Hawaii - May 27 - Plane rental, ultimate and Ala Moana Center

Really high atop the "things to do on Oahu" list was of course: go flying!  I found Barbers Point Flight School through Open Airplane (even though I haven't actually gotten checked out through Open Airplane yet).

Sweetening the deal was their tail number - not too far off of the 411BP that I fly so often back in Santa Barbara.

We actually went on two flights around the island - one clockwise and the other counter-clockwise.  That allowed for me to fit Melch, Drayas and Val (my mother-in-law) in with myself and the instructor.

So the extremely astute observer might notice that the photos below are actually sometimes from opposite sides of the plane.

The flight was phenomenal.  We flew around the entire island, twice.  The instructor was pretty friendly and helped when necessary but generally just let me do my thing.

The views were just awesome.  I tried to take photos as often as I could, but every reef, every valley and cloud, was just stunning.  I've been coming to Oahu for a while now and driven pretty much everywhere that one can drive and it was such a cool thing to see how it all fits together from the air.

I took stop-motion videos in both directions:

And of course the photos:

Dillingham Field 

Hale Iwa, looking south towards Honolulu

This is just awesome

Flying around some rain and under a rain cloud near Kahuku

Awesome Valley

Kaneohe Bay

Kaneohe Marine Base

Me, Melch and the Sam (the CFI)

Kaneohe/Kailua area

Kaneohe/Kailua area

Olomana Peak - where we hiked on Saturday

Approaching Waimanalo Bay

Makapu'u Point

Hanauma Bay, Koko Head and Hawaii Kai

Diamond Head, Waikiki, Honolulu

Downtown

Aloha Bowl

Honolulu Airport

Pearl Harbor

Hangin' with my brother!

Val enjoying a new view of her old stomping grounds

Actual route of one of the flights

 After the flights and a bit of ultimate, we went to Ala Moana center for some Genki Sushi.  Genki Sushi is a "fast food" sushi joint like they have in Japan.  Plates are pre-made and move around on a conveyor belt.  If you want something special, you can order it.  It used to be that special orders would be brought out by the wait staff, but the more modern Genki experience includes little cars on tracks that zoom out and deliver whatever you requested.  Usually within a minute or two.  Tons of fun.

Spam Musubi! 

Each special order vehicle was different - race car, space ship, train, even a surf board!

Really, what a phenomenal day.  Got to see Oahu in ways we never had before.  Got to take Val up for her first small plane ride.  Sunset ultimate right along the ocean at Ala Moana park.  Fun Sushi and goofing off in Ala Moana center.  Great adventures from sunup to sundown.

Hawaii - May 25 - Waimanalo, Makapu`u Pt, Hanauma Bay, Kona Brewpub, Ala Wai ulty

Our first full day on Oahu actually wasn't THAT full of a day.  We got up a little to late for it to count as that. ;)

No regrets though - the day before didn't have much in the way of sleep but did have a lot of travel, hiking, rain, mud and sweat.  A good night's sleep was in order.

We started late, but we started strong, with some epic crepes from Crepes Na Ka 'Oi in Kailua.  We had some stout savory crepes filled with meats and cheeses and that kind of thing, but split an awesome guava jelly crepe for desert.

Thus armed, we adventured down the coast.  The plan if we had time was to hike Diamond Head and then head over to Ala Wai in Honolulu for some ultimate, but we had gotten off to a slow start and had to deal with a long wait for a table at breakfast also.

I opted not to rush down to Diamond Head though and pulled over early and often for fun diversions.  The first of those was Waimanalo Bay, home of the famous Kaimana and Hopu ultimate tournaments.  Melch and I have attended both over the years, but Drayas never had so it was cool showing him where all the fun went down.  Naturally, we had to spend some time throwing a disc around, swimming, and throwing a disc around while swimming!

From there we continued down past the Oceanic Institute to Makapu'u point where we didn't quite have time for the hike to the lighthouse but at least got out of the car for the scenic view and some photos.

Next stop was Hanauma Bay, Oahu's most famed snorkel spot.  We were going to wait for Val before going in, but still took the time to scope the spot out from above.

With only a little time left before the scheduled ultimate game, we opted to carb-load at the Kona Brewery location in Hawaii Kai.  After a tasting flight and a quick call home to wish my nephew and his caretakers a happy birthday, we were off to Ala Wai.

How did ultimate go?  Well, we played 3 hours, savage, in the rain, with little water to drink.  We were exhausted, but victorious.  Melch and I won all four games that we played.  Drayas won his fourth after he joined us...  Santa Barbara represented extremely well, with me throwing Melch the final point - on an upwind - in the dark - with a full-on layout dive for the disc.  (Not that my throw was SO bad that it needed the dive, but it was so dark that she didn't see it until late!)

The ultimate crew gave us some recommendations - both for games later in the week and for evening eats.  We had more pressing business before dinner: we were soaked from sweat and rain, and we were beyond thirsty.  After changing into dry clothes, we headed to 7-11 where each of us purchased two big bottles of gatorade.  My first was nearly gone by the time I got back to the car.  It seems crazy that one can get that thirsty in the rain, but it can definitely happen.  As ultimate players, hikers and otherwise adventurous folk, we are no strangers to the demands of hydration, but had allowed things to lapse on this day due to not having enough water bottles in the first place.  We'd started the day all full but ran out quickly in the Hawaiian heat.  No matter - we now have six brand-spanking new gatorade bottles to fill with water and put in the freezer at the vacation rental.  Won't make that mistake twice!

