A Brief Glimpse of Americana

Hawaii was such a relief after ten days without seeing land. We’d seen albatross, whales and dolphins, but the ship was beginning to feel quite small after those days between Japan and Hawaii.  The big news out of this blog is that I went skydiving.  It was just such a rush.  My group was really lucky because they day before everyone was canceled due to strong winds.  Aside from that Hawaii consisted of beach time and Americana, which was in some ways, much missed.

Day 1:  At 6 am, the bell noise came over the ship’s loudspeakers. Great. We’d been warned we were getting an early wake up call.  American customs wanted face to face time with each of us before the ship would be cleared.  So the bell sounds, and then the speaker experiences a few seconds of scratchy silence before we are officially woken up by James Brown’s “Living in America” blasting through every cabin and corridor on the ship.  Although I am notably not a morning person, this morning I woke up laughing.  It was around 7am when I realized my cell phone worked.  I was apparently one of the last to realize this as every deck on the ship was filled with students using their cell phones when I got out there around 7:30. Once docked in Honolulu, I disembarked immediately with Katie to go for a morning run.  Katie hadn’t run in a while, so it wasn’t quite as successful as I would have liked. Still, it was great to be on land and running off of a treadmill. 
After our run, we headed out for a day of beach and Americana.  We ran into Jana, who joined us as we walked towards the mall.  We made two stops at Starbucks before finally arriving at the mall where I had Mexican food for lunch, which was positively thrilling.  Katie left Jana and me there while she went and did errands. 
Hawaii was exciting to us for a number of reasons, but one of the huge ones was that our cell phones worked.  For the first time during SAS, I was able to call Andrea to ask where she and Trish were on the beach.  Jana and I took a city bus to get to Waikiki Beach.  From there it took us another hour to figure out where exactly our friends had stopped.  Finally we found them, and spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach reading, resting, swimming, and using our cell phones for the first time in three months.  It was exactly what we all needed. We went back to the ship to get ready for our night out in Honolulu.  For the second time that day I had really yummy Mexican food. It was so so good.  The only trouble with Hawaii was that it was the first port where my age actually mattered.  On the ship, my closest friends are 23 and 22.  Out of our family bubble, Trish and I are the only ones under 21.  We planned on going out anyway, and being what we liked to call the sober sailors for the night.  This would have worked fine, but Trish forgot an I.D. and thus was unable to prove she was even over 18.  I was happy to head back, as I had big plans for the next morning.  The best part of the night was definitely when we stopped at Baskin Robbins. I have yet to see Cookie Dough ice cream outside of the United States.  It was so exciting to be back in the land of Cookie Dough and Mexican food.

