Visit to Hawaii teaches lesson on pandemic – and sports cars

Mrs. Brad and I took our first substantial vacation in mid-September since the start of the pandemic, spending 12 days in lovely Hawaii.

We learned two lessons:

• Things are very different after 18 months of Covid-19.
• Things are very different after 30 years of not driving sports cars.

First, the effect of Covid.

We visited Kauai, the northernmost of the Hawaiian islands. It wasn't our first visit, so we knew what to expect, but this was different.

Kauai was still beautiful. It was still a great place to hike and go to the beach and hang out at a condo. It was 85 degrees virtually every day and about 77 degrees every night. There was light rain every day. People still drove about 20 mph on the highway. There were still great sundowns.

But retail businesses and restaurants? Very different.

It was obvious the first time we went to a nearby outdoor mall. Masks were required, even outside. About one-third of the stores were closed. Few people were there.

This was significantly different from previous visits.

Restaurants were struggling: Some were closed, others were shut down two days a week, due to labor shortages. Others were understaffed, so it took a long time to get food. That wasn't terrible – we were in Hawaii, so we weren't rushed – but it was noticeable.

Same with retail. Most stores were understocked and many stores limited how many people could go inside, like early in the pandemic in California.

The conclusion: Kauai changed. Hawaii changed. I guess that's no surprise since life changed since March 2020 in Fairfield and Vacaville and Los Angeles and Reno and Cleveland and Buffalo. Why wouldn't it change in Hawaii?

The second lesson was more personal and came after we agreed to rent a convertible.

Seemed fun, right? It was a late-model Camaro (I'm not a car guy. Late-model means recent, right?) and looked cool. A Camaro convertible! Not exactly Tom Selleck's car in "Magnum P.I.," but still a convertible.

Getting into it, however? Not so easy.

Oh sure, it's easy when you're 20 or 30 and limber. But you have to get so low to get into that car – like doing squats and then moving laterally! And it was a two-door model with a backseat, so it had big, heavy doors.

Mrs. Brad and I spent the first few days shimmying to get into the car, only to find that one foot was stuck in the gap between the door and frame. Mrs. Brad got a bruise on her hip after repeatedly hitting the seatbelt holder while sliding in.

Worse yet, when we finally put the top down (Hey! We've got a convertible! Let's experience it!), we realized we lost most of our trunk space and put our beach chairs, backpack and towels in the backseat with the hope they wouldn't fly away.

The conclusion: There's a reason people our age drive sedans or SUVs. My Prius is easy to get in and out of, which makes it better than a convertible Camaro for me (you know you're old when you discuss how easy it is to get into a car).

This is no gripe. We're privileged that we could travel to Hawaii. We're lucky we could rent a car. Our vacation was a great experience after 18 months of a pandemic.

But things changed over the past 18 months.

My two travel tips for Hawaii:

• Expect things to be different.
• Rent a sensible car!

Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@outlook.com.