Honolulu is the capital and largest city of Hawaii. A bit of trivia for you…it is also the most remote city of its size in the entire world, and the westernmost major city in the U.S. In 2015 it was ranked the 2nd safest city in the U.S. (in case you’re wondering – as Pam was, of course – the #1 safest city at that time was Irvine, CA. In 2018 Naperville, IL was the safest city and Irvine dropped to #2. Honolulu isn’t even on the list any more…hmmm….).
Honolulu is a gorgeous location, and since we’ve been here before we elected to go golfing – yes, again! Today it was Ko’olau Golf Club, considered one of the toughest courses in the nation and one of the top three courses in Hawaii. That’s not why we chose it, though. We chose it because the location looked amazing, and we were not disappointed. Located on the windward side of the Ko’oalau mountain range, the pro shop shares its location with a church and conference center (all three are located in the same building), and the course was carved out of a rain forest.
It has been raining for the past three days, so the course was very wet. The guy in the pro shop even tried to talk Ken out of golfing, but Ken wouldn’t be deterred, and we are so glad we went. We were joined on the 5th hole by one of the Club’s maintenance guys, Dane, who was doing a little golfing of his own while on vacation. Dane pretty much adopted us, insisting Ken accept his gift of about 15 orphaned golf balls, chaperoning us from hole to hole, sharing “secret” lookouts with great photo ops, and even buying us some refreshments at the turn. He did all of this expecting nothing in return. He didn’t even give us a chance to invite him to lunch at the end of the round. Dane is a local, and was simply sharing the very generous Hawaiin spirit of hospitality. Dane told us that when it rains water flows between all of the folds of the mountain you see in the background of our photos. He said when this happens it looks as if the mountain is crying. Beautiful imagery, eh?
The course was definitely a challenge, and at the end of the day we were grateful for Dane’s donation of balls. Ken left a dozen or so behind for Dane and his co-workers to find again tomorrow.
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