On Thursday, we got up early and headed around the island with Kriss and Jo. The day was fantastic, even if it was topped off by a tsunami threat, but I'll get there soon enough. We started out on the bus and stopped first at the Dole plantation, which was brief because it's basically a tourist thing, but I took a picture of the Pineapple Express train schedule for Sami and got some cinnamon coated macadamia nuts which were to die for (and worth it). From there it was back on the bus to Hale'iwa, which is a north shore artsy town that is pretty cute and just what I wanted Hawaii to be, actually - little bungalow houses and people walking round with surfboards; eclectic art and rain puddles. We had a picnic snack under a huge tree and got back on the bus to scope out some famous North Shore waves and found them. I am amazed at how close the roads are to these huge surf beaches. We literally got off the bus, walked across the street and were standing on volcanic rock looking at 12 foot waves crashing into the shore. Truly spectacular. Oh, and tons of little geckos everywhere - they are adorable and since they eat bugs I don't like, I adore them even more.
Then it was back to the bus once more for more adventure. We stopped at Turtle Bay resort, which is breathtakingly gorgeous and had Mai Tai's at the shore. From there, it was on to the Shrimp Truck - Giovanni's - which sits on the side of the road and serves fresh shrimp drowned in garlic and olive oil. It was so good I could have eaten it all day long (but an hour or two afterward, was glad I didn't; holy breath, Batman). It rained off and on throughout the day which made the weather really pleasant and it was a long ride back home. Exhausted but still feeling adventurous, we got two single-serve bottles of champagne, some cheese and Wheat Thins, and proceeded to sit out on the rocks at the beach. We're all class, the two of us. We missed the sunset but it was still really nice to sit and watch the water - after dark, I think the waves breaking look like white ghost dragons chasing each other across the water, and if you imagine this while you're looking at them, it seems like it might be magical.
I SWEAR this next part is true. While finishing our champagne, I made some comment about what would happen if the water suddenly became perfectly still, and Jamison said, "we'd run because it would mean a tsunami is coming." We made a few more jokes about rogue waves and such, but when we came back to the hotel, it was pandemonium - the residents here were all freaking out about a tsunami warning and I was starting to imagine again that I was thinking things into being because it was too weird to have just been joking and have the warning come. Then, when we were not at all worried about it, it started to become a reality. The hotel was handing out flashlights and bottles of water, telling people to stay off of phones and get cash, and to generally charge up phones and computers and things like that. I still wasn't scared necessarily because we are on the fourth floor, reasonably distant from the shore, and in an old, rock-solid cement building. But I did mobilize. I left messages for people at home, packed up our room in case we had to bail out for Jo and Kriss's 16th floor, and filled up the water bottles we had. It wasn't panic; I didn't even feel anxious about it (which is so completely unlike me - to be utterly calm inside and out). I was so not panicked, in fact, that I went right to dreamless sleep by the time it was all supposed to go down. Even when I thought we'd see water coming down the street, I opted for sleep. I think the vacation is doing my blood pressure some real good!
At any rate, by the time I got up in the morning on Friday it was all over and nothing much had changed. The weather was gorgeous and cool, and even though it was sedate around town, it seemed as though nothing had happened. The night before, there were people crying in the hotel lobby and leaving for other hotels with taller buildings, etc. The next day, it was all a memory. Of course, the tee shirt shops all had "I survived the Hawaii tsunami" shirts up by 10 a.m. (gah - capitalism at its ugliest) and I couldn't help but giggle as there was nothing at all to survive.
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