The Tourist at “Home”

Its funny how many local residents never wandered beyond their “rock”. On more than one occasion, I would strike up a conversation with a visiting tourist strolling along Kuhio Avenue in Waikiki. The “Tourist”, always awed by the beauty of the islands would ravage on scenic splendors that they’ve encountered.

One afternoon, I was privileged to walk along an elderly couple who just returned from a weekend trip on the Big Island. This was their 3rd and last trip to the island of Oahu and had decided to include a stop-over to the island of Hawai‘i for the first time. I recall the elderly man saying “I’m too old for this island, we should have stayed on the Big Island where no one will run you over.” I laughed as I could hear his sarcastic tone turn in a little giggle. I turned to him and shyly admitted that I have not yet seen the island he described in so little words as “peaceful”. Baffled and almost stuttering, he asked “why?”

Amongst my large family and numerous friends, it’s amazing how much information you can gather about the California, Disneyland, and especially Las Vegas. When it comes to supplying information about the neighbor islands of my “home”, I can’t help to feel deprived of acknowledge therefore I consider that that I am tourist in our own home state!

This is where my journey begins.