Our last day in Honolulu was spent traveling around the island on the hop on-hop off bus. I think we went to the windward side, but I’m not absolutely sure about that. We did see many gorgeous beaches, a real live blowhole and a fast driveby siting of Pearl Harbor and whatever other military stuff. Our last bus driver/tour guide was obsessed with shopping malls and pointed out every single one on the island, I believe. In two days we saw a whole lot of things we want to see more of, so there must be a return trip. And no striking hotel workers, because I still want to have the full Royal Hawaiian experience. [LAIRD: We talked the checkout down from a supplementary $125 to $0 and got a free breakfast out of the deal. Martina, the checkout clerk, was spouting a line obviously designed by corporate lawyers that they did not want to email notice to prebooked customers of the strike. The convoluted arguments was that the strike could settle at any time and they wanted to make sure that they could offer hours to the returning workers. And Martina did say that a few customers elected to find another hotel instead of the Royal. My memory, however, of checking in was only the apology and an offer to forgo the $37 a day “resort fee.” No mention was made of canceling our pre-paid reservation on the spot and getting help to check in at a non-striked hotel. So I’m contemplated writing a letter explaining that I feel betrayed by Royal management.] We did wish the strikers GOOD LUCK every time we passed them. They want $25/hr, which is still not very much in Hawaii when you consider the cost of living. Marriott offered 75 cents/hr. That’s a damn far way away for them to reach a reasonable consensus. [LAIRD: The organizing slogan for the strike was ONE JOB SHOULD BE ENOUGH! The economics of the whole situation is in the favor of management, of course, because they’ve hired nonunion locals and brought in managers, etc from all over the country to help out in their various locations.]
Got to the airport in plenty of time and bought a lunch around suppertime — and wouldn’t you know it, they served supper on plane! We had eaten in the airport because coming to Honolulu at beginning of trip we did not get ANYTHING from LA to Hawaii (an 8 hour flight for pity’s sake) after spending 6 hours in LAX after sitting 3-4 hours in ABQ. That was American, perhaps not the best one to fly if you want to eat. Coming home from Honolulu was United and they were very nice to us. I use a wheelchair when traveling because I can’t walk as long as it takes to get to most big airport gates, particularly if I’ve had to stand in lines to check in and go through security. Anyone who has limitations should definitely travel this way!
[Laird:] I decided to go to STEM club at Atalaya. The kids were hyper, having Halloween costumes (Harry Potter prevailing) and looking forward to the Haunted House and other activities Friday evening. Rather than persisting in my lesson plan with the pendulum rig, we made pumpkin slime and cornstarch oobleck. The oobleck was cool. I wanted to teach the kids how to turn a demo into a science fair project but failed. It was kind of weird to be working when 12 hours (and about 30 degrees F. temperature) ago we were in Honolulu.
Got home about 11 am [actually 10:31, but who’s counting?]. I wandered around for a bit, went through the mail in a daze and yearned for a nap. No good. Didn’t fall asleep until about 5:30 p.m., awake at 7:00, back to sleep by 10:00 and didn’t get up until noon today. I still have more hours to make up. A desultory attempt at unpacking has been my only effort so far. Too hard. Maybe tomorrow. Speaking of tomorrow, Sunday, there is a benefit mariachi concert for Playschool of the Arts at the Lensic in the afternoon, 2-5. Music by Lone Pinon and another group whose name I forget and dancing by Folklorica. PLEASE GO AND PLEASE SUPPORT PLAYSCHOOL OF THE ARTS! It’s an amazing preschool for Santa Fe’s kiddies and most of their students are low-income. Our grandkids, Theodore and Sia, went there and loved it. If you know anyone with children I think 18 months to 5 years of age, encourage them to check it out — the founder is a BRILLIANT teacher and the other teachers are tops, too!
So back to regular daily life. I had a huge scare yesterday when I got on the scale: it said I had gained 11 pounds. YIKES! NOOOOOOOOO! But today it said I only gained ONE POUND. Now that’s more like the miracle I was looking for! [LAIRD: I clocked in this morning at 172 on the nose, for, at most, a one pound gain over the two weeks. And we did have some very good food. Did Jonelle talk about the amazing tuna we got at a sushi bar in the Tokyo airport? Really, really good in color, texture and taste. And, by the way, Americans use far more soy and wasabi than do Japanese. They only dip fish, and then very lightly on the fish side, not the rice side of the ball.] OH MY GOD, that sushi. Wild bluefin tuna — the best either of us has ever eaten, fur sure!]
We loved Japan and definitely must go back to see so much more than we saw on this trip. We’ll still sign up for more cooking classes, I think, because they were amazing and it would be so swell to see our chef friends again, but there was so much that we missed. I wonder if the Japanese do airbnb??? Probably not — they are probably way too private for that. That’s how we feel about Kyoto. I’m not sure either of us is much interested in going back to Tokyo. Well, maybe to see the Imperial Palace and the amazing Japanese museum. But other places are likely to be more enticing to us. Still so much to see in Kyoto — and we have lots more shrines and temples to see just in Arishiyama — not to mention the rest of Kyoto. A huge shout out to everyone we met in Japan — everyone was so wonderful to us! And a special, special thanks, with many kisses, to Yoriko — can’t wait to get up of a morning and have miso soup with your homemade miso!!
Bueno bye till our next travel adventure, sure to include South Africa next year, along with maybe Spain or somewhere else — jm & lg
lairdandjonelle 
Wow, thank you so much for sharing your wild and wonderful culinary adventures! ~Galaxy