I'm back at Honolulu Airport waiting for my flight to take me back home to San Francisco, and I'm blogging at the airport internet access kiosk where I remembered I had some extra minutes.

The last 2.5 days have been a whirlwind. It's always been that way when I'm in Honolulu. My brother took my sister and I up to Punchbowl Cemetery to put flowers on my mom's grave. My mom is lucky to be buried there. The cemetery is full and they aren't burying people there anymore. There was some kind of official visiting because there was a military colourguard there, along with what looked like navy and marine personnel. But we didn't stay because the rain was pouring.

As much as I've visited Punchbowl, I've never looked at the statue of the woman, which is famous for having been in the opening shots for the old tv show Hawaii Five-O. We went to take a look at it this time, and the statue is huge. There's also mosiacs of the battles in the Pacific during world war II.

Being in Honolulu always reminds me that Pearl Harbor is a huge military outpost, and that sailor boys are roaming the island. You always see them running around in threes in downtown Waikiki. We never quite get the military presence shoved in our face in San Francisco. I think their absence makes you forget that the US' power has always been based in its military power. The televised church ceremonies that happened 9/11 really brought home that fact to me. News about the military make the nightly news here. It did when I was growing up and it still does today.

For Veteran's Day in Hawaii, all elementary school children in Hawaii (at least this what they said to us), make floral leis to put on every military gravestone throughout the islands. My island has a military gravesite. My uncle, whom I was visiting this trip because he was ill, was a major in the Vietnam War serving as s doctor somewhere in Vietnam. You know, he never talked about his time there. God knows what kind of medical horrors he saw, but to this day he still wears his dogtags.

My brother took me out to a really great thai restaurant for lunch. I was surprised because the the thai was as good as what you would get in San Francisco. Then he took me to some famous cafe called Onjin Cafe. The chef who runs the place is considered on of the finest chefs in the islands. I thought the food was good, but my brother said it was an off night. We had some kind of fish, that I think I remember eating growing up. It's called olua, but my brother doesn't know the american name for the fish so who knows what I was eating.

My time is running out. It was a good trip, but packed full of stuff to do. I never spend enough time here in Honolulu. It's always been a trip to run around and do things and shop and not relax. I really wanted to visit the Arizona Memorial. I haven't visited since I was a kid, and one of the guys in my screenwriting gorup is writing a screenplay that takes place at the Arizona Memorial. I think I just need to spend a week in Honolulu and be a tourist again one day as an adult, and see all the sites I visited as a kid.