Hawaiian Hideaway
Hi there. In my last correspondence I told you that I would soon be traveling to Hawaii. Well, I’m happy to say that I am not a liar and I did, in fact, do just that. Here’s how it all went down:
Introduction
Before I begin, let me say that for those who know me, you might guess that this entry will be a book. You are right. But I can assure you that those who finish the journey will be rewarded as I have hidden some golden reading nuggets inside. Enjoy!
Preface
Saturday night I went to a wedding in Kalamazoo. My flight left Sunday morning from Grand Rapids, so I had planned to spend the night at my uncle’s house in Grand Rapids. After leaving the wedding I called my uncle to let him know that I was on the way. He told me he was at work and that his wife was out and there was a babysitter there. So instead he offered to let me stay in the pilot’s lounge at his hanger. He works for Northern Air, a commercial/private/charter flight company at Gerald R. Ford International Airport. He also said that I could park my truck there for free while I was gone. So I said, “Sweet!” It was a pretty nice lounge with leather couches, recliners, a pool table and a bathroom with private showers and a sauna. I didn’t have enough time to use the sauna, but it was nice to get a hot shower before I left on Sunday morning.
Sunday morning I woke up at the butt-crack of pre-dawn and dragged myself out of bed, through the shower and to the airport. I checked in, ate a crappy breakfast sandwich at one of the airport eateries, and proceeded to my gate. I then proceeded to listen to my brand new Ipod. I soon found that four or five of the last cds I copied onto my harddrive and downloaded to my Ipod afterward had a bunch of static in the background because my cd drive is old and doesn’t like to be overworked. So I couldn’t listen to Until My Heart Caves In and had to settle for something else. The flight to Dallas was uneventful as was the flight from there to Honolulu. However, the scenery was pretty cool on the way to Honolulu because we flew over a bunch of mountains and I got to see the coast line of California and found out that there are two very large islands off the coast of southern California that I never knew about. I landed in Honolulu at 3:50pm local time.
The Vacation
After arriving in Oahu, I walked down to the baggage claim and waited for my parents who were to arrive shortly after me. They did and we proceeded to get the rental car and make our way across the island on H3. On the way we drove through (and inside) the mountains, which were really cool looking and covered in green so they looked more like HUGE grassy hills. We got to our bed and breakfast in Kailua and were greeted by the owner who lives across the street. After we got settled in we went to dinner and found a nice little outdoor café. I had seared Ahi, which is a red tuna and it was good. We called a bunch of people at 7pm to wish them a Happy New Year. Sorry if you weren’t one of them. We went home and couldn’t stay awake much past 9pm. But there was already fireworks going off, which I guess is pretty popular in Hawaii. They were lighting them off until about 12:30 I guess. I couldn’t hear them, but they woke my mom up a couple of times and she said they went off for a half hour straight at midnight. Oh, and that wasn’t a show that happened to be nearby, it was the house behind ours. Everyone does fireworks for New Year’s there. Its bigger than any 4th of July show I’ve seen.
Monday morning we woke up early and went to Kailua beach. Apparently its rated the second best beach in the world and it was pretty nice. There was a bunch of people parachute surfing, which I’d never heard of before, but basically they have this big chute (shaped like an orange peel if you were to cut away an eighth of the sphere; it would be the eighth size proportionately) and they hang on to ropes and the wind just pulls them around the bay. It was pretty cool. Then we hopped in the car and drove down the east coast to see if there was anything cool. We saw a lighthouse that was up on a seaside cliff. We drove past the Sealife Park, which I guess is where they filmed parts of 50 First Dates and that’s where he worked. We also saw a blowhole that spit water out if the waves crashed in right underneath it. Then we had to turn around and head back because we were going to visit my mom’s cousin who lives on Oahu in Kaneohe, which is kind of funny because his name is Jim Kane. Hawaiians don’t pronounce Kane like we do though, they pronounce it kahnay, if that makes sense. Their vowel sounds are mostly just like Spanish. Anyway we visited my mom’s cousin and his wife and her kids and they suggested a bunch of cool stuff for us to do and good places to eat on the island. Then we went home and went to bed.
