Since we just got back late on Wednesday evening, I am going to write about where we went, because it may interest you mainlanders.
Hawaii is a paradise. During the 10 days we were there, it was always 80 or so in daytime, and maybe 60 at night. Hawaii is a strong Democrat state. Super liberal;, although I cannot understand why. We thoroughly explored three of its several islands, namely Oahu (Honolulu), Mauri, and Kuwai. Honolulu has a population of about 600,000 and is full of traffic, high rises, and like all the islands, beautiful beaches. Waikiki is world famous and deservedly so, although they import their sand from Australia, it is said. Waikiki is a great place to spend your time, and in a hotel close to, or on the beach, which we did. At night time, the main drag is full of street musicians, artists, and hawkers of all sorts. Fun! The pollution in Honolulu is a problem, even with the wind blowing a lot of it away. You’ll get a ticket it you jay walk, so few risk it. Parking is a nightmare.
There are 50 or so “ABC” stores, seemingly everywhere. They are extremely well run variety stores with just about everything in them, and all seem to do very well. Two in one block sometimes. Started in 1941 by an entrepreneur who is dead, but his aged wife still lives I understand. The Bishop Museum is a must for all who visit. Hawaii has no Victorians, or no old neighborhoods, unless you think a 50 year old home is ’old,’ and I don’t. A tiny little home will cost you over $750,000, and Hawaii has a 7% state income tax, plus high property taxes. That part of it is NOT ’paradise.’ I think the lack of seasons would be boring, but for a month or so in the midst of a harsh winter, like we have been having on the mainland, it is great. Oahu (Honolulu) has three interstate highways, it is so congested.
Pearl Harbor is visited by all tourists, and the air museum, Battleship Missouri plus the Arizona memorial can bring tears to the eyes of us old geezers who remember WW II. The Japanese, who are everywhere, and rarely speak English, don’t seem to connect their race to WW II for some strange reason.
Maui has lots of famous people living on it. No high rises, and mad traffic jams, like in Oahu. Mauri, named after a early day chief, is great and laid back, although its population is growing.
Kuwai, like the rest of the islands is beautiful, and especially the Princeville area. Gas is expensive in Hawaii, close to $4 a gallon for regular. The humidity is high, and the air is not crisp and clean feeling, like in Colorado. The mountains in Hawaii are green and lush, and the surf is marvelous as it crashes into shore. It is a damned expensive place to live! Even McDonalds are twice the price on the m mainland, maybe because everything comes in by ship. Sugar cane is still grown, and real sugar, as opposed to sugar beet sugar, seems to be a thing to look for, although I think the taste is the same. We went through a sugar museum on Mauri, and it was very interesting.
Tourism is at least 80% Japanese, and signs are all in English and Japanese. Hawaii has lots and lots of races, all mixed together, and intermarried, and a ’haolie’ (white person), feels like a minority, and especially in Oahu. Original Hawaiians are very much intermarried with other races also, but a pure strain, native Hawaiian, can be told by facial features, and they are very much guarding their heritage, and understandably so. Actually, native Hawaiians were treated by the invaders, like we treated the Indians here. Not a pretty picture but, native Hawaiians, like the American Indians, had a very crude civilization, and the ’haolies’ brought disease as well as civilization. Without the haolies in Hawaii, or whites in America, it is difficult to imagine what America or Hawaii would be like 200 years later. Probably not too desirable, at least to us. That’s a question which will be debated for another 200 years, but it happened, and time cannot be reversed.
It was sad to leave Hawaii with its weather and beaches. but I am not sure if I could live there, although the temptation is strong!