The Song of Hiawatha, a poem
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Hiawatha’s Departure
from The Song of Hiawatha

By the shore of Gitchie Gumee, 
By the shining Big-Sea-Water, 
At the doorway of his wigwam, 
In the pleasant Summer morning, 
Hiawatha stood and waited. 
All the air was full of freshness, 
All the earth was bright and joyous, 
And before him through the sunshine, 
Westward toward the neighboring forest 
Passed in golden swarms the Ahmo, 
Passed the bees, the honey-makers, 
Burning, singing in the sunshine. 
Bright above him shown the heavens, 
Level spread the lake before him; 
From its bosom leaped the sturgeon, 
Aparkling, flashing in the sunshine; 
On its margin the great forest 
Stood reflected in the water, 
Every tree-top had its shadow, 
Motionless beneath the water. 
From the brow of Hiawatha 
Gone was every trace of sorrow, 
As the fog from off the water, 
And the mist from off the meadow. 
With a smile of joy and triumph, 
With a look of exultation, 
As of one who in a vision 
Sees what is to be, but is not, 
Stood and waited Hiawatha. 

We arrived home from Hawaii at about 1:00 p.m. on Thursday, June 23, after being up for 36 hours. On the way from the airport, I stopped and picked up the quizzes and papers that needed to be corrected from the 2 weeks of classes I had missed. Those classes happened to be the last 2 weeks of the quarter, and grades were due by noon on Friday, June 24! I also had laundry to do, my house to clean because I did not have time to clean it before we went to Hawaii, grocery shopping to do, 2 batches of cookies to bake, and packing to do because Sunday, June 26, we left for a family vacation on the North Shore of Lake Superior! In that brief time, I also had to run into the Twin Cities, more than 50 miles away, and pick up my new prescription sunglasses that had not been ready before the Hawaii trip. Guess what? I made it! Sunday morning at around 8:00, we headed out for the shores of Gitchie Gumee.

The picture above is our daughter-in-law Jess with Jake the Giant Toddler. On the far right is our son Andy. About 10 seconds after this picture was taken, Jake ran over and jumped in the lake, crying “I’m in Gitchie Gumee!” Only a not-quite 2 year old would be so excited about standing in a lake that never gets much above 40 degrees! Actually, he wasn’t quite in Lake Superior. He was in the waters of the Gooseberry River at the point where it empties into the lake. It was still mighty chilly, though. Jake loves Gordon Lightfoot’s Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, so he was very excited. I don’t think he really understands what a shipwreck is, but he did know that he was at Gitchie Gumee!

All 9 of us enjoy our time on the North Shore. We rent cabins at Tofte, which is about half way between Duluth and the Canadian border. There’s a lot to do there. Betsy and Madison love this alpine slide at Lutsen, just 7 miles up the road.

Andy and Jake look like they are having a pretty good time, too.

I don’t ride the slide. I prefer to stay on the ground and take pictures. Actually, the slide would not bother me, but you have to ride this to get to the top:

Ryan does not look like he minds the ski lift at all, but his Uncle Andy seems a little concerned about keeping him in the chair. Me? I don’t do ski lifts. Height and I are not friends. It doesn’t bother the rest of the family, though. You can see Matt in the black shirt and Betsy in the pink waiting to get on the lift.

We like to spend a day at Gooseberry Falls State Park, too. The falls are gorgeous. The water there is warm enough for the kids to enjoy a swim as long as you watch them so they do not get too close to the falls.

That’s the upper falls in the picture. There is also a lower falls, and a trip over that would be a little hard on the bones.

One of the cabins we rent has a nice stretch of lawn. Dan and Andy were enjoying playing bocce one afternoon while the kids were napping.

This little fellow came to keep me company while I was lying in the hammock watching the game.

He was right next to my foot when I took that picture. He would come right up and sniff you and seemed grateful for handouts.

In the evening, there are campfires on the rocky shore in front of the cabin.

That’s Dan in the green with Ryan, Matt, Jess in the gray sweatshirt, and Betsy in the Navy.

We only had 3 days at Tofte this year, but it was a fun 3 days. We are already planning next year’s trip.

