Hawaiian Rollercoaster Ride

Hawaii sure is a crazy place. I mean, it’s an island with a small population that is almost utterly dependant upon tourism to survive, yet crime, especially crime against tourists, is supposedly out of control. How does this make sense? There just aren’t that many people here, especially on smaller islands such as Kauai (right around 100,000 people), which should make it rather easy to find whoever is committing these crimes and take care of them. It’s not like they’re going to hop in a car and drive cross country to avoid being arrested…because they can’t! I would think that the big hotels on the island, who have an interest in tourists feeling safe, would pressure the local government to step up enforcement and crime would come to a screeching halt. That’s one weird thing.

Another is the convoluted road system, especially around Honolulu. Since there is so little room on an island for roadways, city planners have had to be extremely creative with the way they have made highways and local roads intersect. I’m 100% positive that this creativity impresses the hell out of other city planners around the world, but makes driving Honolulu a confusing ordeal for visitors. The funniest part about the road system has to be the three main highways on Oahu; the H1, H2, and, you guessed it, the H3. These roads are all great to drive, especially the H2 and H3, which pass through incredible scenery and are true wonders of engineering. The only thing is, these roads are labeled as “Interstates”… Somebody tell me again exactly which other states these roads intertwine with? The state of confusion? A state of shock? Very confusing stuff.

Things aren’t all doom and gloom here though, and two days ago was a perfect example of that. We headed out early in the morning for Kailua, reputedly the best beach on Oahu and one of the best beaches in the entire United States. My brother and I had arranged to take windsurfing lessons at 9:30 AM with Kailua Kayaks and Sailboards, something I had always wanted to try. Considering that Kailua Beach is one of the top windsurfing spots in the world, especially for beginners, it seemed like a great opportunity to learn. We arrived on time and walked down to the beach to meet with our instructor Aaron, a nice guy and a great windsurfer who originally hails from the Hoosier State of Indiana. The lesson started out with us doing some land work on the “million dollar simulator” – two pieces of wood with a swivel joint and a place to stick a practice sail in. After going through the motions on land and getting the hang of how everything worked and what all the pieces of equipment were (board, sail, boom, mast, universal joint), we hit the water and started sailing! Kinda.

As with any new activity or sport, it was tough going at first. I kept falling off the board, losing my balance, or losing control of my sail, which made it hard to get going in one direction for any length of time. After awhile though, things started to click, and right around 45 minutes into the lesson, I was sailing out to sea never to return! I’m serious about the never returning stuff. You see, it’s easy sailing downwind, which is of course how you start out since it makes sense to start off with the easiest thing first. However, in this case, sailing down wind took me out in the ocean a good ways rather quickly, which then begs the question, how do I get back? Sail upwind of course! Now, we had been taught how to do this, but sailing upwind is much more difficult than sailing downwind and takes longer to get used to. This produced a net effect of me shooting far out into Kailua Bay in about 35-40 seconds and returning to shore after 30 minutes of struggling. Quite the hilarious sight.

Windsurfing is great fun and I’m really glad I learned how to do it. My instructor said I was doing pretty well, since by the end of the lesson, I was tacking back upwind pretty well and reaching my intended destination. Kailua Beach, on a side note, is by far the most beautiful beach I have been to in the United States. The water and sand really remind me of Australian beaches, with soft white sand and sweeping turquoise water. Gorgeous stuff. After Andrew and I were done windsurfing, we hung out at the beach a bit longer then headed back to Nancy’s place, took care of a few quick errands (aka: picked up photos from scuba diving!), ate dinner, and grabbed some rest. Man alive was I tired at the end of that night.

Yesterday we woke up early and headed down to Waikiki Beach for some surfing action. At long last some surfing. After all, what is a trip to Hawaii with out some time on a board? We got down there pretty early, like 9 AM, and the beach was already getting full. The first order of business was securing a board for the day, something we accomplished by going to a rental shop a short ways up the road where the guy working behind the counter didn’t speak English very well, which definitely begs the question “What are you doing running a shop on Waikiki when you don’t speak English?!?!?” Argh! Anyway, I eventually got my point across and got myself a board for some wave riding then headed down to the beach.

The waves on Waikiki were really good, nice long gentle waves, perfect for beginners and advanced beginners (like me!). After a few snafus, I got back in the rhythm of things and caught a few nice rides. It’s amazing how crowded it gets out there though, with right around 40 or 50 surfers waiting on the same break, which is pretty dangerous and means that you have to dodge people as you’re riding in. Oh well, just part of the experience I guess. Andrew and Dad both gave it a go on the board, but came back in shaking their heads muttering “I suck” rather loudly. Haha, oh well, they’ll get better. The sun was really cooking yesterday, and I was very glad that I picked up a rash guard (aka: rashy) since it prevented the sun from burning a hole directly through the center of my back. Great day of surfing action.

A note to all the guys out there: if you want to see gorgeous girls, head to Waikiki. Suffice to say the number of amazing girls there was ridiculous, which you would expect with it being Waikiki and all, but still, pretty amazing to see. Kinda makes you dizzy after awhile.

Anyway, after surfing our brains out for like 5 hours, we returned the board and decided to hike up Diamond Head, the crater/cliff on the eastern end of Honolulu. It was a good hike up, no where near as intense as the hikes we did on Kauai, but still strenuous. The view from the top was pretty neat as it overlooks all of Waikiki and Honolulu as well as the suburbs to the north and east. After hiking back down, we settled on a place to eat, La Cucaracha (I know, how cheesy!), and headed back into Waikiki to locate it. It was a long walk to the restaurant, but it was well worth it, as the food was excellent (dare I say the best Mexican I have ever had???) and reasonably priced. It’s important to note the context of this restaurant experience to get an idea of what a find it was. Most of the restaurants in the vicinity of Waikiki are extremely touristy and overpriced, or in other words, serve average to mediocre American food for $15-25. La Cucaracha on the other hand was great Mexican food in an uncrowded atmosphere for around $10-15 per person. Great stuff.

Day over, we headed back home, had a few beers, and crashed. *Whew*, that was a long post to get through. Only two more days left in paradise, then back to Minneosta and my lovely girl, who will be returning from Venezuela. Hope everybody has enjoyed reading her posts as much as I have. Thats all for now, aloha!