Shan-o-Rama

As I tend to forget this kind of thing, I’m writing it here. This post’s events begin on Sunday, November 13, 2011. There. Whew. Sunday we did three things.

Beach!

We went to the Swap meet, where we both utterly failed to take any photos. It was fun, but quite hot. We spent about half of the circuit looking for some shave ice. (Why isn’t it called “shaved ice” in Hawaii?) And we met up with Mike’s colleagues and had dinner. Later I will show you the thing I made from the thing I got at the Swap Meet, but today is not that day.
The next day Mike got up and got ready for work. I lounged in bed for an extra half an hour and then got up intending to walk on the beach. Just as I was watching my first episode of The Colbert Report in ages I got a call from Mike saying that Ben, the producer, had said that it was the best day for me to hang out with them, and that I should meet them in the lobby in 5 minutes. Super excited at the thought of spending  the day with Mike, and with our friend Tom, and maybe getting to show the client that I can be awesome, I took the shortest shower of my life.

It turns out it was a great day to be with the guys. We had one interview, but everything else was B-roll, which meant driving all around Oahu getting pretty pictures. I love that kind of thing. I was mostly with Mike and Tom, who are fabulous company. Here we are getting footage of various stuff.

Mike and Tom make videos

Mike and Shannon enjoy filmmaking and the color orange

Tom "tapes" the Iolani Palace

Tom and Ben set up for our interview

Mike and Tom get footage of the Chinaman's Hat

Hawaii has very dramatic clouds

We did one interview with the the founder of the Puakea Foundation, Uncle Bobby. Uncle Bobby teaches traditional Hawaiian Koa canoes building to children and teenagers. During the interview, which happened in the He’eia State Park. Someone there sets out cat food for the local feral cats, so there were dozens of them around. I decided to start my eventual cat army with this one.

Kitty the First. And my cute Tom's Shoes.

Here are a few other photos I took during the day.

The tent where the canoes are built.

Beach! Again!

Honolulu's City Hall

One side note. I had jokingly told myself that since I was going to the place where Hawaii 5-0 is filmed, I would make it a goal to see Daniel Dae Kim while we were in Honolulu. First thing in the morning we drove to the area where the Iolani Palace, the Hawaiian Supreme Court building, and the Kamehameha Statue are. As we were pulling around the building what should wee see but Hawaii 5-0 filming. And as we were across the street filming, who should I see? Yep. Not too shabby for a joke goal.

Our second day in Hawaii we took the chance to wander around Waikiki and then hit the beach. We walked to Duke’s, and on the way enjoyed walking past the designer boutiques. I got my photo taken in front of the most interesting of them (to me.)

We had brunch at Duke’s, which had the dual advantages of having a view of the ocean and a brunch buffet, brunch buffet’s being one of our very favorite things.

Buffet! POG!

We walked through the International Marketplace and looked at kitsch. We searched for a bathing suit for Mike and ended up obtaining two bathing suits, 4 sarongs, and 2 towels. And we made a new friend…

After the bird poked at my glasses lenses it decided to go for the lips.

After the first of 5 trips to the ABC Store during out trip we got sunscreen and we grabbed the bus for the beach. We decided to go to Hanauma Bay. It was the only beach we had heard of with an entrance fee, but we had seen it on our tour the day before and it was the archetypal beach in my mind. White sand, palm trees growing on the beach, clear water, waves in the distance and a protected area with gentle bobbing over a reef with fish.

Hanauma Bay

Mike had never been snorkeling, and I liked teh idea of a beach with lockers right on the beach and a beach that was maintained and didn’t allow smoking. Snorkeling is startlingly aerobic. To enter this beach you pay a cover charge preservation fee and then watch a brief movie on preservation, and not touching (ruining) the reef, and not feeding the fish, and FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE NOT LETTING THE FISH TOUCH YOU. Because of this we spent the entire time we we snorkeling sucking in our stomachs as hard as we could as we went over the reef or saw a fish headed in anything that could be construed as being our direction. It was an effective film emotionally. At one point I couldn’t clear my mask and had to put a foot down, so as to not drown. My foot brushed the coral twice and I felt the rest of the day feeling kind of guilty. I had to keep telling myself that if I had drowned my whole body would have sunk onto the reef and that would have caused even more damage.

I’ll spare you the photos of us in bathing suits, but here I am in a nice, modest towel.

My new towel!

Post snorkeling sarong wearing and hugging

We took the bus back and walked back to the beach. We walked up and down while the sun set and then went to a sushi restaurant called Doraku, which we quite liked.

Sarong wearing during sushi

After the sushi we went to a mall food court and found a shave ice place. I can remember little of where it was or what it was called, but it was lovely. Mike had something called lilikoi that was sweet and salty. I like the sweet-salty thing usually, but my brain had a hard time with it. We walked around Waikiki enjoying our shave ice and checking out the paramilitary scene that was Waikiki during APEC.

You know, blogging an 18 day vacation is daunting. So I haven’t yet. But a six day vacation… that’s manageable. I think.
In May one of our clients had booked Mike on a shoot in Hawaii. He had wanted me to come along, but after we weighed the combined costs of the island hopping they were planning on doing and the cost of renting a car, it came down to a choice between doing that trip and doing The Great West Coast Tour. As much as I loved the idea of a visit to Hawaii, a 5-day-ish trip to one place vs. an 2 week trip to 4 states and one province won out. I’ve never regretted that decision for even a second, and in fact it was such an obvious decision that I had forgotten that I had made it until Mike reminded me.

So this trip to Hawaii was a surprise. On Halloween the same client called and booked Mike on a trip from November 13-16. They were only doing one island, Oahu, and were staying in the same hotel the whole time.  Oahu meant a bus system instead of a rental car, and Mike’s frequent flier miles could cover the ticket, so the trip wouldn’t keep us from being able to afford Christmas presents. Or rent.  Ihad just had an interview for a possible 5-day shoot sometime between November 15-24. It would have been a good paying gig, so we figured that I’d go for three days before the shoot, and then I could leave while Mike was working if I needed to.

Enough exposition already…

Thursday night we decided to walk around the area near our hotel. Our hotel was at Waikiki, so that was a very pleasant prospect. We walked on the beach as the sun was setting, and then we decided to grab some dinner. We walked to the Rainbow Drive-In, which is exactly the kind of place where people who actually live in Hawaii eat. The seating was covered, but still open-air, and most of what they serve is classic plate lunches with a meat, two scoops of white rice, and a scoop of macaroni salad. I had the BBQ pork.

Friday we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center. I have always wanted to go, and since it was both a holiday, Veterans Day, and the day that the traffic was supposed to be really awful because many world leaders were coming into town for APEC. It seemed like a great day to get out of Waikiki. We took the Circle island Tour, which took us all over the island and showed us many pretty things. It also took us to Dole Plantation where we had pineapple whips, so that was pretty much worth the cost of the tour right there.

I didn’t take too many photos at the Polynesian Cultural Center.  It’s such a popular destination I figured I could probably go to Flickr and see almost everything, but I couldn’t resist the Rapa Nui heads that seemed very much to be wearing Lego Hats.

I got this temporary Tongan style tattoo. In the Samoa section we saw a cute show with music and dancing and firestarting, and then Mike took a shot at the firestarting.

We also went to the luau. I had always wanted to go to a luau. The food was delicious, and pretty much completely distracted me from the dancing, but it seemed… pleasant.

We finished the night with the musical, Ha. Obviously I didn’t take any photos, so I will simply say this; it was incredible. And fire dancers are insane. In. Sane.