Layovers and Letting Go: A Story of Travel, Friendship, and Unexpected Goodbyes

From Honolulu to Heartache: A Trip Across Cities and Emotions

* This is the first post of a 5-week journey from a few years ago.

**Departure.**

We left Honolulu with nothing but a carry-on, a laptop, and a suitcase full of anticipation. After all, who needs baggage on a trip like this, literal or otherwise? Four days in New York City to shake off jet lag and wake up our senses before hopping the Atlantic bound for Europe.

New York always delivers. Food, humanity, Broadway, energy. But something else came with us this time: the ache of a friendship that vanished without explanation.

**Flashback: The Labor Day Fade-Out.**

I recall that Labor Day when we made a surprise appearance onto Long Island with one of our most delightfully unhinged moves of the year.

“Surprise!”

“Oh shit.”

That was the greeting at Frank and Renate’s front door. We’d flown in to crash their annual party, the kind of thing friends write into their personal folklore. Or so we thought. We helped set up, hung out, ate, drank and laughed. It felt… mostly good. But something shifted. Quietly, then suddenly.

Days later, weeks later, months later, we tried to understand. Nothing came. No fight, no explanation, just cold air. That kind of silence is deafening.

People say surprises are for the givers, not the receivers. Maybe it was that. Maybe it was something else. But it stung. Still stings, if I’m honest.

**Back to Midtown.**

From Newark, we rode the rails into Penn Station, swiped MetroCards, and checked into the Hyatt Place Midtown. Reliable, friendly, with that buffet breakfast I both adore and fear.

Yes, me, the C.F.G. (Chief Food Guy) got hives every morning last time we stayed here. Buffet roulette. I carry an EpiPen now. Shame. Safety. They go hand-in-hand when you're allergic to something but have no idea what.

(Reminder: if I go down, jam that thing into my thigh, the EpiPen, stat! Then dinner.)

**Small Joys.**

First stop: Malecon coffee, hyped by Genie Joseph as the best cheap coffee in town. Verified. We toasted the day with halal chicken and lamb platters, then made our way to Broadway for *A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder*. Lin and Joanne loved it.

Me? I slept. Deeply. Blame the Ambien/Xanax cocktail and poor life choices. A $250 nap, but at least I wasn’t snoring.

**Onward.**

Tomorrow is Little Italy and Chinatown. For now, I'm full, humbled, and thankful. The heart has space again and we’re ready for Europe, for new stories, and maybe even for old friends who someday decide to come back.