Hawaii 2011

Another gruelling journey to paradise. I spent much more money to ensure we spent only 8 hours traveling with plans to arrive at noon and spend the day at the beach. An unscheduled extended layover in San Francisco thwarted my plans and all the extra money, which also included a night stay at the Hilton in Waikaloa because we couldn't get into our beloved morning fire on time. Not only that but my wallet mysteriously went missing on the plane with the $300 I had just gotten out in SF. The picture above is of the boys heroically enduring the layover, having been up since 3:30am.

Despite being almost too exhausted to enjoy it, the Hilton was quite amazing. I'm glad to have experienced a resort like that at least once. It is so massive that a train is necessary to take you from building to building. There was also a series of canals so that we could have taken boats from place to place as well. On 64 acres there is a series of outdoor pools. The boys managed to take them all in that night. Our room was perched overlooking the ocean - one of the pictures in the middle of the palm trees. I think we all enjoyed the spectacle, though whenever I experience something like that I look around amazed that people are able to afford extended stays. How do they do it? The food is very expensive, everything is expensive, yet you still see families that are digging right in to the $25 breakfast. As Joop says, as more people become poorer, some are becoming richer. I guess we glimpsed the ones getting richer. One of the things I especially enjoyed about the resort was their collection of art. Partly because it is so not necessary, I think it is so very wonderful. I'm sure the resort would have been almost as awe inspiring without the art but the art just pushed it over. There is a long corridor that you can walk that connects all of the resort; it is outdoors but covered with a roof and pillars and within this corridor are massive paintings, many statues and even puppets from Burma.

The art plus the landscaping makes me think of ancient Egypt. Reading Cleopatra, I am completely incredulous about all of the pomp and luxury that went into living. The necessity for those in power to demonstrate through excess their position, their hold on mortality, I guess we haven't lost that.

We left the poshness and settled at Hapuna beach, having heard that one of our favorite beaches for meeting turtles was destroyed in the tsunami. The boys bobbed up and down in the waves body surfing - they are the two furthest dots in the ocean photo. I struggled to snorkel in the waves with my stalwart companion Joop dutifully swimming beside me, not snorkelling mind you just swimming along to ensure my safety. I must talk him into wearing his snorkel stuff on our next outing.

The temp dropped from 87 to 67 as we crested the mountain heading from morning fire. It is wonderful to be back. Smells and looks the same, though a new hideabed for Harris. We attempted to go to the Mexican Restaurant - massive crowds, standing room only, despite that my Metro got some acclaim from the crushing crowds. We ended up at Paniki Grill where none of us could figure the cultural origins of the food - everything with beef patties and eggs and no veggies. Harris had some concoction that they were proud to say contained Spam!

Off to Mauna Kea this am, once I've made the sandwiches.