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What’s With the Lanais?

Sun, 30 Dec 2012, 01:46 PM (-06:00) Creative Commons License

And so how does it work with these … verandahs, these big Hawaiian porches, these lanais? These open patios with great flat ceilings to shelter you from the rain or bright sun but otherwise open to the elements. I’m not even sure what you call these places, and I certainly don’t know how they work.

What happens during a storm? Do they take all the furniture away? Do they nail it down? All the tables and chairs and comfortable couches. Do they throw tarps over it to keep it dry?

Or does the rain just mostly fall straight from the sky, leaving everything under these roofs dry? That would explain why the ceilings extend so far out. But seriously, does the wind not blow when the rain falls? And what about the front desks and the paper on the counters and their computers and telephones and things? What happens to them?

It was like this at the airports in Honolulu and Lihue and Kona. It was like this at The Islander in Kapaʻa. And it’s like that here. I just don’t understand it. And it’s so wonderful.

(Part of the ongoing telling of our Spring 2011 trip to Hawaiʻi.)

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