Oahu

On 4th of July I drove Tiff to the airport to send her back to reality while I enjoyed paradise for a few more days. It sounds selfish I know, but as I learned in the following days it wasn’t what it was all cracked up to be. I left the airport feeling very melancholy knowing that the next few days of my vacation would be spent as a single girl roaming around Waikiki. I can’t say I was alone because Waikiki is swamped with people. It lacks the low paced island setting that Maui holds dear to its heart. After making if off the plane and safely in to a taxi, I got to settle in and get my first impression of Honolulu. Sadly that first impression was rush hour traffic that could rival our own here in the Bay Area. A costly taxi ride deposited me at my hotel 45 minutes after arriving to Oahu. I was staying at the Ohana Maile Sky Court, one of the trillions of hotels in the Waikiki area. Of course since I arrived early my room wasn’t ready, but I expected that and had a book reading and waiting for me to read. I was mildly anxious about getting a room, since I had a hike scheduled for 2 pm. Thankfully at noon I was able to get in to my room and get settled before the van picked me up and whisked me away to the rain forests and hidden waterfalls of Honolulu. Now I can say that this by far was one of my favorite activities. The vegetation was so lush and green and flowers of all type vibrantly colored. Nothing like the concrete paradise of Waikiki. With a group of about 10 people, we spent the next two hours hiking thru the mountains as our guide pointed out various indigenous and endemic aspects of Hawaii and also the species and flora that were brought by the early sailors. Hawaii can happily thank the early sailors for mosquitoes and rats, to name a few. On a side note, I was a walking buffet for the mosquitoes. At home they don’t like me, in Hawaii, I am like a three course meal. Anywho, we hiked up to this gorgeous waterfall, created by the rainfall, which totals about 175 inches a year. Every turn there was a breath taking views of dark green mountains shrouded in grey clouds with weak rays of sun peeking thru. Flashes of color from the African tulip tree and Papaya trees, which dot the mountains. We hiked the same way down and piled in the van to head to this national park at the top of the Nu'uanu Pali State Wayside, to feel the force of the trade winds that rip over the top of the mountain. The winds are so strong that Oahu closed the road that went over the top of the mountains, causing cars to be blown off the road, and created tunnels for travelers to use. Having now felt those winds, it’s no wonder how they crossed at all before those tunnels. After the hike I was driven back to the hotel and safely in my room with no winds to whisk me away. I was exhausted after the early flight and hiking for two hours, so I cheated at my first alone dinner. I went down to TGI Fridays at the bottom of the hotel and ordered to go. Dinner was eaten and I was curled up in bed like a true fuddy duddy at 8 pm. Yes, I am working on ordering those nine other cats. But funny story within a story, as I am curled up in bed being old, and I hear water running in the bathroom. At first I thought that it was the shower head just running with excess water after my shower, but the pouring continued and I got out of bed to peek. To my surprise it’s raining in my bathroom, ok it was POURING. I toss all the towels I have on the floor and dash towards the phone to call the front desk. As I pick up the phone an ominous dripping sounds has followed me in to the sleep area of the room, I look up and now the ceiling is leaking. Dilemma, phone or trash can, phone or trash can? The drops are dangerously close to my luggage, the trash can wins. I move the luggage and put the trash can under the leak, and now grab the phone to call the front desk. I got someone on the phone and explain the situation to their obvious disbelief. They sent maintenance up to check everything out and now the maintenance is staring at the bathroom in shock. He tells me to pack up my luggage and go down stairs to the front desk while he heads up stairs to find out the cause of the Flood of the 2006. As I am finishing packing the maintenance guy comes back and reports that the occupants above turned on the water and then passed out. Hence the swimming pool in room 2401. The bellman comes up starts to laugh and gathers my stuff and carts it away all the while chuckling. Down stairs, the front desk is rushing around trying to find me a new room. Since my reservation stated no smoking they told me that they only ocean room they had was a smoking room. Ha, are you kidding, I will take it. Once again the bellman lugs my stuff to a flooding free room, but of course