My vacations, particularly those in warm, tropical places, always end too soon. This one was no different.
Didn’t my last post leave off on Sunday night? By Monday, the sun had returned, so a few hours by the pool in the morning was in order. My left over pasta was lunch before my second visit of the trip to the Mai Tai Bar at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. What is most appealing about that place is that anyone and everyone is free to walk about their premises, lounge on their veranda, fall asleep in their rocking chairs or cuddle on their couches. I, however, typically make a bee line for the outdoor bar area, where they often play great Hawaiian music. I had a few drinks, wandered around a bit and hopped on a bus intending to go back to the hotel to get ready for Motown night at The Dragon Upstairs. That little bus ride should teach me to pay a little more attention to not just the number of the bus, but where it says it’s going. I jumped on a bus at the corner of Kapahulu and Kalakaua thinking that it would take me up somewhere around Diamond Head, then back towards Ala Moana. After getting on the bus, I sort of dozed off for a moment. When I opened up my eyes again, we were at the Kahala Mall. Never having been there before, I didn’t panic, thinking that it wasn’t that far off the beaten path. The bus ended up taking me on a very scenic tour of not only Kahala, but Kailua, Hawaii Kai, Waimanalo and Kaneohe! At first I was asking myself “WTF? How long is this going to take? Will the bus EVER turn around and head back towards Waikiki?!” Then I started enjoying the stunning scenery and reminding myself that I was on vacation, so not to worry. My little detour ended up taking about 2 1/2 hours, but it was truthfully quite lovely. Note to self: Now I know where Costco and Sea Life Park are! As for The Dragon Upstairs, they advertised as having a live band playing Motown songs from 8:00 p.m. to midnight, or maybe even until 2:00 a.m. My cousin called to let me know that her husband and she would be joining me there. First of all, when I arrived, they actually carded me. I thought the guy was kidding at first, but he wasn’t! I can’t even remember the last time someone carded me! Secondly, when I got upstairs sometime around 8:30 p.m., there didn’t appear to be any band. When asked about the band, the bartender informed that they were still setting up. Eventually what happened is that a DJ set up; he played “Motown” hits and a woman occasionally sang to some background music. She sang several songs that weren’t exactly Motown, but still old school R&B. I asked if she would sing “Pull Up to the Bumper” by Grace Jones, but she’d never heard of it! She actually asked me to write it down ’cause she wanted to check it out and try to learn it. The crowd was sparse compared to that on Friday night. When my cousin and her husband arrived, I apologized for the “band” not being what we expected. Surprisingly, there were a couple of gray-haired elderly women tearing up the dance floor! I asked my cousin if that was what we had to look forward to in our golden years! Regardless, we ended up having a fun evening. I’d had a number of drinks before they arrived and a few more after. My intentions of going early were to avoid staying out late. As it was, I don’t even know what time it was when they dropped me off. Nor was the last part of our conversation very clear!
Tuesday morning found me feeling ever so slightly queasy. My friend was taking me to breakfast, but that was one of those mornings when I felt like burrowing deeper under the covers and sleeping an extra hour or two. We had breakfast at Tango Cafe since he mentioned that they had a great corned beef hash, loco moco style. We both had that, only his was with fried rice and mine was with white rice. They were even kind enough to bring us some extra gravy. Normally, being from the Midwest, I would have been all over that ’cause EVERYTHING tastes better with more gravy on it! That morning, though, I couldn’t do it. Due to my imbibing the night before, my appetite was a little down. I took the rest of mine to go, of course! Back at the hotel, a couple hours of sunbathing and napping at the pool found me feeling slightly better. On nearly all of my more recent trips to Hawaii, the Na Hoku catamaran ride is part of my modus operandus. Tuesday afternoon seemed like the perfect time for it. The Na Hoku camataran ride is typically known as a booze cruise. First timers pay $30 for an hour and a half ride, plus all the alcohol you can drink. If you’re ridden before, they charge you $25 for the ride, plus all the alcohol you can drink. I wasn’t feeling like overdoing the alcohol, due to the night before. Two drinks over the course of an hour and a half were more than enough for me. It’s always relaxing to sail out past Diamond Head and away from the crowds at Waikiki on a beautiful day, especially to the strains of “Akaka Falls.” In the past there was a very attractive crew member named Shugo who has abs to die for. Lots of women want their picture taken with him. I usually have a photo taken with him, post it on FB, then all of my female friends ooh and ahhh over him, as well as asking me who he is. There was no Shugo this time around. I wonder if he no longer works for them or whether he simply had the day off. His female fans will have to wait for another time! My stomach was completely back to normal by then, so that prompted a stop at my usual place, the Mai Tai Bar at the Royal Hawaiian. The evening crew was there. One of them greeted me with “Good to see you again!” and another asked “You live here, right?” What that says to me is that either I go there entirely too much or I make an indelible impression on every visit! A few drinks later found me deciding to go check out Rainbow Drive-In on Kapahulu. Many people recommended the loco moco there. Since I AM a loco moco fiend, I had to try yet another one. There were many people in line, but it moved along at a brisk pace. My loco moco cost all of $7.25, was a huge serving and was packed up very well for its transport back to the hotel. I had a few bites, liked it (very traditional style) and saved the rest for the following day. Drinking in the sun had made me tired, so my evening consisted of little more than window shopping to see if there was anything I needed/wanted/had forgotten to buy.
