Archive for February, 2009
twas a busy day
February 21, 2009This morning I got a wake up call (i.e. I was still sleeping when the phone rang) from www.knight-camera.com that my camera cleaning/adjustment was complete, and I could come by and pick it up any time. I let the kind fellow know that I’m in Hawaii, and maybe they would be so kind as to mail it back to me. In any case, I’m very happy that it’s done and coming home!
So, since today was Diane’s last day visiting from the big island, we (Mittie and I) decided that we should go to a botanical garden. We quickly picked Ho’omaluhia Botanical Garden in Kaneohe. We’ve driven past it several times, and even drove to the gate once.
The trouble was getting off of Makakilo hill. Apparently we tried to leave just when there was a mess on the freeway. Since there is only one way off this hill, and that path is directly involved in the freeway entrances from Kapolei, the traffic was backed up the hill almost to our doorstep. It took at least 45 minutes to get to Kapolei. Then down Farrington to the Kunia freeway onramp. That little trip was an adventure in itself, since everybody in Kapolei was doing the same in the single lane.
Ah, forgot to mention that Ruhiyyih is on island with her parents. She’s a long-long-time friend from California. I gave her a call before we left inviting them to join us at the gardens, but I guess they found something else to do today.
The botanical gardens were very nice. Lots of plants. We took many photos of each other, and lots of the plants too! I guess we spent almost 3 hours there, and then everybody was hungry.
We punched in “sumo ramen” on my iPhone and it directed us to Hawaii Pacific University: Windward Campus. Basically this is a stretch of Kam Hwy where there is nothing except that school. I decided the iPhone was nuts and we went to maui taco in Kailua.
We were stuffed.
So, back to home. While getting in the car we got a call from Grace (who was MIA since yesterday) saying that she was in fact going to Maui today. This meant that we had to get back to Makakilo to pick her and her stuff up before going to HNL airport.
We headed home, and everybody went to sleep except for me and Bayan (who was nose in book the whole way). I noticed that even though we had no problem westbound on the freeway, there was still a big backup on eastbound H1. It wasn’t backed up all the way to Kapolei exit yet.
We got home and Grace was not home yet. I called her and she was still stuck at the bus stop. “Here I come,” said I.
On the way back up the hill, I saw that the eastbound backup on H1 was now visible from Kapolei.
Got home, Grace got her stuff together and away we go. Back down Farrington for the second time.
Approaching the airport, I saw that westbound on H1 was totally backed up between the airport and the stadium. Mittie suggested going “over the hill” to go back. I was puzzled, but then finally got it that she was suggesting taking Moanalua Fwy. Excellent!
After doing the airport check-in, wave at security checkpoint thing, we grabbed some drinks at Moanalua Shopping Center (iced tea from Panda Express for me, something hot from Starbucks for Mittie), and then took Puuloa over to the “over the hill” route.
When we got near home, I called Heajun to ask “can I pick up my sweatshirt?” “Sure!” So we dropped by her house. Mittie had more hot tea, I had some ice cream, and we talked for an hour or so.
Now I’m home, it’s 10pm and we’ve been go go going since 9am this morning. Well, if you count sitting in dead still traffic as “going”. 
Good night.