Tuesday we woke up early and drove to Hickam AFB to go scuba diving. Well, we didn’t dive on the base, but the dive training center is there and my mom and I had signed up for the Discover Scuba course and my dad signed up for the Open Water Diver course. I am already certified as many of you know, but I did the discover course to get a refresher and so my mom wouldn’t be alone. They took us in the pool and showed us some skills so we wouldn’t drown when they took us out to the ocean later. It took my mom a little longer than the rest of the people. She was kind of freaking out. Then on the way to Waikiki, where the charter boats are, she asked me if we were actually going to go in the ocean and if I thought was too fast to put someone in the ocean who had never dove before. “Great,” I thought, “my mom is gonna chicken out.” She ended up going on the first dive but the instructor had to hold her hand the whole way, literally. The second dive she got in the water and decided she didn’t want to go down. “Okay,” I said, “have fun on the boat.” Down I went. The water was great! The first dive we saw a turtle. The second dive I saw a crab hiding in a little divot on the ocean floor and a stingray swimming around. Both dives I saw some cool fish but wasn’t sure what they were. When we got back we had to drive back to the base to pick up my dad who was supposed to be finishing up soon after, if not before, we got there. We ended up waiting for two hours. Then on the way out of the base I was trying to figure out where I was going (I had followed the dive van earlier that day) and got pulled over by the MP for doing 35 in a 25. He let me go since I wasn’t coming back again and told me how to get out. My parents told me a few times how lucky I was. NICE! That night we went to a place in Kailua called Pinky’s that my mom’s cousin recommended. It was pretty good. I ate the Kalua pork and that was really good. They had this guy walking around making balloon animals for kids too and some of the stuff he made was pretty amazing. Not just what he made, but how he did it. And you didn’t have to guess what it was after he was done, it actually looked like a dolphin or a bat or a monkey climbing a palm tree or a fruit basket hat that some weird lady was wearing on the way out. No one told her the balloons were for the kids. It was still cool.
Wednesday morning we woke up early again because my parents had to drop me off at the pier in Waikiki to catch the morning charter for my first two Advanced Open Water dives. That was pretty cool. The first dive was to a site called the Sea Tiger because that’s the name of the ship they sunk there. We went down to 100ft which was just to the deck of the ship and swam around there. It was pretty cool. I love diving. Its so cool just floating around and feeling so free. We saw some cool fish, but nothing spectacular that I can recall. The second dive was at the same site as the second dive on Tuesday: Kewala Pipe. Its an old sewage pipe or something like that that is out of service and has a bunch of coral growing on either side of it. When we first descended to the bottom of the anchor my instructor identified a fish and pointed it out. On the surface he told me that it was a Leaf Scorpion Fish. Then we swam to the end of the pipe and saw some cool fish on the way. When we got there we were swimming around and my instructor spotted a baby shark hiding in the coral. We couldn’t see his head, but everything from his gills back were showing. He told me it was a White Tip Shark. On the way back along the pipe I saw a couple of eels snaking around in the coral. There were a bunch of other cool fish, but again, I didn’t know what they were called. We surfaced and the boat went back to the dock. My parents arrived with lunch and my mom dropped my dad off so he could catch the afternoon charter with me for the first two dives of his Open Water certification. I would be completing dives two and three for my Advanced Open Water certification. The first dive we went to was called Nautilus Reef. I don’t recall anything super special about that dive. I had to do a bunch of skills for Peak Performance Buoyancy, then we swam around and looked at more cool fish that I didn’t know the name of. The second dive was to Kewala Pipe again. I had to do a bunch of navigation skills so that wasn’t hard. Then we swam around and saw more cool fish. My instructor for those dives was a lady from Ireland who used to run a dive shop with her husband in the Carribean until they decided they didn’t want to deal with the pressure anymore and decided to move to Hawaii to work for Island Divers. They were pretty cool and it was fun to listen to their accents. There was another guy doing the advanced stuff with me on this charter and he offered to email me pictures that he took while on the dive. He was really nice. Joe Roberson (no ‘t’) from Oklahoma. After we got done diving for the day we went and got mom from the nearby beach and headed back to the house. That night we were going to go a place in Kailua, called Buzz’s, that Jim said was really good. But we got there at 6:30 and they were booked until 8:30pm. So we drove around to find Terry’s Bigger Burgers that I thought would be a low end sit down kind of place. It was; lower than I thought. Good food, but not worth the twenty minute wait we had. They were slower than Steak n’ Shake.
Thursday morning we had to pack up all our stuff and head out since it was our last day at the bed and breakfast and first night at the Hawaiian Hilton Resort. Now, the Hawaiian Hilton Resort sounds much nicer than a bed and breakfast, but I assure you, its not worth the money, or at least this one wasn’t. That’s all I’ll say about that. After we packed up our stuff, we went to Pearl Harbor to see the Arizona Memorial and museum on site. That was very neat to see. Its pretty self explanatory, so I’ll refrain from going into long details. After that we decided to drive up to the north shore to see if there were any surfers and see the supposedly huge waves they have up there. On the way we stopped at the Dole Plantation because my mom had a hankering for a pineapple smoothie and they had been there on Wednesday morning while I was diving and thought I had to see it. It wasn’t spectacular and I think I could have done without it, but the smoothie was good. BTW, pineapple in Hawaii is so much better than the pineapple here because they don’t have to pick it until it’s ripe so it has time to get sweeter, whereas the ones here are picked before they’re ripe and supposedly finish ripening on the way over, but there is no comparison. I’ve never been a huge pineapple fan, but if it tasted the same here as it does there I would eat pineapple every day. mmmMMM! Anyway, we stopped at Dole’s and proceeded to the North Shore and watched the surfers for about a half hour. It was pretty cool and there were some big waves. Then we headed back down H2 to H1 and on into Waikiki to check into the resort. Once we checked in we decided to go eat at Duke’s Canoe Club, which I had heard about from this guy, Robert, I met while waiting for the charter boat on Tuesday afternoon. It's named after Duke Kohanamoku who was a famous surfer from Hawaii and competed in three Olympics for swimming, canoeing and something else and medalled in all three. He was a politician later on and they have a statue of him in downtown Waikiki on Kalakaua St, which runs along Waikiki Beach. We walked down to the statue and got a picture while we were waiting for our table at the restaurant. Its only a couple of blocks away. The restaurant was pretty nice. I ate swordfish for the first time and it was really good. It’s a fairly meaty fish and it filled me up pretty well. Afterward I bought a shirt (obviously) at the gift shop on the way out. I also bought a beach towel (not so obvious, yet not supprising).
