FRIDAY & SATURDAY JANUARY 9-10, 2016 HAWAII

 FRIDAY Jan 9 -- Afternoon/Evening

I register at the Road Scholar desk, receiving a hug and lei for my neck.  Andrew Lockwood is our leader.  All 28 of us gather for dinner, orientation and brief introductions.  Many of my character defects appear as I see other people as better than I am.  I know I’m judging my insides by other people’s outsides but, darn, their outsides look so good!   There are only three of us single women.  The person who would have been my cabin-mate on the yacht cancelled which gives me more space and privacy but without a near-at-hand-buddy,  I’m feeling socially insecure.  I’m working on Steps Two and Three.

SATURDAY Jan 10

A - First Part of the Very Full Day

I’m looking at a woman in the lobby who looks consolingly like my friend Helene.  Same hair.   She takes off her red strappy shoes and smiles at me.  Maybe the Universe sent her to say I should relax and know I’m with friendly people.  I’m going to interpret it that way.

I can hear the lobby cafe’s espresso machine and am so tempted to get a latte but I already brushed my teeth after two cups of excellent Kona coffee in my room.  It was in one those little dinky coffee makers on the bathroom counter.  Whoever heard of terrific hotel room coffee?!

If you want to read my notes on a geology talk, keep on reading.  If not, skip to Section B.

I very much enjoy our first educational experience, a talk on Hawaii geology with dynamite graphics by Dr. Art Reed, retired marine biologist from University of Hawaii.  “Island Chain Formation and Evolution of the Hawaiian Islands” is the topic.  Several million years ago the single continent of Pangea breaks apart.  Then the new continents crash into each other.  There’s a photo of tectonic plates.

Good grief he’s losing me and we’re only five minutes into the talk.  Other people, however, answer his questions with authority. 

When magma erupts from under the surface, they call it lava.  There are 3 types of volcanoes:  midocean ridges, subduction along boundaries with land, and hot ppots (like Yellowstone).  Hawaiian volcanoes are mild.  You typically run toward them, rather than away from them. 

Iceland is the only island on the midocean ridge because there’s a hotspot right on the ridge, which created the island.  This is unusual.  (Marguerite and I stood on the midocean ridge betw the European and North American plates.)  

The crust of the earth in the Hawaiian area moves north west so as hot spots erupt, it creates an island chain 1400 miles long in the NW direction from the big island (the newest island) to Kure Atoll.   Kure Atoll is 6 miles wide but is an atoll, because it is now under water due to “subsidence” a.k.a. sinking.  It has travelled so far north it is no longer tropical.  It is above the Tropic of Cancer at the Darwin Point, where coral will no longer grow.   I actually understand this part because his graphics are so wonderful.

These volcanos are not peaky.  They’re called shield volcanoes, with most of the island being underwater.  Sometimes part of an island breaks off and falls down into the ocean.  Quickly.  One day the island is shaped one way and the very next day it’s a different shape.  This creates a tsunami. 

Kilauea has been erupting steadily for 30 years.  We’ll be hiking in that area.  There will probably be a big eruption in Hilo; Dr. Reed thinks the city will be wiped out.  So a lot of this is still happening.  Do you want to buy cheap land?  Unsafe areas near volcanoes are usually cheap; there is no volcano insurance. 

The bottom of the ocean here is 17,500 feet so the mountains have to be very tall to show above the water.  Mauna Loa is 56,000 feet above its true base on the sea floor, making it the largest volcano on earth.

There are several earthquakes per day in Hawaii but most of them are small. 

A “caldera” is a slump where there was an eruption, which can be a violent wall collapse.  Because the magma sinks down, it’s very dynamic.  When there’s an eruption, lots of bad chemicals come out like sulphur dioxide and  sulphuric acid so people can’t safely stand around. 

Because it’s warm and rainy, it takes 2-3 years before ferns and mosses start growing.   THIS IS VERY DIFFERENT FROM ICELAND, where it can take about 200 years.  Some people come to honor Pele the god of volcanoes to placate her.

The largest erupting plume of lava in Hawaii was 1900 ft high.  Rift zone eruptions can cause a curtain of fire, where lava is coming out, covering over lava that is already there.  It comes out about 2,000 F. degrees, melting rocks that are already there.  Chuckling, Dr. Reed  says, “There are a lot of singed eyebrows on the volcanologists.”

