Day 4: Honolulu/Waikiki

Was nothing really exciting... I was supposed to go snorkeling, but it didn't happen. Then I was supposed to go surfing, then that didn't happen. I forgot I had to check out at noon and got a call from the front desk asking what was going on. Oops! So I did that. After I was all checked out I went to the park and walked around taking pictures, and just vegged out in general.
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These are the closest thing to shorebirds I saw in Hawai'i. Are there not any? I dunno!

Whattup algae!
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I had nothing to do and didn't want to spend money on anything. I climbed a tree.

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Read a book on the beach. My flight was that night so I couldn't do anything that got me dirty or too far away... nowhere to shower!

I tried again to catch the sunset and I sort of did...
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there were clouds again though. I caught a sliver of sun as it ducked below the horizon and attempted to catch that elusive green flash... but didn't. I think it's a myth... I've yet to see it.

After that I went back to Arnold's... obviously my hangout of choice. I chilled for a few hours before I had to go to the airport and bounce back home. =[

Pumped my own gas! First time ever. I'm from NJ, we don't do that.

Gave my car back, had my apples taken from me in the airport, and off I was for some loooong travel.

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California? Either that or Mexico
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Now I'm back home and it's a blizzard =[

Is it summer time yet?


Until next week, when I'm in El Paso, the NJ Vagabond is out!


Mahalo =]

Day 3.5: Honolulu/Waikiki

Went back to Arnold's and it was open! Saw one of the guys I met the first night and hung out, met other cool peeps there too. Hung out, had a couple dranks, you know hows it goes. Definitely my favorite spot to go here at night... thus far. It's conveniently walking distance from my hotel so I haven't had the chance to check out anything farther. I hear there are some cool spots up near the university too. Guess I'll find out over the summer!

Day 3: Honolulu/Waikiki

I sort of planned on catching the sunrise at Diamond Head but... really knew that I'd never wake up in time. I forget when I woke up but I got there around 10 in the morning. Gladly donned my running outfit and trail sneakers because I soon found out I needed it!
The hike took about an hour and change, and it was definitely a hike. I consider myself a... decently fit person.. and I was even huffing and puffing by the time I reached the top. Not recommended for the faint of heart, lungs, or shoes. The path was advertised as paved.. which it was... but only where it was level hah. The rest of the way up was pretty rocky and muddy from the rains we've been getting (and the downpour I'm hiding from) and it was a little slippery but, yay for guardrails! There were a couple tunnels and a few sets of stairs to climb up, including a lighthouse-style spiral one that lead to the fire station (or lookout, whatever it was, some army thing that had to do with fire) at the highest point - 760 feet. Isn't much compared to Mauna Kea on the Big Island (~15,000 I believe), which I'm hoping to drive/trek up over the summer. There's an observatory up top... and snow! My doctor told me once that since I'm anemic I can't climb Mt. Everest. But that's fine, because technically Mauna Kea is the tallest mountain in the world.... most of it is just underwater. So ha! Eat that.

The view from the top was even more awesome than the Tantalus drive, though certainly more crowded and less lush. The crater is pretty dry due to the fact that... well it's a crater. Rain and wind have a hard time cutting through the walls. I overheard one women say there used to be concerts in the crater and people would climb up the sides to watch it... baller! Would have loved to check that out.

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The crater
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Down was a little easier.. though my legs were already sore from walking 23 flights of stairs as the elevators in my hotel were conveniently broken half the time.... I worked up a pretty good appetite and found down the road the Diamond Head Market and Grill. Pretty much shack-style food... what I've been eating all week sans the bread, eggs, and jam I bought for my room, but it was delicious! I got a portobello mushroom sandwich with a side of classic Hawaiian Mac/Potato salad and a cup of pineapple-sweetened iced tea. Mmmmmm.

Went back to my hotel and had me a shower. I planned on checking out Byodo-din and taking the scenic route to the North Shore but by the time I left it was getting late and I wanted to get to the beach before dark. Plus, I discovered the temple was really just a memorial and tourist destination and not a real one so... eh.

I discovered on my drive north that Honolulu is like Miami by way that rush hour starts at 3pm... but SO unlike Miami because people know how to drive! They use turn signals! They don't cut you off! They don't honk! So nice. I drove past the Dole plantation up and down a 2-lane road. I realized that my car didn't coast very efficiently... at all.. so I started shifting it back and forth to neutral every time I went downhill. I head that gets you better gas mileage too and... on the way back drove like that the entire way and sucked up next to no gas as opposed to the way there hah. Could be a crappy gas gauge though... Digressing!

