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Published: February 25th 2009
Our Field trip today started with the Diamond Head lighthouse which we saw from our coach. We drove on to Hanauma Bay Lookout. This is a beautiful bay and beach. One must pay a fee to go down to the beach because the Choral Reef was being damaged and destroyed by too many people. When the specified number of people have paid the fee, the beach is closed for the day. I can see why. The beach is so attractive for swimming. Susan says often there is a line to get into the beach, but when she was a girl, she often snorkeled here.
We continued along the windward coast to the North Shore. These beaches are famous for BIG waves - perfect for surffing. This is surfer country and has beautiful scenery. We stoped at Haleiwa Town to buy our lunch "to go" and to have a bathroom break. Everyone got $10 from Susan and we scattered to go buy lunch in the shopping area . We had 1/2 hour to get back to the bus, take out lunch in hand/bag. John and I saw a"Ruby Tuesday" restaurant and went there to order 2 sandwiches to go. We told
Hanauma Bay
perfect for snorkelingthem we were under a time dead line so please, make it fast. Luckily we could see the bus from the restaurant window and could see when everyone had returned. We made it to the bus in plenty of time.
Then we went to Audrey Southerland's house to have lunch and visited with Audrey and her son, Jock. Audrey is a long time friend of Susan & Rob McGovern's and wanted Susan to visit even if she had 28 elderhostelers with her. Audrey's house/cabin is right on the water with rocks and tide pools in her own front yard. There's a hammock in the front yard too. How beautiful! Susan introduced us to Audrey and Jock and we all enjoyed the scenery while visiting. We all sat down on the deck/porch/yard and ate our lunch.
Audrey, who is 87 years young, is a World Champion One-Woman Kayaker, and has logged over 9,000 miles in her kayak. Immediately, we all wanted to know more about her journeys. She shared her book, " Paddeling My Own Canoe" by Audrey Southerland. Audrey also shared the many "souvenirs" of her travels - like a whole 2 shelves of shells and a large
Want to snorkel?
There is a limit to how many people can be on this beach in a day to protect the choral reef bowl of glass fishnet floats. Real beachcombing stuff! Being a beachcomber myself, I was fasinated!! After lunch, many of us wandered on the rocks and Jock pointed out two large sea turtles in a tide pool. Walking on the rocks reminded me so much of Montara, CA and my chidhood explorations on the rocks there.
More talking and visiting brought out Audrey's inflatable Kayak and her one burner stove. Audrey's method of travel includes ecology, conservation of resources, and respect for the land and sea. We had a wonderful time listening to her stories. Everyone had questions. Several people took turns pumping up the Kayak and we got to "try" her collapsable paddle. Reluctantly we had to leave, (we had already spent more time here and had to amend the rest of our itinerary). so the Mahalo and Aloha process started. What an enjoyable time we had with Susan's friend Audrey Southerland!!
Back on the bus, everyone was talking and exclaiming! WOW! Our bus driver drove on and pointed out several harvest crops in the fields. We stopped and had a short bathroom break at the Dole Pineapple visitor's center (gift shop). I bought my obligatory Pineapple refrigerator
magnet and a pineapple ice cream cone. (Mahalo Ray) Hurrying to the bus, we had an hour's drive back to Waikiki and our hotel.
Our dinner this evening was delicious: Salad, Vegetables, Rice, Good Steak, and Custard pie for desert . After dinner, Jane had a poem that she had written that she read to us and Del, her husband, sang us a humerous song he had composed about our age group (Kapunas). Talented people in our group. Susan had all the supplies ready for us to make leis. She taught us how to twist Ti leaves making a lei and then added purple orchids along the twisted chain to make our own lei . After being awkward at first, John and I finally got the twisting technique mastered. I added the orchids and wore the lei. It was fun and successfully kept us from getting bogged down with excessive farewells or tears.
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Patty Stevens
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THE END??
Is this the end of your blog? Which also means, my virtual trip to Hawaii?? What will I read now????????????? Excellent job, Marty!