Kipuka occurs where a ridge is caused by lava, protecting the old growth forests.  Makes for nice studies between living things growing on new lava vs what is right next to it.

Lava tubes eventually form by cooling lava.  You can walk thru those, seeing tree roots above you.

Pahoehoe is stationary ripples.  Hawaiians named it but it’s now an official geological term.  Grass and ferns come in quickly.  If not much rain comes, it will stay grasslands.  Otherwise, forestation begins in about 20 years.

Not much ash cause, here, there’s usually not water mixed in with the lava (unlike Mt Saint Helen’s).  When lava runs into the sea, it creates steam.  Black sand beaches are created but they’re transitory because it slumps quickly (disappearing into the deeper ocean).

Moloka’i is about 1.9 million years old. The big island is much younger. 

B - Second Part

Our Small Plane to Molokai

After this most wonderful talk we take a bus to the intra-island part of the Honolulu Airport.  A medium-sized plane flies us in 15 minutes to Molokai.    Three vans of us go to the Molokai Museum while a fourth van takes all our luggage to our boat. 

C is our driver.  She is proud to say she is 75% Hawaiian.  Andrew explains that although he was born in Hawaii and never moved away, he can never be Hawaiian because he is “white”.  True Hawaiians have family who came here originally from Tahiti.  Because inter-marriage is popular, the part-Hawaiian percentage is increasing rapidly. 

When I learn C is a musician, playing ukulele, I talk with her privately. “We stayed at the Hawaii Prince Hotel which is owned and managed by Japanese.  Much of the food is Japanese and signage is English and Japanese.  However the ambient music is Hawaiian.”   (Personally it seemed odd to me; I would have expected Japanese music.)   Is it unsettling to her and other Hawaiians?  “In a way, but we also have compassion.”

 

Sugar Cane

  Molokai Museum grounds has a stand of the original sugar cane brought from Tahiti.  We are welcomed by kind and knowledgeable Noelani Keliikipi (Aunti Noe, pronounced like Noy-Ee, sort of).  Inside we see a movie and historical photos about the families who were split apart because of Hensen’s Disease (leprosy).  Most of the tragedy started in the 1800s but continued  until there was effective medication (which occurred about 1946).  Molokai’s peninsula of Kalaupapa was, and is, so hard to enter and leave that people were segregated there.  

 

Window on Old Sugar Mill

Governmental agencies thought the disease was contagious so they locked in the patients on this isolated island.  I am grateful to Brenda for suggesting I read “Molokai” before going.  Although a work of fiction, it is remarkably true to life.  We will return Sunday night for a pa-ina, an intimate luau.  And then on Tuesday we’ll spend most of the day on Kalaupapa.

  (Hawaiian alphabet has only 13 letters in it so there’s lots of repetition of the letters.) 

 

Signage in Park; Can You Read It?

 C drives us to a beautiful and short trail in Pala’au State Park so we can see Kalaupapa from above.  

A short trail on the right gives us a fabulous view of that peninsula and the ocean crashing into the rocks. 

Woods Are Piney and Beautiful

Noe Points Out Kalaupapa

Isn't this gorgeous?  If you're wondering when we get to be IN the water, stay tuned...   It's worth the wait!

Phallic Rock

 

Then we walk down the left hand trail to see Phallic Rock.  One of C’s relatives had tried to become pregnant for 16 years.  Against her usual compunctions (about believing legends) she sat on the rock and became pregnant in two months.  

My Bed

 

About 5:30 we board the Safari Explorer.  My cabin is on the starboard side (cause I’m a star, is how I remember that).  Cabin B-9.  I’ve got it all to myself.

ME IN LIFE VEST

 

 

After unpacking briefly we go for a safety lesson.  And have a most wonderful dinner at 7:00. 

Our Harbor At Night

Do I sleep soundly?  You betcha.

FIRST MORNING IN HAWAII

Waking up in the Hawaii Prince Hotel in Waikiki O'ahu Friday Morning

 



 My 11th floor window shows sailboats below.

I sleep late (8:30 AM) so I can have a late breakfast and won’t need to buy lunch.  And, of course, to make up for sleep deprivation.  I walk hesitantly from place to place in my room trying to decide what to do first and where to find things.  I need coffee bad but a 30 minute walk will be better.  I like to know where I am.

