Live from Oahu, it's EXLRRP!!!

[exlrrp]

Lrrpie's Honolulu Blog

Well, here I am, bras, trying to contact you from the other side.
Landed Honolulu 11:15 Am Mondayand after getting the car (Chrysler Sebring covertible) immediately went down to Ala Moana Park to get my feet wet.
HI got the best ocean water in America, bluest, warmest nicest--it's what I miss about Hawaii the most. During the 2 years I lived here, I really started thinking of myself as a Hawaiian, a feeling that always stuck.
Put the top down on the Vertible and cruise down the Nimitz freeway to downtown, the docks, Aloha Tower.
Top down, Cuck Mangione on the CD ("Feel so Good!") the lrrpster cruises the 'lulu once more. Diamond in de back, sunroof top, digging the scene with a gangster lean, oh yes.
I go by where I used to live--Beretania close by Ward. The old Victorian I lived in is broke down now for some kind of store. There were these 4 little old Victorians behind a little appliance store--a little island of country right downtown with huge mango trees--the lrrpster ate all the mangoes he wanted, which was lots. My nearest neighbor to the west, 2 blocks was the governor. It was parking hell, though. Now the main police station is built right across the street
Things change you go away bra
The times i lved here--!975-76-- was some halcyon times for yr boy all right, Times were so bad I had to quit drinking and taking drugs to make it.I was in 2 wrecks, almost died in one. That was the end of my Post War Early Blue Period
First I was a fisherman, then I got into SCUBA diving here, ultimately became a professional diver (it's what I was doing in Louiiisisana 77-78) Spent a lot of time on the water.

I come and stay here with my friends Scott and Leslie, they are 2 of the greatest people you ever met. got Scott his first job fishing--now he owns 2 fishing boats and is the head of the Pacific Longliners Association, a fishemans advocacy group, whioch he started.
They had a nice home before but the one they have now is nothing short of spectacular--I'll be posting pictures of it--I mean the 360 deg killer view of Kaneohe and the Nuuana Pali, pool, 3 hottubs with Jacuzzis (got my own,) weight room, home office. Spectacular--the nicest home of anyone I know here. I have the run of the place. Monday nigh went down and sank my teeth into bout the nicest piece of prime rib--the legendary 2" thick at Haleiwa Joes (the one in Kaneohe, not the one in Haleiwa) Their Haleiwa restaurant is pretty but the Kaneohe one is gorgeous--they have weddings there
Haleiwa Joe's and Sammy Choy's are the 2 best restaurants in HI, IMHO for the money and the food
Yesterday, drove the vertible up to the North Shore. This is THE must see drive on Oahu--north from Kaneohe up the east side--the scenery is drop dead gorgeous--flowering hibiscus set against the bluest sky, the bluest water and huge forbidding lava cluffs that run all the way down to the sea.
This is the back side of Oahu, the ones most people never see. The little towns with the funny names like Kaaawa (Kah ah ahva)
Laie (Lye ay) Haleiwa (ha lay EE Va) Kahuku, Pupukea, the little old chuches, the schools--these are fast disappearing but still there. I really believe that if you took all the people off all the islands, Oahu would be the prettiest
I stopped at the kahuku sugar mills to take pictures--I worked on the refurbishing of this plac into a mall in 1976--now its shabby again. There is a 175' smokestack we contracted to but a cap on--that was an intersting experience just getting up there.
The North Shore of Oahu--No Ka Oi!! (there is no other like it!)
Just gorgeous. I drove by myself top down from the east of it (sunset beach) to the west of it (Kaena point) out by Dilling ham airfield--this was where I made my last parachute jump--1993. After that I retired undefeated.
Theyre still sky diving there. This was the field those pilots raced up to during Pearl Harbor and got their planes up in the air, the only 2 American fighters up tht day.
Picnic Lunch at Haleiwa beach Park--salami on foccacia with mangoes afterward, let the juice run down my face--then into the water to wash off.
Went snorkeling at Shark's Cove--like being in a big aquarium--the water was a little murky from the Northen Swell but just swimming in this water is like being in another world.
Took some underwater pics will post them for you, Larry, when I get back


All for now, will blog later

james