The next morning we woke up really early to try to climb to the top of Diamond Head Crater before sunrise at 7am. We didn’t quite make it to the top for that, but it was still a cool view once we got up there. It was also cool because there were lookout stations built into the side of the mountain that looked out to the sea and were used during WWII to spot incoming ships. It was also cool because you could see almost half the island from up there. Its on the southeast corner of the island. After that we came down and went to breakfast then dropped my mom off at the resort and went to the pier for our last day of diving. The first dive we went to Turtle Canyon’s, which was the same place we went for the first dive on Tuesday when I was with my mom. That was pretty cool because I was doing my Fish Identification dive and had studied the night before so I knew what a lot of the fish were, but not all of them. It was also cool, because my instructor did know all of them and had a tablet he was writing the names of them on so I learned pretty quickly how to identify things. We also saw a turtle a few times while we were down there. Once it swam right through all of us and was so close I could have reached out and touched it. It was pretty cool. I love sea turtles. Some of the fish I saw were an eel (yes it is a fish not a snake), a goatfish, a butterfly fish, a trunkfish, and a triggerfish. My instructor identified a Unicorn fish (actually had a horn sticking out of its head!), a Moorish Idol, a trumpetfish, a spotted puffer fish, and a hawk fish. The second dive was at Kewala Pipe again and I was able to identify some other cool fish as well as see another turtle swimming about 20 feet above us. I identified a scorpionfish, which is kind of hard because they camaflouge themselves to look like rocks and coral. I also saw a coronetfish and a damselfish along with a bunch of ones identified on the previous dive. After we came up from that dive a lady that was diving in my group got sick overboard and it looked like really thick orange juice. I’d never seen anyone get sick on a boat before. Well, I’ve seen people who were seasick, but not actually BEING seasick. Once we got back, we went back to the hotel and drove over to the Island Divers dive shop on the east side of the island because my dad wanted to buy a hat or something. I ended up buying a zip up hooded shammy sweatshirt. Its cool. After that we called over to Buzz’s and made reservations. Its this little shack across the road from Kailua beach, but its really good food and great service. They also have these cool puffer fish lights hanging from the ceiling outside the door that were pretty neat looking. We ordered the Artichoke Supprise for an appetizer based on a glowing recommendation (Oh, my gosh, that is like sooo good! It’s probably my favorite and theres this really good butter garlic sauce that they pour over the top of it and mmm, it is soo good!) from one of our waitresses (they had a different waitress for ordering, drinks, bringing the food, etc., kind of weird, but cool). None of us have ever eaten artichoke so my mom and I both plucked a leaf, stuck the whole thing in our mouths and began to chew. When you do that it tastes kind of like rope and has about the same consistency so my mom spit it out and I swallowed it (it must not have been that bad because I have no idea when it came out later). We then asked the waitress how we were supposed to eat it and she informed us that you’re only supposed to eat the end that was attached to the artichoke heart by sliding it off between your front teeth. We tried that and she was right, it was good. I’m not sure it was so good I would go on about it forever, but at least a good couple of sentences. For dinner I had Alaskan King Crab for the first time. Now that was good! Much better than the artichoke and much better than the imitation crab I’d had before. And very filling. Mmm! Good stuff.
Saturday morning we again woke up early and went to Aloha Stadium to a swap meet, which is basically a bunch of tents setup by vendors where you can buy souvenirs a lot cheaper than what you would pay for at a typical tourist trap. I bought a few aloha shirts that are pretty cool. I probably won’t wear them very often, but they were cheap and I felt compelled. I also bought a couple pairs of board shorts, which I will probably get more use out of. I was very tempted to buy a Ukulele, but I didn’t. We spend five hours there. I hate shopping. My mom loves shopping. Enough said. After that we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center. We didn’t get there until 3:30pm and only had time to see one cultural show at the island of Aotearoa (New Zealand) before we had to go to the luau we got tickets for. That dinner was a little disappointing because there wasn’t any special food and it was buffet style, they didn’t serve you or anything. The show they had before and while we were eating was cool though. The show we saw after that was pretty cool. They do it every night and it’s a big show in an open air auditorium where they perform dances and stuff that were unique to each of the Polynesian islands represented at the cultural center. It was pretty cool. I wish we would have gotten there earlier and spent less time at the swap meet so we could have see more shows at the different islands. I’ll just have to go back someday.
