Hawaii

Aloha friends!

Welcome to my very first blog post! I’m excited to share with you the trip I just got back from, that’s right, two weeks in Hawaii!! 🌺

As you know, I retired from my day job on June 6, 2024 (666 in my head – it’s a Halloween thing🎃). I’m still the President of our Local union (LiUNA!) and the annual Leadership Conference was being held in Waikiki this year, so I wasn’t passing on that opportunity. Since I was going there, I asked a Haunter friend, Jennifer V. if I could visit her on the Big Island. She said yes! So sit back and enjoy the read

Friday, August 2, 2024, I arrive at the house of Mike and Jan G. (He’s the Business Manager of our local and my ex-husband) at 5:00am (ugh). I had been awake since 1:00am excited for these trip. Our hired ride got us to Logan airport, we checked in, then my food friend, and former housemate, Nick F. met up with us after security. A decent breakfast was had and away we went on a 11.5 hour plane ride to Honolulu. We flew Hawaiian Airlines, I highly recommend them! And pay the little extra for the roomier seats, worth it!! After landing at 1:30pm (Hawaii is 6 hours behind the east coast) we grabbed a taxi, which turned out to be a limo, to the Hilton Hawaiian Village. This hotel is the biggest Hilton in the world with 22 acres, multiple buildings, 4 pools, beach front, music nightly (which we could hear from our hotel balcony), many stores and restaurants and a very friendly staff. It took us a few days to really get the layout. We stayed in the Kalani tower and overlooked the adult only pool. Only thing missing was a bar and the pool closed early at 6:00pm. 🫤 We did get to see fireworks from our balcony though! They are out of from the beach every Friday.

Saturday Nick and I headed back to the airport to spend the day on Kauai. Beautiful does t even come close to describing this place a d we only saw the southeast portion! Grabbed our rental car and found a local place for breakfast (thanks to the rental lot attendant) called Tip Top. It was a Cafe in a small hotel. It was very busy with locals a d we got a seat right away. The me u had some interesting items: SPAM, of course, miso soup, xtail soup, Loco Moco (rice with gravy). I stuck with pancakes. Haha

We had no game plan at all and found a cave on the map and headed there. Let me tell you, there are a LOT of roosters in this island!! 🐓 They were everywhere! Following the signs for the cave, the road suddenly turned to dirt and it wasn’t well maintained either. At the end, we just parked in the side of the road with the other cars. There was a ranch there that had horse riding expeditions. We walked along the trail (I am not a hiker, just putting that out there) to some beautiful scenery. The trail split and we took a right to check out the beach, then double backed to head to the cave. The entrance was a little intimidating as it required you to crawl through. It was carpeted though. Once you made it to the other side (maybe 10 feet), it opened up to a cave that was open to the sky, then a path led to a second cave. The park ranger told us it had all been one cave but the center collapsed hundreds of years ago. He told us to cross the bridge where the oath split, and go see the tortoise preserve. So we did!

Back to the car and on to our next destination, Glass Beach. This was a beautiful place (again, dirt road) and to hear the waves crash into the lava rock is the best thing. Nick went looking for sea glass, but there wasn’t much. Continuing up the road there was an old cemetery at the top of the hill. It was recently discovered in the 90s and had graves from Japanese and other Asian people that worked at the sugar cane plantation. Some have been restored by family. There were a few people living on the side of the road in what looked like broken down cars and trucks.

By now we needed food. Across the main road we found a cute spot and had shrimp and cocktails. Our next stop was to see some gardens. Well, the last tour had already left so we wandered the front garden and gift shop. I learned they have 17 varieties of ginger, and not the kind you cook with. All very fragrant and pretty. On the way to the cave we passed a rum distillery so we went there for a tasting. As was our luck, the last tasting was at 4 and fully booked. A good thing because we would have missed our 5:30 flight back to Honolulu. The gift shop loved us as Nick got a couple variety packs, I got souvenirs for others a d a $19 chocolate bar!

That night we headed out to Scarlet, a gay club, for a drag show. Great club with three bars and adorable bartenders, dancers, lights, screens and of course the Queens! We called it a night just after 1:00am. Definitely a full day!!

Sunday was a kick back day. We hung at the beach for a bit, then I registered for the conference. Saw a few people I knew and had a Malasada. A Portuguese fried bread topped with sugar. YUM!! We wandered into downtown Waikiki and stopped at the Yard House for dinner. Our waitress was fabulous, the food divine and the atmosphere was fun. We both had the Ono fish if the day. Nick got it Cajun style and I got macadamia nut crusted. Mine was better, Nick agreed. Dessert was cheesecake brulee. I also had a guava margarita. So good!!

Monday morning I headed to breakfast and my conference. They opened by having a Hawaiian blessing. He blew the conch shell and sang the blessing. It was wonderful. That night was a luau for all 2,000+ of us. With many buffet stations and bars set up, you weren’t going away hungry or thirsty. We had wandered over to the stage, which was a flat topped hill, to see the bank and listen to Hawaiian music. We were in the right spot because then the hula dancers started their show. When they took a break, we made our way to the beach where they had a fireworks show for us. The dancers came back and finished the show, which told about dances all over Polynesia including Thailand, New Zealand and others. Of course they had fire dancers! 🔥💃🏻

The next few days consisted of conference happenings until noon then the beach, pool, walks oh, and Nick and I went parasailing. It was terrifying, exhilarating and beautiful all at once!! Nick, the nature lover, hiked up Diamond head, hiked to a waterfall in the jungle and now wants to move there. 😁

We said our goodbyes on Thursday as I headed to the big island (a 1 hour flight) and Nick headed back to Massachusetts.

HAWAII, the Big Island:
My haunter friend, Jen V. AKA The Evil Queen, found be at the airport in Kona. BTW, it’s all open air! No walls!! She gave me a tour of the area including Capt. Cooks cove. What a gorgeous spot! The painted church on the hill, and downtown. The sunsets from their place are gorgeous!! Her guy, Robert, is a huge fan of them.

We traveled around the whole island over the next few days. Volcano National Park is incredible! Rainbow Falls and the walk (again, not a hiker) to see Akaka falls was so worth it!! The diversity of the island really surprised me. Rain forest, cliffs, lava, prairies, cities, but nothing like Honolulu. No building can be over 3 stories. There are a few that predate that ruling. The variety of trees and flowers!! So beautiful!! Also, wild pigs and goats are all over. The last few days we hung at the saltwater pool which overlooks the ocean. We did go to Magics beach where I saw a reef shark and sea turtles.

Intersting things about Hawaii: No seagulls, but plenty of Aloha Doves (pigeons), no squirrels (instead there are woodchucks), no snakes. DO NOT take lava rock home with you. The Goddess Pele will be very angry and you’ll have bad luck. The post office gets lava rock sent back to the island all the time from people that just wanted a souvenir.

I can see why it’s on people’s bucket list. It was never on mine, but I’m very glad I went!

A big mahalo to Jen, Robert, LiUNA, Hawaiian Air and all the people, Gods and Goddesses that made my trip special! 🌺

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