Aloha From Hawaii-- 3

We were asleep by 9 last night. We felt like seniors... or toddlers... or senior toddlers. We tried to make ourselves feel better by saying that we were really going to bed at 3 AM Eastern Time.

Before retiring, my freckled, ginger husband was the color of beet juice. Today I made him wear sunscreen with a 50 SPF. That's the creamy equivalent of a lead suit.


We had to get up early this morning for our Makani Catamaran breakfast cruise. To get to the pier we took the bus and by "the bus" I mean "the bus" because that's what their public transportation is called on the island... The Bus. It's quite a good little system they have here. For two dollars you can get almost anywhere on Oahu and for another two dollars you can get back.

Even though I'm deathly afraid of the ocean (Damn you Steven Speilberg and your stupid stupid stupid "Jaws" movie!) I'm always determined to get on top of the water when we're in Hawaii which is how I found myself on a catamaran before 9 AM.

The safety procedure schtick was better than most. "If your hat falls in the water, raise your hand then I'll raise my hand and we'll say bye bye." That's the biggest dilemma when going out on a boat of any kind. You need a hat to protect yourself from the glaring sun but the wind wants to take your hat and bury it in the Pacific. We just made our baseball hats headache-inducing tight. Thank goodness the bartender was non-judgmental and graciously served us rum way too early in the morning.

The weather was perfect and the view was lovely. Not a bad way to spend the morning.

We were shut out of our second activity of the day when the bastards at the Outrigger Canoe ride lied and said they couldn't take us out because their captain wasn't in. Then we watched as they took other people out for a ride. There was a surfing championship going on at the same time and I think they just wanted full-paying customers and not us losers who were using the Go Card. I was very disappointed but in vacation mode too much to put up a fight.


The rest of the day was spent near-dozing on the balcony while we waited for our friends to arrive from the mainland. Dusk was spent frolicking in the surf with their kids, listening to live Hawaiian music and watching the magnificent sunset. You gotta love this place.