Heaven looks like Hawaii

Since we got back from Hawaii, I've been wanting to set down a few things in writing, here, there, or elsewhere. Here is as good a spot as any. So spread out your beach mat and allow me to talk story. Mahalo!

Day 1
So far, leaving feels a lot lot every business trip I take, except now I have Tim with me. The first leg is a short one - just to Denver. Once there, we have 2 1/2 hours to kill so we walk around with my overpacked book bag and try to decide on the lowest carb lunch. Finally we just go for what looks good and get a burrito the size of my thigh. Not bad! We walk around some more, looking at the other destinations. Tim raises his eyebrows when I tell him I would throw over Hawaii today for London. Silly me.

We get back on the plane. Looong flight. 7 more hours. Time slips backwards as we wing our way across almost 4,000 miles. By the time we land in Honolulu, we are halfway to Japan and I am as far from home as I have ever been. (But not T, who has been to South Korea and Vietnam). Of course, when we get there, we're too tired to do much more than take a walk down to greet the sea and have a mediocre coffeeshop dinner. Off to bed - 8:30p.

Day 2
Logistically, one of our smartest days. We have breakfast at the Chinese buffet in front of our hotel, the Holiday Inn Waikiki. ( I fervently pray for the food to get better.) The we hop the free shuttle to Hilo Hattie's on Nimitz and enter a Disneyland of Hawaiian souvenirs. $100 lighter --later, we take the (free) shuttle to Aloha Tower to start a walking tour of Chinatown. We delay slightly for rain, then set off. This gives us a chance to take the elevator to the top of the Aloha Tower for a panoramic view of Honolulu.

For whatever reason, we always have an affinity for Asian neighborhoods. I think it's because we like food and their communities have so many exotic offerings and presentations. We pass the lei sellers, fish vendors, fruit and vegetable stalls. I notice there's no apples, oranges or tomatoes anywhere we go. But if you want bananas, pineapple, mango, papaya, guava, breadfruit, lychee, well, this is your place.

We proceed along the walking tour outlined in Frommer's and end up in a plaza, anchored on one end by lots of Chinese men playing cards, dominoes and chess. Some scraggly haole on a bike oozes by and as he passes, he says "Hey, want some Maui Wowie?" Farm Girl turns to Nebraska Boy and says, "Did that guy just offer me drugs?" We later watched a deal go down between himself and a middle aged Chinese guy. We also cut our walking tour short after that. But we did briefly stop to watch as the crew from "Lost" set up to film a bank robbery scene.

Our evening was topped off by a Mai Tai and a Blue Hawaiian poolside at the Hilton Hawaiian Village and the show at the super pool. Then we went to take advantage of a buy one get one free coupon for the very lovely Golden Dragon restaurant --- scallops with eggplant and lemon chicken! The wind kicks up and the rain comes in, running the patio diners inside. Bed at 8:30p.

Day 3
Diamond Head is everywhere in Waikiki. It's even a direction. We wanted to hike it early. We waited 15 minutes on the wrong side of the street for the bus -- and missed it, then another hour for a bus to the park entrance and walked in to the crater. Once there, we bumped in to a family that had gotten tired of waiting for the bus and walked, just over 2.5 miles. They were already hot and tired and hadn't even started the climb!

Up we went, along the narrow, stony and moderately crowded path, through tunnels and up two staircases, through an aging military Fire Control Station and finally, out to the breezy, breathtaking view of the coastline and surrounding city. We shared the moment with 50 sweaty tourists and a half dozen small gray mice that evidently don't mind having lots of guests.

Back to Waikiki for some lunch, which we had at this little subterranean bar and grill called Snapper's. A little time to walk the beach and rest before dressing for dinner on the Navatek. A Chi-chi for me and a Lava Flow for T and dinner of Mahi-Mahi, chicken, salad, potatoes, rice, veggies and rolls, with coconut cake for dessert. The view was wonderful and the show was cute. For our anniversary, T bought us the souvenir picture, which I clung to like it was my child. Yet somehow when we got back to the hotel I realized I didn't have it. Lost it. I called the bus line but they said they couldn't find it. Grrr.

Day 4
Still not up much past 9 and waking at 4:30 a.m. works to our advantage and we get an early start, getting a rental car and heading Ewa (west) to H1 and the North Shore. I drive to allow T to gawk all he wants and I try not to stew about the lost photo. We drive past Schofield Barracks, Dole Plantation and many, many red fields filled with pineapple before cresting a small rise and seeing Haleiwa and the North Shore stretching out before us. We drive through the morning sun and stop outside of Haleiwa where we see surfers darting across the highway. We park and walk out on to a small crescent of beach and for a while I just walk up and down. We are 2 of 4 people on shore. A man in board shorts stands knee deep in the water, riveted by the motion and the waves. Man , do I know how that guy feels! I poke fingers in tidal pools, let the waves lap over my feet and just generally hang loose. We double back to Haleiwa for lunch at the Breakers and a pit stop at the Surf Museum, then shave ice at Matsumoto's, which we eat at Haleiwa Beach Park, while we watch a dark grey raincloud move in and the wind kicks up. Tropical shave ice with tiny red azuki beans and ice cream for him, just guava for me.

We stop a half dozen times at different beaches, including the very famous Sunset Beach. We drive past old sugar mills, roadside sweetcorn stands, shrimp farms and through modest, rural windward Oahu. We wrap up the afternoon with a stop at a Macadamia Nut Outlet near Kualoa Ranch and then a side trip to Nu'uanu Pali Lookout-- the rain finally caught up to us here.