Fanning Island and Kona

We traveled 2 days and 1200 miles southwest from Hawaii to reach our next port, Fanning Island in the Republic of Kiribati. Some say it is the most remote place in the world. If it isn’t, it’s darned close. The people there have no electricity, no running water, and no bathrooms. I didn’t see any outhouses either, but I decided not to be curious about that. They have no medical or dental care except what the NCL ship’s doctors provide on a volunteer basis when the ship is there, but they are accepting donations from visitors to help build a medical facility.

The trip to Fanning Island was necessitated by something called the Jones Act, which requires that ships registered outside the United States must have a foreign port on all cruises with US ports. NCL’s foreign port for Hawaiian cruises is Fanning Island. Some passengers complain about this little side trip, but it was actually the reason we chose this particular itinerary. NCL does have ships with US registry cruising the Hawaiian Islands and they do not leave Hawaii. They do not have days at sea, either, and we like days at sea, so we were very happy to comply with the Jones Act and head south. I actually would have been happy to go even farther south. We were only 3 degrees from the equator and I have always wanted to make an equator crossing on a ship, but that was not to happen on this trip.

Until NCL started sending the Norwegian Wind there, the only contact the people of Fanning Island had with the outside world was a supply ship from Australia that stopped 2 or 3 times a year. Now, every 11 days, a large white ship anchors off-shore and disburses several hundred visitors. Although their official language is English, most of the islanders don’t speak it, so it is difficult to talk to them. They are friendly, though, and will be happy to smile and nod at you if you attempt to talk to them. They set up a bazaar near where the tenders dock, and they offer some remarkable native crafts for sale. Dozens of smiling natives are there to display their wares, and they can all at least say “thank you” when they make a sale.

Here’s Dan standing at a signpost with arrows pointing to Tokyo and Sydney, both over 4,000 miles away. You can see a little of the bazaar in the background.

Although NCL has developed an area with clean bathrooms, a first aid station, a soccer field, a basketball court, beverage stands, and a couple of buffet lines where the crew prepare and serve hot dogs, hamburgers, salads and various other goodies, those facilities are for passengers and the people of the island do not use them. They live very simply in the straw huts you see pictured here.

Visitors are welcome to stroll through the village. We knew that they accepted donations for their school, so we brought some paper, pencils, and crayons and walked over to the school to drop them off. NCL helps support the school and is helping to build a new building, so the people of Fanning Island call their school NCL School and proudly fly the cruise line’s flag.

Other than the fact that the poverty of the island is evident, the inside of the school looks pretty much like any school in the United States. There is a blackboard – yes, a real blackboard, not a white board for dry erase markers – and above it there is student work hanging for parents and visitors to see. Textbooks are more like paper fliers than like the books US students use. There is obviously great pride in this school, though. The Superintendent himself was there to accept our donations and to present us with crafts made by the children as a thank you. He spoke proudly of the new building they hoped to have soon and told us of the high school students who were sent to Australia to attend school.

When we returned to the NCL guest area, government representatives had a table set up and were stamping passports. That big bowl on the table is a tip bowl, and it was almost full. I don’t think US Customs Officers are allowed to accept tips, but this is not the US.

By our standards, the people of Fanning Island have nothing, but they seem to be enjoying life very much. They make their living fishing or harvesting seaweed, which they export to Denmark to be used in the production of cosmetic products. Music and dance are important in their culture. Many of them gathered to perform for us. We noticed the strong ties that connected the people. Many times we saw them sitting or walking very close together, talking and laughing. They were healthy appearing people. I did not see any children with the distended abdomens often seen in third world countries, nor did I see obese people. There were many who seemed to be elderly, although I have no idea how old those people really were.

I am not sure I could adapt to living on this island, but I am very glad I had the opportunity to visit it. It was absolutely beautiful and we had a delightful day there. For both Dan and me, it was the highlight of the trip.

When we sailed from Fanning Island, we traveled 2 days to reach our last Hawaiian port, Kona on the island of Hawaii. Of course, the thing to do there is to visit one of the famous coffee plantations. As a matter of fact, we visited 2 of them. Although the first plantation was actively growing coffee, its primary function was historic; it provided education about the history of Kona coffee. This plantation was originally owned by a Japanese family. Plantation life was hard. The plantation owners were probably considered rich, but they lived in this simple house.

They had to work very hard to grow not only the coffee, but also all the food that was needed for the family and the plantation workers.

