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December 5th, 2021 - January 31st, 2021
| Hawaii Travelogue 10 |
Anyway, although Hawaii never had very many cases of COVID, they had one of the strictest lock downs in the country for much of 2020 and anyone traveling there was required to undergo a two week quarantine. Towards the end of the year, they relaxed their restrictions a bit (though they're still restricted way more than I'd like) and finally started allowing tourists back in. However, there's a lot of people in the Hawaiian government who didn't really want to open things back up (nevermind that most of the state's economy is built on tourism) so they seem to have compromised by making everything a big pain in the neck. For starters, you have to sign up for their "safe travel" web site which requires a bunch of personal information and all your flight info (including a return flight). You then have to take a COVID test with 72 hours of your flight. And said test costs around $150 - $200 per person. Annoying and expensive? Yeah. But potentially reasonable depending on how dangerous you think COVID is (I don't think it warrants that, but some people certainly do).
Unfortunately, it doesn't stop there. First off, Hawaii only accepts COVID tests if they were done by one of the state's "trusted partners." What exactly makes a company or lab "trusted?" They don't say but, considering that some major national labs and testing centers aren't on the lab, it's clearly not a matter of skill, reputation, or anything like that. Going off my knowledge of the Hawaii state government (remember, I did live there for a while), my guess is that "trusted" labs are the ones that agreed to give the state of Hawaii a cut from the testing fees. Annoyingly, the majority of the "trusted" labs are on the west coast. Live anywhere else and it's a bit of a crapshot whether or not you'll find one nearby. Connie and I, for example, despite living near in a very developed area and right near Washington D.C., have to drive around 90 minutes to Maryland to get tested. The next closest one is more than two hours away. There actually are a couple of mail-in tests that are approved but the problem is the timing. At first, if you went to Hawaii before receiving your test results, you could get out of quarantine once your results came back negative. But Hawaii very suddenly and unexpectedly changed the rules saying that you need to have the results in hand before boarding your flight or you'll be forced to quarantine for the full two weeks regardless. Which, on a side note, angered some of their partners who couldn't guarantee results that fast. While there are COVID tests that provide results in a matter of minutes, the tests many places use take days or even a week or more. And the mail-in tests are also subject to shipping time (remember, you need to take the test 72 hours or less before your flight). As a result, you can only use the mail-in tests if you're going to be flying on certain days of the week and even then you need to make sure you get them in early in the morning so they arrive ASAP. As for Connie and I, our flight is on the wrong day of the week for a mail-in test, so driving it is. Apparently, even with all that, there's a whole process once you get to Hawaii, but I'll comment on that once I've been through it.
Flying is also a bit of a challenge these days, at least if you have you kids. I can't say I'm thrilled with having to wear a mask for the entirety of the flights (not to mention all the time in the airports inbetween), but I can do it. Zack, however, is another matter. Trying to get a young child to just put on a mask to begin with can be near impossible (not for every kid, sure, but many). But even when you do get it on, expecting him or her to wear it for hours on end without ever taking it off is completely ridiculous. Unfortunately, most airlines don't really seem to care about that and require that everyone over the age of two wear a mask at all times while on the flight. And, judging by all the stories of parents who have been kicked off of flights and even banned for life because their three-year old wouldn't keep a mask on, the airlines, or some of their flight crews at the very least, take those rules very seriously. As a result, flying with a young child these days is difficult to impossible. In fact, Delta is the only US airline to allow an exception for young children who can't keep a mask on (though they still want them to wear a mask if possible) and, from the sound of things, some of their flight crews don't always follow that policy. If we were traveling somewhere in the continental US we could always drive but, for Hawaii, that's not an option. That means we're stuck flying Delta even though it doesn't have especially good connections from the nearby airports, and even then we have to hope that no one decides to stir up trouble about Zack not wearing a mask the entire time.
So yeah, first we have to hope that Connie and my COVID tests come back negative. I think we'll be ok there but if not, that means the trip will have to be delayed and we'll have wasted a bunch of time and money on the tests. Passing that, we then have to hope that we don't get kicked off a flight and stranded in an airport somewhere along the way. Here's hoping everything works out...
COVID annoyances and inconvenient connections aside, the trip actually went very smoothly. The check-in staff in DC was rather late but that was it. Zack behaved really well about 95% of the time, which was a massive improvement over all our past trips. And all the flights themselves were on time. It was just a really long day. We had to get up at 3:00 AM and, by the time we landed in Hawaii, it was already 10 PM Virginia time. After you disembark, Hawaii makes you go through a COVID checkpoint. If you already got your test from a "trusted partner," filled out their travel site, uploaded your negative test results properly, and make sure to have your barcode handy, it's a pretty simple procedure. Though I've heard that the line can go really slowly if you're unlucky.
