Frost bite rehab... fun in the sun and back to the cold!

Hello,


Some of you may already know that we decided to do a little frost bite rehab and that we left our frozen home world up here near the arctic for the nearly perfect weather in Hawaii at the end of January. Yes, it was a short notice trip but the incredible package deals offered to Alaskan residents in winter by Alaskan Airlines was just too good to pass up. The only downside to going to such an island paradise in January is the return trip home. On the way down, they offered free Mai Tai's and greetings of Aloha and pleasant vacations. We were curious if they offer such pleasantries on the way home, but no, no they don't. Not even a shot of Jack with a condolence letter, just a somber "welcome home" was offered by a much quieter, much more deflated flight crew as we landed safely back in Anchorage. Of course, they know you're coming home from Hawaii because no one else except dog mushers and the Japanese are crazy enough to come to Alaska in winter.


The vacation started in Honolulu with a 25 minute bus ride from the airport to the Oahu Waikiki West hotel. The Oahu West, as nicknamed by the locals, is located on Kuhio Avenue across from the Oahu East which is most notable due not to the name on the side of the building, but rather by the abundance of super-model like prostitutes that gather on the corner next to the sign. Waikiki beach is home to one of the more touristy areas of Honolulu and like any good business people, the prostitutes have figured out that the high-end hotels are the best place to conduct their business. The Sheraton, Hyatt and Marriott hotels are also among their favorite hangouts. The working girls were our first introduction to Honolulu mostly as a matter of timing. Our plane landed at around 7 pm and by the time we made the journey to the hotel, it was after 9 pm (read: prime hooking hour). Now, I don't want you to get the impression that hookers are all that Honolulu has to offer cold weary travelers, but they were the first thing we saw upon arrival.

The second funny thing we saw was in the yellow pages. As an odd matter of practice I like to peruse other city's yellow pages. I know it sounds strange, but whatever. So, I tried to look up "entertainment" to see where bars and other places of entertainment reside in Honolulu. What I found were the subheadings "Escorts, Clowns and Magic". I pondered if there were magical hookers dressed in clown suits after giggling at the fact that there were indeed no bars listed under the entertainment section of the phone book. Oh... and there weren't any under the heading of "bars" either, which was my first guess prior to "entertainment". Phonebooks and prostitutes aside, there was much more to the vacation.


We did eventually find the bars in our area, though not through the phone book or any other printed guide. We discovered that most bars in Waikiki are attached to a hotel thus requiring little effort on the part of the hotel guests and insuring top dollar paid for each drink by lazy travelers. Never having been fond of hotel bars, we assumed we'd find better spots elsewhere. We found that the really good bars are located in downtown Honolulu, far from the silliness of tourists. They are small hole-in-the-wall type places with not much more than a hand crafted sign dangling above the door, just the way I like 'em. We stumbled upon a fantastic bar while getting lost in the festivities of the Chinese New Year in Chinatown/Downtown Honolulu. The travel guide said that the streets are dangerous in downtown after dark and to be avoided, but we found that this is completely false. In truth, downtown Honolulu and by proxy Chinatown are home to a phenomenal assortment of great restaurants, small locally owned pubs and bars, and has some very interesting history. We made ourselves at home in a little place simply named "Bar 35". As a former bartender and ever prospective bar owner, I am highly critical of bar tending skills, ambiance in bars and in general the whole business. I am a bar snob, not for the hip and cool, but rather for genuine appeal and time tested skills of a well made drink, humble bar tender and generous pours. Style is good, but personality is what really makes it happen. With the exception of the waitress, I found Bar 35's bartenders to be absolutely top-notch with drinks being served at extremely reasonable prices when compared to Alaskan standards or tourist standards. If we ever lived in Honolulu, I suspect I'd become a regular at this little establishment, though to really make it perfect, a pool table would be nice addition. Ok- enough of that bar review and on to the more interesting stuff.


While we were at Bar 35, we got sucked up into a group of military bar-brats trying very hard to shed the typical military attitude at bars. They were funny, friendly, generous and sported a wide variety of body art and insisted we join them for bar hopping. What can I say? We obliged. We ended up at a number of bars including a really great Irish pub, but I don't remember the name of it because by that point in the night I had already consumed WAY more than my fair share of cosmos and had stopped paying attention to the names of the bars we were sampling. We took a taxi back to our hotel after that little expedition and slept in the next day with only modest hangovers.


