Sunday in Honolulu

            I drove down Kalakawa Avenue this morning and parked in the Honolulu Zoo parking lot.   I’m not sure how much I charged to park there.   I walked over to the St. Augustine’s  Church for Mass at 10am.  The church was about 3/4^th full.   The Knights of Columbus paraded in wearing white shirts and cola nut necklaces and sat in the front three rows.   A group of women wearing red muumuus then came forward singing a Hawaiian chant.  The priest then came in with his altar boy.   The announcer gave a short speech about the history of the church and about their two Hawaiian saints – Father Damien and Sister Marianne Cope of the leper colony of Molokai and how they belong to this diocese that has had priests of the Sacred Heart since the 1800s.   I paid the recommended donation of $3 to light a candle for the parents.

            The Mass was fairly typical for the New Order.   The effeminate priest recognized the Knights who have 30 members and want to get more.   He mentioned that 80% of people at Mass are visitors.   Since this is the last mass of this liturgical year before the new year begins next week with the first Sunday of Advent, he talked about the church budget for 2014.    The have a small budget but they support a lot of charities for the local homeless and poor and they only collected 1/4^th of their normal funds to support the poor in 2014.    He also mentioned that they make most of their money from the C&E Catholics who only come to church on Christmas and Easter, and that all that money from those twice a year Catholics keep them from going bankrupt.   The communion was different in that everyone stands for communion instead of kneeling.   After Mass, the ladies in red came up and did a hula dance that had something to do with families, babies, and God according to the narrator.  The priest said and support the ladies by buying their tuna salad sandwiches for $10 each, but I passed on that and just took pictures inside the church of the tributes to Father Damien and Sister Cope.   I just hope I didn’t catch leprosy!

            It was a warm 88 degrees when I got back to my car.  I drove out of Honolulu on Highway 1 toward the west and then took Highway 2 up to Mililani.   I drove to the Mililani Golf course and then to my old townhouse complex next to the golf course.   I parked in my old parking spot next to my condo that I lived in for 3 years.   It actually looked to be in good condition.   I wonder if all those cockroaches and my gecko still live there in my condo.  

            I drove on west to Waimalu past the Dole Pineapple Field and past Matsumoto’s Shave Ice store.   There were a bunch of Asians standing in line to get into Matsumoto’s.    I drove on the Pipeline beach and turned around.    There was a lot of traffic there.   

            I drove back to Mililani.   I drove by my old base at Wheeler Army Airfield and was shocked to see that they have torn out the old run way.    The sign at the main gate said Schofield Army Barracks Wheeler Field.   I didn’t try to drive onto the base.    I also didn’t drive into the nearby Army golf course that was so beautiful and fun to play with my idiot boss years ago.

            I drove back down H2 to H1 and noticed that everything looked a little red from the pineapple field dust.   I drove to downtown Honolulu.   I stopped at the downtown YMCA where I was the only white guy in the building.   I asked for the volksmarching box, and the buy at the front desk  gave me the walking box that had the guide and map for the 10K walk around the historic sites of Honolulu.  I spent a few hours walking around the capital, governor’s mansion, King Kamemama Statue, original mission, and other historic locations.   I smoked a cigar as I walked the streets.    Some older Hawaiian guy said something to me about smoking, but I couldn’t hear him over the music on my iPod.   I assume he was telling me that smoking was not allowed.   Screw him.   I walked by Our Lady of Peace Catholic Cathedral.    Boy, that mall area in front of the cathedral looks rather creepy.   There were only derelicts sitting around and sleeping in that area.   It has seen its better days. 

            I went into the cathedral.   There were three derelicts sitting in there sleeping and two Asian people praying.   What a weird church.   The pews don’t face the altar but face the center of the church.   It looks like a piano bar with the piano in the center of the room and the pews facing the piano.   What the hell goes on there during Mass?   The altar is behind a screen area, and I was amazed that I  could walk right up to it where a lady was sitting with her eyes closed and a guy was on his knees praying.   The red light was burning so Jesus was in the tabernacle, but He seems to not be very important in this cathedral.   How bizarre.   I put in $2 and light a candle for the parents.    I left feeling that this mother church for the people of Hawaii is a real New Age travesty.

            My 10K walk took me into Chinatown.   What a dump.   There is a smell of urine on those streets.    I felt like Frank Sinatra in the movie From Here to Eternity; however, I didn’t encounter Donna Reed the prostitute or Ernest Borgnine as Fatso the staff sergeant bully.    I saw some of the old houses of prostitution and the famous Hawaiian movie theater that is now a fancy playhouse with a bunch of Asians coming out after a performance of some play that appears to be a rip-off of the Jersey Boys.   

            I got back to my car at the YMCA and was glad that today was mostly overcast and not too hot.   I finished my water as I drove down the street to O’Toole’s Irish Pub at the end of Nuuanu Street in Chinatown.   That is a small pub.   I watched the Cowboy game and smoked a cigar and had one Tullamore Dew and two Glennfiddich’s.  

            I drove down Ala Moana Avenue to the other cigar bar that I read about.   It is near Pier One in a shopping area.   It was dark with all the shops closed.   In the middle of the complex is a small bar.   It had a bunch of Asians sitting as a group.   No one was smoking.  What has become of Asians now that they don’t all smoke cigarettes constantly like I remember?   I only saw one guy sitting by himself smoking a cigarette.   I saw a humidor of cigars behind the bar.   I was afraid to ask for a cigar and a drink because all those healthy Asians might kick my ass for smoking up the place.   So, I left thinking that I might come back later this week at happy hour to check it out.

            I then drove back to the Hale Koa.   There is some band playing out by the large pool.   The evening is fairly cool now.    I should go out now and tour the area and see if  the Warrior’s Lounge has any activity.

            I took a lot of pictures today and will post them eventually.