Arresting
… my attention. Not a real arrest, silly.
I’ve been to Hawaii twice. I barely remember it. On the second occasion Lisa was pregnant with David. Morning sickness. We drove to a vantage for me to take pictures of the coast as the clouds cleared at noon. I rolled into the parking lot and stopped short to back up into a parking spot I had passed. Jules and Lisa promptly threw up from the sudden change in direction. My bad. I did not get the shots either.
Everyone lies. ?!?! We arrived at the Honolulu airport for our flight. We expected a jet plane. The attendant asked us for our weight. It turned out they were calculating the weight load for the aircraft to takeoff. Lisa burst into tears on the tarmac. Why? She sobbed, “I lied about my weight!!” I was close enough to see the jet in front and to read the gas gauge which read nearly empty. The plane fared no better as after it landed it took right back off into the sky without refilling its empty tank. I was glad not to be on the return trip. And, meanwhile at the rental car counter I asked for the directions to the hotel. The clerk replied, “Go out the gate. Make a right.” Uh… we were staying right next to the airport.
What a nice little series of slides, all parked together in my catalog!
Been there
Dave was in Kauai. He knew I had been there. I reminded him that he had been there too, in a technical sense. 1980’s, Lisa was about six months pregnant. We traveled there for a meeting. To make a long story short, I pulled my slide after consulting my database. And Dave passed me his pic of now. How nice! Similarity. We’re reconnected after so many years. iPhone vs Nikon. It’s all the same. Only a few decades have passed. It’s nice to have a database.
Shuffleboard
Jules was born in Manhattan. City kid. She did not like grass. In bare feet she hated the feel of grass. It was quite a surprise to me when she refused to step off the shuffleboard court. And then I realized what a wonderful baby sitter we had. Put her on the court surrounded by grass and no need to worry that she’d run off. It didn’t last long ‘cause her mom didn’t trust to fate. I had to keep watching Jules like a hawk.
Small Plane, Why You Tell The Truth
This reminds me that traveling with a pregnant woman and a toddler from island to island can be a story by itself. We were in Honolulu transferring to an airplane for Kauai. I expected a twin-engine passenger jet, you know, the big one. As we pulled up to the airport they asked for our weight, which should have been the big clue. I told them mine and thought nothing more until we boarded a small twin engine airplane (12 passengers). Lisa was sweating profusely and clearly agitated. I thought that this was the pregnancy and corralling J. No, she tearfully cried as the doors closed, “I lied about my weight!” “So what it’s only a few pounds,” I said reassuringly. She wailed it was wrong by a whole lot more than …. Well, we weren’t done. The plane taxied behind a big ass regular passenger jet on the take off line. I could look out the forward window along with the pilots. They were conferring and then taxied back to the gate for some repair. I thought we would switch planes (bigger) and the weight thing would be solved. Nope. We got on board the same plane, this time without the co-pilot (what did he know and why did he leave? maybe Lisa’s weight?). Oh great! I was sitting close enough to see the gauges – including gas, the only one I could understand. We were at 1/8 in one tank and less in the other. It’s ok in a car but I thought it was a bit reckless in a plane. We took off into a rain storm, struggled to maintain heading and altitude, and landed by diving out of the clouds descending abruptly to the tarmac. The pilot waited till the luggage was off and then took off again without refueling. I’m glad I wasn’t on the return flight and out of gas. At the car rental counter I asked for directions to the hotel and was told to go out and turn right. Ha ha! The hotel was steps to the right of the airport entrance.
Chase
Yvonne Chang. Lisa saw her work on Kauai. Then we tracked her down as we went from island to island and finally met her in Honolulu where we had started. She introduced me to Asian pears. Lisa commissioned her to do a batick. We haven’t purchased many original art works. But this was one time. It was kind of an interesting adventure to go from place to place and eventually find and meet the artist. Most other occasions you buy the work or a print but never meet the artist. It’s not the same to get a little printed bio. Sometimes I’m amazed by my own stupidity. I never did take a picture of her or her studio.
We have an ink and a batick, just not these, which I took as a reference for what Lisa liked and wanted. Note to self: it would have been nice if you had a picture of the artist. Duh?
For purity, I found this photo on the internet. I’m glad she’s still in the news.
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2006/Dec/11/il/FP612110302.html
Napali Coast
Here’s what not to do to your family. Kauai – the Napali coast is famous for it’s cliffs. It is really a sight to see from water or from a helicopter. Lisa’s pregnant with David on this trip. And J suffers from being car sick, as in throwing up. She’s good about it, we get a warning, “Mommy!” and in less than a second she “hurls.” Well, at least she warns you. 
(Please note: no big fat! pregnant belly in the picture – Politically Correct – but David [no name yet] is there.)
We’d been camped at the hotel on the beach and I got the itch to drive over to the Napali overlook which was clear for a few minutes about everyday at noon. Then it would cloud over again. Into the car, raining, twisting road, and driving a little fast to get there. J is in her car seat in the back. Lisa is riding shotgun. I pull into the foggy parking lot, no parking spots, until I see one just as I went past it. Stop short, back up, stop again and start to park. The sudden change in directions resulted in pregnant wife (with morning sickness, it’s a boy – worse) and car sick prone daughter both throwing up simultaneously. They did not get out to see the view (there wasn’t one – foggy). I drove home with the windows open and no one would talk to me.
Rainbow Hilton
Kona, Hawaii, the ‘big island’ as it’s called, is the biggest of the Hawaiian islands. Surprised? The Hawaiians also pronounce every letter. Did you know that? Try it. They really do sound every letter. Kona is a big game fish center. Each day at the dock toward dusk, all the boats return with the days catch to be weighed and then stuffed as trophies. They caught some big fish in those days. One might think that all the big fish have been caught by now. But it’s a big ocean. I’m talking 500 pounds of marlin. It’s big. I once caught one of 80 pounds and 6 feet length. It was catch and release. That’s another story.
Anyway back to this picture. We visited in 1984. Standing on the dock at about 4PM I could look across to the Rainbow Hilton. Yup, they called it that name. Why, you ask? Ah! Because of the rainbow that’s there. Everyday at about this time, it rains. And, standing on the dock, you get a great rainbow that lands right on the Hilton. Pretty neat trick if you ask me. You can also get a full rainbow, but this picture makes the point. Neat isn’t it?
Sunset Hawaii
Diamondhead, Oahu, Hawaii. There have been two national meetings I attended in Hawaii in the ’80’s. My story is this. You fly over the Pacific Ocean for hours and then you get to this little tiny dot in the middle of all that water. If the navigation system was off by a fraction of a degree, you’re just staring at a lot of water with no place to land. Or, to put it another way, if you fly at 35,000 feet and look down at an ocean liner which is a mere dot on the water. You might then understand that I did not have Hawaii on my short list of travel destinations. You could try saying, “ticked to Tahiti” three times fast also. Anyway, here we are at the Sheraton Waikiki. The view is toward Diamondhead and the sunset is spectacular. What more can one say.
photobackstory 