FIRST MORNING IN HAWAII

Waking up in the Hawaii Prince Hotel in Waikiki O'ahu Friday Morning

 



 My 11th floor window shows sailboats below.

I sleep late (8:30 AM) so I can have a late breakfast and won’t need to buy lunch.  And, of course, to make up for sleep deprivation.  I walk hesitantly from place to place in my room trying to decide what to do first and where to find things.  I need coffee bad but a 30 minute walk will be better.  I like to know where I am.

Mountains Out The Back

Boat for Sale

Walking along the bay, I see signs of money and debt and trash.  A Food Pantry van drives by; maybe hotel restaurants give offerings for the poor and homeless.

Trash in the Bay

One-third of the people are tourists dressed in Hawaiian shirts and shorts or dark pants and jackets with hats.   The latter must have arrived recently.  The other two-thirds of people are workers in transportation or other service industries.   Both groups are heavily represented by Japanese or Japanese-American.

 There are five pigeon/doves in Hawaii, none native.   But these are cute.

Spotted Turtle Dove on the Dock

 I see the real beach in the far distance and a highly manicured hotel beach nearby with folks already playing in the water.  Getting the sun is a high priority with little care for skin cancer. 

BREAKFAST

I opt for the $29 breakfast buffet which is “American” and “Japanese.”  I avoid the corner holding multi-colored cereal and pass by the omelette-making area.  My first morning should be special, right?  And the ala carte items would cost the same added together but be less interesting.

I ask two tourists who might know something about the food like nato.  “Yes, very healthy, very ethnic.”  A server says it’s fermented soy, an acquired taste because of the consistency but it’s very healthy. 

I eat everything including the nato, which is just fine although each forkful  has threads coming from the food -- like hot pizza mozzarella.  A very sweet Japanese server suggests I might want some miso soup for the seaweed and fish on my plate.  But I tell her miso soup is too salty for my taste and I don’t mind eating the seaweed and fish “as is.”    She is impressed by my trying the nato.  “I didn’t come here to have cereal,” I say and she laughs.

 I hope the little video works.  If it doesn't, copy this address (https://youtu.be/B5FDkfgKJAA) and put it in your url.

Cups of nato

Papaya and guava are so ripe; eating that while Hawaiian music is playing is very relaxing.  I eat three plates of healthy food, stretching out breakfast until 10:30.  Four Asian-looking women about my age are at a nearby table speaking only English.  They talk about a good book one of them read and then spend one hour discussing health issues.  “My doctors said I had the worst case...never seen such... he said my friend has transglobal amnesia.”  Then they switched briefly to tales of getting lost in parking garages and how to avoid it.  Then back to knee replacements.  Out the window I spot two bicyclists with surf boards attached
somehow and very many tour buses and taxis. 

I find a place with internet connections and settle down.  When I read today’s Borowitz Report from The New York Times:  Poll: Republicans Would Rather Actually Be Shot by Gun Than Agree with Obama , I laugh so loud an expensive-looking couple at a nearby table look up.  When I tell them the headline the woman laughs but the man looks askance.  I say that no matter what your point of view, that’s funny.  He smiles. 

A non-alcoholic pina colada smoothie will last me till dinner.  When I register at the Road Scholar desk I am given a lei.  And loads more information.  Buffet seafood dinner is at six followed by yet more info and introductions.  Other posts may be slow in arriving as I search for internet connections on the trip.