Do you mean the Marriott, or the 'other' Marriott?

Sometimes the mind plays curious tricks. It establishes patterns of thought and process that are difficult to get rid of. It also misinforms and those can be the most difficult ones to trash.

Two such aberrations have happened to me on the Island of Kauai. As those of you who have read my musings for a while know, I have a very special affection for Kauai. It is my ‘soul’ destination and there is something Karmic about my being there at any time. I don’t really have too many mystical or metaphysical neurons in my system, but in the case of Kauai, at many levels, I am prepared to make exceptions. Kauai ‘invades’ me in odd ways.

The first instance I have mentioned before, and that is the ‘false’ memory of standing on a road bridge in the little town of Kapaa with my stepdaughter, Andrea. She and I are looking down at the fish in the stream and we are chatting while her mother is getting her hair done. Andrea was about 13 at the time. It is a hot, hot day and we decide we’ll wander down to the mall where the hairdresser is and get something cool to drink while we’re waiting.

A nice scene, to me. A comforting scene and one that is still as vivid as it seemed to be the day it happened. The only problem with the memory is that it is utterly and completely false. I have never been on Kauai with Andrea. I’ve been on Kauai with her mother, but never with her. I’ve been on Maui with Andrea. So, there you have it. As John Lennon once said, “strange days indeed, Mama.”

The other odd Kauai perception concerns the Marriott Hotel and resort just outside Lihue, down by Nawiliwili Harbor where the big cruise ships come in. The Marriott is a lovely spot, despite the fact it was devastated by Hurricane Iniki in 1992. Anyway, the drive up to the main hotel is through lovely and tropical parklike acreage. I’d dropped off there a few times with assorted wives, but had never stayed there. I’d always gone up to the hotel via the main drive.

A few years ago, Wendy and I had stopped to do a bit of sightseeing around the bay near the harbor. We wandered along the lovely beach in front of the big hotel that sits on the beach. “Hello,” I said. “That hotel is a Marriott, too. Odd that they should build two so close to each other.”

So, we wandered entered the hotel lobby and wandered around the display areas and had a jolly nice time. We agreed it was a pretty impressive hostelry. We then went back to our car and drove away from the area.

The next time we were on Kauai, a couple of years later, we took a day trip down near the “other” Marriott again. We strolled along the coconut palm dominated sandy beach walk and again wandered into the hotel Once inside we decided to explore it in more detail. It was when we were strolling along the big indoor/outdoor koi ponds and gardens that something struck us.

“You know,” I said. “There must be a design formula the entire Marriott chain uses because these ponds and gardens are identical to the other Marriott.”

Wendy agreed that indeed they were.

We then took the escalator and went upstairs to where the lobby was. It was then that it struck us. There was no other Marriott! We had just gone in from an entirely different perspective, and in our prior visitations via the upstairs route, we had only gone down as far as the ponds, but had never ventured outside. Added to which, the parkland driveway to the lobby entrance is probably ¾ of a mile from the beachside entry. So, neither of us had made the connection.

Since we like that area, we often go down there when on Kauai. So, the suggestion will be made if I refer to the Marriott, as to whether it will be to the Marriott or the “other” Marriott.

And, in my mind, they remain two separate places and I cannot really get past that.

I blame it on Kauai. Or maybe too much partying when I was at university.