Adjusting Back to Normal

It is nice to be settled back at my place, although I've had a couple of sleep challenges the past few nights (it's getting better). As I reflect back on my two month trip, I am thankful that everything went well and this was a good experience.

I was sitting on my porch the other night and realized the sun sets this time of the year straight out across the river above Eden Park. Although there are no palm trees, beaches, or ocean, it reminds me of my extended stay in Honolulu and the people I met there. Much as the sunset is the main event on Waikiki beach, it is now the main event on my patio. As I watch the sun fall behind that hill, I remember the same sun is shining brightly on Honolulu. It is the perfect reminder of the experience I had there and the people I met. Aloha!

Trip Home

I tried to prepare for the time change by getting up very early my final two mornings in Honolulu. The first morning I made a return trip to Makapuu to catch the sunrise. Unfortunately it was a bit cloudy, but it was still neat to hike that trail in the dark and get to the very edge of the island. The next morning I got up early again more out of necessity to pack up my things and get to the airport early to catch my flight.

We had a couple end of tax season/going away get-togethers. On April 15th we had a happy hour which was a nice end of tax season celebration. I went in to the office the next day to wrap things up and turn in my badge/parking pass. I happened to catch the two managers for lunch as it was the last day I would see them. The next day I went to the Hawaii Kai golf course driving range with the other associate and then met up with the other staff at BW3 on Ala Moana for some wings and beers.

The flight home was very long, but since I made myself so tired over the past two days, I was able to 'sleep' most of the way home. I use that term loosely as sleep on a plane is not the same quality as real sleep. My layover was in LA and I stopped for one last CPK pizza before the second half of my journey home.

Flying though the night was not enjoyable, but there's no convenient way to travel east through six time zones. I arrived home at about 7 AM, just in time for morning rush hour to get to my house.

Tax Day

When's election day!?

Lewers Lounge

One of my favorite spots I've found to hang out for a bit is called Lewers Lounge at the Halekulani Hotel. This hotel is one of the premier resorts on Waikiki Beach and I stumbled upon it as I was going in and out of a variety of hotels gauging the scene at each.

This lounge would not be anything to mention (besides the top notch food and impeccable service) if it weren't for the live music provided on Friday and Saturday evenings by Tennyson Stephens, a soulful jazz pianist/vocalist. This guy can play anything from the book at request while adding his own improvisation and signature to a tune. This is just a great place to go to enjoy something to eat and hear some great music.

Lefty Loosey

I correctly predicted that Phil would make a weekend surge to be in contention to win his 3rd Masters title. I incorrectly predicted that he would then proceed to blow it.

Congratulations Phil! and please convince your buddies at KPMG to declare "Phil Mickelson Appreciation Day" in recognition of your accomplishment. On this day all employees will be required to hit the links and reflect upon your contributions to make KPMG a great place to work and build a career!

Frozen Four

As soon as the Final Four concludes tomorrow, the focus of collegiate sports will shift back to Miami Hockey as they have again reached the Frozen Four.

After an exciting 2OT victory over Michigan, the Redhawks have advanced to hopefully reclaim what was left on the ice in last year's championship. The semifinal matches will be held Thursday night with the winners playing Saturday in the championship.

I was able to convince two coworkers to accompany me to BW3 to watch the game and eat some wings. Although neither are big hockey fans, they had a good time. We were even able to get the audio to play throughout the restaurant so that everybody could enjoy!

Sports in general are difficult to watch and follow here. With a six hour time change, it is necessary to begin watching a game right when you wake up or in the middle of the afternoon. If I have the opportunity to get outside, I would much rather spend that time in the sun than in my apartment in front of the TV.

Sport events during the week are not possible to watch unless you are a big West Coast NBA fan or don't work during the day. Since a prime time broadcast begins at about 2PM, all events are long over by the time I get home.

