To quickly summarize, I had a work related meeting on Oahu right after the end of spring semester. Since it seemed like a waste to fly all the way to Hawaii for just one day, and I my parents have the condo in Honolulu, I decided I might as well stay for a a few weeks before continuing on to other areas. However, since I've been here many times before (and will likely be returning here many times in the future), I decided that I should focus primarily on work (mostly on Aurora's Nightmare, the game I'm currently developing) this trip rather than touring. But I'll be doing a bit of touring and, as a result, am keeping a small travelogue. In this entry, I'll be covering my first week here.
Due to the scheduling of that meeting, I had to get my plane ticket later than I normally would have. On the plus side, I did find a good price. On the down side, it wasn't the greatest itinerary. I had to take four flights in one day (Gainesville to Orlando to Denver to San Francisco to Honolulu), which I believe is a personal record. The layovers weren't too bad, and the flights themselves went smoothly enough (the final flight even had in-seat electric outlets and a huge selection of free movies). And, while it looks like I probably won't be making it back to Colorado this summer, at least I got to snap some photos while flying over it. Here's the Rocky Mountains, and here's my hometown of Grand Junction. I have to say, taking pictures while flying is rather fun. But it's too bad the windows usually aren't all that clear. Unfortunately, with that many flights there are a lot of chances for something to go wrong and, as I feared might happen, they lost my suitcase. I did get it back the next day, but not until after my meeting which, was a bit inconvenient.
Monday was mostly taken up with the meeting. It went well, but it's too early to say what, if anything, will come of it, so I won't go into any details right now.
Tuesday was the most interesting day from a touring perspective. They were cleaning the parking garage at my parents' place and, since they're in Arizona right now, they asked me to move the car for the day. So I decided I might as well take the day to have fun. I ended up heading to the north end of the island. My main destination was Shark's Cove, which has a reputation of being one of the best snorkeling areas on the island. But, due to the rocks and tides, it's not safe to go during the winter and, the last time I was here during the summer, I didn't have a car, so I'd never been there before. My first stop after arriving was the tide pools next to the cove. They make a nice wading spot and there were a lot of fish around (most of them fairly ordinary in appearance though), but you do need to watch out for the urchins. As for the snorkeling, the beach at the cove is tiny and very rocky, which makes getting out into the water a bit of a pain even when the surf is fairly calm. But once you get a little ways out it's not a problem. What makes Shark's Cove special compared to the other snorkeling areas I've been to here is that the water is a lot deeper, so you get a number of large rocks down below (complete with small crevices, caves, and the like) and bigger fish than you tend to see elsewhere. I spotted a sea turtle as well, which was cool. That said, because of the rocks you do need to be a bit more careful, though so long as you go on a calm day during the summer it shouldn't be too much of a problem.
After spending a while at the cove, I swung by Haleiwa to get lunch. Aside from restaurants, it's got a bunch of food trucks gathered on one end. Most are shrimp, but there's a rather unique hotdog and burger place and a nice crepe stand as well. After that, I went to Waimea beach (the one I visited last winter, with the big rock you can jump off), which has quickly become one of my favorite beaches on the island, and spent a while just hanging out and relaxing.
After that, I didn't do anything particularly worth talking about for the rest of the week. Just a lot of work, a bit of shopping, and a little beach time. But I did get some nice sunset pictures Saturday evening. So far, it's been a nice, if not especially exciting, vacation. I've got a couple more weeks here in Hawaii, which will probably follow a similar style. But if I want exciting, I should have plenty of that on the upcoming legs of my trip...

Random Hawaii Comment: Driving on Oahu
This is actually the first time I've driven here on Oahu. When I was here by myself in the past, my parents hadn't yet moved their car over here and, since then, I was always here with them so one of them drove. Anyway, you don't really need to drive here since the bus system is pretty good, but driving is faster and a must if you want to go on any but the most famous hikes.
Driving on most of Oahu isn't bad, though a lot of roads could use some repaving. But driving in Honolulu is horrible. And, surprisingly enough, it's not the drivers' fault. For one thing, Honolulu is a compact city that just wasn't designed for this much traffic, so you never know where and when a traffic jam will spring up. But the real problem is the roads. Lanes unexpectedly become forced turns, or change into packing lots at certain times of day. One way streets abound, and at various times of day assorted on-ramps and turns are blocked off. So far, I've had to do loops around blocks due to lanes that force you to turn just a tiny bit too early, been forced to constantly switch lanes due to cars parking on the side of the road, and driven miles out of my way because a certain road forbids all left turns during evening hours. Even the highways can be a bit confusing, frequently merging and unmerging in a way that makes it easy to end up on the wrong one if you're not paying attention. I'm sure that, given enough time, you can learn all the city's idiosyncracies and have a much smoother experience, but that doesn't change the fact that, so far, Honolulu is the most confusing and annoying place I've ever driven.