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on to O'ahu!

Most of the food on the island is geared for the two most common classes of tourists: twentysomethings who drink too much and retirees who don't imbibe at all. The result is local variants of Señor Frog for the former and diners with early bird specials for the latter.

Back after several years, I'm enjoying the most authentic of Hawaiian breakfasts at Ma's Family, in Lihu'e. There are still places which proudly serve traditional food "prepared with aloha". Ma's is one of these, operating in the same place for thirty-seven years! When I was here in 1996 I ate side-by-side with 350-pound Samoan sugar cane workers (both the cane and the jobs of those who cut it never recovered from the destruction of Hurricane Iniki).

After breakfast we headed as far west as one can on the island, to Polihale (known to the haole as Barking Sands) Beach. Since the sugar cane trucks no longer fly down these dirt roads they've become even bumpier (if that can be believed). We took the last leg of the trip very slowly, and still covered our rental car in red dirt.

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