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Memories of Lana'i (Bill Murath, 5/5/07) (EDITOR'S NOTE: Since I've lived on the islands of Lana'i, O'ahu and the Big Island, I always enjoy reading correspondents' experiences of Hawaii. At my request, Bill contributed some memories of his visits to the island of Lana'i-- Charles Hugh Smith) Lana'i.....What a beautiful secluded paradise. Those Norfolk Pines in Lanai City are so awesome. One of my best buddies moved there in early 90s to take a job at the newly created hotels. I headed for the North Shore in late 90s. Once and a while I would take a week and go hang out over there. I spent more time there than all my trips to the other islands. Anyway, I rode a mountain bike all over. Totally alone since it was so unpopulated, as you know. Two great memories: It was in the summer and I flew there without a board since I usually biked in the summer and avoided the South Shore O'ahu scene. I was visiting Neil with my English girlfriend Ann. We drove down to check out Hulopoe Bay and when we got there it was 6 foot old school Hawaiian. (they changed the way the state measures the heights of waves now to protect tourists). I told her that we had to go back up the hill so I could find a board because the left was going off! I was able to borrow a board from someone at the restaurant but it had not been waxed in forever. It was lunch time now and the damn anti-capitalists (kidding, way cool old school!) at the general store closed every day for an hour for lunch. So I rounded up some candles and waxed the board with those. Candles have too much oil so the board was really slick, I jammed as much sand into the wax as I could and then paddled out. There was only maybe 3 surfers and a few spongers out and everyone was so stoked and gracious.(a far cry from the intensity on the North Shore.) It was so heavy dropping in over the dry lava with no wax to speak of and a board way too short for the size of the waves, what a freaking rush. But it was also the best vibes surfing from the other dudes out of 5 years of surfing in Hawai'I. I guess Ann was really good luck for waves.... On the North Shore of O'ahu I lived directly across the street from V-land. V-land was the heavy heavy local spot run by Junior, Fast Eddie and the boys. I never surfed there because I didn't want to deal with the vibe, even though I knew and got along with those guys. One day in early Sept. Ann and I started to go for a walk on the beach towards Turtle Bay. We were just starting our walk when from nowhere a 2-foot set came through. Not bad and it piqued my interest but I kept doing the proper thing and kept walking with Ann. 2 minutes later another set came through and I told Ann that I have my priorities. All the surf kids were in school, no swells were forecast and no one was around. The swell came up to 6 feet and I surfed V-land with maybe 5 other people who figured it out for 3 hours before school let out and it was a zoo. I left as they showed up..... with one big smile, brah! One more Lana'i story for now. My buddy got engaged to a nice local girl and I was to be best man at the wedding. The wedding was at the Union Hall and 1300 people out of the 1600 on isle were there. Big shindig. So I was sitting up with the wedding party and as tradition goes we were brought food from the dishes even though it was a buffet. They brought around this killer looking Pork in a dark gravy. I kept piling it on the plate amongst other things. After being in the isles for a while and not being very adventurous with my palate I was leery of what I was eating.... You know, "the Black dog is the best tasting dog" thing. But this pork looked like the real deal and I was starving. So I am getting ready to slam this stuff when this guy Alan next to me says, "Hey Bill do you know what that is?" Oooops the food alert sirens were going off in my brain now. I said no, what is it? (Alan) "Oh that's Chocolate Meat!" (Me) "What is Chocolate meat?" (Alan) "That's pork, pork intestines in blood." I really owed that dude a favor because I don't think projectile vomiting would have gone over well in front of all the people. I know it would have happened if I had slammed all my "Chocolate Meat" and then found out later what I had eaten. I have one principle in my meat eating.... muscle tissue not organs. For more on a wide array of other topics, please visit the oftwominds.com weblog. 
HTML, format and art copyright © 2007 Charles Hugh Smith, copyright to text and all other content in the above work is held by the author of the essay as of the publication date listed above. All rights reserved in all media. The views of the contributor authors are their own, and do not reflect the views of Charles Hugh Smith. All errors and errors of omission in the above essay are the sole responsibility of the essay's author. The writer(s) would be honored if you linked this Readers Journal essay to your site, or printed a copy for your own use.
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