It was funny pulling up to the hotel to have our VW campervan valet parked. The valets were oohing and ahhing over our van and asking us all kinds of questions. Ha! One guy asked us about our time in Hawaii. We told him we had been camping in our van all around Maui and Oahu. He replied, "oh, so you have been camping in this van the entire time? Man, that's the true Hawaiian way...the nature...the water...cool man, cool..." He trailed off and became so excited talking about camping in Hawaii that he soon was at a loss of words. And when his words failed him he gave us shaka, waving his hands animatedly back and forth accompanied by a huge grin. We still think about that guy with a smile. Camping + Hawaii = Shaka.
We had reservations at Alan Wong's signature restaurant for our final meal in Oahu. We called a cab to pick us up and instead a limo arrived and whisked us off to the somewhat hidden restaurant. Both Sly and I ordered the seven course meal -- so good, but so much food. The dessert course alone consisted of five individual mini desserts. I could have eaten just the dessert course and left full. We powered through each course and when we thought we couldn't eat another bite...we ate more. If you're in Oahu and enjoy food like this, I would definitely recommend a visit.
Prior to visiting Hawaii I always resisted visiting because I thought it would be overly touristy/gimmicky/resorty. There were definitely pockets of those things but in my mind it didn't detract from the overwhelming natural beauty. I mentally kicked myself for not visiting sooner -- especially since it was such a short trip from SF. Seven years ago, younger and maybe a bit more naive, I thought we had all the time in the world for many more trips back to the islands. We always told ourselves that we'd be back. We lived so close, of COURSE we would be back! Then we moved to the opposite coast and I kicked myself for never returning. Several of our friends were married in Hawaii after we moved to the East Coast but bad timing, long flights, and cost of tickets meant that we weren't able to attend.
When it came to vacation, there were all the OTHER places in the world we still wanted to see -- places that weren't as far or where tickets weren't as costly. I started to think this would be our only trip to Hawaii -- our one shot -- and I was okay with that too. It had been an amazing trip and we both knew we were lucky as hell to have ever gone in the first place and thankful that we experienced it together. Never in a million years would I have guessed that we would return seven years later traveling from another country...
But that is another story for another time...