Wednesday morning still found me tired. My friend stopped by to wish me farewell, beings it was my departure day. He had a seminar to attend most of that day, so wouldn’t be able to see me later. I so enjoyed my time spent with him and our talks together. Sometimes you meet people in your life, not expecting anything other than the most casual of friendships; you know, the typical “hello” only when you’re in town or a few exchanges over FB. Then there are people that you see constantly, spending time with them nearly every week, but you don’t actually share anything that deep with them. I actually shared more personal things in my conversations with him than with my supposed BFFs! He’s one of those people I felt immediately comfortable with. For the most part, I hate saying “Goodbye” to people, even when my return is guaranteed. For instance, I cried hysterically when leaving Bali last March; started getting emotional the day before. This trip to Hawaii was certainly different than that one to Bali, yet saying “goodbye” remains one of my least favorite things. When he left, I finished up my corned beef hash, loco moco style. It tasted great since my stomach was feeling better than the previous morning! I put in my last sunbathing time at the pool, went to Chinatown to pick up a few leis and stopped in at Brasserie du Vin for a glass of Picpoul. It’s a French restaurant/wine bar on Bethel that I’ve only been in once before. The decor is charming in that French manner. The bartender was quite amiable, telling me that she’d moved to Hawaii 8 years ago from San Francisco. She asked if I wanted a bite to eat. I declined, knowing there was even more loco moco waiting for me in my room! So, yeah, I finished it off back in my room and had a final drink at the Mai Tai Bar in the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. The bartender there was sweet and gave me a gardenia for my hair; smelled divine. With even more time to kill before sunset, I couldn’t resist a final meal of something local. I went to the highly lauded Blue Water Shrimp Truck in the International Marketplace for their garlic shrimp plate. Everyone on TripAdvisor gives them high marks. For $13.95 their spicy garlic shrimp plate has 9 shrimp (mine only had 8), steamed rice, green salad with dressing, corn and pineapple. It was fine, but it didn’t compare to either Mackey’s, or even Giovanni’s, from the North Shore shrimp trucks. Also, the shrimp were in their shells, which I wasn’t crazy about; the ones from the North Shore shrimp trucks were not. The shrimp weren’t that spicy, either. I was disappointed and didn’t even finish my shrimp. Time was of the essence by then, so I walked along the beach back towards my hotel. I snapped a few photos of the sunset, finished packing in a rush and was downstairs waiting for the shuttle by 7:50 p.m.; they were scheduled to arrive at 8:00 p.m. Apparently, I operate well under pressure. Else, why would I do this to myself all the time?!
My friend had remarked to me that I hadn’t bought any souvenirs from Hawaii. In truth I had, but didn’t do as much shopping as usual. My purchases were a few Hawaiian dresses, some Hawaiian vanilla sugar, some furikake (though could probably find that somewhere in J-town here), some macadamia nut seasoning and some silver jewelry. I could have gone crazy with the shopping, but there’s still Indian Market in Santa Fe in August, followed by two weeks in Vietnam in October coming up to help deplete my funds!
The 10:57 p.m. return flight was uneventful. No food poisoning, no interesting conversation with the person next to me, no movies. Flying above the clouds this morning with the sun was nice, until we started our descent into San Francisco. Then we flew down into the grayness, with a scheduled high temperature of 61 for today. I was less than happy to be back. That’s normal for me, though. I’d always rather be anywhere than here.
I got into the office around 9:48 a.m. It seemed quiet, but the other legal department admin made some comment that the people in my group (the business side) were crazy! She went on to break it down for me as to what had happened in my absence. It made me laugh. Even more so, it made me happy that I’d been enjoying Hawaii while all of the office drama had been going on!
Next on the agenda is to finalize the Santa Fe plans. Actually, there’s not much to finalize other than to finish paying for the casita and book a shuttle; that’s it. I’m not making any dinner reservations or anything else too specific. The Indian Market should keep my camera and me very busy. Attending the Santa Fe Opera is a consideration, depending on what’s being performed, the price range and the evening temperatures in The City Different!
