Hilton Hawaiian Village @ Waikiki in Honolulu,HI

Punchbowl Military Cemetery @ Honolulu,HI

Thanksgiving in Waikiki

                It would be easy to be a weatherman here.  Everyday is forecast to have a high of 83 degrees and a low of 70 degrees with afternoon winds and rains on the windward side.

                I drove up to the Punchbowl Military Cemetery today.   I remember going there with the parents.   Dad was looking for a high school buddies name on the memorial to those Navy sailors lost at sea, but he couldn’t find the name.  There is some renovation work going on there.   The interesting murals showing the major campaigns of the Pacific in WWII and the Korean Conflict are still there. 

                I then drove up Tantalus Mountain searching for a walking trail, but I couldn’t find the trail head.  That is a narrow and winding road. 

                I got back to the Hilton Hawaiian Village and walked around looking at all the tourists.   I smoked a cigar in the Ala Moana Yacht Basin again.   I walked over to the Hale Koa and saw the line growing longer and longer for the Thanksgiving Buffet.   I didn’t want to stand in that line.   So, I bought a turkey sandwich in the PX and had my Thanksgiving picnic on the green grass followed by another cigar.    It is nice to have that green grass and trees that provide shade.   I don’t know how people spend hours out there on the beach in this sun and heat.  

                I watched some of the football games on TV, but I was not interested in any of the teams playing.   I didn’t see the Cowboy game.   I went out for another walk and followed a Hawaiian guy wearing a Peyton Manning jersey.   I also  came across a family wearing Colorado State shirts. 

                I spent the day listen to an Audible book on my iPod.   I read the book, Helmet For My Pillow, way back when I was a second lieutenant at Basic School.   I am listening to it now, and it is pretty good.  I haven’t seen that HBO series, The Pacific, that is based on that book and its author.   I may have to do that when I get back to the mainland.

                Damn!  I just saw a TV commercial saying that I could get a free mug if I visited the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center and got one of the 2,000 tickets they give out each day. 

Hilton Hawaiian Village @ Waikiki

Wednesday in Waikiki

                I walked west of the Hilton Hawaiian Village today along Ala Moana Boulevard and over to the convention center and the Ala Wai Promenade where several derelicts hang out.  An ambulance and two cars of police were helping some smelly old derelict.   I walked a stretch of Kalakaua Avenue and then into Fort Derussy.  

I went into the Army Museum.   It has been over 25 years since I was in there, and most of the exhibits are the same.  They have added a room to honor Hawaii’s native son, General Shinsheki.   However, there is no mention that he was recently fired as being the director of the Veterans’ Administration.  

I then went to the waterfall pool outside my Grand Waikikian Tower.   I couldn’t even find a lounge chair to rest on.   The place was packed with families.  The kids love the tunnels, and the adults love to hang out under the waterfall.

I walked over to the Hale Koa.   They have taken away the Thanksgiving decorations this morning, and have put up Christmas Trees – one for each military service.  They are putting up more decorations for Christmas.  Geez!  You would think they would at least wait until the day after Thanksgiving before taking away the Turkey Day decorations.  

I bought a little tuna salad picnic lunch kit at the PX and had a nice lunch at a picnic table on the grass while watching all the tourists walking along the beach.   It was good to be in the shade in this 80 degree weather.  

I walked back past the Hilton Hawaiian Village to the yacht basin west of the Hilton.  There are some strange looking boats there.   Some people there must live on their boats.  At least I could smoke a cigar there and watch some Asians who were paddling their polynesian style canoe boats.   There is also the booth where you get on the para-sail boat for those going out to try parasailing which looked like fun.  I remember years ago that some Japanese girl paniced while parasailing and unhooked her harness and plunged to her death.   I love these gruesome memories!

After watching some Fox News in my room (I see nothing is happening in the world expect for angry blacks in Ferguson, MO), I headed out for the evening stroll as the sun set and the cooler weather came in.  I roamed around Fort Derussy and smoked a cigar.  This is an oasis for smokers in the midst of this non-smoking island.

I went into the gift and snack shop that is in the lobby of this Hilton.  Damn, they are expensive.   The bottle of Pinot Noir that I bought at the PX for $8 costs $32 at this Hilton.   I looked at other booze prices which are outrageous.   The only good deal I found was a bag of Vanilla Macadamia Kona Coffee on sale for $5 instead of $9.    That is even better than the PX price so this coffee must be getting old.   At least I will have coffee in the morning since I don’t get maid service here in this vacation club condo.   The PX has some very nice $90 Hawaiian shirts on sale for $45.   They have a lot of nice nik nak souveneirs.  I don’t think the big Wyland whale paintings will fit in my luggage however, so it’s good that I already have one.