Sunday we woke up and went to the service at Honolulu Church of Christ. It was pretty cool because this old lady came up to us between Sunday school and the main service and asked us where we were from. Turns out she grew up in Lansing and has heard of Kettering University so she knew right where that was at when she asked me where I went to school. She also knew where Warsaw, Indiana was when I told her I worked there and immediately said, “Winona Lake!?!” “Yup, that’s where I live.” Crazy stuff. After church we went back to the hotel and I packed up all my stuff so I would be ready to leave after we got back from lunch with my mom’s cousin and his family. We went to the Cheesecake Factory in Waikiki, which I guess is the busiest one in the world just ahead of Chicago. It was pretty busy and after eating there I know why. Good food and great cheesecake. I got the Hawaiian Fish Burger and the pineapple cheesecake. Both were excellente. After that Jim wanted to drive us up to the top of a mountain he used to live on the side of. We got up about halfway and the road was closed off. We drove back to the hotel and picked up my stuff and headed to the airport. I hugged my parents goodbye and got in line at the security gate.
Prologue
A few minutes later I was told that they would have to search my bag and I was like, fine, whatever. Apparently I had neglected the fact that the US is level of security is at orange which means you have to pack all liquids in plastic ziplock bags. How does this make dangerous chemicals not dangerous? I don’t know. I had my cologne and a bottle of sunscreen in the bag and was told that I would either have to give them to a friend outside the gate or have them confiscated. I still have a half bottle of the good-smell-um and I paid like $15 at a store in Kailua for that sunscreen so I didn’t want to see them go to waste. I called my mom and had them come back to the gate. They did and the nice security man took my stuff to them. I got on the plane. I did some sudoku’s, tried to do a crossword (I’m no good at those things), and fell asleep for four hours or so. I think the guy sitting next to me was a little upset that my light was on for most of the flight on an evening flight. Whatever dude. When I arrived in Dallas I looked at my watch and realized I would have to book it to my connecting flight. After coming out of the gate I looked at the departure listing to find my gate number and walked over to the lady standing at the gate I just came from to see if she could tell me whether it took off or not. She said I would have to run to make it. I did. Faster than Duke Kohanamoku could swim. I ran to gate B7. I noticed that the door to the gate was closed, but I asked the dude in a panting breathless voice, “Am I too late for the flight to Grand Rapids?” “It just took off, sir” he replied in an unconcerned tone. He proceeded to tell me that the next direct flight to GR wasn’t until 6pm. It was 8:30am Dallas time. He also told me that he could try to route me through Chicago but didn’t recommend it because “It’s a hard airport to connect through because its very confusing.” I thought of some very bad words to say to him and then asked politely that he please check to see if there was any faster way I could get to GR than 10pm that evening. He clicked a couple of buttons and said that even if I went through Chicago I wouldn’t get there until 8pm and then changed his mind and said it would actually be 11pm. Then I got pissed. I had been up for a FULL day before boarding my flight at 9pm Honolulu time, flew 7.5 hours and this guy was telling me that I would have to sit in an airport for another 9 hours before I could catch a flight home simply because their plane didn’t arrive on time to catch their other plane?! I asked heatedly if I could get some sort of a discount and was told that he would not be able to do that unless I was actually stuck in the airport for a couple of days. I thought of some more bad things to say and do to him and decided to walk away before I actually did. I sat down at the next gate and took some deep breaths. Then I thought of the fact that there had to be flights on other airlines and it didn’t seem unreasonable to ask for them to put me on a different airline since they are the ones that were at fault here. So I walked to a different gate and asked the lady if that would be possible. She said she was new but the guy standing next to her would be able to help once he was done with the customer he was waiting on. I looked over and saw a man who looked like he knew exactly what he was doing and he knew he was good at it. That’s who I wanted to talk to. When he was done I didn’t say anything, the lady handed him my boarding pass and said only, “He missed his connection to Grand Rapids.” Nothing about it being their fault or even suggesting a different airline. He took the pass and started clicking away. Two minutes later he said, “Ok, come over here and let me explain to you what I’ve done. Here is your new itinerary. You are going to get on a plane to Chicago from gate A17 at 9:30. You will arrive in Chicago at 12:15 their time. I booked you on a United Airlines flight from there to Grand Rapids at 1:30. You will have plenty of time to get to your connection. It will arrive in Grand Rapids at 3:30. Just go to the United counter when you get there and tell them you are checking in. I have already booked you for the flight. I apologize for the inconvenience.” With that he walked away to begin boarding the next flight from his gate and I barely had time to get out a “thank you very much”. Now that’s what I call service. That other guy should be fired. Anyway, I made it back safe and sound and more than a few hours before 10pm, so I was happy. Even if they did lose my luggage in the mess of things and had to ship it to me, which I pretty much figured on before I even left Dallas. I didn’t care as long as I got home at a decent hour to get some sleep.
