Saturday: Lucky shirts, Ala Moana, and Italian swimwear

Flying into Hawaii, I missed Game 1 of the Rangers ALDS.  I don't remember the last game I completely missed, let alone a playoff game.  Since I have no laptop or smart phone, the only way I could support my team is to wear my Rangers American League Championship shirt.  This resulted in a brutal thumping at the hands of the Tampa Bay Rays and a rookie pitcher.  I didn't take the hint, and wore my Aggie t-shirt on Saturday.  With a kickoff that started at 6 am Hawaii time, I watched my Aggies blow a 17-point lead to the hated Razorbacks.  Bummer!  Then, I went outside and remembered I was in paradise.  Life is good today!


My sleep will take some time to figure out.  This morning I woke up at 4:45am.  I did get to see an amazing sunrise, and caught McDonalds breakfast for the first time in like 10 years.  The game really did suck, but having the worst part of your day over at 9:00am is kind of refreshing.  There was plenty of time for the day to recover.

Ryan and I bus-ed it downtown to watch Game 2 of the Rangers ALDS.  Our bus route took us through Chinatown, which I didn't think existed in Hawaii, and eventually past the old Hawaiian Royal Palace.  I didn't realize that existed either.  I'll have to check that out this week.

The Ala Moana (meaning path to the sea) Center is a tough place to describe, but I'll give it a whirl.  It's an open-air Northpark-quality mall that sits in the middle of the city of Honolulu(OK not that hard).  This is the kind of building that can only exist in a place where the climate is always perfect.  If this existed in Texas, nobody would ever go.  In a state where it's over 95 degrees six months out of the year, storms that resemble the end of days, and one month of icy winter, this place would be a colossal failure.  Here in Hawaii, this place is a mallrat's dream.

On the top floor, there's an open air bar called the Mai Tai lounge where we could sit in front of a tv, forget about college football, and enjoy the Ranger game.  There was a great bar area with a cute Hawaiian wait-staff that seemed to laugh at us enjoying the painfully silly game that is baseball.  To say that nobody cares about baseball in Hawaii feels like an undersell.  If the remains of Babe Ruth literally came to bat and hit a three-run homer off of the Dutch Oven, the folks in this bar would have given a collective "meh, bra"!  Nobody cared about this game except for me and Ryan.  Our waitresses laughed at our enthusiasm on several occasions.  A table of white hairs nearby (part of the majority), gave us the "are you serious look" only to see that yes, we were very serious.  Rangers win, and it's only 3pm.

Is he drinking a lava flow?

Walking around Waikiki is like walking around the collective imagination of everyone who has never seen Hawaii.  The standard tourist vision of Hawaii can all be found in this part of the island.  Leis, hula classes,  beautiful women, out of shape old dudes, tiki torches, mai tais, totally original beachfront wedding ceremonies, etc.  I half expected to see Garfield and Odie walking around in Aloha shirts.  Tourists, beaches, and palm trees decorate the landscape.  Hotels tower over this beach, which is still the most beautiful beach I have ever seen.  I will have to come back here as well.

Eating a shave ice (not a snow cone!!!) we take in some of the less-than-natural scenery.  Fakies and overweight middle-aged men everywhere.  There was a trio of spry elderly men talking about their stock portfolios, which lawyer to use for their third divorces, killer property deals in Arizona, or whatever rich folks talk about.  They were all rocking Italian-style bikini briefs.  It was hilarious!  We roamed the beach, and enjoyed walking through the Hilton hotel area without authorization.  We don't play by the rules!

The time change has effected my inner-clock.  I'm already tired by 9pm and ready for sleep.  Hopefully, I'll be able to be more of a trooper later in the week.