Fortunately, we got through pretty quickly. After that, we met up with my parents, got dinner at some food trucks, and did a little shopping. By the time we got to their new house we were too exhausted to do much of anything else. Since I didn't sleep on the plane, I was up nearly 24 hours straight. Been a really long time since I did that, and it was especially tough coming off a week when I hadn't been getting enough sleep to begin with. But hey, I should be able to catch up on that here.
Our first few days on Maui were mostly spent relaxing, doing things with family, and the like. My parents' new house is in a somewhat more central location with great views. It doesn't have the all the fruit trees or chickens that the previous house (now my brother's) does, but it's a nice place and it came with a giant trampoline, which is always cool. Zack spent a lot of time playing (and sometimes fighting) with his cousin. We went to some playgrounds (also with good views), hit up a couple of favorite restaurants (Paia Fish Market and Nuka, if you're curious), and visited two different beaches. Speaking of the beach, this was my first time at Malauaka Beach and it's a nice one. It's actually pretty close to some more popular beaches, but considerably less busy (if a bit smaller). Even better, it's a pretty decent snorkeling spot. Not as amazing as some of the ones I've been to but there aren't many places were you can see so much so close to the shore. And most of the better beach accessible snorkeling spots require some kinda tricky swimming, which Malauaka does not. Honestly, with all the crazy stuff going on these days, it's nice to just enjoy some family time and relax. Kinda like when Connie, Zack, and I went to Ocean City back in the summer. It's just so much more peaceful to focus on the good things in life rather than the bad. As crazy as things have been over the past 11 months or so, it could be a lot worse. It's too bad more people don't realize that.
Random Hawaii Comment: Maui During COVID
For quite a while, Hawaii had one of the strictest COVID lockdowns in the country, despite having one of the smallest (possibly the smallest) number of cases. But they had to relax it a bit eventually and while the rules and restrictions have fluctuated back and forth since then, so far they've resisted going the way of states like New York and California and closing everything down again. When it comes to COVID restrictions in Hawaii though, while there are statewide rules, there are also some separate rules from island to island, which makes things a bit more complicated. Everywhere in Hawaii, you're supposed to wear masks at pretty much all times outdoors, including on the beach. Though, from what I've heard, enforcement is pretty spotty (though not nonexistent, so you do need to be careful). That said, while most of the people I see in towns and shopping areas have masks on, the majority of people I've encountered in parks, on the beach, and walking around in other areas have been maskless. As such, it's rather annoying but tolerable. Restaurants here do allow for indoor dining, but at a measly 30% capacity, which can make it a challenge to get a table at times, even with the reduced number of tourists present. They also limit the number of people per table to six or less, which can be a problem if you want to eat out with friends or family. I mean, I even know some couples who have more than four kids and they would run into real problems trying to eat out around here. At this point, a lot of the stuff on Maui is open and running again, but some notable attractions and other destinations (such as the Aquarium and the Kihei playground where Connie and I took Zack a lot in the past) have remained closed and others have shut down for good. I haven't checked everything, but at least several shops and restaurants I enjoyed on previous visits were killed by the lockdowns, which is sad. So over all, Maui is still a nice place to visit in its current state, but a good bit less convenient and not quite as much fun as it used to be.
Growing up, we had a trampoline for much of my childhood and I've got a lot of fond memories of jumping and playing around on it both on my own and with others. That said, I'd never been to an actual trampoline park before. Ultimate Air has a wide variety of trampolines in various shapes and sizes spread across the floor and even the walls and I spent quite a while running and jumping around with Zack and Isaac (my nephew). I also got to mess around a bit with wall running, bouncing up onto high ledges, and using some special extra high bounce trampolines, which was a lot of fun. They also had some basketball hoops, a slack line, and a giant pit full of foam blocks to play around with, among other things. As a side note, that pit is a lot deeper than it looks in the picture (probably 6 - 10 feet) and I actually had trouble getting out of it sometimes. Anyway, we spent a fun, if rather exhausting, couple of hours there. It's certainly great for kids and I'm sure plenty of adults would have a blast as well. I'd go back again even without Zack.