Speaking of which, I think I’m due to partake in said daily habit once again. I hope you enjoyed my adventure as much as I did.
ALO - HA!
Introduction
Before I begin, let me say that for those who know me, you might guess that this entry will be a book. You are right. But I can assure you that those who finish the journey will be rewarded as I have hidden some golden reading nuggets inside. Enjoy!
Preface
Saturday night I went to a wedding in Kalamazoo. My flight left Sunday morning from Grand Rapids, so I had planned to spend the night at my uncle’s house in Grand Rapids. After leaving the wedding I called my uncle to let him know that I was on the way. He told me he was at work and that his wife was out and there was a babysitter there. So instead he offered to let me stay in the pilot’s lounge at his hanger. He works for Northern Air, a commercial/private/charter flight company at Gerald R. Ford International Airport. He also said that I could park my truck there for free while I was gone. So I said, “Sweet!” It was a pretty nice lounge with leather couches, recliners, a pool table and a bathroom with private showers and a sauna. I didn’t have enough time to use the sauna, but it was nice to get a hot shower before I left on Sunday morning.
Sunday morning I woke up at the butt-crack of pre-dawn and dragged myself out of bed, through the shower and to the airport. I checked in, ate a crappy breakfast sandwich at one of the airport eateries, and proceeded to my gate. I then proceeded to listen to my brand new Ipod. I soon found that four or five of the last cds I copied onto my harddrive and downloaded to my Ipod afterward had a bunch of static in the background because my cd drive is old and doesn’t like to be overworked. So I couldn’t listen to Until My Heart Caves In and had to settle for something else. The flight to Dallas was uneventful as was the flight from there to Honolulu. However, the scenery was pretty cool on the way to Honolulu because we flew over a bunch of mountains and I got to see the coast line of California and found out that there are two very large islands off the coast of southern California that I never knew about. I landed in Honolulu at 3:50pm local time.
The Vacation
After arriving in Oahu, I walked down to the baggage claim and waited for my parents who were to arrive shortly after me. They did and we proceeded to get the rental car and make our way across the island on H3. On the way we drove through (and inside) the mountains, which were really cool looking and covered in green so they looked more like HUGE grassy hills. We got to our bed and breakfast in Kailua and were greeted by the owner who lives across the street. After we got settled in we went to dinner and found a nice little outdoor café. I had seared Ahi, which is a red tuna and it was good. We called a bunch of people at 7pm to wish them a Happy New Year. Sorry if you weren’t one of them. We went home and couldn’t stay awake much past 9pm. But there was already fireworks going off, which I guess is pretty popular in Hawaii. They were lighting them off until about 12:30 I guess. I couldn’t hear them, but they woke my mom up a couple of times and she said they went off for a half hour straight at midnight. Oh, and that wasn’t a show that happened to be nearby, it was the house behind ours. Everyone does fireworks for New Year’s there. Its bigger than any 4th of July show I’ve seen.
Monday morning we woke up early and went to Kailua beach. Apparently its rated the second best beach in the world and it was pretty nice. There was a bunch of people parachute surfing, which I’d never heard of before, but basically they have this big chute (shaped like an orange peel if you were to cut away an eighth of the sphere; it would be the eighth size proportionately) and they hang on to ropes and the wind just pulls them around the bay. It was pretty cool. Then we hopped in the car and drove down the east coast to see if there was anything cool. We saw a lighthouse that was up on a seaside cliff. We drove past the Sealife Park, which I guess is where they filmed parts of 50 First Dates and that’s where he worked. We also saw a blowhole that spit water out if the waves crashed in right underneath it. Then we had to turn around and head back because we were going to visit my mom’s cousin who lives on Oahu in Kaneohe, which is kind of funny because his name is Jim Kane. Hawaiians don’t pronounce Kane like we do though, they pronounce it kahnay, if that makes sense. Their vowel sounds are mostly just like Spanish. Anyway we visited my mom’s cousin and his wife and her kids and they suggested a bunch of cool stuff for us to do and good places to eat on the island. Then we went home and went to bed.
Tuesday we woke up early and drove to Hickam AFB to go scuba diving. Well, we didn’t dive on the base, but the dive training center is there and my mom and I had signed up for the Discover Scuba course and my dad signed up for the Open Water Diver course. I am already certified as many of you know, but I did the discover course to get a refresher and so my mom wouldn’t be alone. They took us in the pool and showed us some skills so we wouldn’t drown when they took us out to the ocean later. It took my mom a little longer than the rest of the people. She was kind of freaking out. Then on the way to Waikiki, where the charter boats are, she asked me if we were actually going to go in the ocean and if I thought was too fast to put someone in the ocean who had never dove before. “Great,” I thought, “my mom is gonna chicken out.” She ended up going on the first dive but the instructor had to hold her hand the whole way, literally. The second dive she got in the water and decided she didn’t want to go down. “Okay,” I said, “have fun on the boat.” Down I went. The water was great! The first dive we saw a turtle. The second dive I saw a crab hiding in a little divot on the ocean floor and a stingray swimming around. Both dives I saw some cool fish but wasn’t sure what they were. When we got back we had to drive back to the base to pick up my dad who was supposed to be finishing up soon after, if not before, we got there. We ended up waiting for two hours. Then on the way out of the base I was trying to figure out where I was going (I had followed the dive van earlier that day) and got pulled over by the MP for doing 35 in a 25. He let me go since I wasn’t coming back again and told me how to get out. My parents told me a few times how lucky I was. NICE! That night we went to a place in Kailua called Pinky’s that my mom’s cousin recommended. It was pretty good. I ate the Kalua pork and that was really good. They had this guy walking around making balloon animals for kids too and some of the stuff he made was pretty amazing. Not just what he made, but how he did it. And you didn’t have to guess what it was after he was done, it actually looked like a dolphin or a bat or a monkey climbing a palm tree or a fruit basket hat that some weird lady was wearing on the way out. No one told her the balloons were for the kids. It was still cool.