With the NCAA bball & hockey, Reds opening day, and the Masters tournament all this week, I will definitely miss out on some exciting moments. Please feel free to fire off some text messages to me with periodic updates.

Special Visitor!

I'm very happy that Jessica was able to get some time off work and come all the way out here to see me for a week. Since I still had to work during the week, we had to make the most of the weekend daylight that was available. I'd say we did a pretty good job.

We visited Hanauma Bay to do some snorkeling and see the vibrant aquatic life. The bay has a large coral reef with many different kinds of fish to see and a pretty neat beach to hang out at for awhile. My favorite event, however, was the catamaran excursion that left from Waikiki. This is definitely something anybody that comes here should try to take in. The scenery of the ocean, city and mountains was fantastic. We also saw a group of dolphins out in the water that were putting on quite a show.

It was fun to have someone to go out to eat with in a place where there are many restaurants to choose from. We visited Jimmy Buffets since it was a favorite, a place on the beach called Duke's, and the Cheesecake Factory. We also went to a place called Longhi's at Ala Moana shopping center to meet up with some of Jessica's folk's family friends who are from Hawaii. They were very nice people and greeted Jess with a beautiful real flower lei.

Having a car, it was also possible to visit Pearl Harbor, Punchbowl National Cemetery, Makapuu, Iolani Palace, and Kalakaua shopping area.

Overall, it was a great week and we had a fun time when we could. Hawaii is definitely a better experience when you have someone to see the sights and go out to eat with.

The Workplace

The past few weeks have been very busy at work. For the most part, the office is very similar to the one back home. I mainly work with two other staff and two managers who are very friendly and have been very welcoming.

My desk has a window with a pretty good view looking West. I have been able to catch a couple sunsets from the comfort of the cubicle and even got a great view of a rainbow one day.

The daily lunch plan is usually getting a "plate lunch" at one of the many entrepreneurial eateries downtown. My favorite has been a place called "My BBQ". It is a Korean barbecue joint next to the office and definitely the best value as far as lunch goes. My favorite option is the Spicy Shoyu Chicken, which comes with four sides and a hearty serving of steamed rice.

Routine

Three weeks in, I am very acclimated to this new city. Many of this weekend's non-work activities were just normal chores that I got the chance to take care of. Doing laundry, grocery shopping, and getting a haircut were the highlights.

Laundry took longer than I thought since the machine only fits about 1/3 of what I consider a normal load. This machine hides in a closet by the sink in the bathroom; it is virtually unnoticeable. The first week, I didn't even realize I had these machines until I asked the staff where I could do laundry. They courteously replied that there is a washer/dryer in the bathroom closet. I would assume a smaller load of laundry would also take less time to dry, but it takes about twice as long.

I'm now a valued Safeway customer as I obtained a 'shoppers card' at the local store that I frequent. As if prices weren't already high enough, the store inflates the prices and makes you sign up for the card so they can collect data about your shopping habits and entice you to buy things. I also made a return trip to Walmart, which was twice as crowded as it was the first time (pictured above).

I now know my way around very well and can recite and properly pronounce street names, intersections, and various areas on the island. Overall, this is a good place to spend two months.

What's on the Radio?

One of my favorite parts of the work day is driving to and from downtown with the windows down and the radio on. I'm surprised most of the cars I see don't have the windows down. My theory is that the locals have become accustomed to and spoiled by the constant perfect temperature. The temperature fluctuates about 10 degrees everyday between about 70 degrees(overnight low) and 80 degrees (daytime high). There is absolutely no reason to not ride with the windows down.

My country radio stations have all been replaced by Hawaiian island music. Unfortunately, country music is vastly unpopular here, but I decided I can live without it for two months. Besides island music, other popular tunes are top 40 R&B/rap songs and Ke$ha (think 107.1). All of these stations think it is acceptable to play the same songs over and over again. I had a two week streak going for awhile where I heard the same two songs every time I got in the car (my drive is 10 minutes). It has since lapsed.

