December 28, 2000 - Thursday
 |
| George & Kitty - Hartford, Connecticut, USA |
After leaving Bermuda, I spent a few weeks with my family, friends, and my cat Kitty. I miss that fur ball already. The cold freezing weather and snow did get me in the Christmas spirit, but I just couldn't take more than a few days of winter in the Northeast anymore.
 |
| Kahaluu (Oahu), Hawaii, USA |
On the 27th of December, I finally started on my world tour and landed on the island of Oahu in Hawaii as my first stop. It still doesn't feel like I'm unemployed yet - like there's a job, projects and deadlines waiting for me somewhere "back home". As I looked out of my window this morning at the lush green mountains, beautifully sculpted by years of wind and rain, the sense of adventure started to set in and the job back in Bermuda started to fade.
I didn't do much today, which is good, because I don't want to get burn out as a tourist. My friend Jeff and I left his apartment and went into the city of Honolulu to go to the Y to work out. We worked out for an hour and then walked around the city for a while. The streets are lined with lush green tropical plants with the scent of blooming flowers in the air.
We went into Chinatown where I had some yummy Pad Thai and Thai Iced Tea. Hawaii actually has a great mixture of Western and Asian cultures. It's so strongly influenced by Asian cultures that even the local drug stores have Korean noodle soup and Japanese Rice Crackers. The racial mixture is about 24% Caucasian, 24% Japanese, while Filipinos, Chinese, Korean, Hawaiian and others made up the rest.
We then went to University of Hawaii for a couple of hours and then up to Dave's house for dinner and talk about our camping trip tomorrow. The road we took to get to Dave's place wound through a very lush mountainside. I'm still amazed about all the lush plants I saw along the way - it's just very spirit lifting to be in a warm lush tropical climate again. Dave served us burgers and I met up with Maria and Lisa who will be going camping with us too. 'Tis all for today.
;)
