Gary Sinise and me, we’re like that, you
know. Near enough. I once sat in his chair on a NCIS-NY set that I came across
in Brooklyn and watched him do a scene (inspecting the body of a drowned
mermaid). I helped myself to a banana from the snack table too – at the
invitation of an extra, so it was pretty much official. And now here he is
again, performing with his band on the beach at Waikiki tonight, giving a speech
about supporting veterans, asking how many people had been to the National WWII
Museum in New Orleans – not many hands went up, apart from mine – and getting
excited about being MC at the 75th Commemoration of Pearl Harbor on
Wednesday. I tell you, with vets being wheeled away by young servicemen in
fatigues, everyone standing and applauding, and then all singing along to some
nationalistic song that I didn’t recognise, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house
(apart from mine, natch).
Sitting on the sand listening to the music
in the warm dark, part of a mixed and friendly crowd, waves breaking nearby,
planes blinking overhead past a young moon, skyscrapers lit up all along the
beach behind, eating sticky (and sandy – oops) ribs… it was a nice way to end a moderately busy day.
This afternoon we went on a half-island
tour with E Noa. Our driver, "Cousin Brendon", chattered all the way round – literally –
but he was pleasant and keen to please, and interesting enough. Hearing that
the houses on the peaks command prices up to $25 million, I understood about
the Gucci, Prada, Tiffany etc shops I never broke stride for this morning as I
explored Waikiki (ABC Stores are more my level – and my! What a lot of them
there are!)
We slipped around the coast beneath Diamond
Head; oohed over the shallow clear waters of Hanauma Bay, famed for its
snorkelling; watched the surfers at Sandy Bay, Obama’s favourite beach; stopped
at Waimanalo Beach to eat Dave’s delicious icecream (coconut and macadamia,
though it was hard to choose a flavour); and climbed up to the lookout at
Nu-uanu Pali, where the slopes are precipitously steep and the views extensive
but more astonishing is the sign warning of bees in high winds – because they
become like bullets then, apparently. We completed the circle through Honolulu,
passing its glass towers where all the white-collar work happens, and the busy
port.
Things are hotting up in preparation for
the big event on Wednesday. Let’s hope the weather is too.
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