I’m watching Charlie Brown’s Thanksgiving special on my TV.   How come there is no Charlie Brown in Hawaii Thanksgiving cartoon?

I wonder how I should spend tomorrow.   My rental car has not been used for the last couple of days which seems to be a waste.  I don’t think I will go to the $69 Thanksgiving Buffet here at the Hilton.   The Hale Koa is advertising $49 Thanksgiving Buffet.  They both sound overpriced.    Should I invite one of these smelly old homeless woman sleeping on the grass and take her to Thanksgiving dinner?   I should find the nearest homeless shelter and join them for dinner.  

I’m having a lopvely dinner Sopressata meat slices and Picante Provolone Cheese slices on crackers with my beer and wine.    The chocolate-covereded Macadamia Nuts are an excellent finish.   I’m not sure what Sopressata meat is made from, and I hope it is not dead Hawaiians or Asians.    It could be Solyent Green, but it tastes good and fattening.   It’s mmade by Boar’s Head, so I might be eating the head of a boar.   I feel like a native Hawaiian.  I just need some poi to be a true Hawiian.

The Hale Koa sent an email thanking me already for staying with them and offering a 7^th night free if I book 6 nights between October and December next year.   Wow, they want you to plan far ahead.    I should do it since you can’t beat the prices at that military resort that even allows smoking.   I still need to buy a couple of the cigars out of the humidor behind their check out counter at their PX.   I’m still waiting for some prude to tell me that I can’t smoke on the grass so I can tell them to drop dead on this federal property that supersedes the lousy state laws outlawing smoking.   I found a dark area of the Hale Koa where I smoke.   I almost had a heart attack while walked around that very dark yard and stepped on something that moved.   I thought I had stepped on a python or alligator until I saw it was a bull frog.   I think we both wet ourselves. 

               

I will be thankful this Thanksgiving that there is this Hale Koa Military Resort next door with great prices and no taxes in the PX.   The ladies there keep asking me to sign up for their credit card and get 10% off all purchases and my stay at their resort.   I keep telling them no.  I wouldn’t much use of that card back on the mainland.

I should drive somewhere tomorrow.   I wonder if Pearl Harbor Memorial is open, but I forgot to bring my senior citizen pass.   The valet service here is unique.   You put your valet ticket under a scanner at the unmanned valet station in the lobby, and then they bring your car around.  I need to check that out.    You also print your airplane bording pass using a big touch screen board at the valet station.   I will use that tomorrow night to print my boarding pass for Friday’s flight to SFO.  

Time for another cigar in the dark of night.   

Hilton Hawaiian Village @ Honolulu,HI

Tuesday in Waikiki

                I am sleeping well here.   It must be my long walks and the nightly beer and wine.    It was nice to have morning coffee on my lanai overlooking the courtyard of the Hale Koa.   I can see the ocean and also the mountains with the clouds drifting in.   I hate to leave this military resort this morning.   Check out is not until noon, but the maid was knocking on my door promptly at 9am.   I checked out at 9:30.   I had coffee service in the room, and then I went directly below to the PX and bought more coffee.   They have a heck of a deal this month with all size coffees only $1.   So, I loaded up, grabbed a pastry, and drove away in my Toyota Corolla while thinking that I need to return here soon to the Hale Koa.

                I didn’t drive far.  I went to my usual parking spot on the east end of Kalakaua Avenue to Kapiolani Park.   I got out of the car and noticed that I lost my phone.   I wasted time digging around the front seat until I found is on the left side of my driver’s door.   It is terrible when dementia sets in you know.   I had my volksmarching guide info that I printed before I left Denver.   It told to go into the nearby New Otani Hotel (where I used to spend the night before I ran my Ironman mini-triathlons back in my youth).   I got the walk box from the congierge guy and got the guide and map for the Historic Waikiki Walk that is 7 miles long.   This walk goes by surfboards that have historic information which is a clever way to explain history of the area.

