Finally sitting down to write about being In Hawaii for the last two and a half weeks. I kept waiting for the bandwidth but if I do that it’s not gonna happen (been spending this week playing catch up on all the things at home). I don’t even know where to start, there were so many pretty places, cool experiences, many many firsts, and a ridiculously absurd amount of wild chickens! There were many birds, ducks, different foods, lots of shenanigans. I got to experience so many firsts and it was really special, I have so much gratitude to my friend for spending all this time with me to adventure around the island and setting up lifetime experiences for my birthday.
Some of the things I checked out:
- Got to visit another duck rescue
- Saw a beautiful garden a friend maintains
- Visited Byodo-In Temple and hand fed birds!
- Enjoyed a lovely bbq with another friend who used to live in AZ
- Visited Mu-Ryang-Sa Korean Buddhist Temple
- Drove my first golf cart
- Visited the Pearl Harbor Memorial
- Visited the Honolulu Zoo and saw my first sloth! Also saw the Nēnē’s <3
- Checked out the Green World Coffee Farm and got Kona coffee for mom
- Went to the Dole Plantation and rode the Pineapple Express
- Visited Ala Moana Beach and saw tiny transparent fishies in the water
- Flew in a gyrocopter over the north shore of the island
- Had delicious burger patties at Kua’Aina Sandwich (they claim to be the oldest burger joint on the island)
- Saw turtles playing in the waves at Laniakea Beach
- Stopped by Bodega Hawaii for some delicious Spanish chorizo
- Visited the goats at Sweet Land Farm
- Saw cute sandpipers running around Hale’iwa Beach
- Went to the North Shore Macadamia Nut farm
- Did the raptor tour at Kualoa Ranch and got to drive around seeing the beautiful landscape and movie sets, including Jurassic Park
- Did a sunrise hike at Makapu’u Point to the lighthouse
- Went to the Kanuku Sugar Mill and checked out the swap meet
- Went to Maili Beach and saw crabs running around, also stumbled upon the SCA during fighter practice
- Went to Ka’ena Point
- Checked out the coffee factory / Island X Hawaii in Waialua and got more coffee for mi madre, cocoa beans for the bf, & a chicken crossing fridge magnet for myself
- Tried to check out the goth scene in Honolulu and it was a half way to Halloween pub crawl, a smol one room venue doing an old school goth night, and then someone said hello on the street and I got swept away to Scarlets which was a gay club with large pictures of Kimchi (drag queen) on the walls and male and female go go dancers, definitely reminded me of BS West back in the day.
- Went to the Wahiawa Pineapple Festival!!!! I had no idea my friends lived in Pineapple Town!!!!!!!1 I friggin looooove pineapples and was absolutely delighted.
There was a lot of derping around the island, I kept going back to North Shore / Haleiwa and checking out what was in the area. I slacked on my usual food protocols and consumed a bit of caffeine and sugar the last few days (and I’m back on my proper protocols now), but I loved hanging out at the cafe and watching all of the wild chickens. There were so many babies running after their mamas! Also, I usually air fry, sous vide, or pan sear steaks at home and I got to grill while I was here, it was so nice. I want a grill so bad now but have no idea where to put it.
It was a bit of an adjustment for me, and I’m glad I handled the warmer climate and humidity without too much trouble, I was a little concerned since I’ve acclimated to colder environments. I got bit up pretty bad by mosquitos the first couple days because I thought I’d be alright during the daytime, but kept a pretty rigid sunscreen / deet / repellent wrist band protocol going the rest of the trip and only got a couple other bites the rest of the trip. My friend’s partner was originally supposed to be deployed and I was there to assist, but they were delayed and ended up going half a week before I returned. Thankfully another friend was coming to help out when I took off, but I think there’s a gap after that friend leaves and spouse returns, I hope there isn’t one or it’s super short because they do so much work to care for ducks they’ve rescued. I tried to help out where I could but wish I’d done better. I think my timing getting back from exploring was off a couple times. I did get over some shit pretty quickly though, I have a lifelong bug phobia and could never stand mealworms and after a couple days I was able to manage the food without flinching. Not sure I could do the blood worms though, grateful I didn’t find out. Also grateful the live crickets didn’t happen, but I would have been cool to chill in the guest room if they had gotten crickets for the ducks. There was also a baby centipede on the bedroom floor one morning when I got up and I squished it and didn’t scream. Aaaand a couple of baby lizards but it was fine because they’re lizards. I think I acclimated alright giving my starting point, but I would like to do better.
