Hawaii is far from everywhere: It’s 2390 miles from California, 4900 miles from China, 3850 miles from Japan, and 5280 from the Philippines.
When I’m asked what I did in Hawaii I pause and do my best to muster up a response that doesn’t portray me as a complete slug. I relaxed: lounged by the pool, read books and magazines, went for long walks, drank mai tais. Hmmm… that’s about it. Traveling to all 50 states is great fun and I may seem to be “on vacation” much of the time, but it’s exhausting. (OK – I’m really not expecting much sympathy here.) It was such a treat to not worry about where I need to be next.
The state of Hawaii encompasses 100’s of islands but the 8 main islands on the south eastern tip of the archipelago are what most of us think of when we picture the Aloha State. The capital, Honolulu, on O’ahu, is a booming metropolis where a million vacationers arrive each year. Many go on to visit the other islands but many remain and spend their time ensconced at a resort on Wakiki, as I did.
Everyone said “have a mai tai for me”, so I did my best but my mai tai consumption was held in check by the exorbitant price: $14 a piece at the Hilton. Prices are high at resorts. We all know that, but really now! Of all 5o states HI is the only one where coffee is grown. I kept my coffee consumption up - at least I could afford that!
I walked along the beach where possible to the base of Diamond Head. My destination was Diamond Head Lighthouse. The lighthouse is owned by the Coast Guard and not open to the public but I could take a picture through the fence.
Our only dinner “out” was at John Dominis. This award-winning seafood restaurant is a long-time favorite of Vickie’s and I’m grateful that she introduced me to it.
Vickie also helped me with my state song selection. I’m going with Honolulu City Lights by The Brothers Cazimero for my playlist but I’ve including the YouTube link for The Carpenters version.
Here’s the Hawaii book slection from 50 States of Literature:
“Heads by Harry is one of the few novels about Hawaii that doesn’t mention surfing, tiki dancers, or anything else typically, and often wrongly, associated with the islands. Toni Yagyuu is the middle child and a consistent disappointment to her parents—her brother, Sheldon, is more interested in becoming a hairstylist than the man of the house, and her sister, Bunny, is fast becoming the family diva. Toni has two wishes—to be apprenticed by her father in his taxidermy shop called, of course, Heads by Harry; and to win the heart of Maverick Santos, resident heartthrob. Lois-ann Yamanaka is exceptionally gifted at making the unusual and unsavory seem exotic and entrancing—taxidermy is “true art, not a painting or poem, inaccurate and prone to interpretation, but breathing life into flesh drawing breath.” She also renders the Hawaiian landscape as something beyond simply lush. Instead, it is a land full of diverse elements and peoples. There are “the forests of Pana’ewa full of invisible tigers ... the smell of rock cookies and sweet potato manju ... the expanses of sugarcane fields and macadamia nut trees.” This landscape is populated with clueless haoles (white foreigners), immigrants, wily locals, and the local wildlife, which is far from isolated from its human cohorts. While boar-hunting, Toni spies someone “ravag[ing] the soft pubic earth of earthworms and slugs, the sandy sod caught in a delicate system of roots, a littoral memory.” Details like these are what make Yamanaka’s work not a typical story about a feisty girl striving to be accepted, but a story that could only take place in the land of kukui trees and the Mauna Loa mountains.”
I’m half way through the book and confess it’s not my favorite and I’ve bogged down. It is a very worthwhile selection because it reflects the real Hawaii where the people where really live but I just don’t like the characters. I could do a turn-around as I complete it, it’s happened
before.
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