Back in the Bird's Nest!

Once the fog of re-entry settles after a month away, it actually seems good to be home.  It takes a while for my control-freak personality to get everything cleaned, and back in its own place.  The Bird's Nest looks better every day and a few days of sunshine have allowed Mt. Hood to appear in all her glory through the windows.  I've placed a bowl of green anthuriums on the coffee table for just that little touch of Hawaii.  They look beautiful, and I am finally feeling like I have time to sit down once again with a good book, or write a new blog post!

(Best of all, I am now able to add photos from my iphone to my blog!  After much computer/iphone frustration, it finally works and I am feeling that it will be a good thing to share photos along with thoughts.) 

As always, this year's Hawaii/Oahu quest was to stay as far away as possible from buses of  tourists and mobs crowding downtown Waikiki.  Staying away from throngs of people has become my great obsession as I get older. So, staying on the "other side" of the island is a must, and I purposefully plan days that largely take us to places the "hordes" have not yet found.  "Where can that be on Oahu?" you might ask. Well, there are quite a few locales that currently are almost untouched by tourists.

For example, take the lovely Turtle Bay area on the North Shore where photographic scenes like this abound.   A good lunch at Ola restaurant on the beach with sand in your toes and under your table is a great place to go for relaxation, and then if you are lucky, to catch a surf competition, Sunset Beach is ten minutes up the road. You might catch a wedding here, or a polo tournament nearby, or ponder the monument to those who spotted the first Japanese fighters as they approached Pearl Harbor in December, 1941.

Chinatown in Honolulu seems it would be overrun with tour buses. But it doesn't seem to be the case. During the day at the shops and markets, and into the evening, shoppers seem mostly local.  With our Honolulu friends showing us the way to good Chinese food, we also stumbled on a beautiful alter to the Quon Yin in the Cultural Plaza: a calming presence in the midst of Honolulu.

About as "away" as one can get from the tourist rabble is the Valley of the Temples Memorial Park at Ahuimanu, just north of Kaneohe.  The "Beyodo In" is an exact replica of a Buddhist Temple of the same name in Japan.  This year we rang the giant bronze bell three times in memory of my Dad, followed a roaming peacock, and sat before the giant golden Buddha offering incense and sending our thoughts and prayers to eternity.

 

Macabre as it seems, Oahu cemeteries drew me in this year.   Their appeal has a historical quality, and they encourage quiet and meditation.  Also, in Oahu, except for the Punch Bowl Memorial, cemeteries don't generally attract the tour bus crowd.  Yet they have a unique, and somber beauty.  The Japanese Buddhist Cemetery in Kaneohe is lovely, more so when the mountain mists are rolling through. 

What I most love about my travels, is encountering the unexpected: a bird, a waterfall, a unique flower, a vista that takes my breath away.  Now with my iphone, I am able to snap a photo and later, when I return home, a brief look can transport me back to that moment.  And, thanks to this miraculous technology, I can now share it with blog friends as well!

                                                                       ALOHA!