its pitch black, the ocean view will have to wait. The next day I was awed by my ocean and high rise view. Ok, only awed by the ocean part. But that didn’t keep me long as I was determined to explore the main drag in Waikiki. First stop was the International Marketplace. It’s a big open air market geared toward the tourist in us all. It was all the same stuff I had seen on Maui, but that didn’t stop me from looking again. It’s not in my nature to pass up shopping, so I dove in and waded thru the gabillions kiosks of jewelry, sarongs, t-shirts, the list goes on. Nothing spectacular jumped out, so my exploring continued. I headed to the Honolulu Zoo, it’s much smaller than our hometown zoo, but has a lot of the same animals, I know, shocking. But it was fun to wander around at my own pace and enjoy it all. The best part where these howler monkeys having a grand ole time, howling (what else were they going to do). Next on the list was the Waikiki Aquarium, which again was small but filled with native fishes. At this point I had walked miles and sweated gallons, I desperately needed a shower, I am sure everyone around me agreed. That night I cheated at dinner on my own again, there are no original Hawaiian cuisine places to dine, since Waikiki is a tourist trap, so I ate at Planet Hollywood, yes I did. I will have to repent for that one. There are always TV’s in Planet Hollywood, so I had a distraction while dining alone. For some reason, I feel it is completely appropriate to being a book to lunch but for some reason I don’t feel that it’s ok at dinner. Call me weird I know. So I chose places to eat that would offer me distraction. Whether its people watching or TV, I had something to do. But it also kept me from branching out of my comfort zone. Baby steps, right? A little fast forwarding to the next day when I was taking the World War 2 land sea vehicle to Pearl Harbor and Sand Island. We had an entertaining guide that chatted away the entire drive. Pearl Harbor was on the top of my list. We were dropped off for a few hours to go thru the museum, watch a documentary and then view the memorial. I can’t explain the feeling you get when setting foot in the memorial. The silence envelopes you, the sadness and mourning for the lost souls is tangible. I quietly walked around reflecting on the magnitude of where I was and taking pictures (those will be uploaded on to Flickr) of the memorial. The memorial is definitely a must do, but be prepared for the hordes of people that have the same idea. Back on the Duck (land/sea vehicle) we headed for Sand Island. Now people actually live on this spit of land aptly named Sand Island, because of course it consists of ….sand. There are about half a dozen houses on stilts in the water, no front yard or back beach, they are in the water or hovering over the water. These people pay a $1 a year to live there. The guide told us that for this reasonable price the residence of the island every year get to keep hiking the houses up off the water as the current has been moving the sand from under the houses and depositing it on the uninhabited part of the island. So in the end they are forking out the $$$. The color of the water around this island and only be described as ( and girls you will know exactly what I am talking about) as Tiffany Box Blue. It is the perfect paradise shade of aqua. What island water is supposed to look like. Last but not least on our way back to Waikiki, we toured downtown Honolulu taking a few seconds to slow down and look at the Palaces of King Kamehameha and the very first church in Honolulu with bricks made of coral built in the 1800’s. That is one place (the palace and church) I had wished I made more time to see. My last day in Waikiki, was saved for sunning myself on the beach, just so I could say that I had done it. Trying to get a sliver of sand to lay your towel down on, on Waikiki beach is a feat in an of itself. And of course I didn’t pick a prime location. The spot I had secured for baking was on a small strip in front of one of the major hotels. What I didn’t know was that this particular spot was where the tide came up the highest. Before I know it I am crunched up against the lip of cement that signifies the end of the hotel property. Half of my towel is soaked when the water snuck up on me. No wonder there was so much room in this area.

So over all I was more impressed with Maui, it had more of an island feel to it, unlike Waikiki which sort of felt like San Francisco with warmer water. I am glad I got the chance to go and see Pearl Harbor and go on the rain forest hike, but the likelihood of my returning is slim. I want to feel like I am on vacation and Waikiki just doesn’t hold that feeling for me. Also the pineapple in Maui is better :).