Lost 2014: Day 5

Sunday the the twenty-first of September started off (relatively) early for me, with a quick breakfast consisting of granola bars and Hawaiian kettle corn washed down with a couple of cups of  Hawaiian Paradise coffee.

Paradise indeed.

Then it was off to an 8AM rendezvous at the Hilton Waikiki Beach hotel to board the bus for our full-day (-ish) tour of The Island.  On the way out of my hotel I noticed that there was a special section in the Honolulu Star Advertiser newspaper titled "The LOST legacy".  Along with an article looking back at the show itself, the section also featured a LOST crossword puzzle, fun facts and stats, a "where are they now?", a story on LOST: The Musical and, most awesomely, a section focusing on LOST fans which included quotes from Jo, Karen Mauro, and my good friend Chris.  What a splendid surprise to start the day!

Reading LOST article in Sunday's paper.  (Photo: Amy)

My Design Tours put together a "LOST 2014 fan exclusive full-day LOST tour", which focused mainly on stops along the North Shore.  Our large group required 4 separate buses, so logistically the tour company decided to send each bus off to the same sites but in a different order.  It seems that getting a decent guide for these tours is a bit of a crapshoot, and on this particular day we didn't do so well.  Not only did our guide have an extremely foggy grasp of LOST, but he tended to call our attention to a sight either after we'd already passed it, or several minutes before we arrived.  It's unfortunate because a good tour guide can really enhance the experience.  I suppose that the tour company rarely has more than one LOST tour at a time and therefore had to sub in the "B Team" for some of the buses.

After our first three location visits (which I'll cover later in separate posts) we stopped at the Big Wave shrimp truck on the North Shore.  I had a delicious batch of garlic shrimp with rice and veggie, along with a couple of sodas to help replace fluids lost earlier in the day.

Big Wave shrimp truck.  (Photo: Ian)

Mmmmm, shrimpalicious.  (Photo: Ian)

After lunch we set out to our final LOST location of the day.  On the way Amy (who was sitting right behind me) took over as tour guide for a few minutes as we drove along the highway, pointing out the best access road to use for those who wanted to visit the LOST beach camp.  When a group of us returned by car a couple of days later we followed her instructions and they worked perfectly.  Thanks Amy!  After the final stop, on the way back to Waikiki, someone passed our tour guide a phone and asked him to read a message off it.  Turns out it was one of Pierre Chang's Dharma station announcements.  Although I hadn't really noticed, some folks on the bus thought our guide's voice sounded similar to Dr. Chang and thought it would be fun to hear him recite it.  We all had a good laugh and gave our guide a round of applause.

For Sunday evening Alice and Terri reserved a couple of tables at Duke's.  They had just been married the month before, and as they arrived at the restaurant MJ placed a lei around each of their necks.  Lei are a traditional part of wedding ceremonies in Hawaii.  It was very lovely.   We had a another tasty meal that evening and I was sure to order hula pie (for sharing) for dessert!

Sunset on the way to Duke's.

Back to Duke's.  (Photo: Ian)

Checking out the menu.  (Photo: Ian)

Alice's beer sampler.

Paul somewhat eager to taste hula pie.  (Photo: Ian)

After Duke's a few of us carried on to Wang Chung's karaoke bar.  Good times.  Alice and Terri were met with huge hugs from the owner when they mentioned they were on their honeymoon.  Paul delivered a sterling rendition of Duran Duran's "Hungry Like the Wolf" (which sounds extra-awesome with a wee bit of a Scottish accent),  and Kiana's "Milkshake" was super tasty.  Alice, Evonne, and Allison were all fantastic.  Fortunately the crowd was not subjected to my tone deaf screeches that night!

Everybody have fun tonight...  (Photo: Alice)

... Everybody Wang Chung tonight.  (Photo: Alice)

Wow!  I'm exhausted just thinking back on that day.  I must have been running on adrenaline the entire week!