Back On The Mainland - A Week Off

Recovering from a long flight between Honolulu and Dallas, then on to Baton Rouge, I enjoyed all my family for the weekend. My company was gracious enough to let me lay out a few days before hitting my next assignment which was going to be in Bossier City.

Unexpected problems with Boudreau cost me a couple of days with motorcycle parts laying all over Gary's ( my brother-in-law ) carport. Wrenching isn't my second nature and my hands are still sore from dismantling and repairing the Harley. You'd think it would be possible to remove a starter solenoid without taking everything off except the engine and transmission ...... but, noooooo.

To make sure Boudreau was running fine, I road back up to Baton Rouge to enjoy reading a bedtime story to Henry. I'm gone so much, I almost have to reintroduce myself each time i come home. It's getting easier each time and can see his acceptance groups expanding.

Thursday morning, I loaded up a minimum of clothes and necessities and pointed my chin north for a few days with my mother, brother and a son and his family before I rented a car to head on over to Bossier. After crossing the Mississippi River, I checked my messages and found out my direction would have to change the next Monday.

Arriving in Swartz, I laid over a few hours to watch my grandson, Devin, practice Karate before going on northwest to Farmerville to see my mother.

I spent the night with my mother and on Friday, fixed the hot water heater and visited with my brother some while I used his phone and computer to work out planes, hotels and car rentals for my changed assignment in St Augustine, Florida.

With new directions in mind, I headed back south Friday Afternoon to spend the night with Darren & family and Darlene. Late Saturday morning, we gathered at the Monroe Children's Museum where we had a small birthday party for Hagan.

By 2 PM, I was on the road headed south through Natchez, Mississippi again so i could get back home to change the way I was packed. Monday morning, I'll be on a plane for Florida.

Aloha means Goodbye too.

As make a few preparations to leave Hawaii again, I reflect on my past four and a half months here on Oahu. When I arrived here on Christmas day, my thoughts were, "this is NOT Maui but at least it's close" and felt like this would probably be a short visit.

After I had been here for a couple of months, I actually began to enjoy it while I steadily complained about the traffic and the same time tried to be proficient in negotiating it. I saw the rugged beauty of the North Shore and East Side as well as the ugliness of Waikiki. I watched the sunrise along the Ala Wai canal and stood on Kuhio Beach and watched the sun set. I passed Pearl Harbor daily and visited Chinatown for the New Year. I stayed on the 15th floor of hotels and dived the depths of the Pacific. Most importantly, I've forged deep relationships here that will stay with me for a lifetime.

My business life was centered in the Aiea/Pearl City area and slowly realized I was being pulled deeper into the culture and love of the people here.

Each weekend, I found myself becoming less and less of a tourist or visitor (if that be possible) and went out to learn the heart of this place. I picked the brain of my co-worker for tidbits and curiosities and talked story with clients who could understand me perfectly while I struggled to process their Pidgin phrases. I met shop keepers and hotel bellmen who had come here from somewhere else on their quest for a life adventure and greater understanding of the world and what it has to offer. This culture is deep and complicated and I have not even scratched the surface.

As an old Heinz 57 Caucasian, I was pretty much a minority almost everywhere I visited and began to see bronze colored complexions and puffy Asian eyes as quite the norm. In a curious way, I felt a little self conscious about my deep set eyes, long nose and super white skin that seemed make me stand out like a neon sign.

I'll fly out of here Friday night on my way back to Louisiana and may prove to be quite adjustment period as I get back being comfortable being all white and nerdy.

Buh-bye west Oahu, I'll miss you.

Rounding Third, Headed For Home

Saturday, I realized my time here in Honolulu was slipping away so I took one last turn around the island, checking out the east side, north shore and driving directly into some towns I knew were there but never had driven into, like Mililani. Darlene, my wife, had already admitted she was having "withdrawals" from the two times she had visited me here and is desperate to return, so in some respects the last drive was really for her.

The weekend before, I'd driven through Kapolei and turned north to drive along the west coast up through Waianae to the very end of the paved part of Farrington Highway. It had been reported that this was not a part of Oahu I needed to be traveling in but decided to go anyway. This end of Oahu has it's own beauty and reminded me much of west Maui but unfortunately, I completely forgot to bring my camera (if that's believable).

