Travels With Seaglass and Merry Andrew (2005)

OK, Deb and Osso and Walter H. You asked for it (on t'other thread), so here it is.

This year Seaglass and Merry A. met up in Honolulu on Saturday, the 9th. Booked in at the Ohana Waikiki West. Ooooriginal booking was until Tuesday, the 12th, but we figgered -- what the heck! -- we can always extend the stay if we decide to do so. Right? Well, no. Wrong, in fact. Seems there was scheduled, unbeknownst to us, a humungus world soccer competition in 'Lulu and when our time was up, we were told there was no way to get another night. All rooms sold out. All rooms in all hotels sold out. All rooms in all hotels within a reasonable radius of Honolulu sold out. Back to Hilo, then.

Anyway, Honolulu wasn't so hot. On Monday we wanted to visit a couple of museums. Guess what? On Mondays, museums in Honolulu are closed. Gives 'em time to dust off the tikis etc. etc. (In all fairness, we did get to the Hawaii Academy of Art museum Tuesday and it is a fabulously fine place. We recommend it.)

Tuesday, despite some rain, we thought the beach was a fine idea. Our flight to Hilo wasn't scheduled until 6:35 p.m. so we had all day to spend at the Hanauma Bay beach, right? That's the beach where they shot that torrid love scene between Deborah Kerr and Burt Lancaster in From Here to Eternity if anyone here is old enough to remember that. Well, no. Wrong, in fact. That particular beach has a large sign hung out, saying, "Closed Tuesdays." So we went to a place called Sandy Beach, just up the coast (that's the Windward Coast), which turned out to be not only sandy but windy as well. Well, you can't have everything.

At present we are back in Hilo, on what is generally referred to as The Big Island (i.e. Hawaii), enjoying the intermittent showers and winds. More later.