Hawaii

Hawaii is going to be a short entry because it is very easy to recap our time in the Islands. First let’s say that Oahu is one of the most beautiful places on earth. Yes, we were told that the other islands are much more beautiful than Oahu, but for us this is not a competition, it is a matter of personal perspectives and experiences. Oahu’s nature and landscape are beautiful; the laid-back culture and approach towards life is contagious; finally, the city is well developed so we felt comfortable arriving there.

In addition to the points mentioned above, we had fantastic hosts on the island. Our friends Jay and Ploy Lam welcomed us in to their home, showed us around the island and took us out for many great meals. Since we visited Asia we have developed a great taste for good Asian food. We are not talking about the common US chains that try to sell us processed frozen food as Asian cousin. We are interested in small local restaurants where the food is done right and fresh. Anyway, Oahu has a fantastic selection of Asian food so we had a blast visiting the best places to eat.

We did not have good weather every day there (it felt like we brought some of the NZ summer with us), but when the sun came out we went to the beach or to the pool to take advantage of the last few days of this trip in tropical weather. One of the rainy days we ended up going to the Bishop Museum (http://www.bishopmuseum.org/) to learn more about Hawaiian culture and history. Yes, Hawaii is a US state but their culture and history do not have much in common with the rest of the continental US. While we were there we learned that without planning it we have traveled the Polynesian triangle. We have visited Easter Island, New Zealand and Hawaii, the area inside these three geographical points is known as the Polynesian triangle.  Cool huh? Now we know more about Polynesian culture that we ever intended.

Coming back to Hawaii and our fantastic hosts and friends, Jay had always wanted to cook a turducken (http://www.seriouseats.com/2012/11/the-food-lab-the-ulimate-turducken.html) so what better day to do it than Christmas. We ended up having a fantastic meal in the company of some of their friends at their amazing house overlooking the Pacific Ocean with sunny 80 degrees and a nice breeze. The food was amazing and the company was better, we could not ask for a better Christmas away from home.

One day we went around the island to see the famous surf beaches and the “Banzai Pipeline” on the north of the island.  We got to see some guys surfing waves that we would not even consider touching. They make it look so easy from the beach but the reality is very different once you are inside the pipe. Very cool! Our appreciation for surfing and surfers has grown, for sure! That same day we went out to the town of Kailua to see if we could get a glimpse of the President and his family. Although we could not find the house we got to see why they like to visit there. It is very beautiful!

After 7 days of paradise, beaches and soft reincorporation into the US way of life we were ready to catch our flight to San Diego and get back to mainland US.