That familiar table at Jack's Restaurant in 'Aina Haina will have to wait a while.

So, too, a seat at The Shack in Hawai'i Kai.

All regular dining stops on All-Pro center Olin Kreutz's annual pilgrimage home, marking the time between the end of the Chicago Bears' season and Pro Bowl week. "I'm usually home by now," Kreutz was saying yesterday from Chicago with a knowing chuckle.

Not that he minds a bit the detour through Miami this time. "I'll stay as long as it takes to win a Super Bowl," Kreutz vowed.

For the journey to the Super Bowl and a date with the Indianapolis Colts has been nine years in the making for Kreutz. A career, really, for the Saint Louis School graduate who shares with Pat Mannelly the title of longest-tenured of the current Bears.

For somebody who grew up in Hawai'i, a Kalani'anaole Athletic Club kid seeing the Super Bowl through wide eyes and following the exploits of Jesse Sapolu, Brian Cabral, Mark Tuinei and other local players who earned their way onto American sports' biggest spectacle, this is a milestone moment. An underlining of a career that always pointed toward the ultimate prize even when it was imposingly far-fetched. "I kind of always identified with people from Hawai'i when they were playing in it and hoped that one day (I) could get there," Kreutz said.

A hope that, given the winters of disappointment and too many numbing 4-12 and 5-11 finishes, had to have seemed a distant dream at times. But one he would never allow himself or those around him to give up on while making 96 of the past 97 starts for Chicago.

"I don't know if I ever sat down and thought to myself, 'I don't think I'll ever go,' " Kreutz said. "Every year I hoped I would (go) and worked as hard as I could and tried to do my part to get there."

Six consecutive Pro Bowl selections, voted on by players in the league and fans, said he did his part time and again. His choice to turn down big money elsewhere and remain a Bear said he was in it for the long haul.

Still, in this reach-for-the-stars season for the Bears, Kreutz said that when their ticket had finally been punched the realization didn't sink in until quarterback Rex Grossman yelled out a piercing, " 'We're going to Miami!' " Kreutz said, "He kind of screamed it in the huddle and then it hit me."

And when it did; when the moment caught up with him in the snow, this toughest, most intimidating of the Monsters of the Midway said, humility stood side by side with jubilation. "I was actually just humbled," Kreutz said. "Humbled to have won the NFC Championship. Humbled to have been on the field and humbled to be going to the Super Bowl. It feels just great."

Kreutz said: "Every since I got into the NFL, it is what you dream about. It is the biggest stage in our business; it is what we're all trying to get to. I don't see myself doing much sightseeing and enjoying myself too much. I'll just be trying to get ready for the game. If I want to enjoy Miami, I'll just go out there another week, when the Super Bowl is not going on. I'm going to approach it like it is the biggest game of my career and I'm going to do everything it takes to win that game."

And, afterward, he'll find his way back to some familiar places at home.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.