Aloha! Mahalo! And all that other island jargon I keep hearing. We’re in Hawaii! This officially marks the end of a quest. I have now visited ALL 50 STATES. Lame? Perhaps. But…exciting nonetheless. AND...to top it all off....Alaska was the 49th and Hawaii was the 50th state admitted to the union and they were the 49th and 50th states I visited. Is this interesting to anyone but me? Doubtful.
Hawaii has been really nice. We arrived first in Hilo the other day, and, of course…it was pouring down rain. So we just went to Wal-Mart to get a quick fix of American commercialism and some marshmallow PEEPS and then we ate at a place called Ken’s Pancake House.
Then yesterday we got to Honolulu. It’s gorgeous here! Just like you’d imagine. So…we thought it would be fun to go skydiving here cause it would be great scenery. We were definitely NOT disappointed. The jump was amazing. I’ve jumped twice before, but this was definitely the best. We were up on the North Shore, which is where all the big waves are, so the view of the ocean was stunning. My favorite part was that I got to jump THROUGH a cloud! It was so weird. It was a beautiful day, but there were some clouds in the sky. As we reached our high altitude, we were above some of the clouds and they were all just cool and billowy underneath us. So….we headed out. The freefall was my favorite part, as it has been in the past. Then, as I saw us approaching the cloud I got all excited, then when we hit it, it suddenly got really cold and wet. I guess I knew from my studies of clouds in the Omnibus smart kid program in Mrs. Haberman’s class in second grade, I knew clouds were made of water, but it was so strange nonetheless. Definitely an unforgettable experience. And…I got some great pics.
After my chute opened, the guy on my back said, “Uh oh…their line is twisted.” He was referring to one of my friends that I jumped with. They just sort of kept plummeting past me with their parachute out, but it wasn’t catching any air. It was scary. Then, finally, as I’m trying to figure out if all of Anne-Marie’s remains will fit into my backpack to take her back to the ship, her chute finally opened. When we met on the ground, I was so happy to see her. Of course at that point she had no idea something had gone wrong. I guess parachute failure is on a “need to know” sort of basis. So she was freaked out when I told her what had happened. But in the end, all is well in the world and she’s left with a good story to tell.
So…then we got back to the ship and got cleaned up and decided we should have a nice dinner to celebrate our last great adventure together. So, Jimmy and Anne-Marie and I put on our Sunday best and headed to Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse. I know it’s a chain and all, but it really is crazy tasty. As you all know, being a Nebraska boy at heart, I’m a complete carnivore and love my steak. Well…prior to this, the best steak I’d had in the past was at the Ruth’s Chris in Minneapolis. That has now been surpassed. I generally believe that Nebraska beef is the best. However…Hawaii is supposed to have great beef as well because of the volcanic nutrients in the soil that the grass grows in that the cows eat. Well…it is true. Jimmy and I got the giant porterhouse for two. It was 40 ounces and it was RIDICULOUS! It was about 3 inches thick and took up the whole plate. It was a little Fred Flintstoney. It was so thick that the waiter said that the top half of the steak was a ribeye and the lower half was a filet. So it was soft like a filet, but was marbley and tasty like a ribeye. We finished every last bit, then Jimmy chewed the bone for 20 minutes. We finished it all off with my favorite molten chocolate desert and a dollar movie next door. The Brits had never heard of a dollar movie. They were shocked. Anne-Marie kept saying….”It’s really only a dollar?” It is, indeed, Anne-Marie…. it is indeed.
So…tomorrow we’re in Lahaina and the Brits and I have rented a car and we’re going to just head out and explore. Should be a good time. We wanted to find a luau, but they were all booked, so…just us and the car and the island. I feel like Gilligan. Actually….Jimmy would be Gilligan. I’m more like the professor. Only I hope I’m aging better. Yikes.
12 more days til I’m home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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