Of leis, rain, and the Arizona

Last Friday it was raining in Honolulu, but as I posted on Facebook, rain in Honolulu sure beat the freaky out of season snow that was going on in Kansas City.

Here's what we received as we got out of our car at our hotel:

Mine is the one on the left;
Kent's is made from kukui nuts

I'm not a juice girl, but at check in we were given some juice that was amazing. It was a mixture of pineapple, lemon juice and hibiscus flowers -- so good and refreshing that I was a pig and had two glasses. I've searched online to see if I could find the recipe, but alas I've had no luck.

Our room faced the ocean and instead of having curtains over the glass doors, the balcony had sliding louvered doors that let in the air but kept out the (very persistent) birds. We could hear the sounds of the waves so we left the glass doors open the entire time we were there. Oddly, our toilet had -- well it wasn't exactly a bidet although it operated in a similar fashion. Suffice it to say you could get a nice cleansing for light, medium or heavy situations. I didn't try it.

Saturday morning, we decided to try to see the USS Arizona. Kent had done some research and learned that the tickets generally get fully booked a good six months in advance. Well six months ago, we didn't know we wanted to go to Hawaii. But the website also said that some day of tickets would be available. So off we went and stood in line to get into the park the moment it opened. And to our utter surprise, we got tickets to the first boat ride of the day! I am so very glad we were able to see the park and the Arizona.

The rest of the day, we spent on the beach under a big sun umbrella reading and people watching. You see some amazing things at beaches, that's for sure.

Wither, blister, burn and peel

I wonder what it is about vacationing in exotic or semi-exotic locations that makes people take leave of their senses. I’ve seen this happen way too many times in Hawaii (eight trips and counting) and Jamaica (three trips and longing for more): pasty white tourists who apparently forget that they live in northern latitudes and are now at 21.3114° or 18.1315° respectively. And of course they aren’t pasty white any more, they are fiery, fiery red. The kind of red that makes you wince when you see it.

No, we didn’t do this. We both wore sunblock (Kent wears 50 SPF because he’s a pallid redhead who only burns and I wear 15 SPF because I’m not) but we sure saw lots of crispy critters on the beach Saturday. The most uncomfortable burn we saw was the woman who wore a bikini only the bottom had sort of ridden up to the point that it almost looked like a thong. I think you can guess where she burned. Talk about hot cross buns.

A small splurge

I bought this print in Hilo. Look closely and you'll see why I bought it.

Tick tock

I changed my ticket and I'm flying home tonight. I was originally staying through tomorrow because with Kent in Australia, why kill myself getting out of here. Then Eddie's behavior made it clear this kitty is struggling.

I feel a little stupid worrying so much about a cat, and I know dog people would roll their eyes at me. But if Eddie were a dog, you know they'd do the same thing if they could.

The last three nights, I've gone walking through the park next to the hotel just to get a glimpse of the feral kitties. It's comforting in a way.

To keep things lighthearted, here's a new Simon video which Jeanne had shared on Facebook.

You know you travel too much

In 2007, I traveled 100% for my job. It didn’t start out that way—I was supposed to travel 75% but the client requirements changed that pretty quickly. Those who haven’t traveled a lot for work tend to see the glamorous parts of it and not the tedium of eating every meal in a restaurant, always having to sleep in a bed not your own, and the boredom involved.

I’m not traveling 100% for this job. It nets out at about 50% although it’s sort of clumped up. So I traveled once in August but then was gone most of September. I traveled once again in October, a longer trip in November and now I’m gone about half of December. So it averages out.

I found a funny thread about traveling too much on FlyerTalk, a forum dedicated to those of us who fly a lot. So many of these posts rang true for me and made me giggle. Some of them made me glad I don’t travel as much as they do.

I've traveled enough to Hilo that the front desk folks at the hotel know me as does the Hertz rental agent (he gives me nicer cars now). I guess that's good since I'll be back here next month and in March and then again in June. For someone who never really cared about going to Hawai'i , I've sure come here a lot.