I went to Waimea Bay which is the world famous surf spot... though winter isn't quite the season for waves there.. and there really wasn't much waves. Cool rocks though.

Went to Haleiwa after and wandered. It's a small little shacky town with boutique stores and surf shops all about... there was a surf museum but I got there a half hour after it closed. Didn't do much but wander.. ate dinner at a sandwich place.. more Mahi (they were out of Ahi =[ ). Chatted up the dude in the skate shop to see what locals did for fun at night and he pointed at the bar across the way... went there for a hot minute and it wasn't really anything and it wasn't really my crowd at that time (it was like.. 8pm), but I didn't want to be North all night so I just drove back down. The area seemed pretty cool but I got there too late and parking was nowhere and a giant mudhole when it was somewhere and I wasn't surfing or about to pay some ridiculous price to surf so.. yeah. I'm sure over the summer it'll be cooler and I'll get a chance to check out Laniakea beach too - famous for green turtles hanging out there.

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Facebook album where most of the Diamond Head pics are:

Clicky!

Day 2.5: Honolulu/Waikiki

I went back to the downtownish area for that Hawaiian BBQ I mentioned. Got some mahi and brown rice yum. I was going to check out another bar - Hideaway - but Arnold's was closer and it was already close to 11 so I figured I'd stop by there. Well, they were closed. I later found out it was because they had their Christmas party. So I started walking towards Hideaway and ran into two dudes who were looking for a bar as well so we all traveled in that direction. Got there... literally was a Hideaway, it's behind another bar and tucked into a corner in the alley next to a hotel. Pretty decent place though, definitely a dive bar, but clean. Crowd not as friendly as Arnold's though lol.

One of the dude's was nice and respectful... the other was an alcoholic creeper. The two of them met at their hotel bar hah. But yeah, enjoyed at least half good company for a couple hours and then we went on our ways. I wanted to get to bed early so I could go hiking in the morning. Good excuse to get away from creepy people... hahah

'Til next time...

Day 2: Honolulu/Waikiki

Okay so, nevermind those free surf lessons. The dude who offered ended up having to work today. Surfing and I have a very rich history of failed attempts... that better end by the summer haha.

I jogged the beach again this morning... realized that no matter how much I will myself, I'll never be a morning exercise person. Probably did half the distance I did yesterday and still had to walk half of it because I was tired / had side stitches. I also hadn't eaten yet. I'll stick to night-time runs. But I digress.



Today was pretty lazy. After my run I showered and saw it was nice and sunny so I went and walked around town.
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It's not Hawai'i without hibuscus!


Climbed up this waterfall.


Ok just kidding it's coming out of the side of the Hilton.

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Roamed in and out of shops, bought some post cards to send (oh yeah that's what I was supposed to be doing right now!) I was kind of waiting on surfer dude and didn't know he couldn't make it until mid-afternoon but that's all right. I walked along the beach
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See the fishies?

A cookie for whoever knows what this is (proper name too!)

Holdfasts I'm guessing? Don't really know though. Haven't looked it up yet. If you know, let me know! Holdfasts = "roots" of seaweed.. for you non-marine science folk.
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at the park I jogged at,
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checked out the boats in the marina
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The dolphins have santa hats on!!! I can't wait to have a boat and decorate it. Ohhhman

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, took some pictures.
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This canal is the most polluted waterway in the world apparently... I'll be staying away from that.

Only in Hawai'i.......

View from my room part 1
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View from my room part 2
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Took my first dip into the Pacific...
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felt amazing. It's not bathwater like Miami (though winter water in Miami isn't that warm), apparently the water stays in the low-mid 70s year round. Perfect.

I went to Fort Derussy park
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Ficas trees are my favorite!
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to eat the soba noodles
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I bought for lunch at the ABC store. Mmmm delish. Love convenience store food.

My parents are afraid that I'd like it here too much and never come home but... well... at least after I'm done with school... I really wouldn't mind living here at all.... It's so damn nice. And the locals are too. I was driving with my high-beams on and there were bikers coming my way so I turned them off and they actually yelled to thank me as we traveled past each other. So rare to be thanked for anything in the tri-state area, or Miami for that matter.

I decided to drive
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Mah whip
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Tantalus to catch the sunset. Tantalus is a windy ass road that runs up one of the mountains that overlooks Honolulu and Waikiki. It was fucking awesome. Civilization just dropped off after a certain elevation, sans a scattered house here and there. I literally drove through a rainforest. It was gorgeous and smelled absolutely amazing. I was lightheaded because I couldn't inhale frequently enough. Just... fucking awesome. No words for it.

