Hawaii's favorite son

For those of you who don't know it, Barak Obama spent many years in Hawaii, on the island of Oahu, as a matter of fact. I wouldn't exactly call him a man from a small town, since Honolulu houses the vast majority of people who live on the island, but he has certainly done his home town proud. To the folks here, he is a local, and they take their local heroes very very seriously. Since the vast majority of local heroes are college and professional athletes, President-elect Obama is a SUPER big fish in this pond! Of course, the people in Chicago probably think he comes from Illinois, but what do they know? That's the advantage of having grown up in a series of places. Everyone wants to claim you as theirs when you get famous.

On two separate occasions, DH and I had our brushes with history in the making. Back in August, we were standing in a parking lot on Kamehameha Highway in the early evening. A dozen or more motorcycle police roared by in a steady stream, followed by a white SUV and more motorcycles. Lights were flashing, patrol cars had blocked off the road and everyone had stopped to watch. The folks in the parking lot all agreed, that while it might not actually be Obama, it was certainly practice for his upcoming visit. Then last week, we were at home and heard a phalanx of military helicopters overhead. It was the day Obama was scheduled to arrive to see his grandmother. We realized that it was an airborne motorcade taking him from the nearby military base, downtown to his family.

Okay, so our brushes with fame may have been fleeting, and indeed probably imaginary, but what the heck. How close have you been lately to a presidential candidate? Since we've completely blown any opportunity to attend the inauguration by moving halfway around the planet instead of staying where we were- less than 60 miles from DC-we have to take our comfort somehow.