Wednesday morning we woke up early again because my parents had to drop me off at the pier in Waikiki to catch the morning charter for my first two Advanced Open Water dives. That was pretty cool. The first dive was to a site called the Sea Tiger because that’s the name of the ship they sunk there. We went down to 100ft which was just to the deck of the ship and swam around there. It was pretty cool. I love diving. Its so cool just floating around and feeling so free. We saw some cool fish, but nothing spectacular that I can recall. The second dive was at the same site as the second dive on Tuesday: Kewala Pipe. Its an old sewage pipe or something like that that is out of service and has a bunch of coral growing on either side of it. When we first descended to the bottom of the anchor my instructor identified a fish and pointed it out. On the surface he told me that it was a Leaf Scorpion Fish. Then we swam to the end of the pipe and saw some cool fish on the way. When we got there we were swimming around and my instructor spotted a baby shark hiding in the coral. We couldn’t see his head, but everything from his gills back were showing. He told me it was a White Tip Shark. On the way back along the pipe I saw a couple of eels snaking around in the coral. There were a bunch of other cool fish, but again, I didn’t know what they were called. We surfaced and the boat went back to the dock. My parents arrived with lunch and my mom dropped my dad off so he could catch the afternoon charter with me for the first two dives of his Open Water certification. I would be completing dives two and three for my Advanced Open Water certification. The first dive we went to was called Nautilus Reef. I don’t recall anything super special about that dive. I had to do a bunch of skills for Peak Performance Buoyancy, then we swam around and looked at more cool fish that I didn’t know the name of. The second dive was to Kewala Pipe again. I had to do a bunch of navigation skills so that wasn’t hard. Then we swam around and saw more cool fish. My instructor for those dives was a lady from Ireland who used to run a dive shop with her husband in the Carribean until they decided they didn’t want to deal with the pressure anymore and decided to move to Hawaii to work for Island Divers. They were pretty cool and it was fun to listen to their accents. There was another guy doing the advanced stuff with me on this charter and he offered to email me pictures that he took while on the dive. He was really nice. Joe Roberson (no ‘t’) from Oklahoma. After we got done diving for the day we went and got mom from the nearby beach and headed back to the house. That night we were going to go a place in Kailua, called Buzz’s, that Jim said was really good. But we got there at 6:30 and they were booked until 8:30pm. So we drove around to find Terry’s Bigger Burgers that I thought would be a low end sit down kind of place. It was; lower than I thought. Good food, but not worth the twenty minute wait we had. They were slower than Steak n’ Shake.
Thursday morning we had to pack up all our stuff and head out since it was our last day at the bed and breakfast and first night at the Hawaiian Hilton Resort. Now, the Hawaiian Hilton Resort sounds much nicer than a bed and breakfast, but I assure you, its not worth the money, or at least this one wasn’t. That’s all I’ll say about that. After we packed up our stuff, we went to Pearl Harbor to see the Arizona Memorial and museum on site. That was very neat to see. Its pretty self explanatory, so I’ll refrain from going into long details. After that we decided to drive up to the north shore to see if there were any surfers and see the supposedly huge waves they have up there. On the way we stopped at the Dole Plantation because my mom had a hankering for a pineapple smoothie and they had been there on Wednesday morning while I was diving and thought I had to see it. It wasn’t spectacular and I think I could have done without it, but the smoothie was good. BTW, pineapple in Hawaii is so much better than the pineapple here because they don’t have to pick it until it’s ripe so it has time to get sweeter, whereas the ones here are picked before they’re ripe and supposedly finish ripening on the way over, but there is no comparison. I’ve never been a huge pineapple fan, but if it tasted the same here as it does there I would eat pineapple every day. mmmMMM! Anyway, we stopped at Dole’s and proceeded to the North Shore and watched the surfers for about a half hour. It was pretty cool and there were some big waves. Then we headed back down H2 to H1 and on into Waikiki to check into the resort. Once we checked in we decided to go eat at Duke’s Canoe Club, which I had heard about from this guy, Robert, I met while waiting for the charter boat on Tuesday afternoon. It's named after Duke Kohanamoku who was a famous surfer from Hawaii and competed in three Olympics for swimming, canoeing and something else and medalled in all three. He was a politician later on and they have a statue of him in downtown Waikiki on Kalakaua St, which runs along Waikiki Beach. We walked down to the statue and got a picture while we were waiting for our table at the restaurant. Its only a couple of blocks away. The restaurant was pretty nice. I ate swordfish for the first time and it was really good. It’s a fairly meaty fish and it filled me up pretty well. Afterward I bought a shirt (obviously) at the gift shop on the way out. I also bought a beach towel (not so obvious, yet not supprising).