Mountains Out The Back

Boat for Sale

Walking along the bay, I see signs of money and debt and trash.  A Food Pantry van drives by; maybe hotel restaurants give offerings for the poor and homeless.

Trash in the Bay

One-third of the people are tourists dressed in Hawaiian shirts and shorts or dark pants and jackets with hats.   The latter must have arrived recently.  The other two-thirds of people are workers in transportation or other service industries.   Both groups are heavily represented by Japanese or Japanese-American.

 There are five pigeon/doves in Hawaii, none native.   But these are cute.

Spotted Turtle Dove on the Dock

 I see the real beach in the far distance and a highly manicured hotel beach nearby with folks already playing in the water.  Getting the sun is a high priority with little care for skin cancer. 

BREAKFAST

I opt for the $29 breakfast buffet which is “American” and “Japanese.”  I avoid the corner holding multi-colored cereal and pass by the omelette-making area.  My first morning should be special, right?  And the ala carte items would cost the same added together but be less interesting.

I ask two tourists who might know something about the food like nato.  “Yes, very healthy, very ethnic.”  A server says it’s fermented soy, an acquired taste because of the consistency but it’s very healthy. 

I eat everything including the nato, which is just fine although each forkful  has threads coming from the food -- like hot pizza mozzarella.  A very sweet Japanese server suggests I might want some miso soup for the seaweed and fish on my plate.  But I tell her miso soup is too salty for my taste and I don’t mind eating the seaweed and fish “as is.”    She is impressed by my trying the nato.  “I didn’t come here to have cereal,” I say and she laughs.

 I hope the little video works.  If it doesn't, copy this address (https://youtu.be/B5FDkfgKJAA) and put it in your url.

Cups of nato

Papaya and guava are so ripe; eating that while Hawaiian music is playing is very relaxing.  I eat three plates of healthy food, stretching out breakfast until 10:30.  Four Asian-looking women about my age are at a nearby table speaking only English.  They talk about a good book one of them read and then spend one hour discussing health issues.  “My doctors said I had the worst case...never seen such... he said my friend has transglobal amnesia.”  Then they switched briefly to tales of getting lost in parking garages and how to avoid it.  Then back to knee replacements.  Out the window I spot two bicyclists with surf boards attached
somehow and very many tour buses and taxis. 

I find a place with internet connections and settle down.  When I read today’s Borowitz Report from The New York Times:  Poll: Republicans Would Rather Actually Be Shot by Gun Than Agree with Obama , I laugh so loud an expensive-looking couple at a nearby table look up.  When I tell them the headline the woman laughs but the man looks askance.  I say that no matter what your point of view, that’s funny.  He smiles. 

A non-alcoholic pina colada smoothie will last me till dinner.  When I register at the Road Scholar desk I am given a lei.  And loads more information.  Buffet seafood dinner is at six followed by yet more info and introductions.  Other posts may be slow in arriving as I search for internet connections on the trip.

THE OTHER HALF OF GETTING THERE

So lucky to have a good place to wait for boarding.

Handy Electrical Setup At Our Gate

Preparing the last blog at a nicely set-up electronic station at D-1 (our gate) is fairly easy. A bunch of us stand at a shelf with our equipment. I have to fiddle with blogger so the photos come out reasonably aligned.  But it is good to standing.   Walking back and forth to the bathroom and then to the fish place (where I get a $5 container of fruit) takes up some more time.  And I talk with folks who, like me, wait for 4:40 to come around so we can board the aircraft to Hawaii.

A sturdily built dark-skinned woman with an adorable little girl is with a large gentleman I think might be her husband.  I surmise they are Hawaiian but don’t bring it up.  The baby is nine months old.  Mom and the baby had a four month vacation in Bahrein (sp?) visiting her soldier husband.  It was very hard leaving him.  Her brother flew over to help her bring the baby back on the 14 hour plane trip.  She was teething and not happy about it, her mom says, although the cutie is smiling and cavorting while we are in the waiting area.  Her grandparents are waiting to babysit so mom can sleep when they get back.  What a nice family!

