As fate would have it...

I've had my share of great assignments and quite a few have been in Hawaii.  With that said, I figured my luck had long run out and I'd never see the islands on the company ticket ever again.  So, as fate would have it (thanks Mr. Jones) I find myself on Oahu once again.

It's not that working in San Angelo, Texas and Eunice, Louisiana wasn't some of the highlights of my life but Hawaii...?...it's what dreams are made of.

I've been here about 3 weeks and taken quite a few pictures but somehow my laptop started having issues downloading Windows 10 and I've pretty much been without a function to upload pictures with.  So without deep narratives, I present a quick photo journal of the past 3½ weeks.

After a red-eye flight to Honolulu, I found myself dealing with traffic like no other place I've been unless it was New York or the 605 in Los Angeles.  At least I got a rainbow in the deal.

 

There's not many places to stay within your budget other than downtown Waikiki, complete with zillions of tourists, street people and more traffic.

The annual Aloha Festival

 

  Raining on the parade

 

 I suppose if you're going to be homeless, this is the place. Rare is the night below 60°

 

  Life in downtown is living in a cube.  A view from my 220 square foot hotel room.

 

 My first week here, the place was swarming with tourists but over the recent week, they have thinned out a bit.

 

 Getting away from Waikiki, you can find less people

 

 Or strolling around later at night.  Here's the marina where the Ala Wai meets the harbor

 

 Looking toward Diamond Head at dusk.

  I always love a slow drive around the island.  This time it was counter clockwise.  Who knows, next week I might go for clockwise.

 

 It has been said that the best food on Hawaii is the after taste of the peanuts from the flight over.

 

 The place is synonymous with surfing so I spent last Saturday afternoon on the northeast side watching the surfers

 

 Waves crashing on the lava rocks

 

  More waves, more rocks

 

 More surfers.  He looks happy enough.

 

Later on, I'll upload my trip up to Manoa Falls.

Independence Day, Columbus, Ohio, 4th of July

Columbus has the "Red, White and Boom" festival which actually begins on July 3.

With some new found friends, I went downtown (against my fears and better judgement) to watch the parade and later that night, the fireworks.

Waiting patiently for the parade to begin, attendees lined the sidewalks along with side men selling noise makers and favors.

Some watched from a window above at the downtown YMCA.

Eventually, it all began

Floats were pretty scarce and saw several cleaned up 18 wheelers
from different firms such as Pepsi, Walmart and a few others.
Unions and politicians even paraded, some with their supporters
marching.

Even Jesus (pretty sure that wasn't really Him) was there.

After the parade, we went down to the river to await the fireworks
display at 10:00 PM.  The walkways were a parade within them-
selves.

At 10:00, the fireworks began along with a light rain.

On the real 4th of July, I rode around in the rain, electing to stay
away from the crowds.  Call me "hyper-vigilant"  if you like but
given events in Boston some weeks back, I wanted to not be a
target for terrorism so I chose more serene places for contemplation.

Fourth of July in a small town

One of the great things I like about Alamogordo is the lack of pretentiousness.  It's somewhat eclectic and the home of just about any kind of philosophy under the sun.  One might think that would be a problem but for some reason, it's just a live and let live place.

It's a quasi military town, being next to Holloman Air Force Base, so it stands to reason that the 4th of July is taken pretty seriously here.

This morning, the parade started with the usual color guard, fire trucks, police cars, motorcycles (no Hondas), Mustang car club (no Hondas), horses in trailers, horses pulling trailers and young women on horses.

There were old trucks (no Hondas), old cars (no Hondas) and hot and cold running politicians in convertibles...again, no Hondas.

People brought their folding chairs, some stood and some sat in parked cars next to the parade route.

The small parade lasted about 30 minutes with the end coming with a line of fire trucks and some more motorcycles.  This time, two Hondas.

The Space Center planned a fireworks display and exploded a lot of pyrotechnics  next to the cliffs for 30 minutes just as a rare blowing rain appeared.

Quite impressive.  I loved it.