The next morning we woke up really early to try to climb to the top of Diamond Head Crater before sunrise at 7am. We didn’t quite make it to the top for that, but it was still a cool view once we got up there. It was also cool because there were lookout stations built into the side of the mountain that looked out to the sea and were used during WWII to spot incoming ships. It was also cool because you could see almost half the island from up there. Its on the southeast corner of the island. After that we came down and went to breakfast then dropped my mom off at the resort and went to the pier for our last day of diving. The first dive we went to Turtle Canyon’s, which was the same place we went for the first dive on Tuesday when I was with my mom. That was pretty cool because I was doing my Fish Identification dive and had studied the night before so I knew what a lot of the fish were, but not all of them. It was also cool, because my instructor did know all of them and had a tablet he was writing the names of them on so I learned pretty quickly how to identify things. We also saw a turtle a few times while we were down there. Once it swam right through all of us and was so close I could have reached out and touched it. It was pretty cool. I love sea turtles. Some of the fish I saw were an eel (yes it is a fish not a snake), a goatfish, a butterfly fish, a trunkfish, and a triggerfish. My instructor identified a Unicorn fish (actually had a horn sticking out of its head!), a Moorish Idol, a trumpetfish, a spotted puffer fish, and a hawk fish. The second dive was at Kewala Pipe again and I was able to identify some other cool fish as well as see another turtle swimming about 20 feet above us. I identified a scorpionfish, which is kind of hard because they camaflouge themselves to look like rocks and coral. I also saw a coronetfish and a damselfish along with a bunch of ones identified on the previous dive. After we came up from that dive a lady that was diving in my group got sick overboard and it looked like really thick orange juice. I’d never seen anyone get sick on a boat before. Well, I’ve seen people who were seasick, but not actually BEING seasick. Once we got back, we went back to the hotel and drove over to the Island Divers dive shop on the east side of the island because my dad wanted to buy a hat or something. I ended up buying a zip up hooded shammy sweatshirt. Its cool. After that we called over to Buzz’s and made reservations. Its this little shack across the road from Kailua beach, but its really good food and great service. They also have these cool puffer fish lights hanging from the ceiling outside the door that were pretty neat looking. We ordered the Artichoke Supprise for an appetizer based on a glowing recommendation (Oh, my gosh, that is like sooo good! It’s probably my favorite and theres this really good butter garlic sauce that they pour over the top of it and mmm, it is soo good!) from one of our waitresses (they had a different waitress for ordering, drinks, bringing the food, etc., kind of weird, but cool). None of us have ever eaten artichoke so my mom and I both plucked a leaf, stuck the whole thing in our mouths and began to chew. When you do that it tastes kind of like rope and has about the same consistency so my mom spit it out and I swallowed it (it must not have been that bad because I have no idea when it came out later). We then asked the waitress how we were supposed to eat it and she informed us that you’re only supposed to eat the end that was attached to the artichoke heart by sliding it off between your front teeth. We tried that and she was right, it was good. I’m not sure it was so good I would go on about it forever, but at least a good couple of sentences. For dinner I had Alaskan King Crab for the first time. Now that was good! Much better than the artichoke and much better than the imitation crab I’d had before. And very filling. Mmm! Good stuff.
Saturday morning we again woke up early and went to Aloha Stadium to a swap meet, which is basically a bunch of tents setup by vendors where you can buy souvenirs a lot cheaper than what you would pay for at a typical tourist trap. I bought a few aloha shirts that are pretty cool. I probably won’t wear them very often, but they were cheap and I felt compelled. I also bought a couple pairs of board shorts, which I will probably get more use out of. I was very tempted to buy a Ukulele, but I didn’t. We spend five hours there. I hate shopping. My mom loves shopping. Enough said. After that we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center. We didn’t get there until 3:30pm and only had time to see one cultural show at the island of Aotearoa (New Zealand) before we had to go to the luau we got tickets for. That dinner was a little disappointing because there wasn’t any special food and it was buffet style, they didn’t serve you or anything. The show they had before and while we were eating was cool though. The show we saw after that was pretty cool. They do it every night and it’s a big show in an open air auditorium where they perform dances and stuff that were unique to each of the Polynesian islands represented at the cultural center. It was pretty cool. I wish we would have gotten there earlier and spent less time at the swap meet so we could have see more shows at the different islands. I’ll just have to go back someday.