I got to the top and found a good cutout to catch the sunset.
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It was soooooo quiet. All I could hear were birds and bugs chirping away. The view was beyond spectacular. Unfortunately, I only caught an almost-sunset because the clouds rolled in and blocked my view ten minutes from showtime. Laaame. Over the summer.. definitely taking that drive again. I only went up/down one side of the mountain too and I'd love to check out the other. I took a quick video at the top
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(sorry it's sideways... another thing I have to figure out how to fix)
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and had the intention of taking one as I rolled back down (in neutral the entire way) but by then it was too dark for my phone to pick anything up.

Now I'm in my room,
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Mah Crib

Mah kitchen. Microwave is above stove. Coffee pot is left of sink. Yes I know my toaster is on the stove. No I don't turn on the stove to work my toaster. It's plugged in to the wall. Just in case you thought I was dumb.
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hanging out for a bit and then I'm gonna change I think and go back to the area I was in last night. I'm pretty hungry and saw this cheapy Hawaiian food hole-in-the-wall on Yelp (my new favorite site for traveling by the way) that I'll probably go grab dinner at and then I'll probably go find another watering hole and stop by Arnold's, the place I went last night, because the people I met there are local regulars and wished to hang out again.

Tomorrow, weather permitting, I'd like to drive to Diamond Head
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That's it from a distance
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and catch the sunrise.. if not the sunrise I think I'll go anyway. Then check out that Buddhist temple... maybe find someone who knows sanskrit to translate a tattoo idea for me. I love the quote, from Buddha himself, "you only lose what you cling to." I think it'd be cool to get that somewhere. Digressing again!

I want to check out the North Shore tomorrow too and I guess take that scenic drive home? Debateable. Tomorrow is the driving day I guess. I'm hoping to spend Thursday snorkeling and I'm catching the red-eye that night so tomorrow's my chance to get out of the Honolulu area.

Until tomorrow...

Mahalo!

Day 1.5: Honolulu/Waikiki

Locals rule. So do dive bars. Cheers to free surfing lessons tomorrow and free snorkeling Thursday. Knocking on wood but, I trust the Aloha spirit. To the tourists who honked at me as I ran in the park and walked to my destination: you don't know what you're missing out on, though you're too busy being a douchebag to notice. Go back to Miami. Go home Benny. Etc. Etc. Viva friendliness. Viva fish people. Viva la vida. And that's not just the rum talking.

Goodnight!

Day 1: Honolulu/Waikiki

So I left home at seven in the morning on.. uh.. Sunday it was. Uneventfully went through security.. no full body scanners as threatened. My flight left at 1010ish as scheduled.. landed in Phoenix around 210 as scheduled.. I enjoyed a nice lunch of a California Pizza Kitchen tuna sandwich, and the cashier was awed by the fact that I said my please and thank you's. Why people can't take the three seconds to be gracious is beyond me...

Okay, not so beyond me because I've definitely been a bitch before but. You know.

Departed Phoenix on time around 3pm, but not after I snapped a few shots of the red desert mountains. Being an East coast gal... terrain isn't something typically in my visual vocabulary. Yet, all I could think of as we rolled past giant cacti on the tarmac was Jim Morrison rolling around in the sand eating peyote buttons. Totally not stuck in the 60s...

However, as we faced 100kt headwinds, I landed in Honolulu an hour behind schedule.. at 730 pm. Oh all these times were local mind you. So.. to do the math.. I left home at 7am eastern time, landed in Hawai'i at 730 Hawai'i time...

Oh wait I haven't even arrived at the hotel yet.

Yeah so I take the shuttle to Thrifty where they ask me what color car I want.. I forget my options but one of the four was white and another was orange and... I doubt I even have to tell you which one I picked. It's a Dodge Caliber. And the seat goes high enough that I can see over the steering wheel.

SO. So I deny the $12 a day GPS because even though NOAA tried to screw me over I don't feel like charging them more than I have to. Here I am thinking that I can navigate an unfamiliar land with just the scribbled Google Maps directions in my notebook. Ha! Ha! Ha! After 45 mins in excess of the time it should have taken and missing turns countless times... I finally settled into my hotel room at 10pm. So... 18 hours of travel. AWESOME. Not. I promptly passed the fuck out.

This morning I took a trip to the ABC store, which is not a liquor store like it is on the East coast (though I did buy my wine there), because I didn't have a toothbrush and the hotel didn't provide conditioner or lotion. I also am staying in an efficiency with a mini-stove and mircowave and toaster so I figured I'd buy some food while I'm there and stock up. It's kind of awkward going to restaurants by yourself.

