Vacation! (Had to Get Away)

Kimberly and I are on Oahu to celebrate our 25th anniversary. Yowza. I have no idea where that 25 years has gone. We're here for just a few nights, but we can do that when we're just one island over, and it's a twenty minute plane ride. And when we land in Waikiki, it really feels like we're on vacation, because it's so touristy compared to almost anywhere on Kauai (which is thumbs up for a vacation).

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We actually had a bit of concern in the morning that we wouldn't make it!

We headed out a bit more than two hours before our flight, and I largely coasted Julie (the Benz) down to the highway, because it's pretty much downhill from our house. And then when we turned onto the highway, I realized that I was getting almost no traction. Julie's engine was revving up to 6000 RPM to go 25 mph. I was worried for a second that the park brake was on, but nope (and Julie would have beeped long before the highway if it was).

So I pulled back into our neighborhood at the next street and turned around to do a loop to try and assess if Julie's engine was really being as flaky as I thought. Yup.

Way back in the day I used to do tech support for a NASA Project at UC Berkeley, so using skills learned from that, I turned the engine off and back on. No problem, suddenly Julie is running 1000-2000 RPM again, where I expect her, maybe pushing up to 3000 RPM on a big hill.

Freaky. I was on pins and needles the whole trip into town, feeling what the engine was doing. And I do have some concerns on what she'll do when we get back into town, but that's literally a problem for another day.

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We had to take a detour into Koloa on the way into town because the highway was a mess.

But otherwise, the trip to the airport was uneventful. Parking was easy (for a year or two, repair was being done on some of the parking lots at the airport, and there wasn't enough parking as a result, and you could literally get there and have nowhere to put your car).

And the trip was uneventful.

(I say 20 minutes to fly to Oahu, but it's really 20 minutes in the air, plus 20 minutes taxiing various places, plus 20 minutes loading and unloading. And then we took the bus for almost an hour and a half to get from the airport to Waikiki, so Oahu is close, but it still takes time to get over. We left our house about 9.45 and hit our hotel about 2.15.)

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We had lunch at Lulu's. This is a nice second-story restaurant at the southeast corner of Waikiki that we've eaten at before. It has a gorgeous view of the ocean, which we watched while we ate our very easy-going meal.

The waves are super impressive right now. I know we had a high surf advisory on Kauai right now (and my dad and I went for a swim on Thursday, and they were pretty big), so I'd guess they do here too. It was delightful watching the waves smashing against the rock walls that protect the tranquil(er) inner water at Waikiki. And watching all the surfers and boogie-boarders enjoying those waves, beyond.

Food was good too.

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We had wanted to see Superman while out here on Oahu. It did get a week or two showing at the Waimea Theater, the only movie theater on Kauai, but we're more inclined to see a movie while out here.

I found a showing that I thought was at 4.40, so I figured we could just make it if we called an Uber and headed out after we got all situated in our room.

So we did, and I got our tickets while on the way.

We arrived at the theater at about 4.35 and discovered the actual start time of the movie was 4.20. Woop! But of course with trailers and stuff that means we just barely missed the start. When I looked at the time the movie ended, I decided we must have missed the first three minutes or something. No big whoop. Except the movie seems to start pretty en media res, so it was more disorientating than you might think. (In fact, the events three minutes in or so seem so climactic that we wondered at first if we were in the wrong theater, and instead seeing the end of the movie!)

Anyway, great movie. James Gunn is a terrific super-movie maker (a super-terrific movie maker?) and the actors are all great. I loved the take on Superman, on Lois, and on Jimmy (and was thrilled to see the last played by the actor who players Gideon on The Righteous Gemstones, which we hit the halfway mark on yesterday when we finished season two). Krypto is of course wonderful. And oh gosh, Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner? He knocked it out of the park. I am so ready for a Lanterns TV show.

And putting together the Giffen-era JLI as the Justice Gang? Pretty neat too. Gunn is clearly a big fan of the source material.

And the movie's Lex was awesome as well. He felt super-dangerous and effective as a ultra-rich tech expert.

And my favorite action sequence was probably with Mr. Terrific. There's a fight scene with him and Lois that was just amazing cinematography and felt like it was straight out of Guardians of the Galaxy (in the best way, not in any sort of derivative way).

Anyway, all around fun movie, and so positive, so much more enjoyable and more Superman-like, IMO, than the Snyder era (which I didn't bother watching because it all seemed so dark, though I hear Clark and Bruce made friends when they discovered they both had moms named Martha).

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Just to complete our busy day, we played Harmonies after we returned to our room.

It continues to be a favorite because of its varied and quick play.

Yes, we dragged games out to Oahu with us, which was definitely part of what made those bags heavy when I was schlepping them around airports and buses. Which is most of why I'm so tired and achey this evening. (Granted, we ran around a lot too.)

Next time, I bring our wheeled small suitcase rather than the gym bag the games and other sundries are in. (I just figured it would be easier to have the bag on airplanes and buses, but lesson learned.)

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I've barely hit the internet today. I've barely worried about anything. Definitely the pluses of a few days away.