Serendipity

When we left San Diego, we knew our transit plan and we were
a little bummed because we weren’t going to get a stop in Hawaii –
we were headed north of the islands and getting gas from a couple of ships on
our way because of timing. Then two things happened. First, the oiler broke
and nobody was sure they’d be able to fix them in time to hit us as
scheduled. Maybe isn’t really a comfortable position when you’re
looking at running out of gas somewhere between Hawaii
and Guam. The second thing was a big old
storm up in the Alaska area that had an impact
on sea state all the way to the northern side of the Hawaiian
Islands. Not as significant as the winter storm systems up there
that cause massive waves on the northern shores, but enough to make the trip uncomfortable. 
In the end, all signs sent us into Pearl Harbor
for gas and our timing gave us an evening of liberty. 
 
I was particularly happy, because through Facebook I’ve
gotten back in touch with old college buddies who had drifted away over the
years. One of my best school friends is in the Army and happens to have just
transferred to Hawaii,
so I got to give her a tour of the ship and she took me out to her place in the
city and we wandered in search of dinner. After looking at and dismissing a couple
of restaurants, we wandered into an encampment of food trucks – steak,
Mexican and seafood. They were parked around a bunch of picnic tables under an
awning and had a couple of Coke machines placed around the slab floor since
none of the trucks sold drinks. It smelled great, so we bought a couple of “plate
lunches” of garlic shrimp (my favorite Hawaiian meal ever) and sodas and
sat down to catch up on 17 years. Do I need to say it was a wonderful
evening? Or that in Hawaii,
you should eat out of the trucks instead of the fancy places?
 
On our walk back to her place, we stopped at a store where I
could buy some postcards for the older niece and nephew and ran into a sight
that might well be unique to Hawaii:
SPAM flavored macadamia nuts. No, I didn’t buy them. I did take a
picture to prove I did indeed see what I thought I saw. Also here is a picture
of Diamond Head from sea – isn’t
it lovely? I really could move back to Hawaii.
 
 

Comments

[BJ]

Awesome pictures! I want some of those nuts!