We grabbed an early dinner at Brew Moon for Blackened Ahi and Chili Shrimp and a shrimp and red pepper pizza. Delicious!

Day 5
Up early for a drive across to Waianae and Wild Side Specialty Tours. "Slippers" off, contacts in, I am so ready for this trip! We join another couple and a family of 5 for a 4-hour sail and snorkel. There's nothing I can tell you about this day that can capture it-- the sapphire water, the rugged, empty valleys of the leeward side, the kindness of the crew (Denise and Russell). Then we spot spinner dolphins and, well, it's a hankie moment. We slip quickly in to the water while a larger than normal pod of dolphins speed around us like a slick grey flipper freeway. It's awesome. We watch until they are gone and then take off again. We catch up to another large pod and in we go again. If that is the best experience I ever have in my life, it was enough to justify living. Later, we head for Makaha and I spend what seems like an hour rocking in the water while I watch honu (green sea turtles) a few feet below me in the bay. T and I fight a little seasickness once the adrenaline subsides, for which they deal over candied ginger. Wonderful, sweet with bite -- and it works.

Back on dry land, we head to Eggs N' Things for a brunch of omelets and pancakes with coconut syrup. The rest of the afternoon we walk around Waikiki. It ocurred to me to try to call Navatek Cruises to see if someone might have turned the picture in. T though it was a long shot but I figured if someone did find it, they might turn it in there. 2 minutes after I got on the phone with the ticket office they said someone had found it on the bus earlier in the day and turned it in! Exhausted by dinnertime we opt for an easy meal of Round Table Pizza (Garlic Supreme, yum!) and election returns on TV.

Day 6
Up early yet again, we take the Bus to Pearl Harbor and spend the morning touring the memorial and museum. It is a muted morning, reminding me not only of the losses here but the loss of life on 9/11 as well. By noon, I've had all the sadness I can take and we skip a loosely planned trip to the USS Missouri in favor of the Aloha Stadium Flea Market. Best place for cheap souvenirs! You bet! Also not a bad place for an gyro when you've been walking all morning and it's hot. I swear the stadium has 2 climates -- rainy and cool on one side, blazing hot on the other. Wierd.

We scoot back to the bus depot at HHV to pick up our missing anniversary picture. A smiling Navatek employee walks right up to us and hands over the photo, for which I am still extremely grateful. For dinner, we work some coupon magic and go to Singha Thai where we eat slowly to get the early seating required by the coupon and also get to watch the Royal Thai dancers. I am now officially in love with green curries and I thought T was going to kiss the waitress when his coconut ice cream arrived.

Day 7
A beach day, for the most part, interrupted by a sail on the Atlantis sub. We visit the artificial reefs and see an aquarium's worth of tropical fish and even a small shark. A sleepy looking sea turtle is parked on the fore deck of a sunken fishing vessel. I love the trip but am wishing desperately for more of the candied ginger by the time we board the shuttle boat back to Hilton Hawaiian Village. Once on shore, I collapse like Tom Hanks in Cast Away. I actually doze off on my little bamboo mat in the in-and-out-of-the-clouds sunshine while T hikes up and down the beach, industrious and un-seasick. About an hour later I recover enough to join him and we go on our most ambitious walk, a 3.25 mile round trip along Waikiki and down to the Natatorium. We wander through the Royal Hawaiian and Halekulani like we own the place, then as the sun goes down we have a delicious candlelit dinner at Village Steak and Seafood in HHV.

Day 8
Our last full day, we head to Hanauma Bay for snorkeling, in the rain. By the time we get our gear stowed and head to the beach, the showers are steady, the skies are dull. We head out and I quickly realize that the water is rougher than I anticipated -- I see why 2002 had 12 drownings there. I lose T and that scares me more-- I can only describe the feeling as the same one I had when I once lost the girls at the mall. I finally spot him wading on shore. He is having trouble with his mask and decides he has had enough. He stays mostly on the sidelines for the next 2 hours while I snorkel cautiously, alone. Eventually we decide to give up, since the rain and the increasing number of feet are stirring the water up and making it more difficult to see and enjoy the bounty of tropical fish. We spend a rainy afternoon watching TV and dozing and decide during a break in the weather to walk to Victoria Ward Centers for dinner. The rain reasserts itself just as we arrive and we finally settle on the Big City Diner and a walk through Dave and Buster's before heading home in the toad-choking torrents.

Day 9
We spend a beautiful, sunny morning packing all our treasures away for the ride home and then head to Eggs N'Things for a cocnut syrup fix and down to the beach for a final farewell. We shower just before late check out and have 5 hours to kill, so we walk through the Ilikai (another neighboring hotel) and then head back to HHV and waste much of the afternoon browsing the shops and sitting in the cool, comfortable lobby, watching guests come and go and, later, watching some Marines arrive with their dates for a birthday ball. We have a final dinner at Singha Thai and then back to the Holiday Inn to change to our mainland clothes.

Once at the airport, we just tried to keep each other awake until 10:50 p.m. boarding. Only one night in Hawaii did I stay up past 11 p.m. and that was the night before we headed home. On board, I dozed for an hour or two at a time. I would periodically wake up through the night/morning to see Tim, still wide awake. We arrived home at 1 p.m. KC time -- for 2 days I was so disoriented I couldn't remember what day it was.

Well, that's it. We're back to our life but with a better attitude. It was a wonderful trip, all in all. My greatest fear is that I'll never go again -- it was just that good.