I followed chuck’s advice. I’m quite happy with it. Plus i only have two or three cords now.
And it rarely drops.
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From last night’s game zone, a couple of suggestions on travel.
For Bench, I haven’t been to Vegas (except for one layover in the airport), but went to Reno when I caught my fish in Nevada. If you have time though, pick up a copy of Basin and Range to read about Nevada geology. It’s fascinating.
For HH, I’ve been to Honolulu twice, which surely makes me an expert. The Bishop Museum is a must see, and the palace is not so interesting in itself, but I’m glad I went. It always reminds me that Hawaii has a history that’s complex and a wee bit troubled. If you get a chance, find a history of the early exploration, European immigration, and annexation. Also read the Wikipedia entry on Daniel Inouye. Do not re-read Michener’s Hawaii.
The Pearl Harbor Memorial is very moving, but a bit of a mess. My Dad’s first cousin died on the Arizona, and the Arizona Memorial was closed which disappointed me. His name was Houston O’Neal Thomas, and he was 21. I really wanted to see his name at the Memorial. I don’t know if it’s reopened.
For restaurants, the Lady and the Pig is great. Senia is the other high end place we went to, and Kris liked it better than the Lady and the Pig. Wherever you plan to go, make reservations today. Helena’s gets a lot of press, but it’s closed a bunch of days and when it’s open it closes at 7:30, so you need to get there early. I’ve never made it. Ahi Assassins fish company is another place that gets a lot of press that I haven’t made it to.
Kris hated the Rainbow Drive In, I loved it. You’d like it.
Driving to the north side of Oahu is memorable, and the surfing there is supposed to be the best. We fished both sides, and spent the night on both sides. I wouldn’t bother spending the night there, but it’s really pretty.
We went to a Luau the last time we were there, on Kauai. I have very mixed feelings about it, but all-in-all I’m glad we did it once.
There is a great Panama hat store at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. They’re startlingly expensive, and I’m still alternately glad and sad that I didn’t buy one. They’re really beautiful.
If you want my Hawaiian music playlist, and a bit more on restaurants, go here: Hawaii Packing List - fiftyflyfish.com Hawaiian music is everywhere.
Weirdly, I think our favorite island is Molokai, but I suspect that’s because of the fishing. That and because it only really has one hotel.
Neil, you do a great job with your fishing blog. I’m a fan.
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Thanks. Checking out Senia now. And yes, Panama hats, which of course are made in Ecuador not Panama, are quite pricey. A decent one is $400-500, and a really good one is upwards of $3,000. Some people pay 10s of thousands of dollars from particularly renown weavers.
I bought a Panama hat that was made in Columbia for $40. It’s about 10 years old now and still works just fine as a hat. The sun is indiscriminate. But, I can feel the difference on my head between it and a nice higher quality Ecuadorian made Panama hat.
This is true. A $20 Timex watch will give you the time, same as a $40,000 gold Rolex President.
Is your $40 hat a roll-up?
Not a roll up. I have found that most times paying more for quality is worth it. The worth can be determined many ways - functionality, durability, even maintaining or achieving a status.
Very true. I’ve found the functionality of being able to roll up your Panama hat and stuff it in your suitcase for travel a worthy feature.
Just my 2 cents on Hawaii. We stayed on Maui first, and did the Road to Hana, which is highly recommended. Rent a car - convertible ideally - and drive yourself. It has some nervy moments but, having seen how those on tourist buses were being shepherded around and had only limited stops, we were so glad we were under our own power. The best advice we had was to stop where you see other people have stopped, and find out what they’re looking at. We saw some amazing sights along the way. Oh, and start early.
We also spent a couple of days in Honolulu. We stayed at the Moana Surfrider, which is reasonable (for Hawaii) and a wonderful, historic hotel. It’s a tourist attraction itself. Pearl Harbor was essential and didn’t disappoint. Such a well done museum and memorial.
We enjoyed our trip and I’m pretty confident I will not go back by choice. Too far and too expensive to merit a return trip.
Did Road to Hana twice. Once on a tour, but we were in a small van. Agree driving oneself is better for photo ops.
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Thanks Neil. I just ordered it.
We are not planning on going to Maui. A few days on Oahu and a few on Hawaii. We are staying at the Halepuna in Honolulu, which I think is next door to the Moana Surfrider. Pearl Harbor is on the list, but the rest of Oahu is pretty unstructured. We have several things lined up for the Big Island, including one of those helicopter volcano tours. We may end up with a side trip to Maui on a whim though, as my aunt and cousin live on Maui. She’s already on me about not visiting.
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This is the place you could buy a $10,000 hat. The Royal Hawaiian is one of the oldest (and priciest) hotels on Waikiki, so it’s a great place to walk down to in the evening.
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My dad was part of the Iwo Jima invasion and a casualty of grenade shrapnel. When Marine medics finally got to him the next day he was evacuated and sent to Hawaii for treatment and recovery at the Royal which was serving as a hospital for Allied troops. We still have a pink beach towel my wife bought over there almost 40 years ago. It’s not as pink as it used to be.