At this point, I have one more week to prepare my mind for the departure. I've done this over and over again in Florida, California, Alaska and a dozen other places but this has been the longest tour out without a break, (other than a quick weekend at Easter) so it will be a little tougher to say goodbye.

Footwear

Am I missing something? Like when buzz cuts and flat top haircuts for men were completely out of fashion for years then one day, we looked up and ...... voila.....everybody's wearing one.

After work and on weekends, I find myself walking around quite a bit here in Honolulu and most of the time, I have at least one camera on me. I began to snicker and grin as I looked at the footwear of the visitors in and around the hotels and on the sidewalks on Kalakaua and Kuhio streets and coyly snap a picture of footwear. No, I don't have some kind of fetish, I've gone off on shirts, ties, car styles, you name it, I've obsessed a lot of things. I've even obsessed over what the odds are of a penny landing heads up when dropped.

I began to see loads of men, some much younger than myself, wearing socks with dress shoes or socks with sandals. I'm not exactly on the cutting edge of fashion and probably have no room to judge but the guys look so much as that proverbial fish out of water. Somehow, they've survived 10 hours of flying from Omaha, put on their airport leis and run out to the ABC Store and buy 2 or 3 T shirts. Then on day 2, they catch the bus to Hilo Hattie's, get some free beads and buy a much needed supply of Aloha Shirts. BUT......8 year old sandals and socks? Shorts and lace-ups from Zappo's? Give me a break.

There might be a number of points to consider here, so I'll think on these questions and get back with you on it.

• Why does it bother me ?
  
• Is it any of my business ?
  
• Who died and made me the fashion police ?
  
• I may have missed a fashion turn somewhere ?
  
• I've been there too long ?
  

Somebody help me.

Arts Weekend

(click images to enlarge)

Friday, I found out that one of the ladies I work with has a very close friend who is an art instructor and artist. Mark Brown, was born and grew up here in Hawai`i and runs uninstructed drawing classes at the Chaminade University of Honolulu. His work includes several murals, commissioned paintings and numerous C D album covers .

Friday evening, he and his students had showings of their works on Smith Street (Chinatown), Honolulu and Mark gave a demonstration in the painting of a live model.

Saturday, his students met at the Haleiwa Boat Harbor on the north shore where he gave a "plein air' demonstration by painting a landscape of the harbor. His students were an eclectic mixture of ages, occupations and backgrounds.

It was very informative and he and his students enjoy each other's company. His websites are: http://www.marksarthawaii.com/
and http://www.marknbrownfineart.com/

Home for Easter

Although I'm living in paradise, it's been 3 months since I was last home and I really miss my family, friends and just being home.

I caught a plane out of Honolulu Thursday night and arrived dead tired in Baton Rouge late Friday morning. I cashed in a free rental car and headed north with Darlene for a whirlwind trip to see all of the North Louisiana bunch.

We met at my brother Ricky's new home. My Mama arrived shortly after Darren and I arrived then soon Darlene came with Donna and the two boys. 3 of Rick's girls were there as well and we cooked fish outside around the pool. It sure was great seeing everyone in one place because I was dog tired from flying and driving.

After spending the night with Mama, I met Darlene, Donna and the boys at the Biedenhorn home on Riverside Drive in Monroe to take a few Easter shots of Devin and Hagan.

By noon, we're on the road again toward Baton Rouge to meet at Jared and Jaime's house for an Easter dinner there with Laurie, Jo Ann and Lindsey. It was nice and relaxing there, no pressure and everyone was really laid back. I'd now been home for 36 hours and had not yet been to my own home so around 8:00 PM, we blast off home.

Sunday, I'm still dragging around half asleep and very tired from the jet lag, so after a noon lunch at Robert and Janet's with Lou and Blaise and Susan and her kids, Kate and Nick, we slipped back to the house for a couple of hours worth of nap time.

We had tentatively agreed to drive up to St Francisville to meet our friends, Louis and Jan so we managed to drag ourselves out off the sofa and recliner and drive up there for coffee and pie.

Monday morning, I rode Boudreau back up to meet Louis in St Francisville. After gassing up, wet crossed the Mississippi on the ferry and headed up through New Roads along the river on old Highway 15. It was pretty desolate but it was good to get the cobwebs out of my brain by putting some miles on those Harleys. Overall, it was a 200 mile round trip from and to St Francisville and would be 300 for me when I eventually arrived at Dutchtown.