                I walked the same route along Queen’s Beach (where I read that King Kamemaha sacrificed his enemies – how cool is that?), and then to the Natatorium to Waikiki Beach.   There are a lot of beach bums just hanging out on a Tuesday, and I thought they must love Obama and welfare to live like this.   I walked across the street to the ABC Store in front of St. Augustine’s by the Sea Catholic Church (where I went to Mass on Sunday).    I saw a small sign advertising the Father Damien and Sister Cope Museum, and I walked upstairs above the ABC store that is directly in front of the church that is locked off during the day.   That was very interesting and rather sad.   They have a lot of pictures of the lepers who  were banished to Molokai.   I read that they were separated from their families and sent to the isolated island and that most of them never saw their families again because the families were too poor to travel to that island.   The museum guide lady said that families who could afford to travel to that island had to stand behind a fence to talk with their diseased family member and could not touch them.   There were a lot of pictures of young children with no fingers and scared faces.   Most of the victims were native Hawaiians, but the guide showed me one picture of a white boy of age 8 standing by his bicycle looking perfectly normal and very sad.   He was taken from his family and live his life on that island.   That was heartbreaking to see.    There are several photos of Father Daminen, Sister Cope, and other nuns and even a small group of Sacred Heart brothers who lived on the island to minister to the lepers.   The guide told me that she lives in Lakewood near Denver, CO and spends the winter months  here  and volunteers at this museum that attracts very few visitors so they were thrilled that I stopped by.   She said that I must come back in 3 years when they hope to have a new visitor center with climate control build next door on the church property so they can display Father Damien’s Mass vestments that are currently in storage elsewhere.    I promised that I would come back.

I continued my walk along Kalakaua Avenue.  The guide map had me go into several hotels and look at their historic displays which were interesting.   I never did this during the 3 years I lived here.   I learned a lot about these hotels that were mostly built over the mansion homes of Hawaiian royalty before the evil American government sent its military to take over this island and dethrone the Hawaiian royalty.   There were also a lot of celebrities who stayed in the hotels, and I expect most people now have no idea about these old movie stars.   I didn’t know that cruise ships used to pull up right on Waikiki beaches that had long piers leading to these old hotels.   The guide had me walking the sand behind the Royal Hawaiian, and it was hot out there in the sun.  

                I continued the walk past the Hale Koa and into the Hilton Hawaiian Village.   The guide said to continue walking through the Ala Moana Park toward the mall, but I will save that part of the walk for tomorrow.   I turned around and headed back east through Fort Derussey, along Kalakua, and then took a route off this main drag over to the Hilton Waikiki that I stayed in the first night I got here.  The guide map then had me walk along the Ala Wai Canal, and I remembered the young policeman who was murdered by a drug pusher who killed him with a shotgun and threw the shotgun into this canal.   The bastard only got a 20 year sentence for killing this young undercover cop  because Hawaii has not death penalty.   I remembered when I lived here for 3 years how people were outraged, and to think this scum is probably free now and walking these same streets.  

                I walked by a traffic accident with two cars parked by the side of the road and three cop cars working the accident.  It must be a slow day for Hawaii 5-0!

                I got back to my car and was worn out from that long walk in the sun.   It was only 79 degrees, but I was dehydrated.    I got in my car and headed for the Hilton Hawaiian Village to check in at 3:30pm.

                The lady at the front desk was friendly but hard to understand.   I think they cater to the Japanese here.   I notice there were a lot of brochures in Japanese.   My condo room is very nice.   I have a noisy view of Ala Moana Avenue, and a partial ocean view overlooking the Ala Moana yatch basin.    I will explore that area tomorrow.   The lanai of this condo is next to the Ilikai Hotel where Jack Lord used to stand on the top floor during the opening credit of the old Hawaii 50 TV Show.   I didn’t see Jack Lord standing up there, which is a good thing as he probably doesn’t look very good after all these years of being dead!   The bad part is that there is a lot of road noise on the lanai.    I went out later in the evening and it was quiet and very nice with a cool breeze.   I may have to go out ther for a final nightcap of my Pinot Noir.

                I did take my evening walk around the Hilton Hawaiian Village.   There are congierge desks everywhere with people trying to sell       Hilton Vacation Club Time shares.   I stopped in one display area and talked to the young guy there.   He did say that the new tower being built will have vacation club condos.   He asked if I was an owner here, and I lied and said that I own in this Grand Waikikian Tower, and he asked if I wanted to go on an owner’s tour, but I said I had to run because my wife was waiting for me.   He told me to come back and bring my wife.   Geez, these people are relentless in their selling of time shares.  

                I walked around the Hilton Village and saw two groups of singers at the various bars.   It is a nice cool evening.   I found the small green area near the Rainbow Tower, and I had a flash back of when the parents came on a business trip and had a reception at that spot with a bunch of people.   I remember that I was not allowed in to that private party and how mother was so upset that I could not join them that evening, but I spent the next two days with them traveling around the island.  

                I need to figure out how I am going to spend a week here next year and then perhaps a week on the big island of Hawaii at Waikaloa Village since there is a book in my condo about how wonderful it is to be there to explore the volcanoes and the mountain.    I stopped watching Fox News tonight since it is non-stop Ferguson crap, and now I am watching a channel showing the beauty of Hwaii.   It is motivating.

    

Waikiki @ Honolulu, HI