Day 1: Honolulu, TheBus, and Poke

Despite not sleeping for 24 hours, I sat straight up in bed at 3:30am (9:30EST) yesterday, wide awake and ready to explore. As none of the other members of the Ransom household (including the dog) felt the same, I strapped on my running shoes and went for an ambling jog around the neighborhood. Janine and Derrick live ~5 mins from the Navy Base in Kaneohe and close to Kaneohe Bay. My jog was relatively quiet, occasionally the silence would be permeated by a car or the wind. Around 4:30am a cacophony of birds erupted in competitive song. I saw a few runners on the other side of a chain link fence running on government property. By the end, it was about 82 degrees F and I was dripping with sweat (more from the heat than from my mild workout). Upon returning home Janine and I jumped in her community pool. Samantha refers to this morning routine as the "Hawaii life", it seems to suit me well!

Morning jog looking out over the bay

 After a quick shower I attempted to board Hawaii's notoriously unreliable bus system, simply known as TheBus. Having made plans to Samantha in Honolulu at 10:45am, I marched out to the bus stop in spf 55 and waited patiently for 30 minutes. The bus did come, but, unfortunately, I was standing on the wrong side of the street and it blew past me without slowing, leaving me foolishly waving after it. An hour later I caught the bus from the correct side of the street and began the 52 minute commute through winding mountains and tunnels to Hawaii's most popular tourist location. I tried to blend in on TheBus, but this was made difficult by the fact that my jaw kept hitting the floor in awe of the gorgeous and unexpected snapshots of Hawaii's coastline at every bend in the road.

View from the bus stop outside Janine's house

After successfully navigating TheBus system, I journeyed toward Ala Moana Center and my beloved Samantha. Ala Moana is a huge open air shopping center in downtown Honolulu. I wandered about what i thought were the streets of Honolulu looking for the center for about 10 minutes before I realized that I was actually IN IT already... Eventually Samantha and I found one another in front of the 2nd floor Apple Store and greeted one another with a running hug. We walked around the center, caught up over lunch, and made plans to explore together on my birthday before she dropped me back off at my hostess' house.

Ala Moana Center (image courtesy of gohawaii.about.com)

Janine wasn't feeling very well, as she had a bad cold, but we made our way briefly over to the base when I got home to pick up dinner and try to spot Derrick flying a P3. We selected poke for dinner, a local Hawaiian dish that Janine promised I would love, and Janine made me practice driving her car (manual) back to the apartment from base. This was only a relatively painful experience thanks to Rochester friend Will Fisher, who gave me a few lessons in advance of my trip (Thanks Will! Janine said I was great and no one died when I went in reverse!). Modern poke traditionally consists of cubed 'ahi sashimi, sea salt, soy sauce, inamona, sesame oil, seaweed, and chopped chili pepper. We served it over brown rice with a siracha mayo and I loved it so much that I almost ate Derrick's portion in his absence. I was unsuccessful in convincing Janine that we should eat it every day, as of now we have settled on a once-a-week compromise.

Tuna Poke (image courtesy of skinnyfoodielife.tumblr.com)