Plantation owners and workers had to be quite innovative, developing the tools and work areas they needed. They used and reused everything, making the soles of their shoes out of old tires. Many of the techniques they developed are still in use because coffee does not ripen all at once, so crops cannot be machine harvested.

After we left the historic plantation, we went to a modern operation. As you can see by this picture of the building where the coffee is processed for shipping, modern is a relative term. It doesn’t look much newer than the building on the historic plantation, does it?

Kona was our last port. The next morning, we were back in Honolulu and preparing for the long flight home. Did I enjoy my time in Hawaii? Oh, yes, very much! Am I glad I went? Yes! Did I like it even better than the Caribbean as my friends promised that I would? No.

Weimea Canyon and Shipboard Life

Our next port was Nawiliwili (don’t you just love the name of that town?) on the island of Kauai. The big attraction there is Weimea Canyon, otherwise known as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. Up to this point, we had been renting cars and driving ourselves, something we have never done in the Caribbean because they only issue driver’s licenses to insane people there, but this day we booked a tour through the ship, so we boarded a big bus in Nawiliwili and headed for the canyon.

I have never been to the other Grand Canyon – shocking, I know – so I don’t have any comparison to make with this one, but Weimea is very lovely. I took lots of pictures of it, but I am only going to post 2 because they are basically pretty similar and photos, at least at my level of expertise with a camera, do not do this place justice.

One of the advantages of booking tours through a cruise ship rather than driving yourself is that you have a tour guide who tells you about the area. The canyon is located in Kokee State Park, which also houses a wildlife preserve. The animals there seem to know that they are protected, because they are not afraid of people and will pose for pictures.

Among the species we saw were these chickens. Yes, the chickens are a protected species. Their genetic line is thought to be the ancestral line of all chickens. They are different from the domestic chickens we know on mainland farms because they are monogamous and the roosters help raise the chicks.

Our tour guide told us that when he was a boy, he incurred the wrath of his father because he caught, cooked, and ate one of these chickens. Hawaiians do not look kindly on that!

We also saw NeNe, the state bird of Hawaii and a type of goose. We were pleased to see them because we had been hearing about them on the other islands. Supposedly, there are quite a few of them living in the area around Kilauea, but we did not see them there. They were nearly extinct but have been making a good recovery since they have been protected.

These little birds were also offering photo ops. Some kind of cardinal, maybe?

As I said, one advantage of an organized tour is that you learn about the area. There are very few native Hawaiians left. Before other people came to Hawaii, the Hawaiians had little or no disease. When the first outsiders arrived, that changed. A large percentage of the Hawaiian population succumbed to illnesses that were not a threat to the newcomers. It seems the Hawaiians had not developed effective immune systems because they had not been exposed to disease. Because of that, the government of Hawaii encouraged its residents to intermarry with the “outsiders” to improve their immune systems. I was impressed that they were able to figure that out in a time when not much was really known about immunity. Anyway, it created a mixed race in Hawaii which the tour guide credited with the extremely low rate of racial prejudice.

As other people moved in, the government of Hawaii began to provide home sites for native Hawaiians. I believe the guide said that you have to be at least 50% Hawaiian to be eligible for one of these lovely homes and that the waiting list for them is quite long. That problem is rapidly correcting itself, though, because the number of eligible people is declining.

Niihau, or Forbidden Island, off the coast of Kauai is one place where the population is still almost entirely native Hawaiian. The island is owned by the Robinson family who own large plantations on Kauai. Visitors are not allowed on the island unless they have relatives there, and, even then, they are not allowed to stay overnight. Through these restrictions, the Robinsons hope to preserve the native people and culture of Hawaii.

When we returned to the ship at the end of our day in Kokee State Park, we set sail for 2 days at sea. I love days at sea because they give you an opportunity to relax and enjoy all of the things the ship offers. Life on board a ship can be just as busy or just as lazy as you want it to be. There are always several games, lectures, food or drink tastings, dance lessons and other activities from which to choose. There is also a pool and hot tub, and of course a variety of deck chairs on various decks for reading, chatting with other passengers, or dozing. I don’t take many pictures on ships anymore, but here is a little sampling of life at sea:

Ice sculpture demonstration poolside. It only took this chef about 20 minutes to make this Indian Chief. Ice sculpture has to be done quickly because the ice melts, and that is even more true when you are doing it out in the hot Hawaiian sun by the pool instead of in the galley!

