When we competed our reservation for Tuesday Evening, for dinner and a show, we don’t recall the concierge having offered any other Haleakala tours other than the bus ride up and biking down the mountain. Not quite our cup of tea. We told him that our plans including driving up Haleakala, although we might not have said that we planned to do it to see the sunrise. A new policy is now in effect for this National Park: Anybody wishing to park in the parking lot between 3AM and 7AM MUST have a reservation! Lucky us, this policy went into effect just last month. The concierge might have been distracted by my hat: Yes, Erin, the Red Hat! He kept glancing at it and I guess I didn’t quite look like someone on the Summit Team ... read more

Our plan for a trouble-free shuttle to the airport paid off. We boarded three minutes early and we were on our way to the airport with one other lady bound for Canada. So many things could have gone wrong with Economy Rentals. After getting our boarding pass and luggage tags from a machine that had us weigh our own bags, we put the tags on the luggage, and then simply gave them to a guy who put them on a conveyer. There was a lady was making sure that only those with the TSA-preCheck went into that line. We got to our gate. I went and got a croissant egg sandwich at a Burger King airport vendor; and, then waited in an interminable line to get Sharon a chocolate chip muffin. When I got close enough ... read more

Well, there may in fact not be a pearl in every oyster; but, evidently there is one (or two, or three, or more) of them in every group of visitors to Pearl Harbor. And no, I’m not talking about Japanese tourists. Although, that may be truer than the pearl in every oyster! You’ll understand exactly what I mean before I finish writing about today. Today we needed to set the alarm clock because we needed to be one block down the street to be picked up by the Greyline Coach that would be taking us to Pearl Harbor at precisely 6:40 AM. We called to confirm the pickup place and time the day before, and the lady asked, “And you’ve heard about our ‘No Bag’ policy?” I had not; so, she explained that no bags, backpacks, ... read more

No worries, “PCC” has nothing to do with being politically correct. Sharon was quite intrigued later today when she learned that in the Samoan culture, men do all the cooking; but, then she learned that that was because the men don’t want to let the women anywhere near the fire. We woke to a morning where the light and outside sounds began to filter into our room. I had some oatmeal and Sharon raison bran for breakfast. The timeshare, with kitchenette is nice, and this room is particularly nice. From our balcony I could see no signs of the building cranes that dotted the Waikiki area in the late 1970’s, when I first visited Hawaii. Maybe forty years is a better measure of time to refer to as “Back in the Day.” Instead, I see the ... read more

Aloha! Well, that’s about the extent of the Hawaiian that I’ve learned from my previous two trips to Hawaii. Well, maybe I also learned Wahine… that’s the one that Sharon should use; while, I guess I’ll learn what mine’s called when I get there. On the first cruise that Sharon and I went on, we journeyed to Australia where they got quite colorful with “Blokes” and “Sheilas”. This will be our first trip to the Hawaiian Islands together, not quite as far as that first trip that we took; but, we’re looking forward to it just the same. Unfortunately, we will be missing Sharon’s brother Paul and his wife Karen. College basketball has come to Las Vegas and Paul will be seeing a student that he coached in California playing at the collegiate level. They’ll be ... read more