by Pa Rock
World Traveler
We arrived safely in Honolulu yesterday afternoon and were met at the airport by my friend of many years - and several workplaces - Valerie. She greeted us with beautiful orchid leis, a very thoughtful gift which are still adding a heady fragrance to the air in our hotel room. Our room has a view of Waikiki Beach - if you step out onto the narrow balcony and look for it.
Honolulu has changed markedly in the past forty years since I was last here. The airport was unrecognizable with parking garages where grassy slopes and palm trees once reigned, and the downtown area near Waikiki is a mass of high-rise buildings, most apparently hotels. A majority of the tourists appear to be Japanese, something which did not surprise me, and quite a few of the others are from the mainland United States. We did sit next to a nice couple from Romania on the flight over from San Diego, so Central Europe is represented here as well. Honolulu has traditionally been a melting pot of peoples and cultures.
There are lots of homeless in Honolulu. Valerie showed us some encampments in the parks along the beaches. Most of the beaches have showers which the homeless can use, and several relief agencies bring in a regular supply of meals. Valerie belongs to a church that has a mission of helping to feed the homeless, an act of which I suspect Jesus would approve.
I walked a few blocks this morning to find some sandals to wear on the beach and to procure breakfast for my lady and myself. The meals were acquired from a local Starbucks (for Patti) and a Burger King for this weight-challenged blogger. As a card-carrying descendant of the Starbucks family - with lineage going back into the 1600's - I feel that I have a moral authority to state my views regarding their retail footprint in the twenty-first century. Starbucks, the company, is obviously not as big of a waste of space as Walmart, but the pseudo coffee shops serve little actual purpose other than to give pretentious people a stage on which to showcase their irritating behaviors. Society would be just as well served, if not better served, from Starbucks vending machines placed along the sidewalks.
Valerie will be coming by early this afternoon and taking us for a drive along Oahu's north shore.
Is it still bitterly cold in the Midwest? (Just curious.) It's sunny and in the eighties here - a beautiful morning in Honolulu!
Aloha!
World Traveler
We arrived safely in Honolulu yesterday afternoon and were met at the airport by my friend of many years - and several workplaces - Valerie. She greeted us with beautiful orchid leis, a very thoughtful gift which are still adding a heady fragrance to the air in our hotel room. Our room has a view of Waikiki Beach - if you step out onto the narrow balcony and look for it.
Honolulu has changed markedly in the past forty years since I was last here. The airport was unrecognizable with parking garages where grassy slopes and palm trees once reigned, and the downtown area near Waikiki is a mass of high-rise buildings, most apparently hotels. A majority of the tourists appear to be Japanese, something which did not surprise me, and quite a few of the others are from the mainland United States. We did sit next to a nice couple from Romania on the flight over from San Diego, so Central Europe is represented here as well. Honolulu has traditionally been a melting pot of peoples and cultures.
There are lots of homeless in Honolulu. Valerie showed us some encampments in the parks along the beaches. Most of the beaches have showers which the homeless can use, and several relief agencies bring in a regular supply of meals. Valerie belongs to a church that has a mission of helping to feed the homeless, an act of which I suspect Jesus would approve.
I walked a few blocks this morning to find some sandals to wear on the beach and to procure breakfast for my lady and myself. The meals were acquired from a local Starbucks (for Patti) and a Burger King for this weight-challenged blogger. As a card-carrying descendant of the Starbucks family - with lineage going back into the 1600's - I feel that I have a moral authority to state my views regarding their retail footprint in the twenty-first century. Starbucks, the company, is obviously not as big of a waste of space as Walmart, but the pseudo coffee shops serve little actual purpose other than to give pretentious people a stage on which to showcase their irritating behaviors. Society would be just as well served, if not better served, from Starbucks vending machines placed along the sidewalks.
Valerie will be coming by early this afternoon and taking us for a drive along Oahu's north shore.
Is it still bitterly cold in the Midwest? (Just curious.) It's sunny and in the eighties here - a beautiful morning in Honolulu!
Aloha!
1 comment:
At 7:46 this overcast Sunday morning it is hovering at 50° F. A spring to winter mix returns tomorrow with snow expected about noon. Aloha.
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