Mystery Dinner. This is an activity we enjoy doing at home with friends. It’s lots of fun, so we were pleased to have the opportunity to sign up and participate on the ship. 150 passengers formed teams of 8 (I know 150 is not divisible by 8. I don’t know why the cruise staff chose that number) to solve the mystery of the disappearance of the Captain. It was a popular activity, so another 150 people were turned away. Dan and I are the couple on the far right. The couple next to us are Darrel and Cathy, one of the couples with whom we were traveling.

Showtime! There is a show every night. Shows tend to be bigger when the ship is at sea because more passengers attend. These Polynesian dancers were wonderful!

Chocoholic Buffet. These pictures are actually out of order. The Chocoholic Buffet on this cruise was held on the afternoon of Father’s Day, which was the day after our next port, but I am putting all the shipboard pictures together. I don’t know whether holding it on Father’s Day afternoon was a special treat for the fathers aboard or whether this is now an afternoon activity on all sailings. It has been a midnight buffet on our other cruises.

Everything was made of chocolate on this gigantic buffet!

Even these life sized people were chocolate!

The only things that weren’t chocolate were the ice sculptures! Do you think this sea monster is intimidating?

I am one of the few people in the world who does not crave chocolate, but I did eat a bit. I like the chocolate covered fruit. Most people pile as much as possible onto their plates (they give you a dinner plate!), and many go back for more. And, yes, we did eat dinner after all that!

Bedtime. At the end of a day at sea, and at the end of every day for that matter, the cabin stewards turn down the beds and place a little chocolate on the pillows to wish the cruisers sweet dreams. Sometimes they also make towel animals to wish you good night. It’s fun to walk into your cabin and find one of these little fellows waiting to greet you!

Nest stop, Fanning Island in the Republic of Kiribati.

(Something funny – the spell check Xanga uses does not recognize the names of any of the places in Hawaii, but it recognizes Kiribati! I bet Hawaii has a lot more visitors than the Republic of Kiribati!)

Maui

We spent June 13 and 14 on the Island of Maui. One of the interesting things about our time there was that during the night, the ship moved from the windward side to the leeward side of the island, and we were cautioned that all passengers must be aboard the ship when it moved. It seems that US law does not permit disembarking a ship in one port and reboarding in another, so anyone who did not reboard before the ship moved would not be allowed back on. When we were in Bermuda on the same cruiseline, our ship moved twice and we were told that if we were not onboard when the ship sailed, we should just take the bus to the next port. That would have been easy to do here, also, since Maui is very small, but all aboard was the rule. Go figure the law sometimes!

One of the attractions of the Windward side of Maui is the Road to Hana. Hana is a beautiful little town about 30 miles from the port, but Hana is not really what matters. It is the Road to Hana that is the destination. If you do it right, it takes all day and it does not matter if you really get to Hana or not.

After we picked up our rental car, our first stop was a gas station where we picked up a guided tour on CD. The voice on the CD advised us to buy lunch for the trip and suggested a place to do that, so, of course, we took that advice. Who wouldn’t take the word of a strange voice on a CD purchased in a gas station? The place actually did pack a good lunch, though, and rented us an ice filled cooler to carry it.

The road winds up and down a mountain, and I do mean it winds! We counted 75 bridges over little creeks or gorges. Each of them was one lane with practically no view of what might be coming from the other direction because of the curves in the road. It seemed like every few feet we saw a sign that read “Yield to Oncoming Traffic.” Surprisingly, we did not have any close calls, in spite of the fact that it was a very busy road.

There are scenic outlooks at frequent intervals, also. Parking is limited, but we were able to stop at most of the places that interested us. The entire road is a photo opportunity. I am getting ahead of myself, though. Our first stop was not a scenic outlook, but a little roadside market selling amazing tropical flowers and fresh fruit. We did not buy any flowers because we did not have a way to keep them fresh during the drive, but we really enjoyed looking at them.

Our friends did buy some fruit, which we quickly consumed. (We had lunch for later in the trip, remember?) We had 3 kinds, I think. One was something called apple banana, which looked like a banana but was supposed to be similar to an apple. It just tasted like banana to all of us, but it was very good. Then we had lychee, which is kind of an ugly little oval thing that you peel to reveal an almost transparent fruit with a pit. It was sweet and tasty. I can’t remember what the third fruit was, but it was good, also.

