Honeymoon Part I - First Contact

No, this piece isn't about the Star Trek movie with the Borg, but about the honeymoon that Richel and I just returned home from.

Planning for this actually began last year when it was announced that the 67th Annual AAPM&R would be located at Hawaii. I thought, hey, what a perfect place and time to honeymoon! I can go on vacation/honeymoon, earn CME credits and learn stuff at the same time, see old friends I haven't seen in a while, and legally deduct part of the trip! Killing 5 birds with 1 stone; you can't beat that. So it was settled; Hawaii it was. Well, that plus the fact that Richel wanted to go to Hawaii instead of Montreal or Quebec for our honeymoon.

This honeymoon/conference was more of an adventure than a relaxing vacation. If you want to make comparisons, an Indiana Jones movie would be very comparable.

November 8 - Richel and I packed up and headed to the airport in Indy. Now, for those of you who don't know, I'm actually afraid of running in to my patients outside of the clinic/hospital because I never know what my patient's reaction will be like. It can be either 1 of 2 reactions: friendly gratitude or intense hatred. I can totally understand how actors or professional athletes feel, now when they're spotted by fans. They're either loved or hated. But anyway, thank goodness the patient we ran in to was one of the ones who did well and was very happy and pleasant. And it was good to see her smiling, too, instead of being in pain.

The 3.5 hour plane ride was uneventful. We flew from Indy to Houston at the George Bush International Airport for our transfer flight. Of all places to fly to...In any case, from there we flew another 7 hours to Oahu. Right off the plane, my cel phone started ringing with a caller from Indy. Against my better judgement, I answered and found that it was the answering service for my work group. The caller was relieved that he had gotten a hold of me, and started telling me how he was trying all day to get in touch with me and about one of my patients who was calling, all in one breath! I told him that I was sorry, but I couldn't really do anything from the airport in Oahu and that I was on vacation. Mortified, he apologized repeatedly and told me he would take care of it.

We then picked up our rental car from Hertz. Ironically, they gave me a Pontiac Grand Prix. One would think that driving a car is no different from one car to the next and that they are all the same. But I had never driven an American car before in my 16 year driving career. So it was quite different but not impossible to figure out. I felt a little like Scotty in Star Trek III and IV:

"Where's the damn anti-matter inducer?"

"Fixing the warp drive, that's easy. Reading Klingon, that's hard."

But like Sulu, Master of Navigation I was able to drive the car without getting in to a wreck. That same evening, we met up with Krishna, Roxanna, little Izzy, Kevin, Wayne, Qamar, Ernie, Rose, Xuong, Jafar, their significant ones, and some other dude I had never met before. Tired, exhausted, sleep deprived, and starving, we headed over to Phuket Thai. Interesting place with great food, but even more interesting was the name of the restaurant. Afterwards, we headed back to our room at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, which was a very nice place. But our room smelled like wet socks and had a view of a construction site. To think I paid $229/night for that. Paris, I want my money back!












The next few days were pretty much all the same: Krishna, Kevin, and I went to lectures in the morning while Richel, Roxanna, and Izzy went to the malls (I guess they're starting Izzy out early). I jest regarding the whole shopping issue, even though I did a considerable amount of shopping, myself. Why? As Krishna pointed out, I didn't bring my shoes, hat, sunglasses, or swimming trunks. The only things I did bring were my dry-fit shirts. What was I thinking? So to avoid further sun damage and heat discomfort, I ended up buying sunglasses, swimming trunks, a hat, and yes, another dry-fit shirt. My sly way of buying things for a purpose.

In the afternoons, the men met up with the women and we would all go out to dinner somewhere. Friday night was no exception when we celebrated Krishna's birthday at a pretty cool restaurant. It was an open air restaurant situated right off the water that was supposed to have pretty good seafood. We had a pretty good time there.

The next day was the same. Lecture in the morning and afternoon and dinner in the evening. We went shopping later with the women and then headed back to the hotel. One thing that I wanted to do in Oahu was hang out on the beach for a little while. Unfortunately, Richel was so tired she fell asleep and Roxanna and Izzy were napping as well. So I guess that it was no surprise that on my honeymoon/vacation I was hanging out on the beach with my good buddy Krishna.











Later on that evening Krishna, Roxanna, Izzy, Richel and I went to a Luau. Our bus tour entertainer, who dubbed himself "the Rock" was quite amusing and tried to get us in to the party spirit, along with 50 other people in the bus. We were hoping for traditional/ culturally interesting dancing and entertainment. But the show started off more like an MTV Spring Break episode, which was funny but somewhat disappointing.

"Everyone wave your hands in the air and say 'HO'!".

Hmmm...is THIS how native Hawaiians celebrated the Luau for the past thousand years? A comparable analogy would be watching Lord of the Rings with a rock band playing the soundtrack (- can you imagine Gandalf casting spells, whirling his staff and sword to the sounds of an electric guitar?). But the dancing, especially the fire-dance, made up for the MTV commercialism.







On Sunday, I wasted 50 bucks on a stupid lecture-workshop (which I won't get in to, but can you tell I'm bitter about it?) and then had brunch with our friends before they returned home. For the rest of the day in Oahu, Richel and I went over to Diamond Head to hike the trail to the top.

It started off pretty basic with a nice paved but steep path winding towards the summit. But very quickly, this nice paved trail turned in to a rocky dirt trail with stairs and ladders and tunnels to climb and crawl through. Alright! Exactly what I was hoping for. So we reached the highest allowable point but the euphoria of our achievement was blunted by the fact that Richel was feeling sick. After some shade and water she did okay, though. Let the picture-taking begin. Descending was no problem.


Next, Mt. Everest.

The next day, Richel and I flew over to Maui. It was just as hot there, but the beauty of the island far surpassed anything that we had seen on Oahu (we only stayed in Waikiki, though). We picked up the rental car and drove over to the Maui Prince Hotel located in Makena. This was a hotel that was strongly recommended by Q so it's something that I had insisted on, and it didn't disappoint, as the hotel was magnificent with it's large open hallways and lounge and open courtyard with waterfalls, streams, and pond. Our room was located on the top floor with a view of the ocean with a large mountain in the background. And the room didn't smell. Much better than the Hilton.

Stay tuned for Part II