I’m kind of paying for deviating from my food protocols and have had a headache and some inflammation in my neck. It’s resolving pretty quickly and other than drinking coffee again I’m pretty much back to where I need to be. All the symptoms that came back will be gone soon. I was glad that I learned what a malasada was and got to try them with my friend. I also found the best taiyaki I ever had in my life in Honolulu, and we realized malasadas to them were probably like taiyaki to me, very nostalgic. The goat farm I went to had this white chocolate matcha macadamia gelato and it was absurdly good, and the goats were right there and I would be rude to not try their gelato. Went to a couple coffee farms, the Dole plantation, had to sample the coffee, had matcha ice cream at one of them, and definitely got the dole whip. I did try poke once because Hawaii, and found the top rated place in Haleiwa. It was pretty tasty and I’m glad their menu specified which items were gluten free. Also did Diamond Head Chocolate while on a tarp run and got the Kona gelato and a truffle with a cherry in the middle. Stupid good. And I saw they had an English menu and a Japanese menu, that was pretty common. Another place in Haleiwa had some of the best prime rib I ever had. All other meals were within my proper protocol so while I Pac-Man’d my way through some of the island to eat up all the dopamine I could, a majority of what I ate was still within my normal way of eating. I have been noting what symptoms have come back and it always reinforces why I do what I do. It’s hard, because dopamine is hard to come by (so is serotonin), my brain just has a lot of deficits and when things are stressful I want chocolate. It’s hard to disconnect this once it gets started, I’ve snowballed a few times previously. Stress/trip/novely/whatever > eats thing > instant dopamine rush in brain > happy + more energy > physical symptoms start internally and/or I break out and my skin is pissed > out of dopamine and miserable and want MOAR. I’m allowing the coffee (because it’s really good Kona coffee) and cream, it’s my last vice. It’s always my last vice, but it’s making the transition smoother.
Oh man, so my last Friday on the island I wanted to see what the goth scene was like… if there was any. I went on Reddit a couple weeks before the flight to see if there was anything and someone mentioned DJ Nocturna and a couple other things that seemed like one offs or occasional things. I reached out to Nocturna on IG and never got a response, whatever. I did comment under a thread asking if things were going on and a kind person messaged me a flyer for a night. Then the last week I was there they sent me another flyer for this Half Way To Halloween event. I grabbed a ticket and went to the venue only to find out this was a pub crawl event which wasn’t really applicable to me. I checked out a couple venues to see if anything was going on and there really wasn’t. I went to find the second event at some venue called the Underground Lounge and Google Maps was failing me. All of a sudden this dude passing me does an about face and starts to talk to me. He tells me he never does this, but I am absolutely beautiful, and asks if we could connect sometime. I thank him and mention I’m only visiting and am leaving in a couple days. He asks where I from and I tell him, amazingly he’s about to be stationed in my area (joy /s). This guy is in the Navy, is currently stationed there, and is about to be reassigned. He asks about connecting online and I’ve gone to enough raves to know no matter how much you do or don’t want to stay connected with someone online, you connect through IG. He mentions how he’s on his way to a club called Scarlets (I had heard of this venue thanks to my friend), and I mentioned how I was looking for this place that was supposed to be nearby and asked if he was up for some venue hopping. He was down, and we found the lounge. The security at the door checking ID’s wished me a happy birthday and Mustache (Navy dude) loudly exclaimed “IT’s YOUR BIRTHDAY?!” Uhh, it was a couple days ago. I genuinely appreciated the nod from security but the exclamation from Mustache was a bit much. The venue was a narrow one room bar and while aesthetically pleasing (damask wallpaper on one side, mirrored walls on the other, black furniture), didn’t really have much going for it. Nocturna was there and spinning 80’s music. It wasn’t even 80’s goth specifically, but a lot of general 80’s music has made it into an 80’s goth night format and most of it tends to work. There was only one chick dancing which I thought was too bad so I joined in and danced for a song. Mustache (the navy dude) is looking at me in what appears to be equal parts excited and clueless, he does not know how to dance, but he wants to dance with the rando goth chick he ended up shooting his shot with and didn’t get hissed at. He’s likely not seen the meme warning mundanes “If that goth chick gives you a chance this season, [usually Halloween or Beltane or other pagan flavored holiday] don’t do it because she’ll sacrifice you.” I don’t remember the verbatim but that’s the idea. I kind of wish I had it on my phone to share at that time but did not. After a few moments he decided he wanted to go find a seat or hang by the friend, I danced a little more then came out to the entrance to find him and we decided to go to Scarlets.
