Of Wings, Beer, and Sunsets, and come on sales tactics of young women.

In the morning of my first full day here I got a real shock. I had walked to the Ala Moana shopping centre for supplies. On my wandering way to Long's Drugs to check out beer prices, I was approached by a fair skinned waif of a girl asking me if she could give me a present. I politely declined, but she persisted and I didn't want to be rude. She asked me a few questions in a moderate accent about where I was from etc, I answered without detail as she batted her lips and swayed her hips in what I guess was a flirty way. She was from Israel though I had guessed Eastern Europe. My resolve held firm, I really wasn't interested, so after politely declining her gift for the fifth time I went on my way. After all, you don't get to be of a certain age without recognizing the sales tactics of young women.
It was the beer prices that were the shock. Thirty cans of chilled Budweiser for $22. That's one third the cost at home.  I purchased sun screen (no beer), passed up on the urge to stop in Sears and get nostalgic for my previous family visits in the seventies, and wandered back down the mall to find Barnes and Noble and the Foodland supermarket. As I passed the stall of the waif, she called out "Hey Canada, you sure you don't want a free gift?" I laughed, she laughed, and I shook my head. What do I need with skin care beauty products anyway?
So I bought beer, and cheese, and salsa, and chips to stock up the hotel room's refrigerator and took a cab back. Thirty full cans of beer are heavy.
After a few hours on the lanai reading, and sunning, having a SKYPE video catch up chat with an old friend, and napping, I headed out to Jimmy Buffett's At The Beachcomber. It's my favourite out of town bar in the world. They play my kind of music, serve my kind of beer, make my kind of food, and it's decorated in the kind of outrageous fun kitsch that all tropical bars should have.

I chatted with Justin, the bartender, and ordered two of my favourite things in human existence, Landshark Lager and Waimea Wings. The beer is just right for the tropics, not heavy and dark, nor flavourless and chemical. And the wings? First they are from full sized chickens, not those midget drumette type things. Then they are cooked in a sweet chili sauce that is more flavour than cloying paste. You can taste the flavours of the chicken meat, and the sauce. 

Justin gives me some advice for my journeys out to the Leeward side on Monday and Tuesday, then sated with good food, good drink, and good company (thanks Justin), I head back to the hotel to wait for sunset.

All this from the room lanai.

After sunset I settled into my chair on the lanai to enjoy the quiet of the night but the electro-synth pop-rap-crap music from the Rumfire bar downstairs was loud enough to drown out the soothing sound of the surf. After twenty minutes I gave up, went inside, opened a beer, and ordered Captain America on the hotel pay-per-view. It was a LOT better than I thought it would be, and ran circles around the worse than real life comic book version that I saw on VHS back in the '80s.
Then to sleep, glad to have come, happy to be here.