Hawaii

This was originally supposed to be a two-part post but we were so busy while away, I didn't really have a chance to write anything. Given the reason for our trip, a destination wedding, we had what I'd consider an atypical experience. I don't think it was atypical of flying somewhere to go to a wedding but I do think we didn't really do what most people do when they spend a week in Hawaii. That likely has an impact on my opinion of the place but I'll wrap it up with an explanation at the end. I'm not really sure how to best organize the random thoughts in my head so I'll opt for a list of activities and locations.

• Honolulu - We spent most of our time in Honolulu proper. As such, a good bit of the trip was spent in a touristy area of what's essentially a big city. The benefits here are the huge amounts of great restaurants to choose from and the overall feeling of being on vacation. Walking around the Ala Moana and Waikiki area feels a bit like Vegas, actually. Pretty much everyone there is on vacation and out to have a good time. People are in a good mood and while you know the locals aren't living life like you while you're there, you don't really care.
  
  The food was downright delicious at times. Hawaii being a major crossroads of Asian cultures and travelers, there is a TON of Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese and pretty much every other Asian restaurants. We did dim sum in Chinatown and a "Hole in the Wall" tour, both were tasty to the extreme. Besides that, I'd say at least 50% of tourists in Honolulu are Japanese and that's a cool thing. A lot of the restaurants and tours are bilingual, there are probably more GOOD Japanese restaurants than anything else and I can honestly say there were times I felt like I was back in Japan. A lot of places cater so much to the Japanese tourist that you can easily forget you're in the US. I'm not kidding, there were a couple times where I really did think I was in Japan for a few brief moments and I even ended up talking a bit of Japanese to some tourists. It was really cool to kinda "go back to Japan" as it were.
  

• Pearl Harbor - This was on my Life List. I'm not a history buff but am somewhat obsessive about watching shows on military operations past and present on Discovery (et al). As such, I knew quite a bit about Pearl Harbor going in and was somewhat excited to see it. I gotta be honest folks, I was disappointed. I already knew nearly everything the educational piece had to offer and we didn't have time to go see the USS Bowfin or USS Missouri so that only really left the Arizona Memorial aspect of it.
  
  The Memorial was definitely interesting and worth doing once but it wasn't nearly as stirring as I hoped it would be. I really wanted it to have an effect on me; make me feel something or even choke me up a bit, but it didn't do any of those things. It was cool to see the parts of the ship that were visible and the "black tears" but I found it hard to imagine over a thousand men lying in the ruins underneath me. I didn't have any family that died in WWII and it was long over before I was born so maybe I'm just too far removed for it to impact me like I wanted it to?
  
  
• Volcano - We only had one day on our own so we took the opportunity to fly to Big Island and take a helicopter tour of the island. Including the short hop on Hawaiian Air, the day was extremely expensive but very, very worth it. First, I absolutely love helicopters (even though I have a fear of heights) and second, witnessing an active volcano (also on my Life List) was everything I thought it would be. I really can't explain what's so cool about it so you'll either have to do it yourself or just leave you to the pictures and video (when they're up). Flying into gorges/valleys to witness 2000' waterfalls was an added bonus and helped make this the most remarkable day of the trip. If you have the opportunity to do anything in a helicopter, especially fly over lava, do it.
  
  Two side notes to this trip/day. One, Google Maps on my Pearl gets an honorable mention. It wasn't until after we were leaving the Kona Airport that I decided we should rent a car for the day. By the time we boarded the Avis shuttle, I'd used Maps to find my location via GPS, get the phone number of the nearest Avis location and discuss my booking options with an agent. Two, the reputation of AOL is still very much unchanged. When I told the helicopter pilot I worked for AOL he proceeded to tell me a story about being charged for two years after cancelling his dead brother's account. Yay AOL!
  
  
• Luau - I really wasn't that crazy about our Luau experience. I was definitely in a mood to have a good time but we ended up getting bused to a back section of an industrial park where the proprietors built a bunch of huts and dropped tons of sand to make beach. It was ocean front, but the water lashed rocks (no native sand) and there was occasionally the smell of sewage or garbage. The food was decent and the entertainment was rooted in authenticity but everything just felt so manufactured. I appreciate that the bride and groom treated us to it as the rehearsal dinner but I really couldn't help to feel like the proprietors were taking advantage of us as stupid tourists. I don't know if such things still exist, but I would love to see a "real" luau hosted by indigenous peoples.
  
  
• North Shore - This is probably the closest we got to experiencing the relaxed, tropical Hawaii that so many people love. The beaches and mountains were beautiful, the water was clear and the cool wind made the hot days comfortable. Life was slower there and you could see yourself just wasting the days doing absolutely nothing. We took a ranch tour that included film locations of Pearl Harbor, Jurassic Park and Lost but there really aren't any big name attractions... and that's okay.
  

Hawaii was pretty much what I expected. Aside from the few things I wanted to cross off my List, I never really had a desire to go there. We used the wedding as an opportunity to go somewhere we wouldn't have chosen ourselves and I came back glad we did. While we didn't really have an opportunity to relax (only spent one afternoon on the beach), I don't know that I really care that much. I can see how someone who loves the beach could love it but not only am I not a beach person, I also like to be active when I travel. I can appreciate a relaxing vacation, lord knows I'd like one, but I wouldn't recommend Hawaii for it. Having been to the Caribbean and heard a lot of great things about Jamaica and Costa Rica, I think you could get pretty much all the same things cheaper and with a shorter flight. Don't let me dissuade you from going, I'm just not really sure I'd ever chose to go back.

Stay tuned for the pictures and videos, which should be up by week's end.