Crossing the river from Vidalia to Natchez, we stopped off at Fat Mama's Tamales for some Gringo Pie before heading east over to Roxie, MS to head south back into Woodville, MS. That's just north of Louis' home. I left him back there and headed back toward Baton Rouge for a short visit again with Jared, Jaime and Henry. It was a short visit but I had to pack up for my flight out back to Honolulu at 9 AM the next morning.

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It was a great visit but tiresome. To add to it all, it took me a couple more days to recover from the flight back here in Hawaii.

Week in review

(click on image to enlarge)

It's been a slow week, which really is good. However, that's like Louisiana weather; if you don't like how it is, wait a day and you'll get an entire different version.

For the past three months, I've made the same 15 mile trek to work 5 days a week and sometimes you don't even remember what you saw barring anything different. Every day, I pass the same watercress farm on Kamehameha in Pearl Ridge and every day, I see workers out harvesting watercress and think, that would be an awesome shot if those workers were somehow out in the middle of the field/pond. Well, it finally happened. The only thing better would be a little more light. Anyway, I parked my car up a way and walked back down the road so I could take advantage of the best angle for the shot.

Incidentally, you'll see a band of aluminum wrapped around most of the palm trees. I've been told that's to keep rats from climbing up and nesting among the coconuts.

This weekend, I just didn't have much of a plan so early, I took a long walk checking out things going on at 6 AM. ( I'll make a post on the "Night Shift" at a more appropriate time). One thing about early mornings is there is virtually no one out under 40 years old unless they were going home, arriving for work or sleeping on the beach.

I watched for a while as Japanese tourists offered up prayers at an alter next to the Waikiki Beach police office while surfboard kiosk owners unlocked their inventory of rental equipment. I must confess, at first I thought they were taking pictures of something with little digital cameras, the way they had their hands out. Perhaps it's time for that optometric appointment I've been putting off.

Later, I walked the Ala Wai canal as Hawaiian canoe racers lined up for a sprint down to the McCully Street bridge.

Enough of this nonsense, it was time to scrounge up a breakfast somewhere.

(click here for a link to some Oahu trivia)

HereTamaNui

"HereTama Nui - Man with Great Love"

I've always tried NEVER to be a tourist and always a traveler or visitor. Since Hawai'i is my favorite spot in the world, visitor carries a little different connotation than it would in Louisiana. Visitor in Hawai'i is just a kind way of saying tourist and some definitions of traveler relates to Gypsy of which I definitely am not. (I digress)

Anyway, what I'm getting at is, I've been working here on Oahu for several months now and slowly the loveliness of the culture reveals itself. This week, Michelle, the nice lady with whom I work, presented me with a T-shirt from Heretama Nui, a drum and dancing group that she and her significant other (Allen) are members. Heretama Nui is a Tahitian style group that is widely known here and has won contests locally as well as first place at the 2000 Tahiti Fête of San Jose. Allen's mother founded the dancing group years ago and he and his brothers are the drummers. At this point there are at least 100 members of the group. Check out this YouTube video of a practice session. Sorry, I can't find one of their dances or an actual contest.

Scuba Dive at Hawaii Kai / Koko Head

* Click on the photos for a larger view*

After receiving an invitation to dive off Koko Head, I boarded Captain Joe's boat at the Hawaii Kai boat ramp and went out with a dozen or so brave souls for a cave and drift dive. For the first dive, we dropped down to 55 feet to the mouth of Spitting Cave. It goes back a couple of hundred feet and to where you can see the surface. There wasn't a lot of wild life in there but lots of small starfish on the corals.


As we exited the cave, we began a drift dive seeing fish, eels, turtles and various corals. The current was moderate and the idea behind it was that Captain Joe would follow our bubble trails until we surfaced.

After 40 minutes or so, we were nearing the end of our air so we surfaced for about 45 minutes before dropping back down for another drift dive.

One thing different this time was the audible sounds of whales. We had not seen any of them from the boat but under the water, you knew they were there. If you choose, turn up your volume and you can hear the whale songs as well as my regulator. The diver is Katie, one of our diving buddies for that dive.