Tail of Our Plane.  Inuit with Lei

When the baby crawls all over his ample chest, I admire the tattoo on the brother’s right arm.  A design, it looks aquatic somehow.   When I tell his sister I admire it, she says,  “It’s tribal.”  They live in Honolulu.  I tell the mother I was amazed to learn that the Hawaiian population was only 10% native Hawaiians as of the 2010 census.  “I didn’t think it was that high,” she says somewhat disgustingly.

All three of them (husband, mother, and brother) just re-upped for six years in the service but they will all be stationed in San Diego starting March 1, which will be very wonderful.

Salmon Plane

The flight will be six hours long.  I’m now wondering if I could have taken a different airline to get to Honolulu faster from Atlanta.  It’s doubtful I’ll go to Hawaii again but if I do I’ll check that out for sure.  I was so enamored of Alaska Airlines from my recent trip to Oregon that I wanted to fly it again and didn't know how to compute the time in the air.

The crew is so very helpful and pleasant.  One  has a beautiful flower in her hair.  Another tells the folks in the exit aisle (jokingly) that because they have such a big responsibility they can’t drink alcohol.  Everybody laughs.  The Brits call them "trolley-dollies" but their responsibility for safety is huge.

Plane in the Dark Outside My Window

OK, so now I’m flummoxed again about time.  It’s 6:19 PM up in the air above Seattle, 9:19 in Atlanta but only 4:19 in Honolulu.  So how long have I been awake if the alarm rang at 1:30 AM?  Almost 18 hours if I’m doing the math correctly.  I am too tired and slightly jangled to figure out what it will be when I land in Hawaii at 9:30 PM. 

Pilot:  “I don’t want to alarm you but it will be bumpy for about 10 minutes.  I’ve asked the crew to wait awhile before serving beverages.”  I just love this part. I really do.  While it is true we could go down it’s so very, very unlikely that I just enjoy the rockin' and rollin'.

Note to self:  For night flights, get an aisle seat.  All I can see out the window is the blinking red light and steady white light on the left wing.  I limit my beverage intake so I disturb my buddies in seats 24B and 24C only twice to get to the bathroom.

My buddy in 24B is a young man five years out of high school.  He is so happy to be coming home for a visit he can’t stop smiling  As a Coast Guard cook, he lives and works in Ketchican Alaska.  Where did you hear that place before?  (The blog before this one.)    His father’s side of the family and assorted neighbors use an immense spotlight and turn on all their car and truck lights on the beach New Year’s Eve so they can surf.  They try to be on the last wave of the old year and the first wave of the new year (the very same wave if they’ve timed it right).  His 85 year old grandfather still surfs.  All the members of his father’s side of the family surf well (men and women).  His mother’s side are not Hawaiian and focus on fishing. 
     Because he had Hawaiian lessons only in elementary school he does not speak Hawaiian as a pure language.  But he and his family speak a combination of English with Hawaiian, Japanese, Spanish and Portuguese words thrown in lavishly.  He says, “It took two years -- two years -- for my friends in the Coast Guard to understand me.  But I changed how I spoke also.” 
    “The Spanish brought us the guitar generations ago but we changed how it’s played.”  (Slack key, which I love to hear.)

 By the time I get on the shuttle outside Baggage Claim my knees are shaking from fatigue.  I had reserved the budget transportation ($15) to travel with others to our various hotels.   The Hawaii Prince Hotel is on the dock where sailboat masts are clanking just a tad from a light breeze.  Air is very warm.  I think my brain is still working until I try to figure out the room key.  Thank goodness for directions printed on the back.

  It is 11:30 PM Hawaii time, 4:30 AM the next morning in Georgia.  I can’t do the math till the next morning.  

 I spent 27 hours on the “road.”  

 

 

 

Self-Portrait in the Bathroom Mirror

HALFWAY THERE

At 1:30 AM Thursday morning the first of three alarms wakes me.  A latte and oatmeal get me going.  My eyes are not quite bright but the rest of me is bushy-tailed after five hours sleep.  Not that hard falling asleep at 8:30 PM. 

In the Van

Two cars and one truck are all I see between my house in Bishop and the Atlanta Highway.  It’s warm by my standards (44 degrees).  I’m wearing three shirts and one Icelandic hat.   The excellent driver of the Groome van arrives precisely at 6:40 and stays exactly between the lane lines the whole way to the airport.  Two fellow passengers sleep the whole way. 