Aside from drinking a tad too much, we did manage to see some of the really beautiful sights in Oahu and those were the real show-stoppers for me. To the south of Honolulu, we hiked around Diamond Head and spent a day snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. I fell in love with a relatively small fish with a really big name, though Chris swears the fish isn't really all that small. Either way the name "Humu humu Nuku nuku Apau'aa" seems like a pretty darn complicated name for a relatively small fish. Good thing it's friendly because I can't imagine trying to yell that mouth full to a life guard. I mean really, now? If it were capable of eating you, it would have a much shorter name- easier to scream in fear like "Bear!" or "Shark!" or the like.

While snorkeling and seeing all of the really pretty fish, we managed to avoid parts of the reef called the Toilet Bowl, Witches Brew and the Malakai Express Way as we were warned that these three areas had rather dangerous currents. We also temporarily adopted a 29 year old doctoral student from Montana that was alone and didn't want to snorkel by herself. She was nice and had a lot in common with Chris given that she was studying environment type sciences. It was nice for me to take a back seat to conversation since I have a tendency to talk too much or dominate conversation. She was a welcome addition to our snorkeling adventure. Too bad I can't remember her name. Oh well. I did get thumped a bit by a few waves in one channel where the waves were breaking over the reef against the strong outgoing current. I think Chris described it as being put through the spin cycle. I likened it to being drilled- straight into the reef, that is. Fortunately, I'm a strong swimmer and comfortable in warm ocean waters. After getting carried about 150 yards or so, I popped my head up in between breaking waves, got my bearings and worked my way back to shore. It was a great way to see far more of the reef than I had anticipated.


To the north, we spent time at Pearl Harbor, the USS Arizona Memorial and the North Shore, famous for big waves. I opted not to test these waves. They are for the truly insane only and novices need not apply. The photo's I took will likely not do these monstrous waves any justice. With that in mind, I spent a great deal of time doing nothing at all, reading a book on a beach or snoozing in the sun. I felt fortunate for my ethnic background and did not get particularly sunburned. We went parasailing off of Waikiki beach with an over enthusiastic boat captain and two women in their late 70's. But, with all things vacation, they come to an end and ours ended as abruptly as it began except with even colder temperatures upon returning home than when we left. And this time, with the threat of a volcanic eruption. Oh yes, and I nearly forgot to mention that 9 years after the fact, we replaced our wedding bands, one lost, one ruined. My original band is at the bottom of a lake and Chris' was destroyed in December. At a cost of $35.00 a piece from a super happy street vendor, it was the right price at the right time and though a far cry from gold or platinum, stainless steel works just fine.

Meanwhile, back in AK, Mount Redoubt, about 100 miles southwest of Anchorage on the other side of Cook Inlet began increasing it's activity while we were away. This inspired a great frenzy of Volcano interest nation wide and we were urged to get N95 rated face masks, extra air filters for the car and weather stripping for our homes. Truth be told, I was more concerned about whether or not I would be able to find masks for the dogs and cat than I was about air filters for the car. Even more silly, was that a few people were making a rush on goggles just in case the ash cloud decided to completely shroud the Anchorage bowl in a blanket of toxic ash. Bottled water flew off of store shelves and there was a near hysteria over the imminent threat. I have no use for such silliness, but we did obtain masks as a precaution and my boss requested that I cover my computer equipment with plastic- just in case. There were no masks for the pooches or cat, but I doubt they'd keep any masks on anyway. Part of me had visions a giant pyroclastic cloud marching toward the Anchorage bowl, but then reality settled in with a couple of grounded reminders.


A: The volcano is 100 miles away
B: It is unlikely to dump more than 2 mm worth of ash (2mm is the depth of an average dime)
C: If it blows it's top while we are under high pressure, the prevailing winds will blow it all south
D: If it blows it's top while we are under low pressure, we'll get a bit of ash
E: Either way... there's nothing I can do about it, so no need to worry too much. Nature will do what it does no matter my opinions. It would just be a shame if it messed with the air traffic as planes and ash don't play well together.


With that, the temperatures fell back to the sub-zero category, the snow started to fly and blanket the city in a new fresh coat of velvety white snow. When the sun did come out in recent days, there was a noticeable increase in daylight- now nearly 10 full hours and gaining about 5 minutes per day. While the temps are still bitter, the sunlight does a great deal for my overall mood and I find myself smiling more these days than in past weeks. Perhaps the vacation did a lot of good to restore my vitamin D levels. I know the warmth did a lot to heal Chris' frost bitten toe although it is still kind of ugly and he hasn't fully regained feeling in it.

There's much more going on, but that will have to wait for another update on another day...

Keep in touch-
Vered
(and Zev too...)