While we were walking, Mustache started speculating out loud about “hypotheticals.” Since he’d mentioned his rank I mentioned being a military brat and my dad’s rank. He said this was intimidating because my dad significantly outranked him (on par with his CO). When I asked why, he said it was because if things between us developed and he eventually met my dad… it was hard to not laugh out loud at this. This would never happen for many reasons, but the audacity on this man merits a fb tag group. Adrian made a funny comment about how I should have said I was polyamorous and that he should be more intimidated of my boyfriend than my father. Why didn’t I think of that?? Scarlets was only 3 or 4 blocks away, it seemed like most night life is in or around Chinatown. There wasn’t a line and when we walked up to the host Mustache said he would get my wristband an auto paid it. I appreciated that but did not expect it. The front room didn’t have much going on, it had a bar and they were playing techno remixes of pop songs. Mustache went and got a drink and offered me one but I politely declined, then we went to check out the main room. The main room had a cat walk with male and female go go dancers, a couple bars, cages, a couple tv screens but I do not remember what was on them. The music wasn’t really my bag. It wasn’t bad, and it wasn’t full on trap, but it was a bit more trap than I usually care for. Mustache tried dancing with me again, and I would just dance to the side or turn so we were at a 45 or 90 degree angle. I wanted to go back to the front room because I liked the music in there more so he hit the bar between the two rooms and we returned to the front room. Then the DJ played Sandstorm because of course they played Sandstorm. This large group of drunk white people came in with all the woo girls and they flailed around, it was funny, I guess the DJ saw the drunk group migrating over before I did. Mustache tried to dance with me again and went to grab my hand, I let him spin me and then he was completely lost from there. I leaned in and asked if he knew how to hustle since two of the drunk peeps seemed to be attempting to hustle. Mustache sadly let me know he didn’t know how to dance, and I said it was fine. We derped around a little longer and then I suggested checking out the main room again.
We went back to the main room and this chick in a Thistle and Spire bodysuit (this is worth Googling, their line is great), and black jean shorts walked into the cage above us and started dancing, the cages were open for patrons to go and dance in/on. She was genuinely fun to watch dance, and Mustache noticed I was watching and said I should go dance in there. I said it wasn’t a good idea, I’m in a dress and she’s in shorts. His response was so. Mine is usually so, but probably for different reasons. I decided I wanted to tell her she was fun to watch dance so I told him I’d be right back and walked up the ramp to the cage. I still mask in public places, especially crowded venues, but am aware it’s incredibly hard to connect with people if the entire venue isn’t masking so I decided to chance it for a few minutes and took my mask off before she saw me. I went in and she looked delighted to see me, I told her she was fun to watch dance and she told me to dance with her. I said I was alright but she asked again so I ended up dancing with her in the cage, she climbed to the outside of it and we were just dancing for a couple minutes when another guy hopped on the cage and then I was surrounded on all sides by a bunch of people holding on and dancing from the outside.
The first guy that jumped on the cage hopped down and started dancing with me. This guy can dance. We synced up well and part of me wanted to take him out for a test drive. I could tell it would have been a lot of fun, we had great physical chemistry dancing together. You just know. I learned over and made a comment about how this was definitely NOT his first rodeo. He really liked this comment and confirmed no it was not. He took my hand and spun me around. He asked if he could kiss me, I told him I’d feel like a dick if he did because another dude paid for my wristband. Without missing a beat he said “fuck him, you only live once,” and I responded “You know what, that’s fair” and he kissed me. He was good too. We danced for another minute and I told him I actually came up to dance with her and pointed at the Thistle and Spire chick, and he was really cool about it and hopped back up on the cage to keep dancing. At this point I was running out of interest in the club and wanted to get my mask back on anyway. This was high risk compared to what I normally do but I was willing to take the risk acceptance to this point for its duration. It was a fun and highly amusing situation I will not forget. I lined up with the club getting out without realizing it, the side door was open and people were exiting (they closed the front room and the front entrance), and Mustache was out there waiting for me. He apparently missed where I had gone and I said I went to tell the chick I liked how she danced. He mentioned meeting up with his buddies (who he pointed out, outside the entrance) and heading to a bar. I mentioned having an early start the next day for a pineapple festival. He asked about getting together and asked when I was leaving, and I reminded him a couple days. I did see the dude isn’t he cage come out with a group and almost considered walking up to him but then I saw the group smoking actual cigarettes, why not weed? Weed is tolerable. Or vapes? I hate vape clouds too but come on, legit cigarettes are the worst. I can’t stand them, they make me cough really bad and it’s painful and it stinks. I left and headed north.
There isn’t much of a goth scene or night life in Honolulu (I get that was a limited look), but there are a boatload of pineapples! The Dole plantation is there and there are fields and fields of pineapples growing. There was a pineapple festival on my last full day there and it was so great. I wasn’t sure how it was going to go since it was being held at an elementary school but the field was big enough to have a stage and seating area and a few rows of booths. The food trucks weren’t applicable and I didn’t see anything I really wanted at the booths, but I did get official merch and it was nice to watch local students perform. There are pineapples everywhere and pineapple things and pineapple treats all over the place, and I’ve never blended into a place as well as I did here. If I kept my mouth shut people assumed I was local. As soon as I opened my mouth it was all, oh she’s from the mainland, it was great. I am absolutely beaming thinking of all the wonderful things that got packed into two and a half weeks, and I hope to come back. I’m so happy my honorary home is where all the pineapples are. <3