What a TRIP!
Photo(s), courtesy of Dr. HC Kolb © 2013.
We stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, in Oahu, again. (This location has the advantage of having a private beach, with kids activities, snorkeling, dinner cruises, and the best fireworks show on Friday nights.) This time we had a corner room in the Tapa Tower. Last time, we stayed at the Rainbow Tower. Both experiences left a good taste in our mouths. Because our rooms were spacious, if expensive, and comfortably appointed. High up, the views are impressive. Beware of vertigo! It is so high UP and still little birds arrive looking for scraps on our balcony. Diamond Head and the Bay sparkling with ant-sized boats, imaged outriggers, and the vast Pacific ocean, teeming with life. Humans come from all over the world to celebrate their peak moments in Honolulu’s warm embrace.
The thick ocean air, kisses your face, fragrant breezes massage your skin… Ah!
Underwater photo, courtesy of Dr. HC Kolb © 2013, no reproduction without permission.
What a way to celebrate turning 40! The triumph over a family’s greatest challenge! Whatever the reason, Hawaii is the place to GO! YOU want to be there to celebrate your life’s milestones. YOU need a dip in the warm waters. You are ready to dance the Hula. The adventure of LIFE is alive and raw in that excellent city, Honolulu. It may be developed, a hard little nugget of a glittering city, studded with high-end shopping venues on par with Rodeo Drive, in Los Angeles, California and top-notch boutique hotels, but the island has jungle hiking trails that will delight the novice, the family man, the native, and the experienced globe trekker, alike.
Ja!
It wasn’t a given that we would make it this far. Those that know, are aware of how much ground we crossed in the last few years, and how we (all) faced difficult conditions, in the spirit of learning to love LIFE more, and thus, WE arrive at this—sacred—point in time: NOW! Any major life transition requires special action to mark it, define it. The traditional honeymoon in Hawaii works, for example, in that no one can say that “little America,” the islands of the Pacific are anything short of dreamy, a GREAT place to launch a life-long LOVE partnership. Just as the passage from winter to spring, the graduation of a loved one might be a great excuse to get down to Hawaii for some much needed rest and relaxation.
YES! WE must prioritize caring for ourselves.
The key message shared in, “The Vacation Approach,” an unpublished book by Frau Kolb was that LIFE must be lived as an ongoing vacation. What do WE really want to do? What is really important? Let us connect with our LOVED ones while we have them. Let us GO to Hawaii while its beauty withstands the assault of the littering tourists (those horrible humans who feel it is okay to leave plastic wrappers, bottles, and bags everywhere they go.) Let us enjoy, as much as we can, this moment that sits before us. Let us embrace the NOW, where NOW happens to be. In other words, IF you can not now afford a little get away. Plan your vacation and enjoy your actual location. (Read this blog for tips on how to live the artist’s ideal life of learning, loving, and living it UP!) Travel in books and by reading is another way to soar above the bore of same old, same old.
IF, on the better hand, money is not an issue and you crave hard-core decadent luxury and French service, then you must hit B.L.T in Honolulu. Delicious European classics in Las Vegas style luxury with New Yorker edge, in Honolulu bent on French service in a high-end restaurant then you simply must visit, BLT Steak. Oh YES! It is so good. You will love it. Juicy! This is food that we advise vegetarians avoid. Moreover, this an establisment catering to those on a tight budget. But it is pure carnivore heaven to go when you want to splurge on a thick Porterhouse, for two, served in cast iron, with sides of garden fresh vegetable and excellent tender green salad, preceded by Pacific oysters—so fresh and briny. This is the elegant dining location to mark a memorable evening with best friends and beloved (carnivore) family. Yet, it is NOT for everyone (vegetarians, you could order a grilled veggie plater! I’m sure it would be excellent). IF you want to celebrate an important event and want the team service to work like a dream around you. Try, knocking a piece of silver of the table and watch the head waiter catch it before it hits the floor. Or don’t, because really that isn’t the kind of thing a polite and well-bred person like YOU would even consider doing for a bit of bad-taste fun. But, if happen to push a fork off the table, by accident, KNOW that the service will notice before you are inconvenienced by the diving piece of silver.
You might also enjoy, Kaiwa, Japanese cuisine for lunch. Quiet. Elegant. On a second floor and frequented by locals. This spot is a refuge from the chain restaurant culture, the noise, the ubiquitous flat screen televisions, and cheap American food. It is a comfortable, but not tremendously luxurious, place you want to sink into the deep padded leather booths lining the restaurant and enjoy a moment of nourishing Japanese cuisine.
Travel helps fortify the soul, the spirit.
IF you have never snorkeled in Honomanu Bay in Oahu: You MUST but, first, you have to watch the nine minute conservation and safety film. YOU don’t want to die in Hawaii. You want to have a good time. Therefore, you require instruction on how to respect the life that lives in the reefs and coral. It is time YOU get cozy with the idea that our reality depends on being mindful of LIFE, limits, and LOVING the environment, and showing that LOVE by restricting our personal use of natural resources, honoring the material world, so that life may endure and WE, my friends, continue to thrive.
© Frau Kolb 2013