25 Nivember 2007

25 November 2007
Aloha All,
Our two days at Lihue on the island of Maui were uneventful but nice. I went ashore each day and wondered around trying to find some sites to see. I remembered that a teacher I worked with in the fifties lived nearby and I checked the local phone book with no luck. Maui is keeping the Hawaiian tradition alive by providing temperatures that invariably fall between seventy and ninety degrees Fahrenheit year round. The pleasant sea breezes that are ever present make for a wonderful place to do one’s thing. My thing at the moment is enjoying the good life.
That good life invariably includes good food and pleasant surroundings. Last night we had the ‘once a cruise’ traditional lobster dinner. It couldn’t have been finer. My partner Marty is a nice person to share time with but he doesn’t quite fill the bill (this Bill that is) as others might.
Maui is “plantation country”. Pineapples became a plantation staple in 1901 when James Dole built a cannery on the island of Oahu marking the start of the Hawaiian Pineapple Company and the shipping of pineapples around the world. The first sugar mill was created on Lanai in 1802 by a Chinese man whose name has been lost to history. The first full scale sugar plantation was established in 1935 and a year later the first shipment of sugar and molasses was shipped to the United States.
It is interesting to note that Hawaiians have never been the prime source of labor on these plantations. History tells us that following the discovery of the Hawaiian Islands in 1778 by Captain Cook, five-sixths of the 1778 Hawaiian population died in the next couple of decades from the diseases brought to the islands by Europeans. The remaining Hawaiians preferred to fish and farm as they always had rather than work for the foreigners. Between 1852 and 1946, approximately 400,000 workers were imported to the islands from various places in the world, statistically changing the demographics of the territory.
Missionaries turned business men effectively took over the sugar industry and were crucial to the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy on January 17, 1893.
After our two days at Lihue, the Pride of Aloha set sail again to the “big island” of Hawaii and the town of Kona. Our bus driver guide informed us that Kona was the first capital of Hawaii under the reign of King Kamamaha; the man responsible for bringing the various island peoples into one political entity. King Kamamaha established his palace at Kona and it is open today to those who want to see what a Hawaiian King’s palace looked like. Directly across the street from the palace is the oldest church in the islands. I walked past the church on Sunday morning at a time when one would expect church services and it was locked against who ever might think they might want to explore. The old Catholic Church a block down on the same side of the waterfront street was very much in business. However, the service was being held in a permanent looking tent in the church parking lot. It looked like a couple of hundred parishioners were participating in the morning worship service.
My tour of Kona began with an exotic shuttle bus ride to one of the busiest places on this Sunday morning, Wal-Mart. I lost a screw that held one of the nose pieces in place on my glasses and I badly needed to find an optician who could make the repair. When I asked around, I got the same answer, Wal-Mart will be the only glasses shop open on a Sunday in Kona. Much to my surprise and pleasure, I found a shuttle bus, the Wal-Mart Special, in line with a half dozen other tour busses at the end of the pier where our tender dropped us. Apparently, wise cruise passengers know that Wal-Mart is the cheapest place in town to buy souvenirs, Hawaiian shirts and sun block. It was only a five minute ride to the Wal-Mart shopping plaza but it was up hill on a warm day and the ride was appreciated. The store was packed with people from our ship grabbing up stuff like it was going out of style. I wasn’t interested in another Hawaiian shirt or pucca shell necklaces but I was pleased to find the optician who fixed me up in a few minutes time at a reasonable price - nothing. When the shuttle bus returned to the pier there were better than thirty people in line to board the twenty-four passenger bus. The bus driver, a jovial type, invited the crowd to pile on board noting that if there wasn’t enough room for all one of the younger ladies could sit on his lap. Once under way, I heard him asking the unmarried ladies to raise their hands; quickly adding his thank you for their volunteering to act as sacrifices to the god of something Hawaiian sounding.
I had an opportunity to exercise my considerable acting abilities last night. One of the public venues is called the “Blue Hawaiian” with a statue of Elvis at the entrance. I was passing through after dinner in time to hear the MC of whatever was going on announce something that had to do with Elvis. Within minutes, a young man built like a bouncer had a grip on my arm leading me to the dance floor]stage. I finally made out through the din that there was going to be some kind of contest to emulate Elvis and I was to be involved with two other men. My protestations and Mahala Nos were for naught and I resigned to have some fun. I’m sure I was chosen because I appeared to be the oldest man in the audience walking without a cane. Anyway, I was dressed up with an Elvis wig with side burns, my collar was turned up and I was encouraged to lip sinque “I’m Nothing But A Hound Dog” which blared over the PS system. I was reminded that Elvis was known for his gyrations on stage so I did my best (pretty good I thought) to be an Elvis for the moment. The crowd screamed and clapped but I didn’t win the competition. My second place prize was a stupid little flashlight with the NCL logo. The guy who won was so young I doubt that he had ever heard an Elvis recording.
Other than the “Blue Hawaiian” there are other respectable show rooms that provide some pretty good entertainment each night. The ship’s Broadway Stage group has some of the best dancers I’ve ever seen. One of the vocalist on board has a great stage presence and has already done two shows that I really liked.
Leaving Kona I couldn’t help but recall a very rainy night in July 2006 when a bunch of us tried to find a place for dinner and were almost washed out to sea in the process. Running to Jack-in-the-Box (our final and only choice) through six inches of water running down one of the main streets in town will be a memory that will be with me long after I’ve forgotten my ride to Wal-Mart on a sunny Sunday morning.
Love to all,
Grandpa/Dad/Bill