August has indeed been a crazy month. My last day at the Brown was the 19th of August, Andy and I spent one crazy night driving to LA from Denver to drop off the car in Long Beach. We for some reason drove down the strip in Vegas but didn’t stop. Instead we stopped on the Nevada/California border in one of the most depressing places I’ve ever seen. Something Pete’s. We walked in, used the bathroom, threw a dollar in a slot machine to pay the Casino for the use of the bathroom, the drove off running from sunrise.
Then we spent two days in LA with my parents who drove up to meet us. We had a blast kicking around LA and exploring a bit. My dad reminisced a bit about having grown up there, hung out in Pasidina and Santa Monica for a couple on Saturday and then I flew to HI through Oahu on Sunday, Andy flew home, and mom and dad spent Sunday in LA.
Arriving in Hawaii was a trip (No pun intended). The Oahu airport in a bit of a pain, especially lugging all of the carry on’s I had, but I made it to the island hopper and made the jump to the big island. That flight was a lot of fun since I got the window seat and was able to watch all the other islands go beneath. Landing on the Big Island was very strange, the airport is set on a very large lava flow from the 1800’s, it looks, as you’re landing, like they just polished some of the black stone and painted stripes on it for the runway. The runway and the ground it is set in is exactly the same color. I was met by a very funny driver who had a sign with my name on it at baggage claim. Turned out that my luggage was still in Oahu, it didn’t make the connection, so I had to wait about 45 minutes for the next flight from Oahu. Luggage finally loaded into the car I set off on what has to be one of the most desolate stretches of road in the world. This is coming from someone who two days before had driven through death valley. Most of the Western half of the island, at least at sea level, is just lava fields, with little tufts of brown dry grass sticking out of the lava wherever there was enough dirt to carve out a foothold for the roots. As you look towards the ocean you see bright green patches with palm trees and grass, the driver told me there are natural springs where you see that, I think they’re called “Resorts”. This portion of the west coast is a very upscale area, Charles Schwab has a personal golf course just across from the Four Seasons (apparently theirs wasn’t good enough). Harrison Ford, Michael Dell, etc, all have homes along that same stretch of road. Finally we turned left into this bright green patch with walls on either side reading “Mauna Lani” which is the name of the hotel next to ours, and the name of the area. Oddly enough after passing through this beautiful, lush, green patch I found more black desolate lava on the other side. About ¾ of a mile more of that and I entered a much larger, lush, green patch. The resort area is all covered in grass, bird of paradise, coconut palms, and a ridiculous number of flowering plants and trees. My hotel has a beautiful fountain set in the center of the drive, and makes quiet the impression on arrival. The hotel itself is a little Asian themed from the outside with blue tile roofs that peak at the corners. Inside everything is marble and chandeliers. My property was actually built but Ritz Carlton, which means the entire inside was originally lined with crystal chandeliers to compliment the marble, luckily Fairmont toned down the gaudiness to a very comfortable level by replacing a lot of the crystal with shell chandeliers, and a lot of local influence. Bill, the guest services manager, checked me in and introduced me to Nathan, who will be my direct report. Nathan showed me to my room and told me a bit about the property on the way. There are fountains and trees everywhere, the whole hotel is open air with big shutters on everything that let the sounds and smell of the ocean permeate the property. The entrance of the hotel looks directly out over the lobby bar onto the ocean, so the first thing you see as you walk into the hotel is the beach and ocean beyond. Apparently throughout the winter months whales are constantly jumping just off the coast and are a regular site from the lobby. My room is well appointed on the ground floor facing the south. Nathan joked as he showed me to the room that visiting managers are always put in the worst rooms, which, while true, are still very nice by my standards. Much better than the ‘06s for you BP people. Probably twice the size of one of our RKs at the Brown.
The last week since arrival has been exhausting as I’ve been working a lot, and house hunting when I wasn’t working. The plus side is that I’ve been able to try all of the restaurants in the hotel free of charge and use the resort amenities to familiarize myself with them. I really like the team I’ve joined; we have a great front desk and a lot of good people on the guest services staff. Thus far all of my Union fears have been unfounded and actually it seems this particular union is very easy to work with. House hunting, unfortunately, continues. Things are getting down to the wire as I’m supposed to be out of the hotel Monday and haven’t nailed anything down yet. As that is the case that’s all for now so I can wolf down my cobb salad and attend to more pressing concerns. Aloha!