Pearl Harbor

On my flight to Honolulu last Wednesday, we had a passenger who was a survivor of the Pearl Harbor raid. He wore his Navy uniform with all medals and was in a wheelchair. Turns out this 90 year old survivor was heading over for the 69th anniversary of that attack.

I tried to buy him a drink (with my credit card, not a voucher—I have a lot of vouchers because I fly so much but the point of the drink would be that I paid for it for real, if that makes sense). At first he was asleep and then later, someone in first class had already sent drinks back. After that, the flight attendant refused to let me buy any of my own drinks. He told me later he believed he’d missed his true calling to have a military career.

It’s weird. I am very proud of having served although I do not consider myself a blind follower of all US policies. And I really truly wanted to honor this survivor of what was a horrible attack committed without warning. Yet I, who never saw combat, ended up getting honored by this flight attendant because of my service and because I wanted to honor the Navy veteran. I was tempted to refuse because I am no survivor of acts of war; I realized to have done so would have diminished what that flight attendant was trying to do.

Back to fluffy kitty stuff tomorrow, I swear.

An indulgent day

Yesterday while worrying about how to solve Eddie’s behavior changes, I also took a drive up the coast of the Big Island. I’ve seen the road signs for Honokaa, which is in the district of Hamakua. The name of the town piqued my interest. I didn’t look up anything so I didn’t know what to expect or if I’d even see anything interesting.

Honokaa is 42 miles from Hilo and further back from the ocean. That’s because the mountains are pretty steep on that part of the island. Take a look at this map to see the geological features. This map shows the towns.

So I didn’t have a proper destination in mind and kept thinking I would turn around soon. I got to Honokaa and then took the turn when I saw the sign for Waipio Valley. I’m glad I did. Check out the picture gallery to get an idea of what I saw.

Then I came back to Hilo and treated myself to a massage. I should have spent the day prepping for next week, but I didn’t. I'll probably regret that tomorrow. I told you it was an indulgent day.

More about the feral kitties

I apologize in advance for the graininess and the wobbles; I'd just finished running and wanted to get shots of the feral cats before I went inside. I also removed the sound because it was just traffic noise and wind, and also pretty annoying.

What I did with an unexpected day off

I drove up to the Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park.



I wasn't really dressed for hiking around (skirt and flip flops) but I did walk down the pretty steep path to see the Thurston Lava Tubes. What the website fails to mention is how HUGE that tube is--it's easily 20 feet tall.

A room with a view

Here's my hotel view in Waikiki. It's a lot noisier here because I am, after all, in Honolulu and the number of tourists roaming around is truly staggering.

Hawaii, Youth Challenge version

<----This picture is what most people think of when they think about Hawaii. And yes, I did see this part of Hawaii when I came down the mountain each day to my hotel.







But this video is the Hawaii I see at work. The site is located up a mountain at just over 5,000 feet elevation, and used to be a correctional facility. The Youth Challenge program is scheduled to open in January, which is why I've gone there twice and have two or three more trips planned.

Odds and ends

I did finish reading the blog I mentioned Sunday—at least until the point where Kent broke up with her. I realized that (a) she’s not the best writer, which sounds far snobbier than I want it to; and (b) from what I can tell of her personality on her blog, she and I wouldn’t be the kind of women to develop a friendship at all. That’s not true for the other blogs I read. I find those authors (both men and women) to be intriguing people in their own rights and I’d absolutely hang out with any of them any time.

Hawaii has been very busy work-wise which leaves no time to check out the sights. Our hotel is on Hilo Bay and I have an ocean view (see the picture on the left), which I love. My sisters are all about the mountains but I’m not—give me the ocean any time. I’m sure that’s because I grew up going to the shore every summer while they went to the Rockies.

I have gone running a couple of times and this morning’s run was particularly lovely because I ran along a road that is parallel to the bay. Plus I saw probably half a dozen feral cats. They are much smaller than cats on the mainland, and their heads are dinky. I’m sure that has a lot to do with a much smaller food supply, but it makes them all look like perpetual kittens. Seeing them made me smile and miss my own home, husband and cats all the more. Hawaii is nice but it’s not home.