The most popular song by far is "Ehu Girl" by Kolohe Kai. I had to do a little research to find out what an Ehu Girl is. Not by surprise, it is a slang term for 'a local girl with reddish brown hair'. It's one of those songs that gets in your head and stays all day. This weekend I was walking by the stores and a street performer kept playing this song over and over again on his ukulele, much like the radio stations. I laughed to myself and kept walking. I caught myself humming this song again later.

Respectful Silence

I visited the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, more commonly called "Punchbowl". This military cemetery is situated in a hill above the city in a volcano crater. The name of the hill in Hawaiian is called "Puowaina" meaning 'hill of sacrifice' as its original use was to offer human sacrifice to their ancient gods. The name is still fitting as it is the final resting place of more than 34,000 soldiers and sailors who gave their life for our country in WWI, II, Korean, and Vietnam wars.

The memorial is an appropriate place to pay respect to all those who have served our country in service past and present. It is a peaceful, beautiful area where the noise and bustle of the city is replaced by respectful silence.

When locals I meet find out I'm in Hawaii for two months, their very next statement is an assumption that I am here for military reasons. When I told one older lady I am here with a CPA firm she said, "well, you look like you are with the military." I'm not quite sure what that means, but I'll take it as a compliment. I hope to meet up with a friend's brother who is a Marine currently stationed here in Hawaii.

Tsunami......warning

Of course by now everybody is aware that the tsunami caused by the Chile earthquake caused little to no damage to the Hawaiian Islands and was more like a large tide going in an out several times. It was still an interesting day as everybody prepared for the worst case scenario.

I woke up around 8:30 from the sunshine pouring in the window and had planned to go in to work for a while to continue some things I left from the night before. I had fallen asleep on the living room couch watching the Olympic curling coverage on MSNBC, cell phone sitting on the coffee table. I woke up in the middle of the night and transferred my sleep to my bed.

When I finally got up out of bed, I searched for my phone and realized I left it in the living room. I was surprised to see I had 7 missed calls (4 from Jessica), and just about as many text messages. I was worried something had happened back home until I saw a text message that said, "The tsunami is all over the news. are you okay?" I immediately turned on the tv and returned phone calls. I was saddened to see a massive earthquake hit Chile and bewildered as to what needed to be done in 2.5hours to prepare for the impending tsunami.

Luckily I'm away from the beach and on the 5th floor of this condominium building, meaning I was safe, however, I was still in the tsunami zone. Many of the resorts directly on the beach conduct a 'vertical evacuation' moving everyone above the 3rd floor. The Moana Surfrider completely evacuated since it is maybe 50 feet from the water. I filled pitchers with water in case there was a water outage and headed to the corner 'ABC' store to get other items to last me a few days if needed.

Walking to the store, I passed people heading back home with plastic bags of milk and bread (the same items required for an impending snowstorm). The store was closed and everybody seemed to be stocking up on McDonald's instead. Since there was plenty of time left until devastation, I went over to the marina to snap a few quick 'before' pictures. To my surprise, there were many boats leaving the harbor to which I learned it is much easier to survive the tsunami 1 mile from shore as it condenses and become more powerful upon reaching the shoreline. I was also surprised to see people lined up in chairs to get a front row seat. Waikiki was a ghost town.

I returned to the condo and watched the news to see the situation unfold. The build-up to this event was deserved as the potential for catastrophe was enormous, but the presentation from the national news was a little misleading as usual. One channel continually showed a loop video of a surfer (as if it were live) out in the water until the expected time of the tsunami. When the estimated time came, another channel caption read, "TSUNAMI WAVES HIT HAWAII" (as if mass destruction was occurring).

When the surge passed and nothing major occurred, there was a sense of relief and from some, likely a sense of disappointment. Many people were perched atop hills for safety and a spectacular view for the impending disaster. The warning was called off at about 2PM and everything went back to normal. It was much like the daily sunset event over at the resorts; everybody paused what they were doing to take witness, then resumed what they would be doing on any normal day.

