This was our first trip to Hawaii together. Neither of us is
one to lie on the beach for hours but the idea of spending a few days soaking up the
healing view of ocean was especially appealing after our medical interventions in
Australia. A friend wished us by phone, "Just go to Hawaii, lay on the beach,
relax and love each other." That is what we hoped to do.
On our way to Hawaii from Australia we crossed both the equator and
the international date line. Now we could celebrate our anniversary for the second day in
a row! We couldn't have picked a better place to do so or to rest and recuperate.
We arrived after midnight and were surprised at how warm it was even
at that hour. We also didn't expect to see so many people out on the streets.
The place was bustling. We were also surprised by the number of limousines we saw
and the size of them. On one we counted eight windows on each side. We realized that
limousine transportation from the airport to their hotel and back was a part of many
package deals that people get when booking trips to Hawaii. It wasn't part of our deal so
we took a taxi from the airport for about $20. It was no trouble to find one. This
is one place that is definitely geared for tourists -- more than any other place we have
ever visited.
Our hotel, which we had found a
excellent deal on through the Internet was about one block from the Waikiki beach but had
great views of the ocean from two sides and the balcony.
We also had a good view of
Diamond Head. Had we been up early enough in the morning we could have watched the sunrise
from our one window or balcony. As it was we watched the sunset from our room or
balcony on evenings that we didn't walk down to the beach to do so.
It was an efficiency so we had two rooms with all the facilities for
cooking if we just wanted to hole up. However, there were a great variety of
restaurants in all price ranges, convenience stores and souvenir shops all over the place
so there was no need to worry about getting anything we needed.
It was a small enough area that we could have walked most places we
wanted to go if Tom had been up to par. But bus service is easy and reasonable and
shuttle buses take people to all of the tourist attractions. Luck remained with us in the
weather department as we had beautiful clear weather throughout our six days there. Our
only problem at this point was Tom's health.
From the moment we arrived, and
throughout our stay, we knew that we were in a tropical paradise. Luxurious flowers and
tropical trees were everywhere. There was a profusion of color and beauty that
filled our senses. Birds of paradise, like that pictured at the top of the page, abound.
We were quite taken with the bougainvillea cascading down the sides of buildings, the
flowing palms and the 
huge banyan trees like that
pictured above and to the right. The tree is unique in that vines drop from its
branches and become rooted in the soil. The tree can expand greatly and cover an area of
hundreds of square feet.
We were looking forward to visiting the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl
Harbor. 
The memorial is one of the most
popular tourist sites in Honolulu. There were many people waiting to go to the ship, but
the procedure to get to the memorial moved with military efficiency as visitors were moved
to a movie theater and then to a ship that took us to the sunken hull. The site is rather
stark, but it imparts the proper atmosphere. From the memorial, which is built atop the
sunken ship, you can see the rusting remains of the Arizona and the occasional bubble of
oil that is still leaking from the ship's tanks.
We also had made prior plans to fly to the Big Island of Hawaii to
visit Volcanoes National Park and see the active volcano there. The park was our favorite
stop in Hawaii. It provides a rare view of volcanic activity. Using your imagination just
a little gives one a good sense of the violence and power of an eruption. The steam vents
seem benign, even when viewing it from the rim to which we drove. 
But
the barren terrain for miles around speak of glowing lava flows, upheavals of the earth
and the massive spewing of molten lava and cinders. We imagined that this was what the
surface of the moon might look like.
We actually walked through a tunnel of molten lava and walked across
fields of cinder left from volcanoes from not too many years ago. 
There
is an area where you can still see lava flowing into the ocean from an active volcano, but
it was too far for us to drive in our rented car and get back to the airport in time for
our flight back to Oahu. We wished that we had had more time on this island and
decided that next time we would do more island hopping to check out what each has to
offer, rather than spending most of our time in Honolulu and Waikiki Beach.
We looked forward to meeting an Internet acquaintance, Donna, who has
the best site on Okinawa and who, prior to the trip,
helped us with planning. We felt like we knew her before we left for our trip and we
were looking forward to meeting her in person and having dinner together. We wanted a
taste of Okinawa in Hawaii. We were not disappointed.
Donna took us to Mr.
Ojisan, well known among the Okinawans of Hawaii, where we were introduced to some
tasty authentic Okinawan dishes. It was a nice surprise that a famous Okinawan
musician was performing and even more of a surprise to discover that a television crew was
there for the night to film his performance. The television coverage was to be part of of
the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the first Okinawan in Hawaii.
We were most delighted, along
with everyone else in the restaurant, when Donna gave us a sampling of her dancing
prowess, doing the kachaashii. She is a quite
accomplished dancer who has trained since she was a small girl and performs with a
troupe. We and the others who asked her for a solo performance were disappointed when
she declined to show off her stuff. We are hoping that we will have the opportunity to see
her dance in a performance sometime at a later date.
Prior to our trip, one of the things we most wanted to see was
authentic Hawaiian dancing and perhaps a luau. When we checked with various tourist
personnel to make arrangements we were told that there are two kinds of luaus. One is for
young single people who are looking to meet people. The other is geared for families
with young children who want to participate. The tour agents told us that both are
very touristy and so we decide to pass on that experience.
Meanwhile, we asked people we met, including the man who gave us our
first haircuts since we started the trip, where we could see authentic Hawaiian
entertainment. Everyone told us that it really doesn't exist any more except for
particular festivals. 
So we were thrilled and delighted
to see a performance of Hawaiian dancing and singing at the airport as we were preparing
to leave. It was a high school group which was performing and we were happy that we
had given ourselves plenty of time and could linger for more than half and hour to enjoy
the delightful performance. A nice send off.
Aloha, to you as we go next to San Francisco.
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