Hawaii 2021!!!

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Dec 22 came early!! As we got up before 2:30 am naturally and turned off some of our 4 phone alarms! The kids and we were up and out by the planned 3 am, headed for Cleveland Hopkins. The Bruegger Bagels woke us up sufficiently to board the 6:10 plane bound for San Francisco. Megan and Jean sat in one row with a nicely small young woman in between. Andrew and David sat some rows behind with the cat lady (oh, dear, didn’t bring allergy pills on the plane!). No problems with that flight. Ate lunch of pizzas and omelette and then got on a 777 with an enormous first class section with the fold down bed-seats. But our seats were comfy enough – sitting all 4 in the center – and everyone amused themselves well with the individual movies.

We arrived on time and were picked up by both Anna & Mike and Heather & Dario, who had arrived before us and rented the cars. We drove about 1 hour to Laie – a town at about “1:30 pm” on a clock face. The accommodations are perfect: the 3 bedroom unit is Lozas, us, and Megan. Outside the back is a patio with table and 4 chairs, and a walk around the corner is the Hackett studio, with Anna & Mike & Andrew. There is a spare bathroom for anyone, esp if you are sandy: an outdoor unit with cold shower (David thought he was back at boarding school), and toilet where you can watch the trees sway rather than read! We are right across the street from the Polynesian Cultural Center! So on Wednesday night we ate at a Thai food truck over there, plus bought groceries. On route to the AirBnB Lozas and we stopped at a park to view the “Chinaman’s Hat” island close to shore, and picked up 2 new life list birds already: red-crested cardinal and Pacific golden plover. So the race is on! Jean is also collecting nuts – although those rounds nuts all over the ground were not macadamias.

Thursday:

Everyone woke up extremely early of course and straggled out for home-cooked breakfast of many things before driving south to Pearl Harbor. Sadly, due to the heavier than usual traffic from the 80^th anniversary and some weather, the docks had broken, so we couldn’t do the reserved boat trip out to the Arizona Memorial. Fortunately the displays had been greatly expanded since our last visit, plus the rangers were giving talks that were amazingly interesting - personal stories of real people who survived, or were heroes. I sadly can’t remember the names, but one moving one: a sailor on one of repair ships, the Vestal, saw 6 sailors trapped in the upper reaches of the AZ and threw them a line which was caught on the very first throw, enabling the sailors to climb hand over hand to safety. The Vestal was then moved away from the burning AZ and the captain awarded something for saving his ship. The clever sailor went unmentioned until those 6 who were saved did enough research to demand that he receive the much-deserved medal (sadly after his death – but his family rejoiced).

We then drove off to the 4 Lagoons near the Disney Resort at Ko’olina to have lunch and get some snorkeling practice in. It was a lovely secluded lagoon with a decent variety of fish once you swam out of the sandier area, including 2 trigger fish. Sadly Andrew did not do well with his floaty vest and wouldn’t try snorkeling. And sadder, we seem to have somehow left David’s TUSA boots behind. We left a message for lost and found, but we’ll probably have to buy replacements in Maui. The weather and vista were beautiful though. One funny thing: a local woman said she had seen a monk seal come into the lagoon and pointed it out. David was back in like a shot, and we kept pointing him towards where we saw the head popping up – until we realized that the head was awfully still. It turned out to be a rock! Now, was there ever really a monkseal? Did that lady use this story as a diversion to steal David’s boots?

Friday:

We drove north past some lovely surfing areas – LOTS of old hippies and young folks out there. We just sat and watched and let the surf get some of us wet for about 20 mins. We turned around eventually and stopped for some fresh fruit and a cold coconut before making a variety of lunches and getting ready for our visit to the PCC. We got over there around 1:30 at Hale’iwa and divided into 3 groups for ease of movement, and everyone had great experiences. We did get to see Andrew join in the competition of “warrior training” at the New Zealand exhibit (which he tied first), and Heather and Megan swinging the poi balls. They also took a hula dance class. There was no canoe parade due to Covid restrictions, but we did take a barge-like boat to the very end. Tongan drum exhibition and Tahitian wedding ceremony where we were invited to renew our vows and fascinating music from Fiji (6 of us got tattoos). Mike won a spear tossing competition and won a woven laurel crown. The exhibits end around 5:30, Buffet foods: salad, fruits, taro rolls, baked yellow snapper, hulihuli chicken, kalua pork and the imu pig, something like charsui pork, and 3 varieties of poke (ahi tuna), acorn squash, a lovely purple baked yam, broccolini, and desserts. As we ate, the entertainment happened at the stage below – a sort of pageant in honor of Queen Liliuokalani. At the end 3 children who knew an interpretative dance led any volunteer children (including our two, of course) in a song to the Queen. We had over 45 minutes before the evening show started, enabling visitors to do some shopping. Except for the fact that we were all very cold, the show was amazing: dances from every different island, culminating in a lot of fire spinning by lots of different people. We might have been within 25’ feet of the stage.

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