Aloha Beaches!

Yes, it has been over a month since I have posted anything, but I have been a little busy. Where do I start??? Oh yeah I got married! That's right baby! The Traveler is officially (and legally) off the market. The short, short version. I said I do. She said I do. I cried like a school boy bitch, and she didn't shed a tear. In all seriousness, which is rare on this blog, it was a wonderful event which we were very blessed to share with our dearest friends and family.

Now you are asking “what does the title mean?” After the nuptials my Travel Size Bride (no longer 't0-be') and I stowed away in First Class to the beautiful island of Maui (via Los Angeles). Random moment of the trip: Running into a former member of the singles ministry and his wife in LAX. Back to the story. We leave Houston at 2:30 PM and arrive in Maui at 8:45 PM (or 1:45 AM CDT). You can do the math. Originally we were supposed to be in at approx 4:30 PM, but The Airline changed our flight. In all my genius, I decide to book a bicycle tour down Haleakala (which I sware is Hawaiian for big mountain providing opportunity for all to break limbs). Essentially, we had to get up at 1:30 AM and drive (what everybody said would be an hour and a half drive) from our B & B to this little place called Haiku (which is Hawaiian for "suckas this drive only takes 45 minutes"). Needless to say we were REAL early and could have slept another hour! We then took an hour and a half van ride guided by a local up to the top of this dormant volcano. The whole way up, he gave interesting tidbits about the volcano and Hawaii. Stuff like the first settlers to Hawaii brought rats by accident, and all the rats (which are apparently as big as subway rats in New York) began to eat all of the indigenous bird eggs, pushing many of those birds to extinctions or endangering them. Someone did a study and took a mongoose and a rat and put them in a cage together, and the mongoose tore the rat apart. Pretty cool, but wait there's more. Come to find out they didn't do enough research and it turns out that the rat is nocturnal and the mongoose is not. So just as the mongoose is going to bed, the rat is just getting up to prowl. DOH! Now the islands are not only overpopulated by rats but mongooses as well (I couldn't decide if mongeese or mongooses was right so let us go with mongooses). I may get back to these guys in another post. I am running out of time.

Once we arrived at the top of Haleakala, we went to this scenic look out and watched the sunrise. Very beautiful!! If you ever have the chance to go to Maui, take this little trip! It is well worth it. It is absolutely freezing up there so bring a sweat shirt... and long underwear... and a sub-zero parka... and eskimo clothing... you get the point. After a most glorious sunrise, our guide took us to the bottom of the park and fitted us with mountain bikes. Apparently if you aren't appropriately fitted bad things can happen especially to the fellas! We then proceeded to ride down-hill for 27 miles. That's right 27 miles. Eat your heart out Lance Armstrong (Granted Armstrong rides up hill and ours really was down-hill). We had an absolute blast.

The next day (Tuesday), because we are gluttons for punishment, we woke up at 4:30 in the morning and got on another plane to go to Oahu. You ask, "what kind of a moron goes on vacation and then runs himself and his pint sized better half ragged?" I answer, "This kind of moron!" Now granted this may seem like a lot of "work" for a vacation, but after our trip to Oahu all was litterally relaxed. You ask, "Why in the world would two people go to paradise and not be satisfied enough to stay but rather get on another plane to go to another island?" I answer, "Because one of the two is a huge history nut (I mean the kind that checks the History channel right after checking all 20 sports channels nuts), and would not be able forgive himself if he did not take advantage of being less than 100 miles away from one of the most historic battles in American history." That's right. Pearl Harbor! My Travel Size Better Half had been to Oahu on family vacations before. The Travel Size Father-in-law is apparently as big of a history nerd as the Traveler (I am in good company). She has been there and done that. Not as monumental for her. For me though, I was in awe. There were models and mock ups and soldiers and replicas and my head just exploded. One of the most awesome things was the ability to go out to the actual resting place of the Arizona. This was seriously one of the most solemn occasions of my life. It had to rank right up there with The Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Between 7th and 8th grade). I, to this day, remember that very vividly almost 15 years later. This ranked right up there with that! Two observations from that day:

• There seemed to be a lot of Japanese visitors at the memorial that day.
• I saw several occasions where Caucasian visitors were cheerfully taking pictures while on the Arizona.

I have to admit until writing this post I was somewhat miffed by both. As I was pondering the first of these two situations, I came to realize that I had no reason to be upset about it. After seeing as many Japanese visitors as I did the thought crossed my mind, "How dare you come to this tomb, this place of mourning, this place of rememberance and trod around as though it were some tourist location". Then it came to me as I was thinking through this post. These people were probably not involved in the war. Even the oldest person there may have been, but may not have been engaged. This however was not the thought that changed my mind. What actually turned my thought pattern was the idea that these people were affected by the United States retribution on Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor. This was the first known use of a weapon of mass destruction in the world. They had nothing to do with the attack on Pearl Harbor, other than being Japanese citizens, yet they reaped the whirl wind that came about because of the decision of a few.

The second set of people should be ashamed. I normally don't get on a soap box, but to see how some trample upon the memory of what will be known as "The Greatest Generation" is apalling. I guess my issue is that if you want to have some "Hey look where I am having a good time" photos taken go to a luau, or a helicopter ride, or Bubba Gump Seafood. Don't do it on a memorial of brave soldiers who died while defending my country. Shameful! Purely shameful!

These were only the first two days on Maui. I may come back to it at a later time when the creative juices are more readily flowing but for now, "Rack'em, I'm out"!