One two skip a few and I'm on my way to NOAA. Met with my mentor. Pretty uneventful.. just talked about my project. He and the other Ecosystems & Oceanography staff are pretty chill. They had a Christmas (Holiday?) party this past Friday and the tradition is to have a leftovers lunch on the following Monday and I gladly joined in the feast. They all suggested places I should visit, and one of the girls who's working on her Ph. D. offered to take me surfing on Wednesday if the weather was nice.

Oh yeah the weather. Sucks balls. Rainy and overcast. Laaaame.

So after my NOAA trip I decided to visit Pearl Harbor. I also decided to turn on the navigation software on my phone. BEST DECISION EVER.

Besides the fact that a 40-something park ranger kept trying to flirt with me (though he had a definite twinkle in his eye so.. I was kind of confused.. maybe he just liked my hair), it was kind of uneventful too. The tickets to see the Arizona were all handed out and it was at least ten bucks to tour the battleship (?) in the harbor as well as the submarine and... been there done that whatever. So I just kind of wandered. I really didn't have much desire to go in the first place but it was something to do. I'm down for honoring fallen soldiers and all that jazz but I get sick every time the US tries to romanticize war. Watching kids play with periscopes pretending they're torpedoing ships... it might be all innocent fun but... it's really a shocking sign of how war has been pushed on us as some glorious event. It's really not. It's usually a bunch of bullshit. But I digress.

One two skip a few and I'm back at the hotel. Have me a snack and then I went for a nice run down at this beach-side park. Well, jog. I can't run. It doesn't work. But I did three miles in.. 40 minutes? With a bathroom stop. I ran on the sand too for as much as was there. Yaaay endorphins.

So, the plan for tonight is to head over to Arnold's which is some dive/tiki bar with good music and (according to Yelp) home to good looking "stoner/surfer" bartenders. Sounds like my kinda crowd. Walking-distance too from my hotel, of course. I didn't buy insurance on the rental car, so there will be no driving for me no matter how many drinks I have (cue my mother high-fiving... someone.. and saying "that's my girl!")

I don't know what I'm doing tomorrow. I know I want to go to Diamond Head, which is the leftover crater from the volcano that formed Oahu, and spend a day at the North Shore... but I'd like to pick the day with the best weather.. which I don't know yet. I want to go see the Valley of the Temples too, which has some sweet Buddhist temple I hear. Other than that? Who knows. Apparently there's a road that pretty much hugs the coast and I can take a 2-3 hour scenic drive... maybe I'll do that too while I have a car. I hate tourist traps and I have no desire to fall into or anywhere near them. If it's nice out maybe I'll hike a waterfall or something but the recent rains have made everything muddy so.. that wasn't recommended at all. Diamond Head is okay because it's a paved path but pretty much any other outdoor adventures are going to be dangerously slippery.

Alright well, shower time, and time to get my tiki on!

Mahalo!

Introduction

Last summer I was asked by a friend I had just met what it is that I do.

Well I met him while I was wandering the beaches of NJ, for my job, but not working at the moment, just going wherever my feet were taking me.

So I said I was a vagabond. At that moment in time, I was. Hence the name of this blog.


I do my fair share of traveling, so I figured I'd start putting all my travel journals in one place. I usually keep one, whether it's for sanity (necessary during family vacations. Sorry Mom and Dad), or to share (my various "Ship Blogs" for when I've been out to sea).


"Vacation" has various meanings.. at least in my life.

I go on vacation when I leave my room at school and walk laps around the lake to clear my head. It's temporary, and not totally fulfilling because there is still work and whatever other stress hanging on my shoulders, but at least I'm moving.

I go on vacation with my family sometimes. It's usually to some nice condotel and we do a lot of tourist things and my mom always has a whole itinerary drawn up visiting some historic or botanic spot or another and it bores the hell out of me, though we end up having a little fun at least.

I go on vacation with my friends, which is usually more entertaining, since my friends are more inclined to wander without purpose as I am.

And I go on vacation by myself, for school or work, and I love it.

I've said to my family... I never worry until I have to. I kind of don't worry regardless but it's always nice to not have to follow anyone, or make sure someone is following you.

Vagabondage includes, as the dictionary defines it, being homeless and jobless. Technically I'm neither but for the time I am out of everyone else's world, I am both, and it kicks ass.


I just had the idea to make this last night and I have a meeting to get to soon, so I'll update it on my current travels and maybe make it look nicer later (though that's a waste of my time at the moment. Much better things to do!)