.
    So far I definitely like the people of Honolulu.
    I'll tell you what I think of the city once the sun comes up.