Protension: the online journal of Tom Elgin

I just came to O’ahu for my cousin Jeff’s wedding last Sunday and I’ve been touring the island on my own since then.

The wedding was fantastic. I have some pictures that I might post later, but most of the people who would care have their own, so I might not. I got to hang out with a lot of Jeff and Pomai’s friends from Stanford, some of whom I’d met real briefly when I visited as a senior in high school. They were lots of fun and had some good perspectives on life after college, since they’re all around 26.

Monday everyone else left, but since I’m on my semester off I told the Bus Project folks I wouldn’t start til the end of September, and I got my return ticket from Hawaii a week later. I spent Monday night in Waikiki, which I learned is a non-stop party (and Hokondo Beachside hostel is sweet). I was kind of sick from the wedding party the night before so I decided to head to the quieter north shore Tuesday.

I’m staying at a hostel called Backpacker’s right now, near the middle of the north shore. Today I rented a bike and went about 13 miles to the western tip of the island, Kaena point, which was beautiful. I only saw a couple people on the last stretch, but I was reminded of how developed this island is by the power lines, a weather station, and some abandoned cars. All this in spite of being the least developed edge of O’ahu, part of “the most remote island chain in the world.”

Hawaii is cool. Locals are real friendly, TheBus is insanely cheap and convenient, and of course there’s beaches everywhere you look.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 7th, 2005 at 8:34 PM and is filed under Outdoors, Personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.