My November trip to Hawaii usually takes place later in the month, beginning just before Thanksgiving and sometimes running a few days into December.
It isn’t really a big deal to miss Thanksgiving itself. Whether I’m here on a holiday or not, I’ll still see most, but usually not all, of the family.
But the timing is causing me to miss a few other things. The Christmas parade in my folks’ neighborhood is on the Friday after Thanksgiving. It is a very small one but I always enjoy watching it. We’re also too early for the humpback whales. Even our usual trip dates fall a little too soon, but mid-November means there’s just about no chance of actually sighting a whale.
Three Sumatran tiger cubs were born at the Honolulu Zoo in September. They were the first tigers born there in almost 30 years. And again, that timing thing. They are doing well, but still not receiving visits from the public. They’ll probably be ready to receive visitors shortly after we leave.
Even an old standby day trip couldn’t happen this year as the Diamond Head summit trail is closed for maintenance from October 20-November 20. And to top it off, the Royal Hawaiian Hotel is undergoing major remodeling and is closed until January 2009. We always have a drink at the Mai Tai Bar there on the last night we’re here. The only other time we weren’t able to do that was in 2002 when Governor Linda Lingle chose to have her inauguration ball at the Royal Hawaiian. We weren’t totally kicked out of the Royal Hawaiian, but we were shoved off to some tiny poolside bar area instead.
Timing is everything, huh?