After the warning was cancelled, I went for a walk. McDonald's was empty, Ala Moana was busy again, people were laying out on the beach, the boats at the harbor were still in slips. Everything was fine. It was just another normal day.

Waianae/Makaha

"There's a place, on the West Side, called Makaha... Makaha yea..."

A catchy island song by the Ka'au Crater Boys (and family favorite) prompted my visit to this area. About 50 minutes from Waikiki, this is one of the poorest, most desolate areas on the island and, for that matter, that I've ever seen. An excerpt from "Dark Side of the Waianae Coast of Hawaii" describes the scene on spot:

Driving down the Farrington Highway through Waianae’s small towns the view of million dollar homes next to rundown shacks, overgrown weeds, rusted out broken down cars and trucks and on any given day discarded furniture or waste sitting on the side of the street detracts from the beauty and simple charm of Waianae. Along the beautiful stretches of beach scenery are rows and rows of dilapidated tents with homeless families and their pets living on the beach and at the end of the road past the town of Makaha is a full blown “tent city” with families of homeless living a day to day existence.

Although the article highlights that Meth use and alcoholism in Hawaii are serious problems among the poor, less fortunate locals, many of these people likely cannot afford the expensive rent or price of a home. Apparently, they have one-week camping permits that they renew at the city center each Friday. I tried to snap a picture of the tent cities on the beach, but the pictures in the article show it clearer. It is hard to think people live here day-to-day in what everybody calls paradise.

Benihana/eating out

Eating out this weekend was somewhat difficult because I had to go places alone. Usually going out to eat is a social event to varying degrees as you are with other people and enjoy the company of others. That is difficult to do flying solo and I don't enjoy it very much. My solution Saturday was Benihana.

Because of the way the hibachi tables are set up, I knew I'd be placed with other groups of people. Somewhat risky, but worth a try. I ended up being placed with a group on a business trip of an explosives company and a Japanese family. The lady to my left was the controller of the explosives company; needless to say we had some things to talk about. The Japanese family enjoyed practicing their conversational English. I compared it to how I must sound when traveling to Mexico and trying to converse with the locals in the native tongue (not great, but I get the point across). Surprisingly, they thought my joke about eating soup with chopsticks was hilarious, or they were just being nice.

Checking out O'ahu

The weekend allowed me some time to get out and enjoy what Hawaii has to offer during daylight. I got to Waikiki beach, the North shore (Waimea), the Eastern edge (Makapu'u), and the West Side(Waianae/Makaha).

Waikiki being one of the world's most famous beaches was very crowded(the pictures speak for themselves) I'll have another blog post for Waianae/Makaha.

The North shore is known for its large surf, sometimes as big as 30 feet. Besides a nice drive through "the country," passing the Dole plantation and what looked like a palm/Christmas tree farm, this was nothing to get too excited about. The large waves are a neat sight to see, but the weather on the North shore is much more variable and not clear and sunny all the time. It also became gloomy as I drove into a tourist speed trap and got issued a Hawaii speeding citation. Needless to say, I'm very unhappy about this and do not plan to return to this area.

At the advice of a coworker, I went to check out the Makapu'u Lighthouse. A two-mile hike from the road is required to get to the lookout point. From there, you can climb higher up the side of a mountain to see the bunkers and get a 360 degree view of the area including Makapu'u Beach, Koko Crater, and in the distance, the island of Molokai. The view of the ocean from here is awesome. It reminds me of Red in Shawshank Redemption when he says, "I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams." This was a great hike and recommend to anyone if they ever come to the island and look to get away from the beach for an afternoon.

I also made it to the rooftop terrace of my building. The views were amazing.

The new place

The condo/apt. they set me up in is in Waikiki. I didn't have any options, but they did well. It is a 1bedroom/1bath place on the 5th floor of a 45 floor building. It is very close to the resorts, stores, and restaurants and even has a practice putting green directly outside my door (too bad I didn't bring the putter).

