Postcard from Paradise

I realize this post is a little belated.  In mid-September I took a vacation to Hawaii with My Honey, and I did in fact send postcards to the store.  However, I didn't get to share them with all of my Grass Roots friends.  My vacation mostly entailed sitting around by pools and on beaches, my nose in a book or soaking up the sun.  (Had to stock up on my vitamin D while I could!)  So here, I bring you a bookish-themed post about my vacation.

First of all, I have to say I made good use of guide books (My Honey is more of an online person himself.), and found the Hawaii: An Explorer's Guide book to be particularly interesting to read, as well as helpful.  It's more than just a list of hotels, restaurants and places to see; there's actually backstory on the history of the places and people of the islands.  Another useful series of guides is Hawaii Revealed, which may also be known as the blue books about Hawaii.  They cover out of the way places and give honest opinions, even if they're negative.  I found the writing style to be kind of annoying, but even skimming it revealed great information.

Pearl Harbor is this far away from Portland.

Crew's Library on the USS Missouri

Where did we go once we got there?  Well, we started on Waikiki Beach, which was everything I heard it would be.  Ahem.  I am very glad we were there in the off-season, and we left just about exactly when we were ready to.  My postcard from Oahu?  It features the crew library on the USS Missouri.  Unfortunately while we were visiting Pearl Harbor, a movie was being filmed on "The Mighty Mo", and we didn't get access to everything visitors usually do.  Boo on them.  I forgave them, however, because I got to see  the library and the pie kitchen.  (Can you imagine a whole kitchen with a battery of ovens just for pies?  AWESOME!)

Representing Grass Roots at Volcanoes National Park.

Next we hopped over to the Big Island for two nights in Hilo, two nights north of Kona, and a stop at Volcanoes National Park and South Point in between.  The volcano was pretty awesome, but all we saw was steam.  And at night?  We saw colored steam.  Well, boo on the lava, but I enjoyed it anyway.  And it turns out Mark Twain visited the volcano as well.  I decided I need to bond with my literary brethren and had my picture taken where he was.  (Look where Grass Roots has been!)  South Point was pretty cool; it's the southern most point in the United States. 

Book.  And Maui beach.

We had to finish up our visit to Hawaii on Maui.  I love Maui.  I love laying by the pool and having people bring my drinks.  I also enjoy laying in a lounge chair on the beach reading a book.  Sigh...  My postcard from Maui features a page of my favorite reading material on my vacation, The Group by Mary McCarthy.  It was fantastic and scandalous.  I admit, I sometimes struggled to keep track of all the characters, but I was interested in their lives.  Oh, I did enjoy it.

Now I am settled in back at home, working my way through different books and getting back into my routine at the bookstore.  It is nice to be home in Corvallis, but it's always nice to dream of exciting new places to go.  For now, I think I'll hold onto my memories from Hawaii.

Aloha, friends!
Pamela.