Things I Love About Hawaii:

* The weather.

I like hot weather in general, but really, I just love it because if during the day it was 90+ degrees here, that means by eveningtime (i.e. when I'm usually roaming the streets) it'll be a pleasantly warm temperature, say 70's or 80's. I am not terribly fond of figuring out what to wear on days when it's 80 at noon and 50 by 9 p.m.

In Hawaii, you really don't need to have a weather report going on (unless some big tropical storm comes up, I suppose), because every day the weather is the same: pleasant, with maybe 5 minutes of showers during the day.

Okay, so I was there during a drought and it's not exactly major rain, but it cracked me up that it would literally rain like hell for exactly 5 minutes and stop, at random, and then the day would be nice from then on. Or it'd sprinkle a bit, and that was it.

I liked not having to bring a jacket with me for going out at night. Heck, when I had to leave the house at 7 a.m. it was just as pleasant as it was at 7 p.m. I liked not having to check the weather report. Weather didn't feel like it meant anything there, or at least it didn't really influence your day much. If a strong breeze blew up, it didn't mean that things would be turning frigid soon- it was just a breeze.

Awesome.

* Natural graffiti.

On the Big Island, we stayed in Waikioloa, which is landscaped up a lot, but surrounded by the ugliest area of the island. I swear, it looks like NorCal or Nevada, it's so brown and dry, but with lava rocks instead of sagebrush.

But what's interesting is that people take pumice rocks and make their own non-painted, non-destructive graffiti. No stupid scribbled tagging here! (Some examples of what I mean.) I wish I had been allowed out of the car to take some pictures of the stuff people wrote. Sure, most of it was "so-and-so + so-and-so", but there were marriage proposals, memorials, symbols, and random things like "Duckgoquack." It cracked me up.

I did, however, find the people who wrote their graffiti on plant leaves to have gone a bit too far, though. Sheesh, people.

* Greenness.

Obviously this doesn't apply to the upper left hand quadrant of the Big Island, but wow, rain forests are awesome. Wacky tropical goodness! Twisty paths, waterfalls, gorgeousness. Pretty landscaping without a developer's hand behind it, even!

I grew up in an area that's mostly brown, so it's new to me.

* Plumerias everywhere.

They're my favorite flower. I was endlessly amused by picking up random flowers off the ground and sticking them in my hair temporarily.

* Ocean: not too frigid, not too crazy for the most part.

So yay for that. Plus, pretty!

* ABC Store.

ABC Store fix everything! Plus, cheap souvenirs in great quantity!

* Jennibeans earrings and every other manufacturer of cheap flower jewelry.

I collect this stuff. I love it. It is so cute.

* Hilo Hattie's.

Same logic as ABC Store here, but with more clothes (albeit not all that cheap clothes).

* Even though I complained about the beach during this trip, beach is cool.

(Though definitely Kauai beaches are better. Big Island beaches are full of lava rocks and hurt your feet big time. Too bad I didn't get around to getting those water beach shoes until right before we left there.)

* Getting to lounge on the beach is cool, if there's shade.

Self-explanatory.

* Island radio.

It's not all just Don Ho, folks. I'm not sure what they call it (Hawaiian pop? Hapa haole?), but there's a nice mix of pop and Hawaiian sounds thing that's going on on the radio there. I got a few CD's (Island Roots and Island Love Shack) to take home and savor for that sweet Hawaiian sound, singing about island life, aloha, Honolulu, etc.

* "Men of Hawaii" calendars.

Self-explanatory.

* Kauai is entirely covered in random chickens.

This amused me. I gather a lot of them escaped during Hurricane Iniki. I saw several amusing T-shirt and sticker slogans about the chickens.

* The art of Hawaii.

I do wonder how well artists do on the islands. (Tried asking around, especially when we were hanging out with an art dealer, but I am still not sure.) At any rate, it seems to me like Hawaiian arts and crafts are fairly prominent.

* The general attitude of the islands.

Yay.

* The fact that now in condos on Kauai, they have journals that you can write about your trip in and read about other people's trips.

Pretty neat. (There wasn't one in the Big Island condo, so I don't know if it's a trend there.)

* The fact that in Hawaiian condos in general, there's always a stash of free books people have left behind.

I probably took more than I left behind, but still! Free! Bookcrossing! Awesome!

* The fact that there are some neat books on Hawaii out there.

I got one on how to crochet leis (not just the fuzzy leis that seem to be the craft trend there), one on Hawaiian mysticism (it really lines up with Wicca, surprise), Chicken Soup for the Hawaiian Soul (I know it's cheesy, but somehow I couldn't put it down), and two books on how to move to Hawaii.

Yes, sometimes I ponder moving to Hawaii. I haven't read those books yet, and realistically I know I can't do it without a rich husband, but...sometimes I dream. My favorite island is still Oahu (gorgeous + city + activities), but hell, I might settle for any island at this point. It really does seem like it'd be a dream to live there. The amusing thing is, it seemed like half of the islands were populated by NorCal people. I maybe met three visitors that weren't from NorCal, plus a good portion of the locals. (I was rather taken aback when one guy came out with "Cowboys!" for the olde hometowne.) I suppose it's a popular choice thing to do if you've got the bucks.

I got a lot of reading done in the Cheesy Porn Category. There was straight porn, there was paranormal porn, there was bad romance porn, occasionally there was good romance porn. (Note that this is stuff that was either handed to me for free or I dug up in the condos, incidentally.) After awhile I quite burned out on the porn, though.

I also finished the skirt I was crocheting in two weeks, which is pretty spiffy.

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