Afterwards, we went to the town of Wailuku (though it's more like the outskirts of the island's main town/city of Kahului). It's a rather weird mix of artsy shops and restaurants and crumbling industrial buildings. Apparently, they're trying to rebuild it into more of a touristy shopping and dining town but are only partially done. Our destination was The Empanada Lady, a nice looking restaurant serving empanadas (duh) and an assortment of island and South American food. The empanadas themselves were pretty good. The rest of the food wasn't bad either, but could have benefitted from a stronger spice mix, or at least a bit more salt. I'd eat there again, but would probably skip a main course in favor of more empanadas.
After a while on the beach, we headed into Lahaina itself and stopped for lunch at Fu Lin, possibly the only nice (not fast-food) Chinese restaurant on the island. While it wasn't on the level of some of the Chinese places on Oahu, it was still good. Afterwards, we spent a while walking through the town. Lahaina itself is as scenic as ever, and still fun to stroll though, though there were notably fewer people on the streets than during my previous visits and some of the shops and restaurants had permanently shut down. It was a nice day, but hopefully things will be more lively next time.
The trail itself started out in a forest. To be honest, while they're pretty, I'm starting to feel like all these Hawaiian mountain forests look pretty much the same. Especially when the trees block out the view. Fortunately, going a bit up or down in elevation changes things and makes for some more interesting terrain. Our original plan was to check out a lava tube partway up the trail. Unfortunately, you couldn't actually go very far inside the tube before it became blocked and there was a big wasp nest or something nearby so we ended up just taking a quick look and then continuing on the trail. Eventually, we got high enough to make it out of the forest and into a more desert-like climate. From the top, we could see Haleakala in one direction and the peaks of the Big Island in the other. Instead of returning along the trail, we followed a dirt road down instead (yeah, you can drive all the way up if you have a good enough car). It ended up being longer, but a bit easier, and offered some good views of the coast. It was a pleasant hike, if a bit longer than we'd originally planned. And the views were good, at least once you got out of the forest. Length aside, it wasn't especially strenuous either, even on the ascent, but Zack really impressed me. He's never really done a proper hike before (well, not on foot anyway) but he managed to walk 99% of the way up and about 50% of the way down.
After we got back down, we stopped for a bit for a very late lunch at a picnic table on the side of the mountain before making the slow drive back down. Over all, Upper Waiohuli is not going on my list of favorite Hawaii hikes, but I still enjoyed it.
So what did we do? We hung out, watched the movies, and went back to the trampoline park so the kids could burn off some energy. On Tuesday evening, after the rain had passed, we ended up Keaka Beach for a little while before dinner. Can you find the crab in this picture? It's not covered with sand, its shell just has a really impressive camouflage pattern. Crab aside, we also saw a really nice sunset. All together, it was a pleasant enough time, despite the messed up plans.
Anyway, COVID restrictions aside, we had a great tour (we went with the Pacific Whale Foundation, if you're planning your own trip), saw a ton of whales (adults and calves), and got to witness a lot of really cool behaviors that I've seen little if any of on my previous whale watches. And we wrapped up the day with a family Chinese dinner (cooked by me, with some help from Connie), so fun all around.
Naturally, it was a tandem ride with an instructor. My instructor was a nice guy who has been doing this for decades and really loves it. We weren't the first to launch, so I got to watch a couple others take off while I got strapped in. The harness was pretty simple and even had a seat built in so it was comfortable as well. The instructor said we could use phones or cameras while flying, though you naturally didn't want to drop it. Since the take-off and flight process sounded simple enough (at least for me as a passenger), and I trust my grip, I decided to try video recording the whole thing as I went. It ended up turning out pretty well (I just wish I had my regular camera). I won't share the whole ~12 minute video, but I've got a few clips to show you. First up, the take off. Assuming you're in a suitable area with good wind and such, it's actually just a matter of power-walking and then running for a few seconds and the wind does the rest. I had actually expected to stick a lot closer to the group and was quickly surprised by how high up we were. While we were only going a few thousand feet down the mountain (you can see the landing zone in the distance in that video) my instructor said he's flown all the way to Kihei (down on the coast) and, with the kind of height we had, that seemed easily doable. The ride was incredibly smooth. No bumps, no motion sickness, or anything. The wind was a little cold but not too bad, even though I was wearing shorts. And, of course, the view was amazing. One really neat thing you can see while paragliding but not from the ground is a glory, which is a circular rainbow that appears when your shadow passes over a cloud. By the time we got to the landing zone we were still way up in the air so we circled for a while, eventually getting low enough to buzz the fields and cows before coming in for a smooth landing.
