Anyway, I had some random things here and there that I forgot to put in a post or didn't have a place to fit into a post.
First off, at the Marriott resort at Ko Olina, they have what is probably the coolest plasticware we've ever seen. Everything, cups, straws, forks, spoons, knives, plates, is not only recyclable, but biodegradable! The "plastic" cups are made of cornstarch, and we were told that they hold up very well to cold things, but if you put something hot in them, they'll just disintegrate. They look just like regular clear plastic cups and straws.
We had noticed a lot of people walking around the whole island with badges on, and I assumed they were just part of the same touring company. But, as it turns out, there was a Jehovah's Witnesses convention in town this week! Once we found out what it was, we noticed them everywhere. We saw a bunch at the PCC, but that was before we found out what group they were with.
Oahu has awesome public transportation. The buses run very frequently into Honolulu and you can get all around the island by bus. If we had wanted to, we could have foregone the rental car, but we're still glad we had it. Next time we're in town, we'll probably wait longer to get a car and not have one at all in Waikiki. There's just no need and it's a little difficult to get around Waikiki by car. Too many small one-way streets with lots of people walking around.
All the signs around here are in English and Japanese. It's a change from California, where all the signs are in English and Spanish. At least in CA, you can learn some new words, but if you can't read Japanese characters, you're just out of luck here. I'd say that more than half of the tourists around Waikiki, and more than half of the people working here are Japanese or part Japanese. Every store and restaurant has at least one Japanese-speaking employee. Some stores even have signs saying they accept Yen!
If you were lucky enough to get a post card, please take a look at the post card stamps that are available. It's a weird choice for post cards from Hawaii (if you weren't on the post card list, don't be hurt, we sent out 25 just to family, and you can probably go to the postal service's website and see what the post card stamps are.)
As far as rain goes, we saw very little, and what rain we did see was sprinkles. We heard about giant storms on the other side of the island, but we didn't see any big rain. Probably the longest rain we saw was when we were in Honolulu, and even that was just sprinkling. This is probably due to our staying on the leeward side of the island, where it's pretty dry. Kind of looked like home in the summer.
Hawaii is just as beautiful and friendly as everyone says it is. The Hawaiians really have this hospitality thing down. Even the busiest people working at the busiest counters in the busiest places aren't grumpy or surly. People are just friendly and all the staff at all the hotels or stores we went into were just as friendly as the last place. Even in Costco!
Speaking of people working in stores, even the uniforms are Hawaiian. At Target, they all had red Hawaiian shirts with little Target symbols amongst the flowers to wear with their khaki pants. It was the same in all the other chain stores we were in (Costco, Safeway, Outback Steakhouse, etc.) they all had Hawaiian shirts with some sort of detail relating to the store/restaurant. The Outback Steakhouse shirts were funny, since it's supposed to be an Australian-themed restaurant.
On Friday, when we were trying to find John a new pair of swim trunks because he dropped his somewhere (they never did show up in the lost and found and we're not sure what someone would want with John's old beat up trunks, and no, Daddy, he didn't drop them while he was wearing them), they had about three or four Target employees just inside the entrance playing Hawaiian music on steel guitar and ukuleles. They were playing and singing, "Come Sail Away" by Styx. They stopped right before they got to the spaceship part. John though that was because that part isn't very Hawaiian. He predicted they'd stop before that. He was right. He's very smart.
John read a book. He can't remember the last time he read a book for fun. He's almost finished with Angels and Demons by Dan Brown, the DaVinci Code guy. We watched the move on pay-per-view last night. The book is better. I finished The Lost Symbol, by the same author, which I liked. On our trip home I'm reading a book by a neuroscientist who had a stroke, and actually knew what was happening to her and after a long recovery wrote a book about it from a scientist/patient perspective. It's really interesting. I also have Carter Beats the Devil, recommended by Becah. It fits into the Victorian/Rennaissance Science/Magic phase I'm into now (turns out, Becah is also in a Victorian Magic reading phase so I recommended she read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.) I'll probably finish the stroke book before we get home.
Anyhoo, it was a fabulous trip, we had a great time, we definitely want to come back and bring the kids and hope it won't be too long before we get to do that. And a special thank you to John for working so hard to make this trip possible. Mahalo John!
Just a thought about me reading a book for fun. I love to read. I used to read several books a week, but there's just no time for it now.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome Biz. As you know, this trip was a big thank you present to you for 15 great years of marriage. Mahalo to you!