Day 2: I signed up to sky dive in Hawaii before I left Charlotte to go on SAS.  There were groups on facebook who were coordinating trips in Namibia and South Africa, but I knew that if I were to jump out of a plane, I wanted American regulations on that experience.  I had hoped that by the time I got to Hawaii I would be prepared for the experience.  I’d also decided that it was better for my family not to know that I was doing this until after I survived.  I had texted one friend the name of the skydiving company to make sure that someone outside of SAS had some information.  The thing about the constant travel of SAS is that we are forced to live each day on land to the full extent of its potential.  That sentence may not make sense, but what it comes down to is that I felt ready to skydive. 
That morning I woke up at 6:20 to meet Trish for a run at 6:30.  We ran about four miles before I came back to the ship to shower and give Andrea her wakeup call.  I didn’t mention that – Andrea had been borderline about skydiving since South Africa, and she finally allowed me to sign her up for my timeslot.  It was so nice to have a good friend with me.  We decided that we survived a safari in South African and Varanasi, India together – we could do this easily.  Andrea and I met at exactly 8am to meet the Skydive Hawaii shuttle.  An old man in an Air Force hat approached the open door of the shuttle and started talking to us.  He wanted to know why we were skydiving, to which neither of us had a great answer on the cuff. He said, “Well. People will ask you, ‘why jump out of a perfectly good plane?’  The only answer you need to tell them is ‘because the door was open.’”  We both laughed and listened to him talk about the rush of open air – he had obviously done this before. 
The shuttle ride took about an hour to get from Waikiki area to the North Shore, which incidentally is where the tv show Lost is filmed.  The majority of the skydiving crew had stories of being extras or stunt people for Lost. Within minutes, Andrea had bonded with our shuttle driver over their mutual love of reggae music.  I laughed and tried not to think about what I was about to do.  The shuttle arrived at a grassy area, a bit smaller than a football field adjacent to three huts and a plane landing strip.  Almost immediately I was able to look up and see parachutes open, preparing to land on the grass space. 
We were both a bit nervous as we signed our lives away – on the bottom of every sheet in the skydiving contract was in bold, capitalized letters. “YOU COULD BE SEROUSLY INJURED OR KILLED.” I looked outside in time to see a few more students land.  This was just something that I needed to do.  We waited for half an hour for our names to be called.  A man called out, “Taylor?” I looked up, and there was my new tandem master, aptly called Big Jim.   Big Jim is probably in his late 40s and is a somewhat stocky man well over six feet.   He wears his sandy hair in a loose ponytail and smiles enthusiastically as he tells me in his husky voice what to do when its our turn to jump out.  He told me to keep my arms crossed on my chest until he tapped me.  “Um, is there anything else that I should know?” I asked.  “Rock out, dude!” He told me, both hands signaling “hang loose” in traditional chill Hawaiian fashion.  This sounds sketchier than it is – each tandem master is required to pack his own parachute.  If my parachute didn’t open, he’d be a goner with me, and this was his fourth jump that day.  Also, to be a tandem master in the United States, one must do 500 jumps per year for three years.  These guys are experienced.  Soon, Andrea and I were suited up in what looked like rock climbing equipment with shoulder straps.  Our guides motioned over to us and we followed them to a small plane that was just landing.  I walked over talking to my adorable photographer.  I asked him about speed.  Apparently the freefall would be somewhere between 100 and 120 mph and once the parachute opened we’d be moving at about 40 mph.  There were nine of us jumping on this trip up.   Andrea and I were the last two to enter the plane. 
As we rose into the sky I laughed, amazed at how small everything was suddenly.  I’ve obviously been in a plane before, but it’s a different feeling when you know you aren’t landing in it.  When we ascended through a layer of clouds, my heart was already racing and my mind in ten different directions.  Soon Big Jim said, “Okay Taylor, our turn.”  I followed his directions and he began to attach my harness to his backpack and harness.  Once we were all locked in he showed me each of the caribeeners, proving that each were locked securely.  This may have helped a normal person, but at that point I just figured my life was in his hands anyway.  It was then I realized – “what – are we first??” Big Jim grinned, “Hell, yeah!!”  Awesome.  So we scooted over to the opening on the side of the plane as the altitude reached 12,000 feet.  I looked down to see the open ocean.  The water was so clear I could see coral growth beneath the surface. I looked out from the side of the plane for one last glimpse at the water and the beautiful Hawaiian mountains. Big Jim told me to lean back, cross my arms, and “don’t forget to open your eyes.” Before I could say anything else he’d pushed us off.  We flipped in the air several times before coming into a bellyflop position.  He tapped my shoulder for me to open my arms to feel the 100-120mph winds that were tearing at my body.  The wind was amazing and such a rush.  I was descending fast, but my stomach never dropped.  It doesn’t feel like a rollercoaster.  Its too fast for ones body to really adjust.  The air was peaceful almost.  The wind rushed until 4,500ft, when Big Jim pulled the shoot.  The parachute arose and suddenly we were floating.  It took me a second to allow my pulse to slow and adjust to my new surroundings.  I was floating just a bit above the mountains inland, but still quite near the water.  Big Jim let me “steer” for a bit as we began the slower descent.  We moved back and forth: one second over land, the next once again over ocean.  Eventually, Big Jim told me to keep my feet up as we landed because he thought that due to the wind we would probably only be able to land straight on our butts. 
I called my parents afterwards and they both thanked me for not telling them beforehand, as did my sister.  The only time skydiving made my stomach drop was much later that evening when I’d looked at photos. 
After skydiving, Andrea and I changed clothes and met Katie for lunch at Hooters. Yes, I went to a Hooters, and I am embarrassed by that little fact. However, Andrea and I felt that we deserved really good burgers. 
Next on the agenda was Pearl Harbor.  Pearl Harbor was a huge complex with a museum that would have taken much more time than we had. We watched the 45minute video on what happened and visited the Arizona Memorial.  I was so impressed with how very fair the video was.  It explained the Japanese choice to attack in the exact same terms as I had seen at Hiroshima just over a week prior. The USS Arizona Memorial was very well done.  It’s a bit intense because oil is still seeping up from the ship.  A few parts of it are visible above the water. 

Hawaii ended way too soon without enough beach time or exploration. I could have stayed here much longer and am curious to explore other islands.