 TSA is not bad; lines are short.  An older female agent asks whether I have a hip replacement cause it would set off the x-ray’s alarm.  Jeez, I must look old.  The Plane Train is not in service (it wakes up at 5 AM) so I get a chance to walk for 25 minutes to Gate D3.  Prophylactic exercise. 

Two women, sprawled over wheelchairs, snore under red Delta blankets at D3.  How can they breathe with their heads under those blankets?   An Asian toddler with a red dress and white leggings is squealing and running around, but these two sleep through it. 

An older man and woman wear hospital masks as they’re pushed in wheelchairs toward Gate D2.  Are they infectious or super cautious?  Maybe they’re really sick.  Ten minutes later the man walks briskly in the other direction (toward restaurants) still wearing his mask.  Another ten minutes and he walks back with two foam food containers -- no mask. 

I’m in the air and will be for five hours.  The sun is showing a strip of orange above the horizon to my left side.  Thirty minutes later, it’s still just a strip.   Okay, so if the sun rises in the East and is now behind me, we must be heading West.  That’s good cause we’re going to Seattle.  It’s 7:45 Atlanta time but 4:45 Seattle time and 2:45 Honolulu time.   A big light goes on in my head.  The sunrise in Seattle will seem later than it is here because the earth is round!  We are flying over a round ball!    As we go West, the sun stays pretty much behind the horizon.   Why did this never hit me before?    We are racing the sun.

 Below us are popcorn clouds which part to show lakes and small towns.   Then the clouds disappear and I see patches of free form green.  Oh, and a big river off farther to the left.  Is it too soon to be the Mississippi?  I wish the co-pilot would tell us where we are every 15 minutes.

I love Alaska Airlines!  Lots of leg room and comfy seats. A tall guy in my row has knees which are at least six inches from the seat in front of him.  And an outlet for electricity and the plug for iPhones.   I order a breakfast sandwich cause it’s been six hours since breakfast.  The sandwich is yummy with fluffy scrambled eggs, tomatoes, and Canadian bacon on a sourdough roll.  Wonder if I’ll end up having four meals today.  No, I will not!


I walk down the aisle toward the 3 bathrooms.  They’re all occupied.  One of the crew warns me to be careful while I stand there.  She doesn’t know I’m an ace at balance.  While I’m sitting on the john we hit a patch of turbulence.  The Return To Your Seat sign blinks at me.  But I’m probably better off just sitting there until things smooth down.  The bathroom is so small it would be impossible to crash into anything.

 The sun caught up with us.  It’s bright out the window with a beautiful blue sky above us because we’re above the clouds.   I see a landscape of closely packed cotton balls with the East-facing sides reflecting the low-angled sun.  But very light wispy clouds pass over this as if they were part of a gentle snow.  I love thinking I’m seeing snow.  I miss it.

I see something that looks like a mountain in the flatness of the snowy-looking clouds.  By Jove, it IS a mountain.  We’re close to Seattle so it must be Mount Ranier and it’s taller than the clouds. Wonder what it's like to climb it when it's like this.




We land at noon (my time), having left at 7 AM.  As I enter the Seattle Airport they call for everyone going to Honolulu to board another plane because it’s leaving.  I sort of remember a discussion about whether I want to take a chance buying a ticket for that flight or selecting the one I’m leaving on, 5:30 PM, but that’s Seattle time. I was afraid to take a chance on such closely timed connections.   I will get to know this airport very well. 

What I already like about it compared to Atlanta:  There are no arm rests on their large-seated chairs.  Sleepy people can stretch across them. 



At first I was ready to rave about the plentitude of electrical outlets but the first three I tried didn’t work.

 When you look outside the great big windows, though, it’s gray and depressing.   

Gretchen Yanover plays her own music with an electric cello.  Another musician (from Phoenix) talks with her about music gigs.

 They’ve got a nice mocha cafe with exotic-sounding chocolate-espresso drinks if you’re tired of Starbucks. I’m totally confused about what time it is.  It’s 11:30 AM in Seattle.  My phone says it’s 2:30 in Atlanta.  But what does that mean in terms of which meal I should be thinking about.  I go to the mocha shop and buy a medium dark mocha was is made with intense  special chocolate plus a little snack box of cut apple with peanut butter to dip it in and two small slices of walnut toast.  When I go to pay for it I can’t find my wallet, which I just had in my hand.  Shit!  I start looking on the counter and then in my backpack but find my wallet tucked under my arm.  Whew!  The occasional moments of terror that accompany traveling alone!