Sunday we woke up and went to the service at Honolulu Church of Christ. It was pretty cool because this old lady came up to us between Sunday school and the main service and asked us where we were from. Turns out she grew up in Lansing and has heard of Kettering University so she knew right where that was at when she asked me where I went to school. She also knew where Warsaw, Indiana was when I told her I worked there and immediately said, “Winona Lake!?!” “Yup, that’s where I live.” Crazy stuff. After church we went back to the hotel and I packed up all my stuff so I would be ready to leave after we got back from lunch with my mom’s cousin and his family. We went to the Cheesecake Factory in Waikiki, which I guess is the busiest one in the world just ahead of Chicago. It was pretty busy and after eating there I know why. Good food and great cheesecake. I got the Hawaiian Fish Burger and the pineapple cheesecake. Both were excellente. After that Jim wanted to drive us up to the top of a mountain he used to live on the side of. We got up about halfway and the road was closed off. We drove back to the hotel and picked up my stuff and headed to the airport. I hugged my parents goodbye and got in line at the security gate.
Prologue
A few minutes later I was told that they would have to search my bag and I was like, fine, whatever. Apparently I had neglected the fact that the US is level of security is at orange which means you have to pack all liquids in plastic ziplock bags. How does this make dangerous chemicals not dangerous? I don’t know. I had my cologne and a bottle of sunscreen in the bag and was told that I would either have to give them to a friend outside the gate or have them confiscated. I still have a half bottle of the good-smell-um and I paid like $15 at a store in Kailua for that sunscreen so I didn’t want to see them go to waste. I called my mom and had them come back to the gate. They did and the nice security man took my stuff to them. I got on the plane. I did some sudoku’s, tried to do a crossword (I’m no good at those things), and fell asleep for four hours or so. I think the guy sitting next to me was a little upset that my light was on for most of the flight on an evening flight. Whatever dude. When I arrived in Dallas I looked at my watch and realized I would have to book it to my connecting flight. After coming out of the gate I looked at the departure listing to find my gate number and walked over to the lady standing at the gate I just came from to see if she could tell me whether it took off or not. She said I would have to run to make it. I did. Faster than Duke Kohanamoku could swim. I ran to gate B7. I noticed that the door to the gate was closed, but I asked the dude in a panting breathless voice, “Am I too late for the flight to Grand Rapids?” “It just took off, sir” he replied in an unconcerned tone. He proceeded to tell me that the next direct flight to GR wasn’t until 6pm. It was 8:30am Dallas time. He also told me that he could try to route me through Chicago but didn’t recommend it because “It’s a hard airport to connect through because its very confusing.” I thought of some very bad words to say to him and then asked politely that he please check to see if there was any faster way I could get to GR than 10pm that evening. He clicked a couple of buttons and said that even if I went through Chicago I wouldn’t get there until 8pm and then changed his mind and said it would actually be 11pm. Then I got pissed. I had been up for a FULL day before boarding my flight at 9pm Honolulu time, flew 7.5 hours and this guy was telling me that I would have to sit in an airport for another 9 hours before I could catch a flight home simply because their plane didn’t arrive on time to catch their other plane?! I asked heatedly if I could get some sort of a discount and was told that he would not be able to do that unless I was actually stuck in the airport for a couple of days. I thought of some more bad things to say and do to him and decided to walk away before I actually did. I sat down at the next gate and took some deep breaths. Then I thought of the fact that there had to be flights on other airlines and it didn’t seem unreasonable to ask for them to put me on a different airline since they are the ones that were at fault here. So I walked to a different gate and asked the lady if that would be possible. She said she was new but the guy standing next to her would be able to help once he was done with the customer he was waiting on. I looked over and saw a man who looked like he knew exactly what he was doing and he knew he was good at it. That’s who I wanted to talk to. When he was done I didn’t say anything, the lady handed him my boarding pass and said only, “He missed his connection to Grand Rapids.” Nothing about it being their fault or even suggesting a different airline. He took the pass and started clicking away. Two minutes later he said, “Ok, come over here and let me explain to you what I’ve done. Here is your new itinerary. You are going to get on a plane to Chicago from gate A17 at 9:30. You will arrive in Chicago at 12:15 their time. I booked you on a United Airlines flight from there to Grand Rapids at 1:30. You will have plenty of time to get to your connection. It will arrive in Grand Rapids at 3:30. Just go to the United counter when you get there and tell them you are checking in. I have already booked you for the flight. I apologize for the inconvenience.” With that he walked away to begin boarding the next flight from his gate and I barely had time to get out a “thank you very much”. Now that’s what I call service. That other guy should be fired. Anyway, I made it back safe and sound and more than a few hours before 10pm, so I was happy. Even if they did lose my luggage in the mess of things and had to ship it to me, which I pretty much figured on before I even left Dallas. I didn’t care as long as I got home at a decent hour to get some sleep.
Speaking of which, I think I’m due to partake in said daily habit once again. I hope you enjoyed my adventure as much as I did.
ALO - HA!