I went up Tantalus, St. Louis Heights and when I lived in Aiea I went up Pacific Palisades or whatever it’s called. But after an experience with a van full of mokes who tried to catch me and my kids, I realized kind of dangerous for a woman alone with a couple of daughters... Also ran into an armed man running down a trail towards us once but thankfully he ignored us. But so beautiful. Almost bumped into a wild boar in a tiny ridge top and that was not fun. Used to go once a week to escape from the city.
The seventies were great. I loved it before they built the freeways. Cane was King and Pine was Queen. The road signs said Haleiwa and Waialua. Not "North Shore". They closed the road whenever they burned the cane fields because of the thick smoke. The whole island would smell like molasses. I loved it. You had to always be careful of the cane-haul trucks crossing the road in the country but the pineapple trucks hauling fruit into the cannery in town were a hazard too. Especially for a motorcycle rider. Speaking of the cannery - Oooh Hauna! The population of Oahu was under 300K.
The eighties were a blast for me. Fun job in Honolulu, a fun crew to run with...
Everything was changing. Freeways, hotels and condos were sprouting up everywhere. The cane and pineapple fields were gradually disappearing
The nineties I buckled down and got to work; Bought my boat, met my future wife, got married; started bicycling to work because of the traffic.
The Twenty double ought decade: Bicycles stolen (Twice), boat burglarized, confronted by homeless persons while jogging, a moke pulled a gun on me in the harbor and fired a round in the air...
The population of Oahu was then approaching triple what it was when I first arrived.
DELETE
DELETE
DELETE
Anyone can see what it's like now. No more offensive odors to bother the tourists. Cane and pine fields replace with condos and strip malls. Lots of subsidized projects to satisfy the politicians and the economy lives and dies on tourism alone.
It makes me incredibly sad.