Since the office I'm working at is just over 3 miles away, I also needed to rent a car. When I got to the rental car place at the airport, they had me set up for a Dodge Neon, for which I swiftly asked if they had anything else at the same price level. They just happened to have a new Mazda3 which I jumped at in place of the Neon.

There are two blatant observations/differences between here and home: 1. everybody is very tan 2. there is a high demand on space. The first is obvious. The second is known, but experienced in different ways. There are people everywhere and everything is very expensive. I went to Walmart last night and you would have thought a big snowstorm was moving in by how crowded and frantic it seemed. I should have just not even taken a cart because I had to leave it at the end of every aisle to meander the crowd to get things. The store itself is almost anti-Walmart. Usually there is an enormous parking lot that is so big that only half the spots ever get used, and the rest is for doing donuts when it snows. This one had a parking garage. Usually you notice when you arrive at a Walmart, I passed it by twice until I realized I needed to enter a parking garage.

Check out the pictures.

A Great Weekend...and a missed photo op

This was an exciting weekend as it was my birthday and Valentine's day. Jessica took me out to Carlo and Johnny on Friday for my birthday and my family got together on Saturday at Don Pablo's in Newport for a birthday/going away dinner. I appropriately received some much needed luggage and a pair of 'Rainbows' (both which will be quickly put to use).

This is my fourth trip to Hawaii and I am excited about my stay. The previous trips have been vacations with the family in '95, '97, and '03. This trip will be much longer and is very different as I am here alone and primarily for work.

I walked over to Waikiki beach shortly after I checked in to my place. I ended up snapping some pictures of Diamond Head and took a walk along the beach while making a couple phone calls back home. Before I knew it, the sun was low across the sky and fell behind a ribbon of clouds slightly above the horizon. As I aligned my camera and tapped the button to get a great picture, the phone lost all remaining battery power and shut off! The phone had quite a workout throughout the day with all the texts, picture taking, navigating, music playing, and phone calls it serviced, so I decided to not throw it in the water in anger.

Observing everybody watch the sunset was interesting. As the sun emerged again below the ribbon of clouds just above the horizon, everybody stopped what they were doing and watched the final seconds of the sun as live guitar music played at the adjacent restaurant. There was an audience at the resort pool standing on lounge chairs to get a better view over the tropical greenery and three wedding parties getting a few final pictures just at the right timing. As the guitarist strummed the last chord of the song he was playing, the very last portion of the sun disappeared into the ocean. As that happened, people erupted into applause as if they observed a speech or presentation and then proceeded to carry on with whatever they were previously doing. There should be another chance to get some pictures of a good sunset, but I'm not sure there will be another quite like that.

Widgets

If you look to the right, you'll see a couple custom widgets I have added: the current Honolulu weather and two clocks that show the time change between EST and "Aloha" time, as they call it.

The weather is only applicable on my drive to and from work and lunch breaks. Hopefully, there will be other occasions that will present themselves for me to enjoy this weather during my stay. Given that it is busy season, I'm expecting I'll be in a climate controlled office at a desk most of the time (unless they have some type of open air office, but I doubt that).

Honolulu is currently 5 hours behind eastern standard time. That means that as you are executing a lunch plan, I am likely just waking up for the day and as you're watching the late night show, I'll be getting hungry and searching for something to eat for dinner. Since Hawaii is closer to the equator and they have more consistent daylight throughout the various seasons, they do not do Daylight Saving Time. So beginning March 14th, I will be 6 hours behind as you "Spring forward" and lose an hour.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog for my trip to Hawaii!

I will be working with the KPMG Honolulu office assisting them with tax work through the end of busy season. I hope to share with you those experiences as well as other various stories as I travel to and live for two months in a place where people normally go to vacation. Check back for pictures and updated posts.

Mahalo