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When my wife and I were in Hawaii we took a helicopter tour of the islands. He stopped on a couple of the islands for a short while. The big island and Maui were stops where we were there a little while and saw something of interest so that we could at least say we had been there.
Since we were staying on Oahu, it at least gave us an overview of the differences in the islands and where we might want to stay “next time”. Alas, we’ve never been back.
Our next trip is to Bismarck, North Dakota, via Minneapolis and Fargo. We’re going to a Twins game in Minneapolis.
I’ve been looking for interesting things to do in North Dakota, and I’m surprised that nothing I’ve come across involves a wood chipper. I think they’re missing a bet there, you betcha.
North Dakota does sport the world’s largest fiberglass Holstein cow
I’m finally going to go to Hawaii. Next February. We’re going to be staying on the big island, the one with the volcanos. I’m hoping to fly over to Oahu, see a friend and spend at least a day driving around Honolulu and see Pearl Harbor and different beaches.
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Pearl Harbor takes a day to do it right. Not a long day, but don’t try to cram it into a morning or afternoon. It’s not a short drive from Honolulu either (by Hawaiian standards at least).
So where’s the report on Hawaii?
I’m glad you asked…
Hawaii is gorgeous.
Spent three days on O’ahu. Went to Pearl Harbor which is quite impressive and there is much to see. We were there about 8 hours and did not have time to see everything. Part of that is due to our time slot for the Arizona Memorial. You have a designated time, and ours was 1:30, which cut out the middle of the day. If you’re lucky enough to get an early morning spot, you have the rest of the day to see the entire site. But plan an entire day there. We did various other driving and walking tours, including the North Shore, which is a world of its own. When Spicolli said “surfing is not a sport, it’s a way of life”, he wasn’t kidding. The North Shore revolves around surfing. It’s pretty much the only thing that exists for most people there. It’s more important there than football is in Green Bay, which I didn’t think was possible. We also did various touristy things like a macadamia nut farm and the Dole plantation. Lots of great beach and historic native Hawaiian history spots, as well, such as the site of the Battle of Nu’uanu, where in 1795 Kamehameha I from Hawaii defeated Kalanikūpule, Chief of Maui to unite the Hawaiian Islands. Walking around Waikiki is eventful. I did not buy a $10,000 Panama hat, but yes, you can…along with your new Rolex and those fancy shoes with the red soles that cost more than my house (Mrs. Hawk knew what they were).
It was then on to Hawaii, the Big Island, which is like landing on Mars. We stayed in Waikoloa, near Kona, on the leeward side, which is pretty much a desert. I loved it, and was seriously getting my geologist nerd on. We had booked a helicopter tour of the active volcano, but when we arrived discovered that they had us booked from the heliport in Hilo, on the other side of the island and 2.5 hours away. So no helicopter, which was disappointing. We did get a tour up to the top of Mauna Kea, which is beautiful at sunset, and then some geeky stargazing and telescoping, which again, I loved. Mrs Hawk thought it was a nice view. It’s cold up there…below freezing.
As for food and drink: first, the mai tais pretty much sucked most everywhere. It was disappointing. They were all full of orange or pineapple or guava or whatever sweet fruit juice they could find. Even at the Rum Factory in Waikoloa, which does its own rum thing, the mai tai was not good. The exception was the House Without a Key, the hotel bar/restaurant at the Halekulani hotel in Waikiki. They were great, as was everything else. We spent a lot of time there. I guess that’s not unsurprising considering that the mai tai is not a Hawaiian drink, but has been adopted for the tourists, who expect fruity pineapple shit.
We ate my birthday dinner at Chef Chai’s In Honolulu, which is advertised as Thai-Hawaiian fusion, but is much more Hawaiian and not much Thai. It was really good though. I had Hawaiian lamb chops and Mrs Hawk had some sort of crab/fish/scallop/lobster seafood cakes. Anniversary dinner was at Roy’s in Waikoloa, which was also good. I had mekajiki, which is Hawaiian swordfish, and Mrs Hawk had seared scallops. The wine selection was pretty good everywhere, though expensive. We actually went into one restaurant in Waikiki for lunch, and while the food appeared reasonably priced ($30-50 per entree), the cheapest bottle of wine was $1,400. And went up from there. Im not kidding. Needless to say, we didn’t stay. Various local restaurants and food trucks rounded out our days.
Overall, the Islands were great, and the people were great. The food was terrific, and the non-mai tai drinking is good. One surprise though…Hawaii is very much a daytime culture. There was virtually no nightlife at all, anywhere. Even in Waikiki, the bars close at 7:00-8:00 and they pretty much roll up the streets right after sunset. Which is a good thing because if you show up at the beach the next morning at 6 am, you’re an hour late. The mood is when the sun comes up, you’re doing your thing, when it goes down, you’re done. I’m not sure when/if we’ll get back, but we will do different things next time, hopefully visit other islands. I highly recommend, even if you don’t get to go fishing.
ETA: I have a photo of the names in the Arizona Memorial and your cousin’s name is there. I can share the picture, if you’d like.
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