Hawaii - April 99'
so we got on a plane at 9.30 am we got off at 10:30 in st loouie, ran to the next at 10:45, the next 8 hours blurred til we got to hawaii, then after finally making it we got on yet another plane to Hilo on the big island, so basicallly we spent 13 hours on a plane BUT HELL we made it. HILO is a sleepy little town on the north side of the big island, not much going on so dave got tired and we hit the hay at 10pm. waking at 6 am, (wow!!!) we cruised over to volcano national park, pretty lame, but for the nice coastal views, tthe hot spot on this island was taking our jeep up meanu leaua volcano, a drive from sea level to 13,000 feet above sea level, just for a general note, most jet airliners fly between 20-30,000 feet above sea level, so we were pretty far up there, hell we went through 2 cloud layers. of course being the types dave and i are we didn't plan ahead for such a trip and we ran outta gas. but alas gravity is a good thing, keep that baby in neutral and coast like we never did before. so we made it some 49 miles and excessive speeds to make it over humps. fewwwwwwww
DAve AND NELS HAVE GONE POLYNESIAN the hawaiian island haole's after dave and i made it down mauna leaua in one piece, and after gettin a dollars worth of gas(we didn't have to return the car with a full tank) we went to the airport, and caught our next flight to maui, and recieved a 1st class upgrade, it was only a 30 min flight, so you takeoff, go up then down,then land. made it to maui at 7pm. Headed for the wailea area and our hotel, the renaissance resort. Now don't get us wrong, we hate resorts and shit like that, but this place has.....welll, resort stuff, WE HATE IT. but what the hell dave's sister, (she works for marriot) got us 300 dollar rooms for 100 bucks, so we live it up for 2 nights. once again the night life was very hip and a happenin, that's why i was up at 7am the next day. so then we went on to a little town on the west coast of maui named lahia, wow ooooo so touristy. even dave said we godda get outta here. then we met an engaged couple who wwere to be married the next day. and hung out with them for a bit, met some older hawaiian ladies that were just drunk and tellin us bout their kids, and how they didn't want to be in a gang. we actually had a good time in lahia, and drank for 6 hours on 50 bucks, god bless happy hour.
a word about locals in general, the native's(true hawaiians) are nothing but nice, even with the annoying tourists all over. while the caucassion hawaiians(the 9imports, mostly from california) are tru e bastards to tourist's, they seem to forget that 85% of the hawaiian economy is based on tourism. on our third day, we decided to head to hana, on the far east coast of maui. the drive to hana on rte 36 is bar far the curviest 47 miles of road i have ever seen, making speeds over 20mph almost impossible, but i seemed to average aroung 35, hehhehe. the entire drive is the actual reason for going to hana, as the town itself is just a tiny village, very secluded, and down rite perrrty. just after hana we found several waterfalls, all of which required quite a hike to see um, stedfast dave made it to every one of them, just a few paces behind, i am very proud of the little camper. by the time the hike was over it was 1pm and there was little chance of us making our flight to honolulu at 2. oh well, so we caught a later one(inter island air trips are much like a bus system, well except they are on time, so we can get away with crap like that) and we are now sitting in our spacious 4 room and a kitchen hotel for 95 bucks, here in honolulu, tho in waikiki(the resort area) not exactly near the beach. oh well, guess we won't lay out tomorrow.
so that night dave and i set forth upon waikiki beach (waikiki is just an area of honolulu, much like lincoln park is an area of chicago), the tourism mecca of hawaii. plenty of souvenir stores, thousands of people, hookers everywhere, and then there was us. infact i did not dislike waikiki as much as i should have, with all the toursity crap and sunbathing and all, i still found some solice in places such as the royal hawaiian hotel, the oldest hotel in waikiki. this will be the only place i will talk about in waikiki as all the other places we ventured to where bland. at the royal hawaiian, a moorish styled building, was a small beachfront restaurant/bar with real hawaiian music and a hula dancer. very classy, and not overindulgent clientel, the best, most reasonably priced food (pu pu mostly) in waikiki. so that's it, everywhere, and i mean everywhere else was BLAND.
On this night at the royal hawaiian, i noticed a cute 60 somethings ish couple having a grand time, so we joined them. we had many a laugh and conversations about the united states versus australia(that was where they were from). they were lots and lots of chuckles, so we also went out the nigth afterwards with them, to bad they didn't have email, as they would be great to visit in australia. as we got sick of waikiki quite quickly we ventured out to the other areas of oahu ASAP. here we found row after row of houses, all nice but they lacked the seclusion of the other islands. then finally we hit the north shore, the surfing capitol of the hawaiian islands. not only is the undertoe the most dangerous here (especially during april and october, according to the sign) but there have been many a shark roaming these waters. the waves were averaging between 2-5 feet i'd say (that's pretty big for waves all you midwesterners) and the surf was up. we ventured in. i had to plant my feet every so often so as not to be swept out to sea, while dave kept gettin smashed off his feet belly up in the sand. we had a great time, and we are still picking sand out of our ears. afterwards we ate at the good ole Jack in the Box, we like Jack. driving up the coast a little bit further we found the polynesian cultural center. i was kinda hesitant about this place as it was billed as the number one tourist attraction of oahu. we took a look in on it, it looked kinda lame, dave noticed the 27-95 buck admission and we kept ona driving. this drive brought us to some very nice scenery in towns that i have forgotteh the names of, but alas 6 days into the trip both of us were gettin real sick of pretty scenery. so we went to Dole Country. yup, pineapples my friends, pineaples every where. snapped a few fotos bought some pineapple wine, and cruised, i liked it still, or maybee i just really enjoyed my pineapple ice cream. "hawaii smells really good, and i hate flowers, what's with that?" nels dahlquist, april 25, 1999. DON"T FORGET TO CHECK OUT THE TIKI BAR REVIEW OF LA MARANA IN HONOLULU!!!!!