Stage One: Salt Lake City...

I flew to Honolulu via Salt Lake City, and caught on camera some pretty snowy scenes of the morning at and around its airport.

Honolulu: First Impressions...

When I saw the first glimpse the Hawaiian islands from the air after a 6.5 hour-flight from Salt Lake City, I felt my heart starting to flutter.  I did not realize how much I love these islands.  And that it's been 13 years since my last visit.  In the 1980s, I used to come here fairly regularly with my two daughters and their mother - all on separate trips (we were never here as a family).  I believed back then in giving everyone special one-on-one time which is sometimes lost on family vacations.

The Delta captain missed his first approach, so we had to take off again and circle the airport for about 10 minutes before attempting another landing.  As you can see, we made it.

The Royal Hawaiian hotel (above), where I am staying, is my favorite place on Waikiki beach.  It as the charm of the old and the amenities of today.  And it is right on the beach...

Everything in the hotel is pink, not just the outside facade... beds, towels, tiles, robes...

...and even the Christmas trees are pink.

Because of its many coconut trees, the garden is called the "coconut grove."

And this magnificent tree, whose reach and range is such that it seems to be whispering, "this garden is mine!", is called "monkey top" tree, I have been told by a botanist hotel guest.  Its leaves are tiny, though, like the small ferns'.

And then smack in the middle of the bustling Waikiki tourist shopping district, I spotted these tender yellow (and red) hibiscus bushes and flowers.  I have never seen them to be so pretty in Arizona, even though I have always had plenty of them around my various homes.

And that's it, for my first impressions of Hawaii after more than 13 years...

P.S. The entire time I have been working on this photo essay this evening, I could hear through an open window a beach concert by a local choir singing Christmas carols.  The whole scene, not just the music, moved me to tears.  Wish you could be here.

Christmas Day...

HONOLULU, Dec 25, 2005 - After a great 10-hour sleep and a hearty pancake breakfast, I spent most of the early afternoon bumming around on the beach.  Well, not entirely bumming around.  I also did some distance swimming.  As the surf was fairly high, I swam against the waves, rather than parallel to them.  Some three hundred or so yards out at sea, dozens of surfer heads were bobbing up and down waiting for their chance to catch the "perfect wave."  So rather than risk being surfed over while swimming, I gave them respectably wide berth before heading back toward the shore.  

I did that three or four times, probably adding up to about 500 to 600 yards total.  Not much, but enough to shake up the cob webs after the long flights and get the old heart and lungs pumping.  On my last "lap," I got a chance to do some sprinting, too.  Most of the time the scenery at the bottom of the ocean was pretty dull... sand and some coral.  But at one point, I saw right under me a black and yellow fish that seemed at least four feet long.  Startled, I started to sprint as if I were about the win an Olympic medal.  I did it instinctively, without thinking that I should not be kicking hard as yet after my knee surgery.  Then I slowed down and laughed at myself.  Pushing the envelope is always a matter of mind over matter, isn't it?  If you don't mind it, it doesn't matter. J 

I was also reminded of something funny that happened a long time ago on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, at 2,000-miles long by far the biggest living creature on Earth (see "Mother-in-Law" Fish story, Dec 1986).  

Back on dry land again, I had a nice chat with a man from Houston whose lounge chair was next to mine.  He was telling me about how he and his family rented a car yesterday and drove all around the northern shore of Oahu, which he said was much more rugged and beautiful than the part around Honolulu.  

"Maybe I'll do that tomorrow," I said.  I made a mental note to book a rental car.

Dancing the Sunset Away...

After a lovely walk and a couple of shots of espresso at the Honolulu Coffee Company, the local Starbucks knock-off ("we're 100 times better," an offended employee protested when I joked about that), I stumbled upon this "happening" on Waikiki beach.  The "Duke's Barefoot Bar" was hopping.  

A live four-man band was playing slow rock music that seems everybody's favorite for casual dancing.  And casual it was...

As you can see, most dancers were barefoot, taking the bar's name literally.  J Suddenly, a mournful sound of a trumpet cut the guitar and drum beat.  A lone trumpeter literally walked in off the beach, and joined the band for an impromptu jamming session.  He was great and the band played right along with him.  It was a treat to the ears and the soul.  The merry crowd clapped and whistled as if at a rock or jazz concert.  The "dance floor" was hopping as the dancers kept swinging gently. 

But not everybody was hopping...

Right next to the dancing scene, a masseur was working on this slab of lard sprawled on the table behind the counter.  He seemed to be working hard, as befits the lard, having to use his elbows.  Fingers just wouldn't do... J "Life's a beach," they say.  And the scene around Duke's Barefoot Bar was a case in point. 

In the distance, one could see a container ship seeming to sail in between the sail boats.

And then it was time to say goodbye to Christmas Day 2005, and get ready to go to a show.  The world-famous Russian circus artists are performing tonight at a theater only a few doors down from my hotel.  Somebody handed me a pamphlet about it last night, and today I bought a ticket.  I seem to run into things Russian everywhere I go... (see "My New Life at Grayhawk - Art Hunt" for more examples).

This lady is actually performing here a "jaw stand!"  Her entire body, twisted and back bent as it is over her head, is resting on her teeth biting a protrusion sticking out of that stick that everybody is staring at.  Amazing!

Merry Christmas to all!

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