 A man (Greg, he says) with a broad-brimmed outdoor hat and flannel shirt tells me he now lives in Colorado, which he doesn’t much like.  Too dry; uninteresting.  He’s coming to check out property in the Spokane area.  He used to live in the North West and his kids live there now.  So what is Colorado?  Is it in the MidWest?  He got rather specific about all this so I told him I came from the East Coast, near Athens Georgia.  Greg sang part of a song about potatoes to me because the Athens B-52’s are his favorite group.  He would have sung a song he just wrote himself but he didn’t have his guitar.  Greg says he’s going to caucus for Bernie Sanders.

 Alaska Airlines planes are painted in different ways.  One came by just now, looking like a massive salmon.   Wild Alaska Seafood, it says.  One is painted like Disneyland.  The most common one has a man in a furry parka painted on the tail.  He looks a lot like Chet Guevara but it supposed to be Inuit or another Native American.  Some have Hawaiian leis around those dressed-for-the-cold faces.  Just read a report on the 20 safest airlines in the world. Alaska Airlines is in that 20.  British Airlines is not. 

 I check the departure list and don’t see the Honolulu flight.  Hmm.  Maybe it’s too early.  A helpful A.A. employee says there’s no point checking the list sooner than an hour before departure (5:30) because they change gates too often.  She suggests I go to the main terminal cause then I’d have five minutes access to all the major parts of this huge airport.  I had already learned every part of the North Satellite.

 Thanks to a very sweet building employee, I get on a Plane Train which, after 2 stops, takes me to the double-decker escalator going up to a huge terminal full of restaurants heavy on seafood.  And live music by a guitar-singer performing old popular songs. 

On the way, my guide and I talk.  Although she was born in Macon, her part of the family moved quickly up North, as in Seattle.  She still has kin in Atlanta and Milledgeville.  I told her I lived on the Macon Hwy.

 My next buddy, whose name I don’t learn, is 86.  He and I stare out the great big windows watching planes fly up and down.  He came down from Alaska to visit his ex-wife in Pasco Washington.  They hooked up after his second wife passed away about 6 years ago.  “I was a bum when I was married to my first wife.  She divorced me when I moved to Alaska to work for IBM in 1959.  Back then computers were huge and required an air conditioned room to house just one.”  He and two other guys worked to make smaller computers -- worked from their apartment in Anchorage.  Finally got one small enough to be housed in a bank.  He remembers the first big jet plane that came to the west coast.  It had to fly and land using military airports in Hawaii, Seattle and Anchorage.  We reminisced about what a big deal it was to fly: that women wore hats and gloves, stockings and heels because it was such a special occasion.

He retired after 30 years working in a pulpwood facility.  Has been retired 25 years, just fishing mostly in Katchikan.  It rains so much there the annual rainfall is expressed in feet, not inches.  Last year they had 12 1/2 feet of rain.  He’s got two granddaughters who were adopted at 12 years old from a Ukrainian orphanage!  His 86 year old girlfriend, ex-wife, had her second hip replaced so she’s back to golfing.  She’s got him learning it now when he comes down to visit her.  “I learned about the history of golf.  It started at a club in Scotland and was for Gents Only Ladies Forbidden; G O L F.”

We talked for an entertaining hour, shaking hands with big smiles, so I’ve only got three more hours to wait.

NEARLY READY FOR THE FIRST BIG ADVENTURE OF 2016

It is Tuesday January 5.  I’m leaving for my first 2016 adventure Thursday morning — very early morning.  The Groome van leaves Athens at 2:40 AM!   Should I sleep for 3 hours or try to stay awake the whole time?   How many alarms should I set?

Some Stuff I'll Pack

I’m not packed yet.  I'll need hiking boots,  sneakers and 2 kinds of water shoes but I’ll wear the boots. 

Caryl, who went to Hawaii recently, suggested I bring six pairs of shorts.  I only have four that fit me after my holiday egg nog excess.  I’ve got two peddle pushers which will dry quickly so I’ll pack them.