It was ann amazing experience, I'm glad I went, and I would definitely recommend it to others. That said, considering the length of the ride, it is pretty expensive. Honestly, the whole thing seemed easy enough that, if I ever ended up living in the right place, I'd be tempted to learn how to do it myself. According to my instructor, if you avoid tricks and only go out when the conditions are good, it's actually a really safe sport. From what I saw, I would guess that judging the proper conditions and aiming to land in the correct spot are probably the hardest parts as the take-off, steering, and landing all seemed fairly simple. One thing that surprised me a little was that I wasn't scared in the least. Of course, heights don't really scare me in general and I've done all sorts of thrill rides and other such activities, but I thought that I'd at least feel a bit nervous leading up to the ride or during the very beginning. But no. Guess I've gotten even more used to this type of thing than I realized. Either that or it just seemed so smooth and safe from the outset that there was nothing to worry about.
That afternoon, we headed to the airport for a flight to Honolulu, where we'll be spending the rest of our vacation. That had always been part of the plan. And Maui had just tightened their COVID restrictions again, which would have made dining out and shopping a bit challenging, so it worked out pretty well. Since Oahu is, more or less, trying to restart its tourism industry, they're a not as strict. On a side note, given the current COVID rules in Hawaii, it's much simpler to fly from one of the other islands to Oahu, rather than the other way around, so if you want to plan a multi-island trip, like we did, it's best to make Oahu your last destination.
Anyway, the flight went smoothly and we made it to my parents' condo in time to unpack and then grab dinner. I'll write more about Honolulu, Oahu in general, and how they are with the current COVID restrictions, in a future post.
Since coming to Oahu, I actually haven't done much that's worth writing about. Haven't taken a lot of pictures either. We've mostly just been hanging out and doing the type of things we normally do when we're here. Walk around the Waikiki and Ala Moana mall, hang out on Waikiki Beach, play in the pool, eat at some favorite restaurants, and the like. We did go to Wet 'n Wild one day, though I spent the entire time playing with Zack. Sometime over the past year, he seems to have gotten rather afraid of water that goes over his waist. Not exactly sure why. Maybe because we didn't have access to a pool over the summer so he kinda forgot about it? That said, he still managed to have fun for a while in the kiddy section. And on Monday, due to heavy rain, we spent a while in the Pearl Ridge Center mall which, unlike Ala Moana, is fully indoors. While it lacks the high end fashion and luxury brands (not that I care) it's got some good restaurants, a couple of fun anime and media type stores (including a Book-Off), and some good things for kids (Zack loved the go-karts). Other highlights? I found a few old games I'd been wanting at Book-Off and got a couple of nice sunset pictures at Ala Moana beach.
So how are things with COVID? I'll address that more in the following RHC but there's a lot of weird, arbitrary rules that vary from place to place. Just to give one example, the building where my parents' condo is doesn't allow you to sit by the pool (it's their own rule, not a state thing). You can swim, but no sitting or laying down outside of the water. Nevermind that, in all my years of coming here, I've never seen more than five or six people in the pool area at a time. Not to mention that the beach chairs they used to have there were already spaced around 10 feet or more apart so there was absolutely no danger of sitting anywhere close to some random person with COVID. Sigh... Just one of many stupid little annoyances.
COVID aside though, it's been a peaceful and enjoyable few days. Enough to make me wish we were staying a bit longer (our Hawaii trip this winter is rather on the short side compared to past years). But I'll just enjoy what we have.
Random Hawaii Comment: Oahu During COVID
Out of all the Hawaiian islands, Oahu is currently making the biggest push to get its tourist industry up and running again. Makes sense since it's probably also the island that's most dependant on tourism in the first place. So, unlike Maui or the big island, for example, they haven't kept adding extra hoops for tourists to go through in order to visit (at least beyond that whole COVID test I already talked about). Maui, meanwhile, just started requiring an almost certainly useless contact tracing app (though nothing is really stopping you from deleting it right after you leave the airport) and the big island is forcing all visitors to quarantine regardless of test results. Anyway, US tourists are starting to trickle back onto Oahu, to the point where your main tourist hot spots aren't totally dead like they were earlier in the year. Though they're not very busy either. That said, you may end up having to wait in line for a store or restaurant due to capacity limits (which are much more reasonable than Maui's, but still big enough to be rather inconvenient). Unfortunately, said limits have led to some smaller restaurants only offering take-out right now. There's also a whole lot of inconsistencies in terms of measures stores and restaurants are taking beyond what the government requires. For example, Genki Sushi requires someone in every group to complete an online form with contact info. Strangely enough, the food court in Ala Moana is the most strict I've seen, roping off the seating area into different zones and requiring you to fill out a contact tracing form to enter. As a side note, they were trying to bring back Japanese tourists to the island as well but President Biden killed that with his recent and ridiculously illogical international travel restrictions, but that's a rant for another time.
