HAWAII SHAKIN' VACATION
Surviving that & all the rest of it....

Sure, we could tell our friends that chunks of Big Island buildings were falling all around barely missing us while the Pacific swirled around our feet. Naahhh...we were having a big buffet breakfast at our hotel in Kauai before departing to the airport and Maui, the last stop on our 4-island trip. On the bus we heard about the October 15th, 707AM, 6.6 quake, it's epicenter about 15 miles from the Sheraton where we stayed 3 days earlier (we later learned it sustained minimal damage). We felt nothing, knew nothing until 2 hours after the rumble. HI Earthquake '06 Survivor t-shirts were already being silk screened.

Unknown was if we could land per schedule in Maui, seis-ing in with 3.2 which caused some power outages there. But, we alit ok - the airport had electricity, there were no cracks in the runway nor reports of a big wave headed for our tour group. But, the 2nd night there, at 230AM, we were awakened by a hotel alarm that sent a few hundred guests outside in their pjs. Another quake? If it was a tsunami, why were so many of these early risers tending toward the beach lemming-style? For the next 20 minutes, much speculation ensued until one of the big hotel's 3 graveyard-shift personnel appeared to announce a false fire alarm. Was it really a drill or just somebody's post-quake jitter?

Our "Road to Hana" event was changed to an in/out rather than the usual circuit drive owing to landslides. On the "passable" section, our very capable HI native van driver was sometimes required to stop for big errant rocks and throw them off the winding, undulating, narrow road before continuing. All the while, it was raining hard. This island route already had a rustic reputation. Afterwards, the driver issued everyone who rode with her a "survival" certificate. I inquired about endorsements for today's trek. The next day, we also got certificates for surviving a ride to the Haleakala crater. (Say, did we make a wrong turn somewhere and somehow wind up in The Amazing Race?).

We took off and landed 10 times, counting our Kauai helicopter ride, and de-shoed 5 times. All our commercial legs seemed bumpier than usual. We came too close to missing our flight out of Denver; our LA seats were given away. We luckily got others, but apart. The airports are generally a bucket of worms: The Security Checks, hurry up and wait, lines, crowds, baggage, eateries w/inflated prices, squirmy/squealy kids + strollers, callers screaming into cell phones, and a red-eye w/o blankets, pillows, or audio for the "free" movie. Jet lag. And, clueless tourists, too many, shuffling about, hoping to survive it all, maybe even get some-where.

Will we return? Naahhh.... T-shirts? Go here:
http://www.cafepress.com/buy/Hawaii/?click=true&CMP=KNC-G-PP-DOM&ovchn=GGL&ovcpn=Places+-+Domestic+Basic&ovcrn=sr2DP1go40529go513pi1ai450+Hawaii+t-shirts&ovtac=PPC&SR=sr2DP1go40529go513pi1ai450