Hawaii Moments: Gay Party Bus

My blogging has sucked until recently in part because I keep escaping to the beach. Yes, I also went to the island of Oahu, Hawaii in the past month. Yup, I'm a lucky girl with back to back awesome beach vacations.

The thing that made Hawaii possible was a gift of miles from my parents and having a generous friend who lives there. I went to go visit my friend Ryan who is usually my east coast/DC tour guide. This time my visit was in a much different setting!
















I was excited for the trip because I was going to be able to see Hawaii the way the locals do. For my first night out, we headed to China Town for First Friday, which is when a bunch of galleries open up to the public after hours and drinking is encouraged. Cabs to get downtown are normally around $25 each way, so it can get pricey. Ryan had found this awesome deal where we could get transportation by a bus and two free drinks: one drink at a karaoke bar by Waikiki which is where he lives and one drink at a bar downtown by the galleries. He did warn me that he had never done this before, so it would be a new experience for both of us. Well, we get to the karaoke bar meeting spot which is in an "alley." The bar is really tiny and the main thing I notice is that we are definitely the youngest people there by at least 1 or 2 decades. However, it seemed like a fun group, and I knew we were getting a great deal. It wasn't until we got onto our bus that I noticed the obvious that I should have: everyone else on the bus was gay! I didn't realize this until I noticed that the pairings on the bus were all male pairs. There were only two other women on the bus....but they were together. I am sure Ryan and I painstakingly stood out! Also, our bus included paparazzi free of charge. I can't tell you how many pictures this photographer took of us, but I think it might be safe to say about a dozen photos were taken....all of which will be published in a magazine there Odyssey Magazine. (note: you might not want to click on this link if your boss is around) HAHAHA. Um Ryan, I am not sure if you have googled this but....from the looks of this website I don't think our picture together is going to get in there. If it does, I will probably be cropped out LOL. Let's just say during our time with this group I definitely felt like the least popular person there!

We downed our second beer in a bar that ironically played Texas country music and ditched the bus group. I got to explore the heart of Hawaii's night life, where Honolulu's greatest go to have their own blogworthy nights. I saw a lot of interesting art, all pretty much inspired by the islands. One thing that surprised me about the bars there is that they weren't too far from the ones in Dallas or any other part of the U.S. When I was packing for the trip I was worried I wouldn't have enough "Hawaiian" dresses, but all of these people were dressed to the nines. Good thing I mostly own a "Dallas" wardrobe so I fit in.

Other memorable portions of the night were witnessing a Mullet party. These guys were so good that for a second I did wonder if any of the mullets were real. I still do not understand why there was a mullet party and where these guys were going with their mullets. Another interesting person I encountered was what I called the "entrepreneur pool player." This bold dude came out of no where alone and approached our group trying to get himself into a game of pool. He succeeded and then beat Ryan (sorry). I truly believe he was also a very insightful individual. Even though I didn't think he really noticed much of me since I wasn't in on the pool game, he randomly came up to me and imparted words of wisdom, "be careful around those army guys." The entrepreneur pool player will always have a warm spot in my heart, cool guy.

Thanks Ryan for signing us up for that bus, very blogworthy!