Last day in Lahaina. So much fun and such a beautiful, relaxing place. We packed up and headed to the airport. I called my friend Aaron to see about New Year's plans. Aaron lives on Ala Wai Blvd which is a stone's throw from Waikiki. During my three years living on Oahu I never made it down to the beach for New Year's fireworks. Mostly to avoid the crowds but more so the smoke...Hawaiians are a bunch of pyros, I swear. They don't need an excuse to light off fireworks and lots of them. Anyway...
Landed and hopped in the shuttle. Got stuck with another rental car without an iPod auxiliary port. All of the sudden to get that feature you need a high-end rental. Lame. I asked about getting a car with an aux port - cause who wouldn't want to drive around the island listening to Jack Johnson? - and he quickly responded with he'd give me a good deal on an upgrade. I quipped back that I doubted his deal would be cheaper than me buying an adapter. Winner: me.
Off to the North Shore and Turtle Bay! First stop though...Wal-Mart for food and odds and ends. Ran to the Electronics department for an adapter! Hmm...the cheapest adapter is out-of-stock and the next best option is $60. Looks like the car guy may have been on to something. Winner: car guy. Dang it. No Jack Jack. So much for that 6-month standing expectation.
The drive to the North Shore has got to be one of the prettiest drives in the world - from my limited world exposure - regardless of which side you take (up the H2 to Haleiwa or up the Windward coast which is my fave.) I swear during the course of our stay we made the trip a dozen times back and forth. So scenic! We got to our rented place at Kuilima Estates East and unpacked. We made plans to meet Aaron for dinner near his place back downtown so we didn't have long before we had to drive back to town.
Background: I hate parking in cities. A trip to the dentist is more inviting to me than having to park downtown. Putting up with all the pedestrians, one-ways, finding a parking spot, having change for meters, parallel parking, parking garages...oh, kill me know. But such is the task at hand this night. Parking around Waikiki. I've been fortunate in the past when visiting Aaron. A spot has opened near his place along Ala Wai but no dice tonight. After making a few wrong turns even with Jerusha's GPS we're doing lap, after lap, after lap. I finally call Aaron and he tries to explain to me where to go and rattles off street names which are all foreign sounding (Hawaiian names) to me = more laps. I call him in moderate desperation and he comes out of his pad, we pick him up and two minutes later he's got us behind a grocery store in a parking lot which - for the reasonable fee of $15 - we can park for the night. Panic attack avoided. I can only imagine what was going through Oriah's mind during this whole episode. Watching my grip on the steering wheel get successively tighter each lap we made...hahaha.
We walk up a few blocks and make our way to a California Pizza Kitchen across the street from the beach. It's really good to see Aaron and I'm glad he's finally meeting Oriah. I'm also floored to hear how things are shaping up for him as he's close to exiting military life and back to the civilian side of things. The kid has a bright future! Background: I got to the ship mid-2003 and he showed up a year later in a different Division but in the same Department. Our desks were next to one another in the Supply Office below the main deck. When the ship was underway there's really no where to go other than your rack to sleep, the mess decks to eat, or your office...or the occasional trip top side to get some fresh air or catch a sunset. Anyway, we'd often spend all-nighters in the office blaring Wilco or have a movie going in the background while we'd work away. Good times.
So, yeah...on Waikiki on New Year's Eve with Aaron and Oriah. Pretty neat. Aaron's on duty that night as well as another obligation, if I recall right, so he's not able to stick around for the festivities. Oriah and I head for the beach...it's about 10p now. We finally settle on a place with a decent seat and view and the crowds slowly start forming. A lot of smoking, swearing and skin start creeping up so we relocate ourselves. Pretty soon it's just packed in every direction. Two or three different parties in the area start their own respective countdowns. They were all wrong. It was funny. Finally midnight hits and the fireworks light off. We take a couple pictures and I look at her and I'm pretty sure she's thinking what I'm thinking...let's get out of here and beat the crowd.
Done. We bolt. Back to the car. Beat traffic. Phew! We've got an hour drive back to Turtle Bay. Good thing church tomorrow starts at 1p. Oriah cracks open the donuts we bought at Wal-Mart for the first eats of the New Year. Background: My old man is German. No idea where he picked this up but he claims that it's German tradition to eat a donut first thing on New Years for good luck. Whether true or not it's a great excuse to have a donut. Happy 2011!
1 comment:
Your dad told me that it is a tradition he learned growing up in eastern PA (I thought). I'll take it! Our western PA tradition of eating kielbasa and sauerkraut was NASTY. I like neither of those and was expected to choke down both on a bun each year.
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