Honolulu

Thursday...

We are siting at departure gate 52... Waiting for our flight to Hawaii to board... Head for Kona... From there to Volcano... The last of the three islands we are visiting...

Oahu has been fun... We arrived two days ago... Drove across to the north shore... Found a shrimp truck... (finding a truck was easy... Deciding which was a challenge). We looked at the ocean. At old buildings... Avoided Pineapple World, the Polynesian Cultural Center, and a ranch, with cowboys and a rodeo... All created tourist sites... Elsewhere they have helicopter rides, catamaran rides, outrigger canoe rides...

Heading back we drove through downtown Honolulu, past the Iolani Palice, and the statue of King Komeamea... We stopped and took a picture of Tina with the statue...

We ended up at our Hotel... On Waikiki Beach... a tourist district of the highest order... Apparently, while on vacation, In a tropical paradise many find it necessary to shop for Coach Bags, Apple products, and Ferraris... We thought we were three for the sun and the beach... Hotels (and there are many hotels on Waikiki Beach) all have tiki torches, which they light ever evening... the effect surreal, particularly when driving...

The streets are abuzz with activity...People in beach wear... Others on the most stylish of resort wear... And Japanese tourist in the most bizarre cutting edge fashions... I believe the place is all about the beach, but a surprising number of visitors are here for something other than sand and surf... It is corporate organized (maybe also disorganized) Dizneyfied, Las Vegas style tourism...

Our hotel (The Outrigger) was home to Duke's, a local restaurant... we ate dinner on the deck... Overlooking the beach and the sunset... All was good.

Wednesday morning we visited the Hawaiian railroad Society museum at Ewa... There are trains there... I am writing a preservation report about two of their cars... I stopped by to check on things... Tina checked out the museum cats...

Back to Waikiki that afternoon... Tina read on the beach... I first swam, then rented a stand up paddle board... When signing the release form, the asked my age... I noted that I was the oldest listed by nearly 20 years... I climbed aboard (laying down initially) and paddled out... I stood up on the board... I wouldn't use the term "steady" but I stood up, took a few strokes with the paddle, and fell in... Regained the board, stood up again... This time remaining upright for a reasonable amount of time... Eventually, I found that I could stand up... Paddle about calm water, negotiate waves when heading out... But surfing in was beyond my skill set... Eventually I tried surfing in on my knees... With limited success...

All in all the stand up paddle board was a blast... I would try it again... Without a doubt I would fall down again... But it would be fun... And just maybe I would learn how to surf in... More likely I would find new, more spectacular ways to fall down. Later... A short nap. (it's vacation...) followed by dinner at sunset, outside... A mob descended to take pictures... We had a wonderful dinner... Later that evening, well after dark, I walked on the beach... one couple was sitting on the sand side by side, one with a laptop, the other with an Ipad... 200 feet away, a Hawaiian dancer, part of a hotel luau was dancing at the surf line... Further down street people were camping for the night... locals were playing chess at covered picnic tables...

This morning we took our time getting up, checked out and headed towards the airport for our flight to Hawaii... Our third and for now final island...