A Gold Star for Susan

Dan here.

After a week of fantastic weather, we awoke to a dreary day on the north shore. Wind, rain, we were in the clouds. We had a day planned up here, but quickly decided that it would be best to go south in search of warm, dry weather.

We found it on the beach in Kekaha, and walked for an hour, which qualified as exercise because of the deep sand. We were happy to arrive at the Waimea Brewing Company in Waimea at about 1:15.

And they were slammed. We've eaten at the brewery at least once on each of our trips here, and we've never seen it so busy. The parking lot was packed, and we had a short wait for a table.

Service was slow -- there were only two servers for maybe, oh, 30 tables. One of which had about 16 people, including two screaming babies. We were tired and hungry and thirsty, but tried to settle in with the situation since we know that service isn't always the best on the islands.

On the table to our left, however, there was some drama. Two couples, somewhere around 60, were grousing aloud about how long it was taking to get their food. After a bit, one of the women started arguing with the waiter: "You forgot our order." "We've been here an hour because you forgot to put in our order." He tried to reason with her, apologizing and saying they were very busy and there was a huge table that got in just before them. She continued to berate him, getting loud.

Then, Susan looked at her and said in a firm but loud whisper: "Shut up! That's just rude." When the woman tried to engage her, Susan said to her again: "That's just rude."

And that was that. After a few minutes, the outraged lady left the table and went outside to stomp around the property. The other three quietly and quickly finished their meals ... I'm sure they felt about 2 inches tall because of how rude their companion was. And as I'm sure all of you who know Susan know, she wouldn't say Shut Up to Satan himself.

After they all left, we called the waiter aside and told him we were sorry he had to put up with such a rude party. Another table did the same thing.

And I told Susan that I was darned proud of her, for sticking up for what's right.

She's a real gem.

After all that, Susan's brother Mike and his wife, Nancy, arrived after their hike in Waimea Canyon. We were finishing up our meal; we visited while we finished and they ordered and started their meal. And we all had a good chuckle out of it all.

Here's to Susan!