The Ohana Beachcomber: I have to be honest and tell you that I was so absurdly busy while I stayed here that my room left little impression. It was fine, I was comfortable, the room was quiet and the folks that worked here were very friendly — I especially appreciated the valet parking guys, they were total sweethearts. While I can’t say much about the room, I can tell you that the hotel does a couple of things that I did remember and appreciate.… continued…
In order to meet Brooks Takenaka at 5am, I fall out of bed at 430, groggy, dizzy, and luckily, jet lagged enough so that it’s not too much of a shock. I’m happy not to be driving, it’s hard enough to navigate Honolulu by day, all those street names made up of Ks and Ls and Is all run together. Luckily, I’ve overlapped in Hawaii with photographer and travel buddy Peter Carey and he’s psyched to tag along, even at 5am.… continued…
Here is the thing a taking a tour: You are able to see a lot of places that you might not otherwise get to — especially if you do not have a car.
Here is another thing about taking a tour: You will be pelted with facts, maybe relentlessly, all of them somewhat filtered through the lens of the guide’s own interests. Some of the facts will stick to you — like the tragic idea that birds are too stupid to tell a plastic bag from a squid so they will stuff them into the bellies of their young thinking they are feeding them when really, oh, it is very sad.… continued…
I suppose there’s a reason I’ve not spent any time in West Oahu before. No one tells you to go there, no one says, oh, you’ve got to go check out the beaches around Nanakuli or Waianae, no one says anything, really about West Oahu to mainland visitors like me. And as the suburbs dwindle, it starts to become perfectly clear why no one has sent me this direction before.
There are some industrial sites. There’s the big dump, Waimanolo Gulch, where Oahu’s garbage piles up waiting to either be packaged and sent to the mainland or processed into electricity, depending on what the current plan is.… continued…
On my third visit to Oahu, I was finally able to visit Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve, a beautiful cove south of Waikiki. I was thwarted on previous visits by not getting an early enough start — the popular park fills up quickly and once it’s full, that’s that, you’re not getting in. I had all the odds in my favor this morning — an early start, the low season, and a tough year for tourism.At 830, I was in the water, chasing the wild humuhumunukunukuapua’a, the best named fish on the planet, though hey, you have to give props to the lauwiliwilinukunukuo’io’i, the long nosed butterfly fish.… continued…
