RAYMO’S RAMBLINGS – HAWAIIAN THOUGHTS
HAWAIIAN THOUGHTS
As many of you know Roxie and I went to Hawaii for the first time. The reason for our trip to Hawaii was a wedding. Our daughter Brianna married the love of her life, Seth, on a beach on the island of Kauai. It was a beautiful and perfect day for a wedding.
Hawaii was a bit of a surprise to me, it was much more than what I had envisioned it to be. The beauty, the Hawaiian people, the resorts, Pearl Harbor, the beach, and the ocean all were amazing.
We spent four days in Honolulu and then flew to the island of Kauai. Here are some of the observations about Hawaii that surprised me.
- From the moment we landed on Hawaii, the Hawaiian people were so nice and friendly and welcoming. Everyone was very nice and kind. From the guy picking us up at the airport, to the many tour guides we had, waiters and waitresses, hotel workers, cleaning ladies and the list goes on. I was very impressed with the friendliness of everyone.
- The weather. I had a mindset before I left that while I was in Hawaii I would be hot and sweaty every day. That was not the case. Temperatures in the mid 70’s to high 80’s. Breezy. Biggest thing was the absence of bugs. No bugs of any kind! Sitting on a park bench at night on the beach was the best!
- How different the islands of Oahu and Kauai are. We saw most of both islands. They are both beautiful, but in their own way. What shocked me the most was how many homeless people were on Waikiki beach in Honolulu. Sleeping on the ground everywhere. I felt sorry for them. Here I am sitting on a park bench enjoying myself and a guy laying at my feet is struggling in life.
- Pearl Harbor brought me to tears. I have always wanted to visit Pearl Harbor and the memorial Arizona. I can’t put into words what that morning was like for me. I love reading about history, especially about World War 2. Being there on a Sunday morning at 8 am the same time of the attack on December 7th 1941, also a Sunday morning. The bugle plays, then the national anthem was played, it was very emotional for everyone standing in the park that morning. Complete silence. The ride out to the Arizona, and reflecting on that over one thousand Americans are buried with that ship. And to see the oil still leaking from the Arizona was too much for me.
- How big and beautiful these major resorts are. We stayed at the Grand Hyatt on Kauai, and for a day at the Marriott. Amazing places, the engineering of the buildings and pools, the number of people that work at these places, the organization of how everything works. The many kinds of services available. Blows my mind.
- Especially on Kauai, the amount of wild chickens running around. They are everywhere!! Friendly little buggers. I never found out why they are running around free on the island, and why there are so many of them. The children love to chase them.
- The food and the prices of the food. I know this will be hard to believe, me being a meat and potato guy. The best thing I ate during our trip was a pineapple salad. It was a pineapple cut sideways filled with all different kinds of Hawaiian fruit and I don’t even know what the different fruit was. Then it was topped with a coconut yogurt and that was topped with granola. After you were done eating the fruit and yogurt, you got to spoon out the pineapple! Best thing ever! I had two of them on our trip.
Many more things to blog about our trip to Hawaii, including my daughter’s wedding day, and some really funny things that happened to us, including trying to get home for two days, when our flights kept getting cancelled. More to come.
