Lunamania

As the pictures indicate, Hawai'i was beautiful and tasty to boot. Two weeks of floating in the ocean, mai tais, multiple bowls of ox-tail soup, many plates involving "two scoop rice and mac salad", exploring new music, hikes that took us on lush adventures and countless waterfalls and a final weekend of doing more of the same while the Bicycling With a Purpose Monkey raised over $6,000 for Malama Pono on her AIDS ride--many thanks to our friends for supporting!

It was lovely, but I'm glad to be home. Hawai'i is a difficult place to be for too long. Knowing my rental car and ABC store reliant self was chipping away at these achingly beautiful islands ("it's so pretty it hurts my eyes!") started eating at me. While I wasn't one of the hundreds of people marching ON TOP of the coral reefs, or the Marriott literally tearing chunks out of Oahu to create man made bays and beaches, my presence--especially on Waikiki--was definitely not part of the solution. Staying w/friends on Kauai and to accompany The Monkey on her ride was better, but even the Chicken Island, I mean Garden Island is straining from the rising tourist trade. The three lane road that connects most of Kauai is now bumper to bumper during rush hours and between 2PM - 6PM. That would be all day.

If I were local, I would find it near impossible to resist committing acts of violence like key scratching every Saturn, Ford escort and Mustang convertible; sabotaging the Aveda, Hilton and Outrigger armies claiming all the beachfront property; and deporting the island versions of the street punks on Haight St. And I think given today's "domestic terrorist" headlines, I should stop here.

I know I'm sounding terribly ungrateful, but had to vent. Perhaps the key is to stick to visiting friends on Kauai. Many thanks to folks who graciously hosted us and to our friends here who looked out for our animoooos, fetched us from the airport and supported the Malama Pono through the Monkey's Ride.