Properly clothed and hydrated, we moved on to the next order of business - the highly-recommended ramen restaurant near the Don Quixote asian market in Honolulu.  The food was as good as we had heard, but the warmth of the soup let us know that our bedtime was fast approaching.  After a quick drive through Waikiki to show Drayas what the tourist center is all about, we hopped on the Pali Highway and made for Kailua.  The 25th ended as the 24th did - with folks sleeping as soon as their heads hit their pillows.

Hawaii - Arrival and Olomana Hike

Honolulu isn't the only city in Hawaii that accepts flights from the mainland, but it's the only one I've ever entered through.  Every time I've come, I've stopped to check out the neat little courtyard in the main terminal.

Melch and I got to share that tradition with my brother, who is on Oahu for his first time.

We're going to be in Hawaii for two weeks, but on Oahu for only 6 days before moving on to Kauai.  While we're here, we are staying in Kailua.  It's pretty close to Melch's aunt and uncle in Kaneohe and it's where we found a cool vacation home to rent.

On the way to our lodging, we stopped off at Uahi Grill to show Drayas what Hawaiian plate lunch was all about.  Rice, mac salad, poke and chicken went down just fine, washed down with a locally brewed coconut porter.

After check-in, it was time for a quick hike.  We picked a 1.5 mile trail to the top of a local mountain peak.  It turns out that it was a little more than that since the closest parking is nearly a mile from the trail head, but the walk to the trail was just a golf course cart path, so NBD.

The trail itself was a different story.  As we were walking up we saw a few couples coming down after having finished the trail.  These weren't the usual cruise ship tourist crowd.  They all looked like Crossfitters.

The Yelp review of the hike said that it was pretty challenging, with some bouldering to be done at the end, so that did kind of make sense.  We figured we'd give it a shot.

It was muddy.  It rained for a good portion of the ascent.  The last half was a steep rocky ascent to the peak, made more difficult by the fact that our mud-caked shoes had no traction on the rock.  The peak was actually a narrow ridge line, not more than a body-length wide, surrounded on both sides by steep drops into the pines and palms below.  We hadn't slept much the night before, were jet-lagged and had to get back down the mountain before sun set.

Perfect recipe for a good time!

The first quarter mile was just plain mud.  Inches deep at times

The brown mud gave way to reddish-brown mud that was a little drier

After that there was a bit of pine forest.  That was great because of the better traction

After that, it just went up.

And more up.

And more up.

And then pretty much straight up!

Melch was a little concerned about the final ascent, but she seemed to remember a bit from her mountain-climbing days in the Girl Scouts.

The views were worth it though!

Looking towards Kaneohe

Kailua

Stopping for a snack

#selfie

Crazy descent

Yeah, it was muddy.

After the hike we cleaned off as best we could and went home to take some showers before heading out for dinner.  The place we wanted to eat was closed for a fundraiser, so we went to Zippy's (Hawaiian fast-food, Melch loves it!) and then came back home to pass out.

A great start to our Hawaiian adventure.

It's 106 miles to Chicago...

Melch and I were sick of good weather, so we went to Chicago.  They have good weather in Chicago too, and bad, and ugly, and all in the span of a single week.

They also have a "bean" that looks like this:

And they have Amy, Melch's cousin:

Amy and Melch hadn't seen each other in a decade or two, so it was nice to catch up.  We were actually in town for a work conference, but there were plenty of evenings to hang out and learn about the city.

Amy is an architect and Chicago has a bunch of cool buildings, so it was pretty cool going on long walks with her pointing out interesting facts about what we were seeing.

There was a river, too:

And a zoo:

And whatever the heck this building is (it's in a park by the zoo):

And, perhaps more famously, a lake:

And more famous still, the friendly confines of Wrigley Field - home of the Chicago Cubs:

We made our way up to the John Hancock building for some cocktails with a killer view of the skyline:

And visited the Goose Island brewery:

I had a chance to get my butt kicked by River North Crossfit:

We were staying downtown, right by the Wrigley Building:

It was playoff season, so we were able to watch the Blackhawks (NHL) and Bulls (NBA) in their home towns.  Amy was a big fan of the Blackhawks and had no shortage of suggestions for places where we could see them play.  This was an awesome brewpub a block or two from the Wrigley Building:

It was a good trip.  The conference was good, it was nice to meet and hang out with Amy, and the city was pretty neat.  Cities are filled with people, with all of the good and bad that people bring.  Architecture, art, music, night life and folks with similar interests, whatever your interests might be.  But also: crime, traffic, dirtiness and, for the most part, a lack of natural beauty.

They also compress distance, a lot.  Chicago has functional public transit, but in all honesty, if you want to get somewhere that's more than 2-3 miles from where you are now, there's really no option that gets you there in less than an hour.  I wanted to take a scenic flight, but it was going to take me damn near two hours, each way, to get to the nearest airport.  I was working remote and just didn't have time for a 5-6 hour investment for a 70-minute flight.

I think it's cool in some ways to be able to live in a place with no car.  It prevents a bunch of hassles and it's better for the environment.  It might even be cheaper in many cases.  But it really shrinks your world.

If you have to live in a shrunken world though, you could pick worse shrunken worlds than Chicago.  There's tons to do, it's pretty clean for a city its size and the crime rate is high but apparently pretty concentrated in certain areas.  So long as you shrink your world away from them too you should be able to have a pretty good time.