Also, Dave, another dive buddy found a sea snake. Being from Louisiana and growing up around water moccasins, I've never been all that fond of playing with snakes but didn't have any qualms about watching someone else do it.

If you watched it, you'll see that as Dave got a little personal with the snake, I began to rise away from it. It wasn't intentional but I guess the anticipation of the snake coming out of the coral caused me to take a deep breath therefore I began to rise.

Bye noon, we were back at the harbor and off the boat. It was a very nice day and enjoyed it.

She's Baaaaack!

She's baaaaaaaack!!!.....Darlene, that is.....and Honolulu missed her. Yep, the company was kind enough to send her back for a 10 day visit instead of me taking a lot of time off to get home. In light of her excitement, I thought I'd stir the pot a bit and find something flashy to pick her up in, so the fine folks at National Rental Car hooked me up with a new Sebring convertible.

Oh, by the way, you can click on most of these photos for a larger view.

She arrived late Wednesday night and spent most of the day Thursday recovering from a very long flight. While Maui is her first choice, she does enjoy Waikiki and does a lot of people watching.

Friday afternoon, we hopped an Aloha flight over to Maui, dropped in to the Maui Dreams Dive shop and booked dives on the Maui Diamond II for Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday's trip to Molokini crater was interrupted several times by whales. Each time we spotted one within 100 yards of our trajectory, we were obliged by law to stop. Really, there were no complaints because we really enjoyed the sights of the whale calves cruising around our boat.

Arriving at Molokini crater, we suited up and after a briefing from the dive masters, took the plunge into 50' waters with 125 foot visibility. Now that's great visibility. I've seen worse on dry land back home in Louisiana.

After that dive, for reasons still unclear to me, we decided to head back toward Wailea Point on Maui. While it was still a great dive, it didn't have the visibility of Molokini. Our dive master has a favorite spot she likes to go to where there's a lot of native species of fish and sea creatures and gets pretty excited about it, so off we went to greet various fish, shrimp, mantas and turtles.

One thing that kept us mesmerized was the constant sounds of the whales in the water. We were never without that sound and made you wonder if you might find yourself face to face with one at any moment 50 feet below the surface.

Late Sunday morning, we met a Maalaea Harbor and cast off up the coast in the direction of Lahaina. The water was pretty choppy at first and again we had to stop several times to let the whales get out of our way. At a distance we were treated many times with breaches out of the water. Our destination was the sunken schooner, Carthaginian lying at 95 feet. It had been in the Lahaina harbor for a few years and eventually towed out to sea where it had been sunk for recreational diving. Captain Don had arranged to rendezvous with a small submarine that brought tours by several times daily. It was pretty neat, seeing the masts, ropes, and cables still attached. We were somewhat unclear as to whether we were the attraction for the tourists in the sub or they were the attraction for a bunch of divers. Either way, it worked out.

The late afternoon dive brought us back to a Manta Ray cleaning station where cleaning wrasse (fish) would eat away algae from the gills and bodies of the manta rays. The mantas are graceful creatures that seem to fly through the water and remind you of stealth fighter planes as they bank over you. The trick to seeing mantas is to stay low in the water and ignore them. The moment you rise up high or head in their direction, they leave as quickly as they come.

As bad as we hated it, we were back on a plane to Oahu Monday afternoon with photos, memories and just a little salt water still in our hair.

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Saturday, March 1, 2008

Ms Darlene had to go back. We had a wonderful time here and she hated to go but knew she had to. Sometimes, you have to face reality and realize there are other things and people needing attention.

She was supposed to arrive in New Orleans at 8 AM Sunday but since this was Delta, she was on, you have to either expect delays, missed connections or lost luggage. Never would she have dreamed that the last leg of her flight to New Orleans would have generated so much excitement. As it turns out, just as the plane was coming into Louis Armstrong Airport, they lost power from one of the engines. According to Darlene, there were a few tense moments when the pilot said there was nothing to worry about because he and the co-pilot had to do it a couple of times before. I don't know about you, but I'd think once was enough. Anyway, they did land safely even though firetrucks were chasing the Delta flight down the runway as it taxied in.

Hallelujah, she's safe! Personally, I think she's earned her wings.