We stopped several times to look at views and take pictures, and then we decided we were hungry. We went into a botanical garden and found this lovely spot for our picnic.

Remember that this was a botanical garden, so the plants were deliberately placed and cultivated, not the result of nature. The area was very beautiful.

I particularly like this view looking out toward the sea. In fact, that is one thing I really enjoyed about Hawaii. You can almost always see the sea. I love the sea!

The botanical garden was nearly at the top of the mountain. Looking down, we could see the road winding along.

On our way out of the garden, we spotted several parrots sitting on a perch. When we stopped to look at them, a man appeared and told us that we could take all the pictures of the birds that we liked, but that we could not have any people in the pictures. He said that he was a photographer and for $20, he would pose the birds and take pictures of us with them. At first, we were not going to accept his offer, but as we stood there looking at the birds, I decided that it might be fun, so I gave him the money and he took several pictures of each of our 3 couples. The men were posed like this:

Then the wives were invited in:

Several pictures were taken with each couple, all of them on my camera. I shared, though.

We stopped many times along the road, taking pictures most of the time. In fact, I took some pictures of people taking pictures. Here is our friend Pat immortalizing the view.

I like this scene looking through the trees:

We had to climb down an embankment to get a close view of this little waterfall. It was slippery, but a good picture is worth risking your life, right?

We saw geysers

and surf

and near the town of Hana, we stopped to swim at a black beach.

The sand is black because it is created by the weathering of volcanic rock. It is not as fine as most white sand, and the surf at this beach was pretty strong, so Pat and I were both knocked over and had our legs cut up. Each of us took about 10 pounds of sand back in our suits.

We did make it to Hana, where we made a quick drive through town to look around. Then we headed back to return the car, stopping on the way to return our cooler. We had to make sure we were on the ship for the trip around the island, you know!

Our second day on Maui, we visited the ocean center, then swam at another lovely beach. This one was at a hotel and had white sand and gentle surf. The remarkable thing about this day, though, was the contrast between the lush green of the windward side of the island with the desert on the leeward side.

It’s very beautiful, but very different.

Near the dock on the leeward side of the island, we enjoyed seeing this Banyon tree, the largest in the Hawaiian Islands.

Believe it or not, that is not a grove of trees. It is all one tree. Banyons send out branches which reach down and form secondary trunks with roots in the ground. This tree covered a whole block. It was lovely to walk through it.

After Maui, we headed for Nawiliwili on Kauai to see the Grand Canyon of Hawaii.

Kilauea

The first stop after we sailed from Honolulu was Hilo on the big island of Hawaii, where we rented a car and headed for Kilauea, which is thought to be the most active volcano in the world. It has been erupting continuously since 1983, causing the island to grow at the rate of about 3 inches a year, and making Hawaii the only state that is actually increasing in size. The eruption is currently a lava trickle, but scientists think it is building to a major eruption which will probably destroy the city of Hilo. We thought it was very considerate of it not to do that while we were there!

I have seen volcanoes before, but never one this impressive. The caldera is huge. It looks like a hybrid of the beginning and the end of time.

The area around Kilauea is a national park, and it’s a popular destination.

I’m sure there were thousands of people there, but, because the area is so large (you can’t see across the caldera), the crowd is spread out and you don’t get the impression of being crowded. Walking on all that volcanic rock was interesting, because you could tell by the sound of your footsteps that there is a hollow under it. In places, you could see where the crust had broken and you could look down into the space below. It was a few feet to the next layer, so I was glad the surface did not break under me!

In addition to the lava flow, the area also has hundreds of steam vents. Visitors are warned that if they have serious health problems, they should stay away because of the sulfur dioxide gas given off by the vents. It was cloudy and rainy the day we were there, but part of the haze you see in some of the pictures is caused by the steam. The steam was a good place to get warm, if you like the smell of rotten eggs, that is.

Hawaiian tradition says that Pele, the volcano goddess, lives in Kilauea. A volcano goddess is someone whose good side you want to cultivate, so people still leave offerings for Pele.

You can see that there is some vegetation, even though the area is mostly rock. Weathering has created a thin layer of soil in some places, but most of the plants bravely grow like this:

The caldera itself is 165 meters deep and the walls are very sheer, so a trip down there would be very difficult, not to mention exceedingly stupid. There are fences to keep people from trying, but they are not very substantial. I did not see any evidence of anyone being so foolhardy, though. The area has many rifts, and it is possible to go down into some of them. Here is a picture of Dan and me in a rift. You can get some idea of how large it is if you remember that Dan is over 6 feet tall.

