Hawaii 2021

 We came back from Hawaii this morning.  Honolulu to be exact and it was the late night flight.  The trip had been planned for months as a belated 50th anniversary celebration and my son’s 40th birthday.  When we got the tickets and reserved the hotels, it was required that you had a negative Covid test within 72 hours of going and then as things improved, the test was no longer required if you were vaccinated.

It was still a production.  We had to register with the Hawaii tourism board, upload our vaccination cards.  And then go through a whole registration thing at the airport and were given bracelets to show we were okay.  People who didn’t do it at the airport had to go it at the airport in Hawaii and the line was four hours long.

Despite all that and the fact that most international people aren’t coming to visit, Honolulu was crowded.  We stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village which was ridiculously crowded.  The pools and beaches were jammed with people.  There was a luau everything with a huge crowd.  We never went but could hear it from our room.  The fire dancers don’t seem so special when you see them twirl their flames for the sixth time.

I put my feet in the water once, but it was too busy and too much of a production to make me want to go back in. There were lines everywhere– to check in, check out, get an elevator.  They seemed under staffed but the hoard of people didn’t seem to mind.

I did a bit of sightseeing.  We drove to the North Shore to a town that looked like an aging surfer town.  The waves were small at this time of year, but in the winter they come straight from Alaska and pick up a lot of steam.  We continued driving around Oahu instead of going the way we’d come.  There were dense forests and a lot of open space along with the ever present beach.  We ended up on a windy outlook that looked down over a steep mountain to the water.  It was all super green and windy enough they had railings to hang onto.

My hangout spot was the balcony attached to our room.  It wasn’t a clear view of ocean – there were other buildings nearby, but beyond there was a broad expanse of different shades of blue.  I drank coffee and thought about my next book.  And even better began to write it.  I had the basic plot down, but began to see different characters and scenes.  It was a little odd that I was looking out on all that water with a gentle breeze keeping the 80 something temperature perfectly comfortable and in my minds eye I was in Chicago in October as Veronica dealt with some new clients.  

I knew it was time to come home when despite the balcony being in the shade, I got sunburned after spending too many hours out there.  

I was glad to go home, to real life, things I need to do and our cats.  While someone looked in on them, they were very happy to see us.  The one who is called Kitten despite being five years old and who seems to have bonded with me, was glued to me all day.  She would just cuddle and put her head on my shoulder.  It’s a relief to have the trip behind me.  There were a lot of ups and downs, and people who were supposed to come and then cancelled.  And now to expand on what I wrote for the new book.