I didn’t stray too far from my hotel, after all, last Sunday. The Charthouse was about a block and a half away, so I popped in there for a drink and possibly a bite to eat. The crowd consisted of mostly older couples and Japanese tourists listening to a drunken duo play Hawaiian music. I squeezed in at the bar for a glass of wine. After one drink, it was so very tempting to leave. Yet when the bartender asked if I’d like another, I thought “What the heck?” The rest of my evening would have been spent in my room, anyway. After switching to another wine, I glanced at the bar menu. The Kamuela caprese salad caught my eye, so I ordered it. The salad was fine. I ate while watching one of the bar backs shuck oysters. The couple next to me seemed to be drinking quite a bit, until the woman began to cry about something. It was odd, but I tried not to stare. You know how that is, right? You’re nonchalantly glancing PAST them and catching them in the corner of your eye. An older man named Mike eventually asked if the seat on my other side was taken. It wasn’t, so he sat himself down and admired my caprese salad. In fact, he ordered the same. He was telling me that he’d moved to Hawaii years ago and (if I remember correctly) resides in the Ilikai. (You know that hotel that Jack Lord could be seen standing in at the start of the old “Hawaii Five-O.”) Don’t remember what else we talked about, but he was very pleasant. He bought me a glass of wine. After my 3 glasses of wine, I decided to return to the hotel, even though he offered me another glass.
Monday morning found me at the pool, as usual. I would regret not heading down to Ala Moana Beach Park to pick up a lantern for the Japanese Floating Lantern Ceremony that would be taking place at sunset, but I was feeling too lazy. After my sunbathing, something cultural sounded appealing. I decided to take the bus out to Bishop Museum; my last visit there must have been in 1999. On that visit, however, I do remember three things – a German tourist with his small son inhaling the scent of my tuberose lei while they sat next to me on the bus, being spooked in some deserted part of the museum and a very nice older Hawaiian gentleman giving me a ride back to Waikiki when he got off work at the museum. A couple from New Zealand happened to be walking from the bus stop to the museum next to me. This was their first visit to Hawaii; they’d been to Kona and Honolulu. The woman commented that she found the people especially “lovely.” On one day, their shuttle driver had pulled over to pick up a pumpkin pie given to him by a friend. The woman from New Zealand had never seen or tasted a pumpkin pie before. Although she had only wanted to glance at it, the shuttle driver offered it to her!
The featured exhibit was of guitars, both ancient and modern from all over the world. I walked quickly through it, because parts of it were interactive and the kids were driving me crazy! The majority of my time was spent in the main building, Hawaiian Hall. They used to showcase ethnic groups/islands of Polynesia and Micronesia, which had been endlessly interesting to me, as I’d never even heard of many of them. That’s been changed up. One of the floors was dedicated to the Hawaiian gods/religion, another to every day Hawaiian life and (forgive me) don’t exactly recall what the third floor was dedicated to. I enjoyed looking at the feather leis and capes, as well as the necklaces of human hair. There was also the kahili room; kahilis are the traditional feather standards of royalty.
After leaving, I jumped off the bus in Chinatown to make a quick stop at Cindy’s Leis. She had either yellow plumeria leis or purple orchid leis for $6/apiece. I opted for the plumeria because of the scent! Since I hadn’t yet eaten (and there was no longer a café at Bishop Museum), I decided to see what Downbeat Diner had on offer. The place was rather quiet in the afternoon, with one guy working behind the bar, as well as taking food orders and delivering them to the booths. He was a young, super nice guy. Of course, the loco moco caught my eye, but I couldn’t do it again, could I? Well, I could, but… The chili and rice sounded good, and it was only $4.50. When he took my order and I said “all” I wanted was the chili and rice, plus a Heineken, he asked “That’s all?! You don’t want lots of cheese and onions with it?” Oh yeah! Such yummy comfort food. After that bite, there was still time to kill before the lantern ceremony. I made a pit stop at the Mai Tai Bar in Ala Moana just in time for Happy Hour. During that time, it sprinkled off and on. There had been rumors that the ceremony might be cancelled for the first time ever if it rained. However, I walked across the street to the beach about 5:45 p.m. and into a crowd of thousands. There was a huge screen set up so that everyone could see what was happening on the stage. People were “talking story” about their loved ones who’d passed. The Makaha Sons sang “I’ll Remember You,” a song that always makes me think of my Tutu. She’d had a Don Ho cassette with that song on it, which I used to play endlessly. That was followed by taiko drumming, the blessing by a Hawaiian priest and words by the Japanese priestess (who apparently flies to Hawaii from Japan every year specifically for the ceremony). Men in canoes set out the first lanterns on the ocean. When instructed, everyone else lit theirs and waded out into the ocean to set them afloat. Only a limited number are handed out the morning of the ceremony. Participants then write notes to their loved ones on the lantern and wait for sunset to put them out to sea. Even with thousands of people in attendance, it was a beautiful ceremony. Some people were quite emotional. Since I’m short and there were hundreds of people in front of me, I had to wade way out into the ocean to get some pictures of just the floating lanterns. I had shorts on, anyway, but I was carrying a beach bag with my DSLR in it. I didn’t want to risk anything happening to my DSLR, so used my point-and-shoot to take pictures. They still turned out really nice. Of course, I was soaked afterwards and my shorts decided to nearly fall down while I walked back to the hotel. It was a bit of a challenge to walk, hold my bag with one hand and keep a grip on my wet, sagging shorts with the other!
After cleaning up a bit and changing, my evening ended at the Mai Tai Bar at the Royal Hawaiian. One side of the bar was completely full of drunken Aussies drinking beer, talking loudly and singing. The other side of the bar was deserted. Guess which side I sat on? An American guy, Darryl, who’d been sitting on the “Aussie” side of the bar came and sat next to me. He said that the noise was getting to him, so he switched to the quieter side. Yet another man who’d moved to Hawaii years ago. He said that $2000 MIGHT get you a very, very small one bedroom apartment in Waikiki. “But when you wake up every morning and see that fabulous view, you know it’s all worth it!” I joked. “Oh, I was over the view LONG ago!” he laughed. We also noticed that, when the Aussies sang more, one of the bartenders turned up the Hawaiian music. That made us laugh more! Darryl suggested that I hit up either Shorebird or the Hard Rock Café for Happy Hour one evening. The Shorebird is where my friend and I spent a late afternoon/early evening many moons ago, when we first met. I’ve never been back there since. As for the Hard Rock, I usually avoid them at all costs. I ambled back to my hotel with a stop at one of the many, many ABC Stores for my night cap – a Coke and a bag of Maui Onion Hawaiian Style Chips!
