Monday in Waikiki

            I drove around the eastern shore of Oahu today.  I drove through the exclusive Kahala neighborhood of expensive mansions.  There are a number of those houses for sale.   I was going to stop and buy one, but it was very windy and started to rain.   So, I decided that I didn’t want to live in that windy area even with its awesome views of the ocean.

            I drove on past Haunamma Bay but didn’t pull in to see all the people snorkeling.   I figured it would be overrun with Asians anyway.   Remember when we saw Master Sergeant Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr making out on that beach?  Or, was that just a movie?

            I did stop at the Blow Hole.   I could barely open my door with the typhoon-like winds and rain.   I managed to walk over and look down at the blow hole, but it was dormant.   So, I jumped back into my car to dry off and drive on.

            I drove through the Waimanalo area.   I remembered that I used to ride my bike on this road from Waikiki the way up to Kaneohe and back.   I must have been crazy to bike on that narrow road.  I also remembered that there were a few car accidents on that road where tourists were killed by local drunk drivers hitting them head on.   I managed to survive since traffic was not too bad in the rain.

            I got to Kaneohe but decided not to go on the base in this wind and rain.   I drove over to Kailua Beach State Park where I used to go on the weekends to play in the surf and sand.   It was still raining.   I did go into the surf to take pictures of a pumpkin that was bouncing around in the surf.   I did walk over and take a picture of Buzz’s Steakhouse across the street.  I remember that I took a couple of dates there and remembered how humid it could be in there.   I wonder what became of those women I dated.   They loved Hawaii and the island life and said they would never live anywhere else, so that was the end of those romances since they didn’t want to travel the world with a military guy.

            I went back to the parking lot to get in my car and out of the light rain, and there were 12 Marines in dress blue deltas standing around my car.   I thought at first that they must have heard that I was in town and came out to worship me.   I sat on a picnic table and waited for them to do something.   They were mostly enlisted with two majors who joined them.   They then move up the hill overlooking the water.   The major reenlisted a sergeant.   The sergeant then gave a speech to the Marines, but I couldn’t hear him over the wind.   I got back in my car and left before they swarmed my car again and asked for my autograph.   I bet they are not happy that their uniforms are messed up from that rain.  

            I drove around Kailua and noticed that a huge new condo development is being built.   I thought that would be a nice place to live until I saw the sign that they are selling new 1, 2, and 3 bedroom condos starting at $700,000.   Yikes!   So, I left town.   I took the H3 Highway back to Honolulu.   I have never been on that highway since it was just being built when I lived here.   That was fun driving on that highway through the mountains with lots of greenery and tunnels and clouds and a light rain.

            I got back to Honolulu as rush hour was starting.  I had to navigate various roads to avoid traffic jams.    I finally got back to the road to the Hale Koa and sat there for several minutes as the construction of the new tower at the Hilton Hawaiian Village has spilled out onto the road with construction crews blocking the road and making it a one lane road.  

            I parked in the spiffy military parking garage and then roamed around the Hale Koa.   There were two little twin toddler boys with their dad looking at the Christmas display near my room.   They were so cute and looked so overwhelmed and in awe of all the Santa stuff they were trying to figure out.    I walked around the pools and saw several people and families wearing Hawaiian shirts and dresses heading to the Luau that was starting at the big pool near the beach.    It was overcast and a very pleasant 71 degrees – an excellent night to go to a luau and eat pig and poi!

            I roamed around the Fort Derussy green grass and smoked a cigar in the twilight.   I felt like a criminal.   I did read on my Hale Koa room key car that smoking is not allowed within 50 feet of the buildings and that there is a designated smoking area in a small parking lot near the Warrior’s Lounge area.   I just walked around the outside of the Army Museum and then along Lewer’s Avenue where I saw a sign that the street is a no smoking area on Lewers and Kalakawa.   Bastards!   So, I headed back over to Fort Derussy and walked around smoking on that federal property that appears to be an island of sanity in the middle of this state’s anti-smoking mania.  I am still amazed that none of these Japanese and Chinese and Korean visitors are smoking – not even the old ones.   What has become of Asia!

I did see a history sign that said Fort Derussy used to be the royal ponds where the royal fish were raised and that the Hawaiians believed that six foot tall,  black monsters lived in the waters.   (So, that explains how a black monster grew up in Hawaii and is now living in the White House!).   The ponds were drained when the Army took over and built coastal fortifications with canons that could fire up to 14 miles out at ships.   The canons were test fired but never fired against any enemy ships.   The gun batteries were torn out except for one battery (Randolph) which was too hard to knock down in 1965.   So, it is now the Army Museum.   There also used to be a lot of military cottages on Fort Derussy which led to the idea of creating a military resort here after it was no longer needed as a defensive base.   Interesting.

            I got back to my room to watch the news from Ferguson.    I liked Obama’s speech about the situation.   Of course, it was all about him, and he had to interject his personal history into the speech.    What an ego.    Would you grow up to be a narcissist if your mother was a white hippie communist slut and your father was a black drunken communist adulterer?   How did that shape his personality?   You would think he would be a self-hating drug scum derelict. 

            This is my last night in the Hale Koa.   I will be checking into the Hilton Grand Waikikian tomorrow.   I hate to leave this large resort and move in with the thousands of Asians next door, but I will have a kitchen and might make some meals and also do my laundry in my own washer/dryer.   I will continue to spend my nights walking around Fort Derussy and smoking in the dark of the Fort Derussy green grass since you can’t smoke elsewhere in this hick town!