Blogs from Hawaii, United States, North America - page 146

After a "continental " breakfast, we visit Lahaina - the Whalers Village - by motorcoach. Our first stop is the Lahainaluna School Hale Pa'i Printing Press Museum. We see the importance of the printing press to Hawai'ians. In spite of the fact that many diseases were introduced to the Hawai'ians, Susan says the missonaries did the Hawaiians a favor by introducing the Printing Press. Before the printing press, Hawai'ian history was all verbal, passed from one generation to the next. Our guide gave us a demonstration on the printing press and explained how the press helps to teach the students of today by giving them a view of the past. While we were there, suddenly a siren sounded and then students started coming out of all the classrooms. It was the signal for the changing of ... read more

Today we travel(fly) from Kona to Maui - a 20 minute flight. So we become efficient at loading and unloading all the luggage on and off the motorcoaches. The Beauty of 'Iao Valley and Kepaniwai Heritage Garden. After our short flight, we go to the 'Iao Valley which is in a crater and is the site of the battle of Kamehameha and all the other chiefs of Maui. We have a rare moment and get to see this valley under clear sunny skies. We also can see the rain clouds building off in the distance. It is a beautiful lush green valley with a stream flowing out to the sea. Susan tells us about the 'Iao needle and the significance of Kamehameha 's victory over the chiefs of Maui. We check-in at the Maui Beach Hotel ... read more

Day 6: Tuesday Today was Obama’s inauguration day as the 44th president of the United States and the streets were full of tourists and locals wearing T-shirts with Obama slogans. By the time we were ready and out, the inauguration was over in Washington DC because of the 5 hour time difference. If we were in NY, watching the ceremony would have been a priority. But we were not at all drawn to the moment in history, as our mind was filled with the beauty of Hawaii. This was the last day of our vacation. We drove over to the North shore to Haleiwa for our Shark adventure cruise. We checked in as suggested in Pier 35 at the harbor and 2 guys - Tim and Scott took us out on their sailboat. It was a ... read more

Rob had to return to Hilo to lead another shorter Elderhostel so we sadly say "Aloha" and "Mahalo" ("thank you"). Susan and Rob made a great pair during the past week. Both are incredibly knowledgeable and experienced with everything from every kind of work people can do on the islands to the inner workings of the National Park Service! We were grateful to have had him along. After a buffet breakfast (meals at the hotels so far had been generous buffets which fueled our extensive walks), we rode to the Kona Historical Society site. Marty describes this visit very well at http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Hawaii/Big-Island/Kailua-Kona/blog-372748.html I would add that during the visit, I usually carried the camera, Ann's purse, and my own bag with binoculars and other stuff. I confess that I felt a real affinity to the "Kona ... read more

Alooooha! Here are the Christmas pictures. I know this post is a little out-dated by now, you can thank the black-out, the fact that I had to wait for Andrea T and Ron to upload them and mail me a CD because the files were too big to email, and my own laziness :) Anyway- Hope everyone is enjoying 2009. All is going good on my end. Pretty rainy out here, but can't really complain. Happy MLK day :) Love and miss yas Allison ... read more