The Road Scholar program urges us to use "reef-friendly" sunscreen made with titanium oxide or zinc oxide, instead of oxybenzone.  Rash guards and hats are other environmentally-friendly ways to protect oneself from the sun.   I've got all three.

I’ve read the registration info and have tried to remember where we’re going.  We’re navigating and docking on four islands; I remember the names of two of them.

 The boat (a.k.a. yacht) sounds promising: 
                  
•36 guests
•18 cabins
•14-15 crew members
•145 feet in length
•2:1 Guest-to-crew ratio”

“Cabins have heated tile floors in bathroom;  Tempur-Pedic® memory foam mattresses; Flat-screen TV/DVD; and view windows.  A full-beam swim step makes for easy access in the water. Adventure equipment onboard includes kayaks and stand-up paddle boards; snorkels and masks, inflatable skiffs; hiking poles; yoga mats; hydrophone for listening to below-surface sounds. An underwater camera pipes the action to the lounge.” 

Unfortunately, they don’t have any kind of internet other than what my phone can dig up.  I’ll be writing my blog every night and will send it whenever I can from other locations.

Manatee from another Road Scholar Program

 Everyone is wishing me a wonderful trip.  How could it not be exciting and beautiful?  Even if the yacht goes down, or sharks join our evening snorkeling, I’ve got an underwater camera to capture it all.  Bet that video would go viral!

The National Weather Service advises beach goers to exercise caution this week. The 35 foot swells “will likely stir up hazardous conditions near the shore break and dangerous currents in the water. Anyone entering the water could face significant injury or death. Surfers and swimmers should heed all advice given by ocean safety officials.”  Actually a couple in their twenties were injured seriously by one of those big waves coming at them on a promontory.  We’ll be snorkeling and kayaking in bays, which presumably are safer.

I’m continuing to learn more about Hawaii so I’ll have a framework for the new info I’ll be taught on Hawaiian history, geology, ecology, and culture.  I was stunned to learn how few native Hawaiians live there.  The 2010 census reports:  The state's population identified as 38% Asian; 24% White; 23% from two or more races; 10% Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders; 9% Hispanics and Latinos of any race; 2% Black or African American; etc. There are two official languages:  English and Hawaiian.  From what I’ve read, the high Asian population came about years ago when workers were “imported” for the sugar and pineapple plantations.

The Hawaii Reporter described two faunal oddities this week. 
    They said there were “Wallabies– Yes WALLABIES! The brush-tailed wallabies normally from Australia that are similar to kangaroos.   Someone in the early 1900s brought a pair to Oahu and they escaped. Since then, the marsupials have been reproducing in Kalihi Valley.  Because they are elusive, hiding in the bushes most of the time, people rarely see them.”
    And a little known moth:  “Hummingbird Hawk Moth. These guys are so fast, it is no wonder most people don’t know they exist.  These moths are also known as maile pilau hornworms after the host plant their caterpillars prefer.”  I bet Don Hunter would get a photo! 

Don’t know about that particular moth, but I hope to capture a few butterflies and moths with my $30 close-up lens -- like this of a hungry sulphur.

Some of us fight against invasive exotic plants in Georgia and encourage native plants for many reasons, including encouraging pollinators. 

Wiki has this discouraging news about natives in Hawaii:
    “Hawaii has more endangered species and has lost a higher percentage of its endemic species than any other U.S. state.  One endemic plant, Brighamia, now requires hand-pollination because its natural pollinator is presumed to be extinct.   The two species of Brighamia—B. rockii and B. insignis—are represented in the wild by around 120 individual plants. To ensure these plants set seed, biologists rappel down 3,000-foot cliffs to brush pollen onto their stigmas.” 

YIKES!  Would our Botanical Garden of Georgia  mentors do that?  Maybe Jennifer…

This afternoon I crossed one more thing off my to-do list: “ Get some fives ($5) for the shuttles.”  I was thinking of a bank.  But then I saw the Watkinsville Baskin Robbins.  Gave a $20 bill for a $2.88 cone of Jamoca Almond Fudge.  Perfect!

This little adventure at Watson Mill Bridge actually happened New Year’s Eve.  If you haven’t seen this 2 minute movie, hope you enjoy it.  Debbie and I sure enjoyed "The Sound and the Fury."


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