Masks are required indoors and out, except when eating/drinking, swimming, or on the beach. Not everyone is actually wearing them outdoors, but the vast majority of people certainly are. At least in downtown Honolulu (it wouldn't surprise me if the percentage drops in the residential areas and suburbs). I've heard stories of people getting ticketed by police (though supposedly, judges will usually dismiss the case if challenged), but the one policeman I saw had his mask pulled down so low that he might as well not have been wearing one. Actually, there was one time I saw a ton of people mostly without masks, and with little effort to social distance, and that was a Saturday evening at Ala Moana beach park, which honestly looked almost just like it normally did on a weekend pre-COVID. How come? Well, it's a beach that's frequented more by locals than tourists and there's a strong tradition here of having big weekend beach hangouts with family and friends. Personally, I though it was nice to see so many people out and enjoying themselves, though I'm sure some would be freaked out by the scene.
Of course, for a area whose economy is primarily built around tourism, the island hasn't come out of its strict lockdowns unscathed, especially in the more tourist centered areas. While it's not quite as bad as I feared it would be, quite a lot of shops and restaurants have been forced out of business, including a few personal favorites and some that I would have called iconic. And there's others, such as the awesome Shirokiya and Waikiki Yokocho Japanese food courts, which haven't folded yet, but are closed indefinitely due to the various COVID restrictions, so their future is pretty uncertain. Fortunately, the majority of my favorites are still around, though there's no telling how many more might have to shut down in the future given the limited number of customers right now. Several notable tourists attractions (not to mention all the free hula shows and such) have yet to re-open as well so there's certainly less to do around here than there usually is.
Beyond that, there's a bunch little things as well. For example, public seating is closed in its entirety. Whether you're in a mall, walking by the beach, or whatever, chairs, benches, and other public seating is either roped off or plastered with signs warning you not to sit there (though the signs, at least, are often ignored). This is another one I can't see any logic behind. If you're worried about sitting next to someone who might have COVID, just don't sit near anyone else, or ignore the seating entirely. There's no good reason not to let anyone sit. Things have also gotten a bit...trashier. There's more litter on the streets and graffiti on the walls. Probably due to the increased homeless population. Hawaii is one of those states with a lot of homeless but no real desire in the government to takes the steps needed to solve the problem. However, a couple of years ago they did start making a real effort to at least keep the homeless camps away from the tourist and business areas. But those efforts seem to have fallen by the wayside this year and I'm seeing quite a lot of homeless people, trash, and vandalism. There's also a notable uptick in crime in many of those areas. It's no California, New York, or Chicago, but you do need to be at least a bit careful at times, even in some of the tourist areas.
So over all? Oahu's current COVID restrictions are rather annoying but not as bad as that of some of the other islands and they're mostly manageable. A lot of stuff is open, but a number of great events, attractions, etc. and still shut down, making Oahu a somewhat less fun and vibrant than normal. This isn't helped by the increase in homeless, crime, and trash. It's not at critical levels yet so I wouldn't let that dissuade you from coming, but the Hawaiian government will need to address those issues soon or they could become a serious problem. In the end, this is still a fun and beautiful place to visit, but the COVID restrictions have and still are doing some real damage and casting a bit of a pallor over any visit.
Saturday night, we caught a red-eye back to Virginia. Once again, we had to go through a whole process to get a medical exemption for Zack not wearing a mask. I got the feeling that the people at the counter didn't entirely know what they were doing. There's also a pretty good chance we could have skipped that since no one actually asked about his lack of a mask anyway. But whatever. I was a bit worried about our second flight since the weather forecast back home was predicting a big snow storm. Fortunately, we arrived before it got too bad so the flight wasn't canceled or rerouted. It certainly made for a big contrast to Hawaii though. All in all, it was a very smooth trip and Zack even slept most of the way, despite the plane change.
I kind of wish we'd stayed in Hawaii a bit longer, as this was a couple weeks shorter than our usual trips, but that's just the way it worked out this time. And hey, if international travel hasn't re-opened by summer, maybe we'll head back to Hawaii instead. Regardless, we enjoyed the time we had, inspite of annoying COVID restrictions. If you're looking for a winter getaway this year, Hawaii is still a valid choice. Though, if you're tired of dealing with all the stupid COVID restrictions, you may want to give Florida a look instead, as I've heard that things have mostly returned to normal there.