Breakfast: we went to Zippy’s, a local 24 hour diner chain which serves typical Hawaiian food, such as plate lunches, chili, and saimin, which is basically soup noodles. P- had the fried chicken and chili platter, while I had the Zip-min, which is basically a huge bowl of wonton mein soup with other goodies. Not bad, and 24 hours to boot!
Dessert: Shave ice at the other branch of Waiola Shave Ice, the Waiola Bakery. I had the li hing mui and pineapple, P- had the rainbow, which is strawberry, banana, and blue vanilla. Good as always. Second course of the famed Leonard’s masaladas, Portugese fried yeast donuts. Absolutely light, a thousand times better than Krispy Kreme
Along the eastern coast: drove past Diamond Head, passing Harauma Bay and the “Dragon’s Nostrils” blowhole, up 15 miles of curvy coasts with perfectly blue water. You’ll just have to see the pictures, but it was awesome.
South Pacific: at the end of the tour up the coast, we saw the closing performance of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “South Pacific” at a local community college. South Pacific is one of the most important musicals of the R&H canon because of its moral of racial equality and the appearance of Asian Pacific Islanders, which were groundbreaking in Broadway musicals for 1949. Fifty five years later, it was amazing to see that production actually in the South Pacific (ok, one of the most northern of the South Pacific), and to actually have all of those connections to this island, and have a very diverse cast. The production was well done, although over the course of its run, several members of the cast and crew were absent because of deaths in the family and other issues – a stage manager and a choral director took the roles of Stew Pot and Billis, and did a good job, and the previous night the director actually conducted instead of his son, who was the musical director. Good show.
Mad rush up and down the Pali Highway, mostly in 3rd gear because it was extremely rolling. Caught the last bit of light at the Pali Lookout, having a panoramic view of the eastern side of the island. Again, see the pictures, words do no justice.
Dropped back home exhausted, and then randomly tuning into the West Wing debate. The debators did an excellent job.