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Kauai, Hawaii
When I think of heaven, deliver me in a black wing bird, I think of flying
This next photo represents my only proof of any adventure travel. I decided to forsake the commercial/traditional 45-75 minute helicopter ride around Kauai for a two hour ultra light lesson- I'm the one in the back. I was allowed to steer for about a half hour of it, but not the dangerous part above the Na Pali cliffs where we rose to chilly altitudes of over 6,000 feet to avoid a certain death (well, maybe not "certain" but "possible" at least). The ultralight is basically a hang glider with an unreliable lawnmower engine and the ride (which I only briefly steered) actually now counts as two hours toward my hang glider license, something I will honestly never get.
Over on Oahu, this us the USS Arizona Memorial, a place where you can see the still sunken remains of the most famous ship to go down in the December 7, 1941 Pearl Harbor attack.
To get to the actual memorial, you have to take a boat from the visitors center (which makes sense) as the memorial is built perpendicular to the sunken ship, so that as you look out on either side you can see what still remains.
I have a history of visiting somewhat macabre World War 2 sites, well maybe not a “history,” but I have been to Dachau and, more recently, Hiroshima. This one was different. It really did not feel like a place of mourning as much as a place of nationalistic pride. Both Dachau and Hiroshima have a somber, “never again” feel, but this place’s only message is “U-S-A.”
Oahu can be terribly urban- a sometimes rude, graceless place of traffic and freeways and damn fine FM radio, especially when you compare it to Kauai or the Big Island. On a six (or seven) day trip to the islands, I spent less than 12 hours on Oahu, and afterwards thought that might have still been a bit too much.
From Honolulu, a quick 20 mile long drive on the H3 gets you to the decidedly less urban north shore. The north shore of Oahu is far more scenic than the south, although I probably would have though more highly of it if I hadn't just come from Kauai.
The big island (which confusingly is actually named Hawaii) is actually quite big. From end to end you’re looking at about a hundred mile drive, and it always seems like wherever you want to go next is located at the far end from wherever you are now. Even the far smaller Kauai has a 50 mile loop road along the coast that doesn’t actually loop (it’s more like a giant “c”), so no matter where you are, chances are that you’ll find yourself doing a lot of driving. On the big island, that means driving by a lot of farms- it’s a predominately rural place, except for the volcanoes. Kauai is more scenic and more like a rain forest, although a lot of that might be because it kind of is. Either way, every tourist seems to be driving back and forth in the same model white rental car, stopping occasionally on the side of the road when you’re lucky enough to see views like these.
It’s not all driving white rental cars and boats and ultralights. Hopping between islands is super easy, almost like a shuttle bus. First, the seats aren’t assigned but that’s ok, since most of the planes seem half empty. Next the in flight service (a choice between pre-poured Hawaiian Punch or pre-poured Kona coffee) is pretty quick, from Kauai to Honolulu, the flight time is only 23 minutes. A welcome change from all those long, overnight flights I have been dealing with this trip.
Kauai is kind of like a circle. At the upper left hand corner are the Na Pali Cliffs (there’s a lot more about that on the next page) and in its center are mountains where it is almost always raining. Around the rest of the island’s edge is where most of the action is, although there is at least one place where you can head a little bit inland. Waimea Canyon is a state park with a 3,000 foot deep canyon that you can drive your rental car right up to the edge of.
After all those Ryokans in Japan, I tried staying at bed and breakfasts in Hawaii, to mixed results. On the big island, I stayed in a bed and breakfast where it was just me and the owners for breakfast, a relocated California couple who kept uncomfortably telling me that I reminded them of their estranged son. I thankfully escaped before being kidnapped or murdered. In Kauai, I ended up at the Keapana Center Bed and Breakfast, with more guests, a better breakfast, a common room with a ceiling completely full of geckos, a spacey new age hostess and a yurt in the front yard. All things considered it was a big step up from the previous place, although the shower, open to the outside where a creepy caretaker always seemed to be finding reasons to walk by, was not ideal.