In contrast to the area around the caldera itself, the mountainside below it is covered with a rain forest.

Hidden amongst the plants of the forest is a series of lava tubes.

The lave from the current eruption actually flows through one of these tubes. Not this one, of course.

It was interesting to stroll through the lava tube.

We enjoyed our day at Volcanoes National Park. On the way down the mountain, we stopped and ate at an interesting little outdoor cafe. Then we returned the rental car, boarded the ship, and set sail for Maui.

Aloha!!!

I bet I heard that greeting at least 10,000 times in the 2 weeks we spent in the 50th state. The locals say it with great enthusiasm and expect it to be returned with equal enthusiasm. Except one person. Somewhere along the way, I walked up to a clerk and said “Hello,” then quickly said, “Or, I guess I should learn to say ‘Aloha!’” She looked at me and said, “That is their language and I don’t use it. I don’t think it’s respectful!” So, if you go to Hawaii, you can say “Aloha” to most, but not all, people.

We have had many vacations in the Caribbean. For years, people have told us that we should see Hawaii because we would like it even better. This year, we decided to see if that was true. We have friends who had been wanting to make the trip, so six of us (3 couples) set out very early on the morning of June 9 for the long flight to Hawaii. The beginning was not very promising. We were checked in at the airport by a totally incompetent clerk. 2 of the 3 couples (one of those 2 being us) ended up separated in the plane. Not just separated from the rest of the group. Separated from spouses, also. We were able to fix that problem at the gate, however, and, from there on, the flight was very enjoyable. We flew United Airlines and were pleased to find that we had 2 meals, snacks, and nearly continuous beverage service on the flight, which made it much more enjoyable. We had been warned not to expect food on planes anymore, and we met people in Hawaii who had flown in on a different airline and had traveled 20 hours with no food service. We were glad we were on United!

We arrived in the early afternoon, checked in to our hotel, the Waikiki Marriott, and set out about the area in search of a Harley Davidson shirt that one of the men had promised to bring back for a friend. Apparently Hawaiians either are severely directionally challenged or they think it is hilarious to send tourists off in the wrong direction because every person who gave us directions sent us off on a different path and none of those paths actually led to the Harley Davidson store! We did finally get there, though, and bought the shirt. We had a great time walking through the Waikiki area, too.

When we came out of the shopping center, these lovely ladies were dancing on a stage down on the street.

I don’t know whether they always dance there in the evening, or whether it was part of the celebration of King Kamehameha’s birthday. In any case, it was fun to watch them and it was a free show. Early missionaries tried to end the dancing of the hula, which some of them considered lewd, but I am glad that they did not successfully wipe it out. It is really a beautiful and graceful dance.

The Hawaiians really celebrate their culture. We learned that they are very proud of their royalty, particularly of King Kamehameha, who is credited with unifying the Hawaiian Islands under one government. Preparations were underway for the celebration of King Kamehameha Day, which I believe is his birthday and I think is June 11. Workers gather for days in advance preparing the lei draping for his statue in downtown Honolulu. Here is a picture of the process.

Each lei was 40 feet long. I think the flowers were orchids. On the 11th, they were going to completely cover this statue of the King.

We didn’t get back downtown to see it, but I am sure it was a beautiful sight and the ceremony during which the leis were hung must have been something to see!

We couldn’t leave Honolulu without a trip to the Arizona Memorial. The visitor area has been beautifully developed so that it is informative and peaceful. Here are some palm trees along the shore.

It’s a short boat ride out to the Memorial itself. People tend to be very quiet there. It is, after all, a tomb, and the memory of what happened on December 7, 1941, is powerful. Did you know that it was over a week before the men trapped down in the Arizona stopped tapping out Morse code messages to their fellow sailors up above? I can’t imagine how awful that must have been, both for the living men already buried and for those who were receiving the messages. The names of the men who died on the Arizona are listed on a wall inside the Memorial. There is also a marble chest on each side of the room in which men who survived the attack can choose to be interred to rejoin their shipmates upon their deaths. The entombment containers aren’t very large, so I assume that men wishing to be buried there must be cremated.

