In previous
posts, I’ve indicated that John was an adventurous, let’s do it last minute
kind of guy. This didn’t end with marriage and honeymoon, but continued. Just
before Christmas 1968, he came home from work and told me we were going to
Hawaii!!!
Now, everyone knows that you can’t
just book a December trip to Hawaii at the last minute…and John didn’t. Flying
and changing reservations back then was very easy. Someone at Nordstrom had
been promoted and had to cancel his vacation. He sold his tickets and arrangements
to John. So, we were, indeed, going to Hawaii right after Christmas.
We
also still “dressed” in 1968. John wore his white Nehru jacket and small checked
black and white pants. I had a couple of dresses I wore when we weren’t going
out and about. Then it was shorts and t-shirts.
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| John's Pineapple plantation |
What a wonderful experience to leave
the gray of Seattle and step off the plane into sunshine and warmth. The hotel
we stayed at was actually a little enclave of cottages between two high rise
hotels. There was a pool and the ocean was just a little walk away. The
gentleman who had arranged the trip for himself and his wife had made arrangements
for a number of tours. We visited the Dole Plantation and I was astounded to
see how pineapple actually grew. We also went to something like Sea World. It
had a three-masted ship and a dolphin show. We could have also toured the Arizona,
but for some reason John didn’t want to do that.
John had an even better idea. He’d
rent a little motor scooter and then we’d be free to go anyplace on the island
instead of just staying in downtown Waikiki. The days we didn’t have a tour, we’d
head out on that motor scooter and just go wherever the road took us. After
all, it was an island, so we couldn’t get lost. We saw places and things that
most people probably didn’t back then. I remember we went through this little
town, camp, wide place in the road. It was like visiting Mexico again. The
children were running around naked, the homes were literally shacks, and there
didn’t appear to be any running water or electricity. I was appalled that such
places could exist in the U. S. of A.
One day we got up and went to Makaha
Beach where they held the surfing championships back then and maybe still do
today. At one end of the bay, the big waves came in. As they moved down the
bay, they became smaller so people like me who didn’t swim well could body surf
or just be in the water. John spent most of the time on the beach while I spent
it in the water. I know he enjoyed sitting there, covered with sun block and
towels so he wouldn’t be burned and watching all the young women in their
bikinis. I enjoyed people watching and playing in the water.
By the end of the day, we had
exhausted our supply of sun block. When we left the beach on our motor scooter,
the sun was behind us and low in the sky. I didn’t think about getting a
sunburn, but by the time we got to the hotel, the backs of my arms and calves
were bright red. Oh my, this trip it was me saying, “Don’t touch my sunburn.”
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| Inside Diamond Head |
We also attended our very first
outdoor concert. It was held in the bowl of Diamond Head. I cannot remember who
was playing, but we enjoyed hiking through the tunnel and into the volcano
basin. It was a pleasant way to spend an afternoon.
You cannot go to Hawaii without going
to a Luau. It was part of the tour package and we attended late one afternoon.
The roasted pork was delicious although a trifle greasy. The poi was absolutely
awful. We couldn’t imagine eating anything like that on a regular basis. John
really enjoyed the young ladies dressed in Hawaiian attire. They danced the
Hula and there was a group of young men who danced with fire sticks while music
and drums were played by others. The young men were very handsome as well…I
enjoyed watching.
Of course, we were there for the new
year. What an experience. Long before dark and midnight, people in the two
adjacent hotels began throwing strings of fire crackers from their balconies.
The space in between where we were acted like an echo chamber. This was in
addition to all the other fireworks on the beach, in town, everywhere. Talk
about noisy plus it went on almost the entire night. The following morning when
we went out and about, there was red firecracker paper littering the sidewalks,
streets and everything else. It looked as though it had snowed red during the
night.
We also experienced how it rains in
the tropics. One afternoon, we had to
wait for a light to change so we could make a U-turn in order to reach the
hotel. The sky opened up and it rained so hard you could barely see. We were
drenched by the time the light changed, John turned the motor scooter and we
went a quarter of a block to the hotel. There’s a photo of John pouring water
out of his shoe although it might not be very clear. It rained like that most
afternoons in Waikiki. It was great fun to be swimming in the pool or the ocean
while being drenched by the rain. Then, the sun would come out and dry up
everything.
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| John pouring water out of shoe |
Then, there’s the fruit. We discovered
apple bananas. They tasted as though the banana had been soaked in apple juice…delicious.
Haven’t seen them or had them since. The pineapple…oh yes, the fresh pineapple.
My mother craved pineapple while she was pregnant with me, but you couldn’t get
it. She said that’s why I liked it so much. I ate pineapple morning, noon and
night, to the point the skin inside my mouth actually sloughed off.
What a wonderful vacation that was.
Family and friends picked us up at the airport and we enjoyed reiterating all
out adventures to them. I wish I had been journaling back then because I know I’ve
forgotten a lot of experiences and stories I could share now if I remembered them.
While I may not have a journal, I do have some very bad photographs (wish I’d had
a phone with a camera back then) and some wonderful memories of sharing Hawaii
with John on our first trip there.