Around the Island

Today was a simple tour around the island and it made the day go so well. I began with a walk down to Waikiki Beach and a little wading in the water. I had a nice breakfast at a coffee shop where a former SCUBA diving instructor and I talked about diving in Hawaii and at the Great Barrier Reef and then we talked about the brevity in life and how we are to best use our time in light of it.

Clem and Alice picked Dave and me up for a tour of the island. We first drove past the extensive boulevard of shops surrounding the Waikiki beach area. The shopping promenade extended a great length and then we drove down the grassy mall at the end of the beach, right below Diamondhead mountain.

From there, we passed Jim Nabor's (Gomer Pyle) house, as well as the places where Tom Selleck and Jack Lord used to live. We then began to circle the island stopping at a few choices spots for sight-seeing, having lunch, and stopping at the military memorials. It is so interesting to see the largely self-contained life of the military and the fraternity they share (is that O.K. to use even with women in the Armed Services?) I have great respect for the way our military carries out its policies and care for its members. Loyalty is a life-long bond among the personnel.

We ate at a golfing club house and then set out to get a shaved ice at Manamoto's on the north part of the island. Let me tell you about this shaved ice. First, they put Japanese red beans marinated in sugar (Azuka) at the bottom of the cub, then fill it with vanilla ice cream, then form a rounded ice patch on top of that in which you pour three flavors onto it and cover it with condense milk if that suits your taste. (It does not mine.) I chose tangerine, pineapple, and coconut cream. Yummy.

Largely, we went to the north shore because the great surfing waves are there. They sometimes swell to twenty feet or even higher. The great surfers of the world come here just to ride the most magnicent waves in the U.S. But today, the water was so still and placid that I could have dropped a penny into the water to make a wave. We laughed because of the disappointment, but it was great fun to tour the island of O'ahu.

I even saw two mongoose. I have no idea how to make it plural - mongeese? or mongooses? or simply mongoose? No idea.

I'm still waiting for someone to teach me to dance.