Lost 2014: Day 8

Wednesday September 24th, 2014 was (for the most part) my final day in Oahu.  It was a morning of farewells and final location visits, an afternoon of relaxation interrupted by a frantic rush across town, and lastly an evening of delays and reflection.

The day started off well, with a last breakfast at Lulu's.

Last breakfast at Lulu's

Yum!

Afterward it was off to the Hilton Waikiki Beach to say good-bye to a few friends leaving that morning, and to meet up with Chris & MJ for a mini-tour of nearby LOST locations.  Although he had criss-crossed (no pun intended) the Island with us, Chris hadn't seen some of the key locations within Honolulu itself.  MJ and Chris were both flying out that afternoon, so after an hour or two of touring we said our good-byes and they dropped me off in Central Waikiki so I could check out one additional location that was on my list.  (As usual, I'll cover each of these locations in separate follow-up posts.) Afterward I walked back to my hotel, checked out, stored my bags, and found a comfortable location to hang out and wait.  It was another hot day and I didn't want to be sweaty and dehydrated on my flight which was scheduled to leave in the early evening.

A tweet from Jorge Garcia changed my plans.  As fate would have it, he and Daniel Dae Kim were shooting scenes for Hawaii Five-O at the Royal Hawaiian Waikiki (a.k.a. the pink hotel).  After hemming and hawing for a few minutes I decided to head over on foot to check things out.

Pink hotel in the distance.

Getting closer.

Almost there.

Unfortunately I arrived just after the shoot wrapped and spotted neither Jorge nor Daniel.

Missed it by that much.

Yet it was still interesting to see the bustling crew, the many cables snaking through the hotel grounds, and the equipment that minutes earlier had been used to shoot scenes.

Lights.  Camera.  No action.

I made my way back to my hotel and, after cooling down and re-hydrating, picked up my bags and called a taxi.  I wasn't quite ready to let go yet, however.   On the way to the airport I had the taxi stop off at one final, very special, LOST location.

Then it was off to the airport.  Usually I'm pretty good at double-checking flight times, but on this busy day I forgot. Unfortunately on arrival I was told that the flight had been delayed by several hours, and wouldn't be leaving until shortly after midnight!  I considered heading back into town for a few hours but ultimately decided just to chill out at the airport, review my photos, and reflect upon the wonderful week that had been.  Eventually I boarded my Air Canada flight to Vancouver, first stop on the way home.

If only the story ended there.  Unfortunately, tragically, the epilogue to the LOST 2014 experience was not a happy one.