A couple of months ago, I was invited to Oahu, Hawaii, to speak at the annual conference of the Public Relations Society of America. As you know, dear reader, business travel is an oxymoron.
Business travel is anti-travel.
The best sightseeing occurs between the airport and your hotel. Luckily, on this Hawaii trip, my schedule afforded a single entirely free afternoon between speeches, panels and receptions. You can hike into the scraggly wilds of Diamond Head, so incongruously close to the concrete and steel of Waikiki. Thus I found myself on a Thursday noon at the bus station outside the Ala Moana shopping center, just opposite Ala Moana Park in downtown Honolulu, watching Bus No. 52 pull to the curb. I hopped on, dropped in my dollar, settled into a window-side seat and began my adventure.