Hawaii

This past week I joined my boyfriend for a business trip to O'ahu, Hawaii. Dream job huh, getting to actually travel on expense account to tropical paradise? You might think so, but alas, I beg to differ. Jedi ended up working such wild hours we barely had any time together. Not that I'm complaining, because I do well exploring on my own, but this was not an ideal vacation experience. It was both an adventure and extremely restful for me.

O'ahu is an incredibley beautiful island with soft, white sand and translucent green-blue water. It is also a melting pot of cultures, religions, and lifestyles, I was surprised to see so much diversity in such a small place. Los Angeles used to strike me as being very diverse and accepting, but I think Hawaii beats us hands down.

Just to give you an idea of the mix, I interacted people from Vietnam, the Phillipines, Korea, China, Japan, Cambodia, Australian, New Zealand, England, and United States Mainland. Plus most of these people are represented in Hawaii with their culture's food. I ate ramen, tacos, sushi, BBQ (both Hawaiian and Texas style), and macadamian pancakes with coconut syrup. Does anyone know what the fascination serving macaroni salad and white rice with everything??? And the macaroni salad is nothing more then elbow shaped pasta and mayo...hello? What is up with that?

Speaking of food, the airline actually served meals at no additional cost and they were sort of tasty too. I played it safe and had pasta on the flights to and from Honolulu. I have to say I enjoyed Hawaiian Airlines service quite a bit. They were unceasingly kind and punctual too (which is saying a lot when it comes to traveling). Since childhood I have been a notoriously bad traveler, but I am improving with age (I'm uncertain if my boyfriend would agree).