The Arizona is not very far under water and is clearly visible under the Memorial. It still leaks small droplets of fuel oil which are referred to as the tears of the Arizona. The Navy personnel conducting the tour explained that the fuel tanks are nearly empty and that disturbing the ship to try to stop the leak would probably cause more pollution than the leaking oil causes, so the Arizona is allowed to weep for her dead.

The atmosphere at the Arizona Memorial was quite a contrast to the scene in front of our hotel back in Waikiki.

Waikiki is not considered to be a world class surfing beach, but it does have enough surf to be considered a good place for serious students of the sport to learn. In fact, the driver who brought us to the hotel from the airport said that he learned to surf there. Therefore, young people carrying boards are a common site in the area.

During our time in Waikiki, one of the things that surprised me the most was that many buildings are not completely enclosed by walls and may also not have a complete roof, so that they are open to the sunlight and also to other weather events. Our hotel had no front wall and only partial walls on at least one other side. It also had a large open area in the lobby roof. Because of all that, birds stroll around in the building with the human inhabitants. These birds are not at all intimidated by the presence of people and do not make a particular effort to get out of the way.

One evening during our stay, we ate at a buffet that opened onto a garden seating area. It was really very picturesque.

Remember what I said about the birds? Well, they are not afraid to join you at the table, either!

I did not see any birds actually trying to eat out of a plate while a person was still eating from it, but as soon as one was set aside, they landed right on the table and started to consume the leftovers. Some of my friends did not like that, but I enjoyed it.

There are still 3 of the original luxury hotels from the pre-statehood days of Waikiki. Since Dan is a history buff, we walked through 2 of them one morning. The first was the Sheraton, which reclaimed one of the old hotels as its core and built a wing on each side to increase its capacity. It is really beautiful, with a large porch on the front complete with chairs for lounging. The back of the hotel opens to this beach bar. Wouldn’t it be a great place to sit and have a drink? Of course, this picture was taken about 7 o’clock one morning, so the bar was closed.

This is the view along the beach from the Sheraton.

We also walked through the Royal Hawaiian. I wish I had pictures of it but I did not have my camera along. It has a magnificent garden court and the interior is very luxurious. I could just see Cary Grant and all his cronies strolling through its corridors.

Well, that’s Waikiki. On Saturday the 11th, we boarded a cruise ship to head for the other islands. That’s another blog. More than one, actually.

On May 14, some of my friends and I had our second annual all day women’s retreat. It’s a non-religious but quite spiritual day. Last year’s themes were Life Is a Journey and Attitude of Gratitude. This year our topics were The Five Love Languages and My Spring: What Within Me Is Wanting to Grow? In connection with the latter topic, we had to write a poem. Here is mine:

Growth

To really give
To truly receive
To be who I am
And be happy to be.

To follow my path
And know it is right
To not be afraid
To be open and free.

It was a very pleasant day. We hire a leader who prepares the materials and facilitates the sessions. We meet at someone’s house, have a nice uplifting day with a lunch and snacks, and we all go home refreshed and ready to face life’s challenges. All of the attendees are friends of mine, but they don’t all know each other well. They are a very compatible group, though, and we enjoy being together. It was a day I needed badly in the middle of the rat race that is my life!

I am now trying hard to get everything ready for a sub in my college classes for the last 2 weeks of the quarter. I have 3 new books this quarter, so I have to do a lot of prep and I have had trouble just being ready for each day. By Monday, I have to be 2 weeks ahead. I am wondering if I can make it even if I work 24 hours a day! It’s worth it, though, because next Thursday we leave for 2 weeks in Hawaii. I hope I don’t sleep through the first few days!

Life will get easier for awhile when I get back because school is out for the summer, so I will not be subbing or tutoring the Hispanic kids. I will have a new college quarter beginning. I only have one new book next quarter, though. I also will have my GED class. My ESL class is finished until September after next Tuesday. I will enjoy having a little more freedom!

I was glad I did not sub yesterday. My husband came home yesterday and reported that the cooks at school were apparently emptying the pantry at the end of the year. For lunch, they had pepperoni pizza, apple juice, pudding, and peanut butter sandwiches. I don’t think I could have eaten that!

I will end with a little tidbit my husband picked up. Did you know that catnip is a better mosquito repellant than DEET? So just rub it all over yourself before you go outside this summer. Let me know what happens!